ASA Softball
 

First year umpire with ASA. I have previous experience doing baseball, so I decided to give softball a try.

I feel so overwhelmed with all of the rules that softball has. Anyone have some good advice, learning modules, or any websites that I can go to to help me learn the rules, mechanics, positioning etc.?

Thank You!

Go to www.asasoftball.com and visit umpires page. Download the pdf formatted ASA Test.

Take the test with your rule book
Attend every clinic you can find
Attend a school, if available
Attend every clinic you can find
Read the Rules Supplements in the book
Attend every clinic you can find
Read the Umpire Manual in the book
Attend every clinic you can find
Observe experienced umpires
Attend every clinic you can find

Remember not to take everything literally. Apply the rules when applicable; don't try to out think the book; don't try to justify what you do or do not find in the rules or on the field. Remember 10.3.C is your authorization to rule on situations NOT covered by rule, not to misapply a rule with which you may not agree.

If you find something that seems askew, check with your local rules interpreter/uic/whatever to check out the proper interpretation. When you see another umpire perform a mechanic that is unfamiliar, check it out in the manual and then question your local uic. Understand that being a veteran official does not make everything done on the field the right thing and longevity just means someone has been doing this for a long time. Consistency really only counts when you are consistently right ;)

Did I happen to mention you should attend every clinic you can find?

One last thing, softball is not baseball for girls or beer-bellied men. It is a sport of its own which happens to share a source of origin with baseball.

find the best association in your area. if you've already joined association, join the best one you can find also. nothing wrong w/ joining more than one assoc. your local players and coaches will be more than willing to tell you where the best umpires work, and where are the best fields, and also the worst. the best assocs will usually do softball, both slowpitch & fastpitch, and/or baseball too sometimes. usually the best association will be heavily stacked with college level fastpitch umps.

stay away from "officiating" associations that do other sports, like volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, wrestling, you name it, and they do it. those are usually officiating sweatshops, and are good for getting assignments to get paid.

you can read as much as you like, take all the exams you can, attend all the clinics you can cram, but that still won't replace good partners and experienced solid mates that want to teach you, and I stress "want". stay away from the "you are on your own" shops.

but, if you want to do a national, you will still need to attend at least one national ASA clinic to qualify.

I think leaps are illegal. :p

not in utrip slowpitch.

Unless they're the majority of the guys doing slow pitch in my area.

Some college coaches tell their players to play SP as opposed to nothing because they get the fielding and throwing reps.

Many of the mechanics in FP & SP are relatively the same, just some starting points are different.

One of the main reasons I agree to work adult slow pitch is the great practice I get as base umpire. One of the reasons I don't really like it is all the double fist bumping, lazy, "gotta be" yelling, fellows that think they're doing a good job of umpiring. There's a lot of misinformation out there.

Hopefully, the only relevant reply to the OP helped. But I would add, go to lots of clinics ;); listen to advice after finding out who really knows the best umpiring including this forum.

Go to NFHS Softball page, under Softball Resources select Softball and Baseball Rules Differences. NFHS | Softball

This will help you learn what you need to know that is different from your baseball knowledge.

WMB