The IBAF Umpire Camp will open in Tirrenia (near Pisa, Italy) on Thursday June 21. IBAF Umpiring Commission Chairman Gustavo Rodriguez will act as the technical director of the Camp and as one of the instructors. He will be supported by fellow Commissioners Takeshi Hirabayashi (Japan) and Marco Screti (Italy).
“At this Camp we are dealing with experienced umpires” said Rodriguez, who is still an active umpire at the Collegiate level in the United States and was on the field, as a blue, in the 2000 and 2004Olympics.
The IBAF does not certify their umpires: “We plan to do it in the near future. What we aim to, is a certification according to the level an umpire is allowed to be on the field”.
Campers will be instructed on theory in class, but most of the activity will be on the field.
“We will do a lot of work in the cages. Mostly, an umpire is valued on his capability to be consistent in calling strikes and balls. If an umpire is considered good at that, he or she will earn a lot of respect also when working on base. We will work a lot on mechanics and style. We will also work on communication skills within the crew”.
The Camp in Tirrenia is attended by 22 umpires, representing 8countries. This is the complete list:
Alessandro Spera, Alessandro Maestri, Daniel Kelly Sepulveda, Michele Caringella, Marco Alinovi, Michele De Notta, Fabrizio Fabrizi, Lorenzo Bastianello, Luca Pavan, Valerio Pizziconi (Italy); Andreas Pirchler, Sascha Passemberger (Austria); Fabien Carrette-Lagrand, Franck Benasseur, Serge Makouchetchev (France); Gabor Erdos (Great Britain); Jeronimo Moreno Saura, Michel Ulloa Diaz, Cuauntemoc Suarez Hernandez (Spain); Khuram Butt (Pakistan); Arnoldas Ramanauskas (Lithuania); Mark Larkin (USA)
