Props to ASA on the new DVD
 

Well I got my DVD Saturday and I really think it is great. If you are a clinician, this is a must have. This provides great visuals and everyone at our clinic was real receptive to it.

ASA, JJ, et al did a top notch job on it and I commend em. I host my clinic Mar 7 and I've adjusted the schedule to add this DVD to it.

I have no doubt there will be detractors and it is for sure a little pricey, but I think worth it if you would like to advance or are a clinician. I think one thing it will definitely do is get UIC's on the same page of some of this stuff.

Good job ASA.

Make sure you leave time for Q&A during the video. I have used it already four times for clinics and it has worked great. We have viewed one section, had a Q&A, and then viewed the next....etc.

Boomer, Kevin, JJ and all others who worked on this did super good. Only found one minor mistake (there are no 2-0 counts in ASA slowpitch if the count starts 1-1!) but I ain't nitpickin...and if I did, I would bet there would be few nits. Only thing I can think of is to make some of those umpires a little more rotund. :D

It was probably a Masters game.

I also saw the DVD at the NUS in Phoenix this past weekend. Very impressed.
I thought that the balance was great with the animation being fairly lifelike without being too cartoonish.

Hopefully, this will get everybody on the same page as the message will be consistent from the NUS to the Region and State UICs down to the local umpires.

In your dreams :rolleyes:

Its not such a far fetched dream. This could do it for the basics, then maybe, just maybe, ASA will stop catering to the lowest common denominator and some advanced umpire mechanics can be taught and allowed. As it is, NCAA has taken the base line teachings of ASA and improved upon them dramatically.. leaving ASA behind the times. This video is for the lowest common denominator - the bare bones basics - and is definitely a good corner stone building block.

Im taking a screen shot of the above quote and putting it in my wallet :)

Why bother? wade types that into some response at least weekly during the season...:rolleyes:

yep, you dont need to screen shot that one; stick around you'll see it again. :D I only write it because its true though and I would love to see ASA umpire training program continue to grow. The DVD is a good small step in the right direction.

dang.. i thought he had nothing but disdain for the NCAA and the people who officiate their games :confused: ...if i was wrong.. my bad :)

Yeah, take wade's opinion of NCAA, ASA, CIF, etc. about as seriously as Harold Stassen and Pat Paulsen's runs for the White House. :D

Who? :D

There are good NCAA umps and there are bad ones. NCAA out here, Pac 10, etc - does a real good job at training their umpires and has really improved that past few years. Because my employment does not permit me to work NCAA, when I work with a good NCAA official I always like to get their input and pick their brains for how NCAA is teaching it. I usually find myself in agreement with the reasoning behind NCAA's methods.

A perfect example is going out in 3 man.. for simplicity, ASA sends you out on a can of corn; they dont trust their umpires to to think so the general rule is "go out on everything" and in fact that is enforced on national evals. NCAA teaches nuance and the thinking umpire on a play like that - they dont go out on everything. Plate stances and other things are all more examples.

Irishmike represents the stubborn "we can't change" old guard and ASA will improve as that old guard fades away and gets replaced with young blood and fresh ideas and a willingness to look to other places for ways to improve. There are many who wont even look at NCAA to see what they are doing. They still believe ASA trained these NCAA umpires, so there is nothing to learn from them. Mention a NCAA method at NUS (I did)... thats good for a laugh or two.

ASA is the foundation of fast pitch umpiring - NCAA built upon it significantly. Many, for their own insecurities, refuse to see how its being done elsewhere and how those ideas might improve our own umpiring.

Their excuse when they admit flaw: well we gotta train ___{insertnumberhere} umpires wah wah, and many are stupid, so we can't teach that.

Now comes the DVD... and they could if they wanted too, go deeper into the systems.

edit ..

oh wait, let me add :D

wouldnt want to forget that.

Training is, by far, the biggest problem that every ruling organization faces. Keeping tens of thousands of umpires consistent is obviously a daunting task, further complicated by varying levels of interest on the part of each umpire. Getting everyone in lock-step is an impossible task, but one for which we should still strive.

I've not seen the DVD, but from what I'm hearing, it's a great start.

I just wish it weren't so damn expensive. They can't REALLY cost that much to make, can they, ASA? You're not fooling the techie over here.

If your goal is to get all umpires in lock-step, drop the price. You'll gain much more interest in the product, and the knowledge (and hopefully the consistency!) will spread faster.