Welcome! And thank you for checking into umpire training! Let’s get right into it.
In 2019 I was approached by a youth baseball program in Lakeville, MN, to help train umpires so they could increase their ranks to cover their growing program’s schedule. In fact, they were working directly with high school varsity coaches to encourage varsity and junior varsity players to try umpiring as a part-time summer job. This has numerous benefits to the player (maturity, managing a busy schedule, staying involved in the sport when not playing, giving back to others, summer $$, etc), builds the baseball community, and at the very least exposes them to rules knowledge and an umpire’s perspective which creates smarter baseball players. So of course, I dove in.
Gone are the days of… “attend this 3-hr general gym clinic to pick up a few tips, then go get your gear and good luck!” That approach historically sets one up to get booed off the field and those umpires persevere at a very low success rate.
To have a higher rate of umpire success and retention we needed a new approach.
Formalizing an online training plan with weekly interactive learning and basic-to-advanced content during the offseason, followed by on-field practice and mentoring after the snow melts, is a logical way to educate new and experienced umpires and get their season off to a far better start. I call this the In-Depth Series (IDS) approach. This approach breaks learning into short valuable 2hr sessions over approximately 10 weeks of training leading right up to opening day. That is up to 20 hours of content before you step foot on the field, plus access to at least one mechanics clinic and youth tournament where you can work multiple innings and be observed and mentored in a friendly scrimmage-like environment. I also work each season on offering access to calling balls/strikes during live pitching & batting practices as well as advanced-level umpire clinics in Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding areas.
Over the past few years I had the luck and honor to converse often with the late Larry Gallagher, a LEGEND in the umpire community and well known by many baseball rules organizations across the USA. We were lucky enough to have him based right here in Minnesota. His teachings were building blocks within my own growth as an umpire. Note the semi-transparent patch in the center of my home plate logo on this website – Larry will always be with us and forever remembered. I also owe a debt of gratitude to so many others who have invested their time to help me along the way. And yes, that’s a backdoor strike in the logo.
So I offer you this…
If you’re willing to learn and improve your umpiring skills, I’m willing to help. ‘Umpire CI’ stands for Umpire Continuous Improvement – a mission for my own performance as well as an umpire teacher and mentor. I work with and depend on a team of umpire association leaders and fellow accomplished umpires to provide effective training and mentoring. I also use these connections to help umpires develop their careers as high as they want to go, from pee-wee’s to youth tournament finals, from high school to American Legion and men’s amateur (Townball), from junior college to Divison III, II and I assignments, and even professional umpiring schools.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Ben
