Coaching Young Umpires

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Coaching Young Umpires
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Coaching Young Umpires

• Agenda for this session
• Umpires Are Coaches
• All about it
• Difference Between Mentoring and Coaching
• Coaching Off the Field
• Coaching On-field
• Conclusion

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Umpires Are Coaches
• What is a coach
• Coaches provide support, encouragement and help
• Coaches provide an individual with feedback,
  insight and guidance on achieving their full
  potential
• Coaches provide guidance, feedback, and direction
  to ensure successful performance
• Coaching an umpire can be seen as a partnership
• Coaches influence values and attitudes and,
  consequently, the entire life of an umpire
• Teaching and coaching are synonymous .

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Who can be a coach?
• All levels of umpiring
• All ages
• Ability to teach fundamentals
• Love to share a love for the game
• Have the best interests of the ump at heart
• Loyal to the program
• Enthusiastic

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Coaching Young Umpires

• How can I became a coach?
• Gain knowledge through a variety of ways
• Some were very good umpires and were taught by
  very good, technical umpires
• Others learned it by listening, questioning,
  observing others, or through evaluation, clinics,
  seminars or camps
• Good coaches, like good umpires, are made, not
  born
• Success is a direct result of preparation

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Coaching Young Umpires

• How does a coach coach?
• Breaking a skill or mechanic down and then
  transfering that knowledge
• Preparation
• Challenging, inspiring, and requiring discipline
• Being a role model by presentation and attitude
• Striving for excellence

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Coaching Young Umpires

• How does a coach coach? (cont.)
• Earning respect
• Keeping own energy high
• Taking the time
• Showing concern
• Making and keeping softball fun
• Being honest and showing integrity

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Coaching Young Umpires

• What does the coach get in return
• Self discipline
• Continuous learning
• Humility
• Sense of pride and accomplishment
• Being useful
• Being a better person

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Coaching Young Umpires

• What is the objective?
• To help the umpire become

The best umpire he/she can be The best crewmate
he/she can be
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Coaching Young Umpires

• Difference Between Mentoring and Coaching
• Definition of a Mentor
• A wise and trusted counselor or teacher
• Is usually senior to the protégé

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Difference Between Mentoring and Coaching
• A Mentor
• Is someone who has developed personal leadership
  skills.
• Evokes excellence in the protégé.
• Has been quite effective at preserving
  organisational culture, knowledge and wisdom.
• With strong coaching skills is a great mentor.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Difference Between Mentoring and Coaching
• Not every great umpire or great coach can be a
  mentor.
• Most importantly, the mentor is chosen by the
  protégé

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Key Responsibilities for a Mentor
• To be someone whom the umpire can turn to, a
  first point of contact when he/she needs help or
  advice
• To give help and tips to the umpire to improve
  his/her performance
• To help the umpire overcome difficult patches in
  his/her umpiring career or personal life
• To advise the umpire whom else he/she can contact
  for further assistance within the umpiring
  community

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Mentoring and Coaching
• Lots of similarities
• Both mentoring and coaching have personalised
  learning methods to assist people in moving
  towards excellence in whatever the goal

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Note A coach should
• Suggest the umpire find a mentor
• Discuss with the mentor the growth of the umpire
• Find a person who can talk to the ump when not
  feeling good

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Mentors, coaches, instructors, parents have to
  check on the progress and discuss the different
  resources available
• What kind of help/support guidance is required
  for young umpires in your area? Is there too much
  at the moment? Is there too little?
• More feedback is betteralways looking to improve
  and move forward
• Dont be afraid to use experienced younger
  umpires and let the older umpires coach them.
• Appoint mentors
• Too many opinions can be more confusing than
  helpful

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching Off Field
• Pre-season and during the season
• Goal setting
• Philosophy
• Behavior
• Attitude and motivation
• Game preparation
• Fitness
• Rules
• Mechanics
• ..just to mention a few

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Goal setting and format
• Coaches have to be goal-oriented
• Short and long term
• Realistic
• Unrealistically high, the umpire becomes
  frustrated.
• Too low, the umpire never realizes the work ethic
  necessary to be successful and thus, always
  settles for less effort.
• Measurable, have to be assess regularly
• Not more than 5 to 10
• Depending on long or short term, 10 could be set
  and 5 could be worked at.
• Stay focused

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Goal setting and format
• Instruct your student to
• Pace himself / herself
• Reward himself / herself
• Keep realistic goals
• Keep notes of the goals
• Don't feel guilty about failure
• Find someone to get sporting with!

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Coaching Young Umpires

• I always aim as high as I possibly can and then
  even if I fall short of my targets, hopefully I
  will still achieve something.
• Michael Owen Liverpool star

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Philosophy
• Values and ethics are as important as rule
  knowledge and mechanics
• Confidence
• Welcome pressure, tough situations make yourself
  stronger, better adjusted, and more successful.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Philosophy (cont.)
• Integrity
• Integrity is loving the game so much that making
  the game right is more important than any
  personal objectives.
• Facing a difficult decision, eliminate all
  emotions
• Disregarding integrity because they wont be
  caught
• Lacking courage and conviction more apt to
  compromise integrity.
• Is it right? Is it fair? Is it honest?

