ASA National Umpire School- Columbus, Ohio

[Stevetheump]

Originally Posted by BretMan

Second day...more of the same, with a focus on plate work. Wide spread heel-toe stances, Good Pelvic Alignment, coming set, tracking the ball, timing and all that fun stuff!

I did get a final head count on attendance. We had 60, so the student/instructor ratio was actually 30-1.

I don't want to come off as sounding arrogant, or try to sound like a know-it-all, but I can honestly say that I don't think anything was presented over these two days that I haven't heard before. Having just attended a NUS two years ago, and making a conscious effort to keep up with all the training offered at the local level, personally this clinic was more of a good review than any sort of eye-opening learning experience.

(I could probably also attribute a lot of that to being active on forums like this one, where a wealth of good information is available for any umpire that wants to mine it.)

At least I got to do something "umpire-related" in the dead of winter, had a chance to see some of my buddies from the summer and had some face time with "higher-ups" in the local and state ASA chain of command. Throw in a spiffy souvenier shirt, a suitable for framing graduation certificate and a free ASA umpire flipping coin and it was a weekend well spent!

Bret - A good weekend overall for you. Our association clinic isn't until the latter part of March (we usually have it in January), so I still have a about another 6 weeks to wait.
I try to learn something at EVERY clinic. I think if you keep an open mind, you WILL learn something. Those who think they know it all, don't.