Advice for teen umpires?

[Lemond]

Be loud, confident, and consistent!

Ignore everything on the other side of the fence. If you can’t ignore it, get help from tourney director, or UIC.

Most of all, please keep coming back, learn a little more each time.

 

[bmakj]

I didn't see this before I made my little joke, and I assume others may disagree wit this, but my opinion is that she ought to let everyone know she's got a big zone. I know umps in here will rightfully disagree, but a lot of rec under 14 just turns into a walk-fest. Pitchers who can find the zone are playing comp at that time. So if the teams are going to have fun, she needs to giuve them incentive to try to hit. Now, clearly, some stuff may be impossible. But my feeling in rec ball was that if something is hittable, it ought to be called a strike. So both rivers and both shores, the letters, the bottom of the kneecaps. I understand the value in teaching hitters to respect the zone, but having watched my share of rec ball (DD didn't start comp until 14), if an ump sticks to a honest zone, the game all hinges on walks, passed balls and stealing home. It's funner when the girls have incentive to swing.

Just my opinion, though.

we had one ump in rec who was quite clear and fiarly consistent, one ball off plate, one ball below knees, and all the way to armpits. did not want a walk fest. at rec level I think this is very appropriate.

 

[marriard]

Little rough sending them out there with no training or equipment or a partner, but whatever.

• Call a big strike zone, but don't talk about it because you are going to be inconsistent in rec - pitchers in rec make it hard if they are truly rec pitchers.
• If the pitchers are truly awful, open the strike zoneup so that if you think the batter could have hit it, it is a strike. If it is over the plate or close and it isn't eye level or bouncing on the plate, that can be a strike.
• If one pitcher is awful so you have to open the zone, but the other is good - reward the good pitcher with a big strike zone and call lots of strikes for her.
• SHOW CONFIDENCE: You make BIG, LOUD, CALLs. 'OUT', 'SAFE' , 'STRIKE', etc. Even if you are unsure, don't sound or look that way.
• MOVE to where you can get the best look at the play.
• Make your decision and only change it if you are 100% sure you didn't get it right. You have every right to tell a coach "I have made my decision, lets play on"
• Get a rule book and after the game look up anything you think you may have got wrong.
• Learn where to stand at the field umpire; no one on you are on the line; lead runner at first you are in 'B' - which is between 1st and second', lead runner on 2B you are in 'C' but left of SS, lead runner you ar in 'C' but right of SS.
• If you have problems with the crowd, STOP, walk over to the relevant coach and ask them politely to handle it. If he doesn't or it starts again, do it again. Don't restart play until they take care of it.

Lastly - FIND A MENTOR. Talk to the UIC or one of the umpires at a tourney, but find someone to help out (and the rec league as well).

I am happy to answer any questions they have - you can direct message me here.

 

[Dabears17]

My DD umpired her first game about 3 weeks ago. She was the base umpire and made a couple mistakes like calling outs with her left hand since she is a lefty. She had two close calls the fans disagreed with, but is 100pct sure she got one right and 99pct sure she got the 2nd right. I had to bite my tongue hard when a parent said 'Are they really paying you for umpiring?!?' on the 2nd call.

Our league does an inperson umpire training. Use to have videos online with about 2.5 hours of training, but they were flash based and the current link is broken.

Usually the local umpire associations would be willing to do a couple hours of training.

I had my DD watch an approximately 50 minute video that I found online based upon NFHS mechanics for the base umpire.

What our league used to do was to have board members attend the games our youth umpires did. Our UIC this year only did games when he had no other umpires this year, but attended a lot of games to watch.

We also assign girls to a couple 8u games, give them 10u games, then 12u games when they are ready. There is also a rule of thumb they need to be at least two years older than the age group they are doing.

I've been doing a handful of rec games every year for about 10 years. Only been the last 2-3 years I've felt comfortable doing bases at a 14u game. Never done plate at a 14u game.

When 8u parents get a little uppity the UIC or I do their next couple games.

 

[obritt]

Back in the day as an umpire i learned one of the sins of an umpire was getting in a hurry to make a call. Watch the play, take a long breath, then make the call. Better to take that time then to have to change your call.

