Developing a BU mindset

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

Like you, I enjoy BU too! 90% of the games I could careless if I'm BU or PU, except I definitely dont like to iron man out several PU games in a row.. been there and done that when I had a gimp partner who couldnt work PU. I do like PU in championship games.

I'll admit that I prefer PU over BU, but that's probably because I spent the first half of my career doing single umpire games. Finally, I feel like I'm 95% as comfortable being the BU as I am the PU, but I took a lot of hard knocks getting there. Just stick with it.

Around here, we usually do 3 games per night, with one blue taking PU for the first and third games, switching over to BU for the middle game. If you have that opportunity to choose which assignment is yours, ask to be given BU more than PU. Force yourself to practice and get into that rhythm. As I get closer to my big tournament, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I know I need to sharpen up that aspect of my game, and that's the only way to do it.

[wadeintothem]

Originally Posted by NCASAUmp

I'll admit that I prefer PU over BU, but that's probably because I spent the first half of my career doing single umpire games. Finally, I feel like I'm 95% as comfortable being the BU as I am the PU, but I took a lot of hard knocks getting there. Just stick with it.

Around here, we usually do 3 games per night, with one blue taking PU for the first and third games, switching over to BU for the middle game. If you have that opportunity to choose which assignment is yours, ask to be given BU more than PU. Force yourself to practice and get into that rhythm. As I get closer to my big tournament, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I know I need to sharpen up that aspect of my game, and that's the only way to do it.

Work with a lot of fat guys.. fat guys love to be PU.

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

Work with a lot of fat guys.. fat guys love to be PU.

I'm going to partially ignore that one.

Actually, I know a number of umpires who are limited in their mobility who love to be BU.

All a matter of preference, I guess.

[Dutch Alex]

We'll we don't have that many games during the summer. Our competition is mostly played on saturday with double heather. We work in 2-man system, so on saturday I have to work one as BU and one as PU. Works fine for me.

Our (semi-)finals are in 3-umpire system, as well as the European Cups and - Championships. When those come into sight, I just have to reread myself into that system again. We (almost) never get a chance to practice it, besides those important games. But we talk a lot before the games start. My experience is because it isn't "natural" to work in 3-umpire system we do more thinking before the pitch. So when you are so focused, and you know the mechanics (by studying), mostly it will go smoothly...