We hope that all of you are having a fun yet instructive summer.  Many of you continue to umpire softball games at high levels – travel ball, big tournaments, even “friendlies” with highly-skilled teams and athletes.

And a trend is developing in these areas which may seem familliar to your college experience – somebody (a UIC, a fellow-umpire, etc) may be asking you “what 2 or 3 things are you working on today?

So use this time and experience to improve your game.  Work only the number of games in one day for which you can perform at 100% every game.  You never know when you are being watched…a training staff member watching a family member playing on one of the participating teams, an assignor who is in the area and knows there is a good tournament near-by, a travel ball UIC or fellow-umpire who is a CCSUA observer…

Pick out two or three items in different areas of your game that need further emphasis or improvement – plate umpire pitch mechanics, plate umpire movement, base umpire angles/distance, base umpire reading the play and hustling to the correct position, game management…

As we said, have a fun summer.  But remember, a college umpire never “relaxes” during a game.