 

[QueueCT]

...
Lastly - FIND A MENTOR. Talk to the UIC or one of the umpires at a tourney, but find someone to help out (and the rec league as well).
...

This. My 14yo daughter has been umping rec for the first time this year. She got 45 minutes with an umpire and 7 other girls who were interested in being an umpire. Then @Greatdaytobeawildcat was kind enough to connect me with one of the local UICs who gave her a really effective lesson on calling balls/strikes and how to move to get good position on calls. She then watched him call a game for a few innings keeping that in mind.

 

[625ender]

Call the rule book

 

[The Man In Blue]

Before I can give advice, I need to know what it is the new umpire wants to do.

Some are just looking for that part-time summer job to make some pocket cash. They have no interest in furthering themselves or their skills.

Some will get hooked and want to move up into higher levels.

If you are the former, I don't have too much advice for you. With no goals, I can't point you towards them. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, just that it is hard to do.

If you are the latter, find local resources WHO WILL WORK WITH YOU. There are plenty of assignors who are happy to take your name and add you to their list ... and then the only phone call you get is when they are over a barrel. The same goes for associations -- there are some great ones out there and then there are ones who just want you to subsidize their annual golf outing. Try to find a good one, even if it is in another area. Driving a few hours for a training once a year isn't a big deal.

Most of the previous posts hit on the in-game advice, so I am trying to look bigger picture.

If you are going to stick with this and make it a thing ...
1.) Spend the extra money to get good gear and find a veteran to help make sure it fits you properly. It is tough in the beginning because of the expense and just general lack of knowledge about umpire gear. Heck, ten years in and I am just now becoming a gear junkie. Many of us started out with catcher's equipment, but there is a reason the gear is different.

2.) NEVER turn down a game. Many umpires become snobs and won't work certain levels. Some won't work certain levels for semi-valid reasons (it is very easy to develop bad habits in bad games). When you are new, work EVERYTHING you can and learn to recognize what the differences are in the game and yourself at different levels.

3.) Find out how assigning works in your area. This is DIFFICULT! When it comes to school ball, some schools hire their own officials, some contract and assignor, and some areas are run by the local association. Making contacts is hard, but necessary. Heck ... I am a 10+ year veteran in Illinois and Mississippi High School Activities Association hasn't even responded to my registration and follow up e-mails from three months ago. (Part of the officials shortage is our own doing -- we do NOT make it easy to get in.)

Like @marriard (and many others here), I am always happy to help. PM me and I might even be willing to give up my private contact info. If you are willing/wanting to travel to tournaments, it's always great to have connections in odd places.

 

[ChrisSB]

Thanks everyone for all the great information! There are so many great tips in here. I had my daughter read through them all.

She has since umped 2 more games, the coach at one of them was really a jerk and she finally told him if he kept talking to her disrespectfully she was going to to ask him to leave. Other than that, things went ok.

Unfortunately we really don't know any umpires. She plays at so many different places that we don't see the same ones consistently. I did post on our local sports Facebook page and had someone offer to meet with her to go over rules and placement on the field and I'll keep watching for clinics.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

 

[Dabears17]

This is the slide deck I reviewed before doing my first game as plate umpire with a partner:
5a173c2a93488.pdf (softball.ca)

What I had my DD review before doing her game as base umpire:
Softball - Base Umpire Fundamentals - YouTube

Here is USA Softball's umpire page. There used to be 2 animinated DVDs on Umpire mechanics I had, but I think loaned my copies to the UIC about 5 years ago and never got them back :/. If you do some searching on youtube, you might find them somewere:
Umpires (teamusa.org)

In my experience, about 90pct of the time if the youth umpire quietly and calmly warns the coach they will toss them if they don't calm down, they will come to their senses and calm down.

I can't find the meme/story at the moment, but I saw one other day the gist is an parent comes up to someone heckling their kid asking them to stop, then the parent doing the heckling tells the parent they will stop heckling thier sone when he stops heckling his son. Parent is confused, they aren't heckling any players. The other parent points to the youth umpire.