by Confederation of European Baseball
UMPIRE CLINIC, MAY 19-21, 2017, IZHEVSK, RUSSIA
On 19-21 of May, 2017 by invitation of Russian Baseball Federation and approval of CEB two baseball umpires from Vilnius, Lithuania Žilvinas Bareika and Arnoldas Ramanauskas have conducted umpire clinic for beginners in Izhevsk, capital city of Republic of Udmurtia, Russia.
The clinic was part of Regional Sports Festival where several sports including baseball were represented. Participants were fellow representative from five regions of Russia: Kazan, Perm, Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg and Izhevsk. Totally 50 persons have participated including coaches and players who also had coaches clinic and training camp.
The clinic started with baseball rules session where structure of Rule Book and most commonly complicated issues were introduced. Specifically were covered Catch/No catch, Infield Fly, Interference/Obstruction, Appeal Play, Collisions and Balks. Also instructors went through extensive list of Myths of Baseball Rules.
Totally three classroom and practice sessions were held. Participants were introduced to: Home plate work, Strikezone, Work on bases, 2-man mechanics, Duties of umpires before and during a game.
For all sessions exclusively prepared presentations in Russian and video material illustrating specific situations were used.
The clinic was useful for fellow umpires who learned some basics of baseball umpiring and the instructors sparked a little bit more enthusiasm for them to continue. On the other hand the instructors learned more about Russian baseball outside of Moscow and had really good time in Izhevsk for three days.
All the expenses were covered by Russian Baseball Federation and Regional Sports Committee of Republic of Udmurtia.