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Behavior
• Competition can bring out the best and the worst
  in people
• Best understood by discussing integrity
• Code of Conduct
• Basics from Umpire Handbook and manuals
• Appurtenance to a group and good relationship
• The best umpire they can be
• The best crewmate they can be

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Attitude
• Attitude is a choice think big, think positive
• Attitude as a coach make and keep softball fun
• Motivation
• Motivation and learning go hand in had.
• A successful coach does it his or her own way.
• Motivation is like fuel in the gas tank.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Motivation (cont.)
• Theory on kinds of motivation
• INTERNAL
• A product of an individuals personality.
• Welcomes feedback, loves to be challenged, and
  possesses a passion of the game that motivates
  them to become students of the game at a high
  level.
• Internal motivation is the drive that separates
  the good ump from the great one.
• Provides the discipline to train hard, and the
  desire to maintain high standards.
• It is the key to longevity and avoidance of
  burnout

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Motivation (cont.)
• Theory on kinds of motivation (Teresa Wilson)
• EXTERNAL MOTIVATION
• Any form of motivation that comes from outside
  the body,
• Admiration for another umpires skill level or
  the desire to be more like the model.
• Reward for an excellent performance. Quotes,
  books, evaluation, teammates, discussions
• Most immediate and satisfying form of external
  motivation.
• Positive reinforcement, a word of praise, pat on
  the back for the mental, physical, emotional or
  skill-related task

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Motivation (cont.)
• Theory on kinds of motivation (Sven-Goran
  Eriksson)
• Ego orientation
• Want to be a winner
• Task orientation
• Enjoy being the best
• One can have both kinds of motivation
• Work hard at sport and don't give up when things
  aren't working out.
• If high in ego orientation and low in task
  orientation, don't always succeed and may give up
  when they're no longer winning.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Motivation (cont.)
• Additional hints
• Do you often hear
• "I can't seem to motivate myself. I know I can
  improve my fitness and my ability in sport but I
  can't seem to get there. What can I do?"
• Does this sound like your students?
• Start using goal setting

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Coaching Young Umpires

• I would never stop until
• I had got it absolutely right with my head and
  both feet
• Ian Wright Former football star

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching on the field during practice
• Support
• Show concern
• Encourage
• Motivate
• Demonstrate correct mechanics
• Enhance confidence
• Review all manual mechanics
• Use Master Instructor theory

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching on-field during games
• Being on-field with student
• As a role model
• As a mentor
• To support and add confidence
• To help in difficult situations
• Down-side
• Rely on the role model or coach for confidence
  and handling difficult situations
• Not the best time to discuss situations

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching off the field during games
• Presence and support
• Show concern
• Encourage
• Motivate
• In action mechanics through evaluation
• Feedback after the game
• Sometimes should be done privately
• Use Master Instructor-Evaluator theory

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On-field
• Enthusiasm
• A coachs attitude toward practice, evaluation,
  umpire work, organization, game preparation.
• Comments should be directed at the performance,
  not at the person.
• Win-win situation
• Positive expectations produce positive results
• When someone acts in a good way, compliment
  him/her

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On field (cont.)
• Honest positive reinforcement, before or after a
  game
• The key to positive reinforcement is that it is
  honest
• It must be genuinely earned
• Constructive, supportive
• Communication
• Essential to fully understand the person you are
  communicating with.
• Two-way listening
• Some umps interrupt or are thinking of what to
  say without really listening to what is said.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On-field (cont.)
• To measure the character of an umpire
• Watch how he/she reacts after a bad call or bad
  game
• Accept
• Evaluate
• Correct / adjust
• Mental toughness
• Ultimately, it is the ability to stay in the
  game in the face of adversity

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On-field (cont.)
• When the game gets tough
• Come into the present
• Go back to the basics
• Solid foundation is a source of strength
• Repetition, reinforcement, reading and learning
  of the rules and mechanics lead to confidence.
• If you develop the philosophy in practice, it
  will show up during the game
• When you work to put yourself in a position to
  succeed, success tends to find you.

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On-field (cont.)
• When the game gets tough
• The challenges are
• Pressure, failure, the feeling of missing calls,
  of being overwhelmed, and distraction.
• Mental toughness develops when we learn to face
  these challenges.
• Softball is a game of failure, learn to deal with
  it.
• The more positive the attitude,
• The more stable and consistent the basics,
• The better the reaction.
• Encourage to recover quickly from a bad game,
• It is good to have closure and have reflection of
  what happened

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Coaching On-field (cont.)
• Umpires responsibilities
• Understand that asking for help is a strength,
  not a weakness.
• If someone begins an excuse trip, then there is
  still a long way to go in building the successful
  umpire.
• There are no shortcuts to be a successful umpire.
  
• The three Ps Patience, persistence, and
  practice.
• Persistence and practice leads to excellence
• Dreams can come true, but it takes work, patience
  and perseverance

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Conclusion
• Show your student your love for the game and your
  respect for umpiring
• Do not look for the easy way
• Understand that perfection is impossible to
  achieve, but excellence is attainable
• Share your knowledge, experience, and philosophy
• Break down all steps and all situations

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Conclusion
• Realize that you could be the most important
  person in this umpires career
• Coach as you would like to be coached
• Make a difference!

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Coaching Young Umpires

• The best umpire they can be
• The best crewmate they can be

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Coaching Young Umpires

• Your job as coach is to develop
• the total person,
• not just the umpire

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Coaching Young Umpires

• References
• The Softball Coaching Bible , NFCA project
  coordinated by Jackie Joseph 2002, Human
  Kinetics Publishers Inc.
• NCAA Softball Umpire Manual
• Web sites
• http//news.bbc.co.uk
• http//www.WorldHockey.org
• http//www.acwhua.com