Umpire Books

[Dakota]

The teaching in the videos is very good.

While the instructors are the experts in the topics, many of them are stiff and very camera conscious, making it difficult to suffer through.

Production values are amateurish. Basically, they are videotapes of actual classroom instruction at actual umpire schools. The visual aids are sometimes hard to read, and are mostly direct camera filming of the white board.

If anyone from ASA Training reads this board, here are my suggestions:

Spring for a 2 camera setup with professional camera operators. Buy some professional instruction videos on other topics and see how they do it.

Do a special "for video" teaching, not just an ordinary classroom session.

Select the teachers not just for their reputation as umpires or umpires instructors, but also for their camera presense.

Edit-in the visual aids from computer-generated graphics (like powerpoint). Don't think you have to keep the viewer's attention always on the instructor. Most of the time, the information he is presenting is contained in his voice-over, and the viewer would be better served looking at some well-prepared computer illustrations.