First of all, my father and I would like to say thank you to every umpire who made it out yesterday to our final in-class clinic. We had a good group in attendance and hope everyone came out of the clinic with a better understanding of umpiring baseball. In preparation for the on-field clinics — which will be held on Feb. 20th and 21st at E.C.A.P in Goldsboro NC — I decided to post a few videos that are great to preface our instruction on the field.
The first is a video on plate mechanics. The beginning is an explanation of uniform and equipment (note: we do not wear heather gray pants or patches), so you can skip this by going to the 1:00 mark:
Umpire Training: Behind the Plate
The second video is on umpire responsibilities and rotations. While I do not agree with a few parts (We don’t creep, nor do we walk when there is a play at first), this video explains rotations in an understandable way and can prepare new umpires for what they will see the next few weekends:
North Carolina Umpire Association 