Attending 1st ASA Nat'l. School

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by blue

If Henry Pollard is one of your instructors, be prepared to laugh. He's got a lot of funny stories, both in class and at the adult bevearage get-together.

Unfortunately, Henry is no longer involved in umpiring, even at the ISF level.

[buddha69]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Unfortunately, Henry is no longer involved in umpiring, even at the ISF level.

Henry is a good teacher, along with Merle.

Those two are great!!!

[umpbrianc]

The great thing is the national staff love to talk about softball. The time you get to talk to these guys outside the actual clinic is invaluable. Many have done serious softball Div 1A, international, etc.
They will work hard and help you as much as you want... you will get out of the clinic what you put into it.
Also if you have rule questions etc make sure to ask them, they are very willing to help!

[WestMichBlue]

Originally Posted by Steve M

In addition to what Steve and Scott said - make sure that you attend the informal adult beverage get together. I found that the discussions that went on in that gathering were at least as benficial as the class & clinic work. Where else can you sit with several members of the NUS

All good advice BigSig. However, like any other human endeavor, it can be very disappointing when it fails to meet your artificially high expectations.

I attended my first (and last) NUS three years ago. The evening registration offered nothing; just a bunch of the locals that had eaten all the pizza and were well on their way to consuming most of the beer by time I checked in.

The clinic was way oversold; the attendee vs clinician ratio was twice ASA’s recommended 25 to 1. So your individual repetitions in drills was halved. I remember leaving one particularly long and slow line, going down the hall to the restroom, and returning to my same place in the line.

The local/state associations used the clinic as a training program for rookie umpires. To some of us, it seemed as though 60% of the attendees were low on experience. This dumbed down the overall clinic.

However, I did pick up a couple good hints and was looking forward to the Saturday night dinner/social interaction with the clinicians. Surprise! The sponsoring group cut the day short by an hour and announced that they and the NUS were going to dinner at a local restaurant. They invited us, if we could find a table in the same restaurant! (Yeah right - picture 50 or more of us descending on a popular restaurant on a Saturday night!)

It was 4:00 in the afternoon and I didn’t know what to do. My money (clinic, travel, and hotel) was already spent, but at least I could recover some of my time. I checked out and traveled a couple hours to my brother’s home and enjoyed dinner and the evening there before heading home.

I am not bitter; it is simply that my expectations were way too high. I’ve attended many district and state clinics, and they have been valuable. I assumed that a National clinic would be for experienced umpires, with content to match. That is a mistake! It is simply another umpire’s clinic. A little better, and a whole lot more expensive than local ones.

WMB

[Dakota]

Sounds to me like the local association sabotaged the national school for their own selfish purposes. Too bad.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by WestMichBlue

I am not bitter; it is simply that my expectations were way too high. I’ve attended many district and state clinics, and they have been valuable. I assumed that a National clinic would be for experienced umpires, with content to match. That is a mistake! It is simply another umpire’s clinic. A little better, and a whole lot more expensive than local ones.

WMB

Actually, your expectations were not too high. Tom is correct, the local association abused their position as the host. You should have asked your UIC to write a letter or you should have written a letter to Merle/Craig (whomever was in the head umpire chair at the time) complaining of the entire situation. You spent a good amount of money and didn't receive the product you were promised.

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Actually, your expectations were not too high. Tom is correct, the local association abused their position as the host. You should have asked your UIC to write a letter or you should have written a letter to Merle/Craig (whomever was in the head umpire chair at the time) complaining of the entire situation. You spent a good amount of money and didn't receive the product you were promised.

Being in Michigan, I'm thinking that he might not have needed to get much further than Jerry Hanson with a letter describing your dissatisfaction.

We have hosted National schoold several times in Atlanta. When the numbers ourpaced expectation (we ended up with over 200 participants last time), we added clinicians to keep the ratio appropriate. We added one National Staff member, one recently retired National Staff member, our Atlanta UIC, and a recent attendee of the Advanced School. I was the clinician who had recently attended the Advanced School, and am quite sure that the attendees understood the benefit of smaller groups, even if they participated in groups led by other than National Staff part of the time.

[NDblue]

I was very satisfied with the NUS I attened a couple of years ago here in Bismarck, ND. We even learned how to forecast the weather from one national staff member (I can't remember his name ) who was a retired Air Force meteorologist. The only problem I had with the school, well not really with the school but I haven't been invited to umpire in any national or regional tournaments. I'll just keep doing the state tournys and the World's Largest Charity Slowpitch Softball Tournament until my number comes up. Oh, just FYI for anybody that's interested, the McQuades tournament went international this past summer.

[scottk_61]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

Being in Michigan, I'm thinking that he might not have needed to get much further than Jerry Hanson with a letter describing your dissatisfaction.

We have hosted National schoold several times in Atlanta. When the numbers ourpaced expectation (we ended up with over 200 participants last time), we added clinicians to keep the ratio appropriate. We added one National Staff member, one recently retired National Staff member, our Atlanta UIC, and a recent attendee of the Advanced School. I was the clinician who had recently attended the Advanced School, and am quite sure that the attendees understood the benefit of smaller groups, even if they participated in groups led by other than National Staff part of the time.

I just have to chime in here and say that Atlanta knows how to do it right.
I have been there and experienced the hospitality and the quality of their clinics.
Out of all the clinics I have ever attended, Atlanta's only came in 2nd to the Advanced School I attended in Killeen TX.