Quick mechanics training
 

It church softball tournament time again, which means I'm being dragged out of my nearly 20 year retirement to umpire games and to help train brand spanking new umpires in the process. Nothing like a good challenge, eh? :)

Do any of you have any materials you could pass along that might help? I'm looking for things like a quick overview of duties/mechanics for plate umpire and base umpire. Quick overview of commonly misunderstood rules. That kind of thing. My goal is to be able to print this stuff, hand it to them 15 mins before game time for them to study, then have a pre-game at about 5 mins before game time with them (since I'll be working 50 min games that start on the hour).

BTW, this is slow pitch, ASA rules, one and two person crews.

I appreciate any help you can give me.

There is really no way that you can hand sheets of printed material the size it would take to impart the information you want to an untrained umpire 15 minutes before game time, and expect him to read it, let alone comprehend it. However, here is something to get you started.

VERY good stuff!!!

Of course, for SP. you can ignore the parts about A, C and D positions for the BU.

OK. This is the best help I can give you: Have your guys read the ASA Umpire Manual, starting with page 165.

This is assuming, of course, that they already know the rules.

Or the book "Officiating Softball" from the American Sports Education Program, or the CCA manual, or any number of worthwhile sources.