The Cricket Umpire's Off-Season

About 4 months until a new cricket season. Outside it's cold and wet and definitely not cricket season. It must be time to plan an assault on the summer ahead. Last season was my first in grade cricket here in Sydney. My focus was on learning. Take advantage of every education session available and try to increase my knowledge of what makes a better umpire. I feel that I achieved that goal. At times during the season I had patches where I saw real improvements and good foundations for becoming the best umpire that I can be. In between those there were some backward steps as well.

Late in the season I thought I had really hit on something in the way I was watching the ball. I was focussing on softening my vision. I was telling myself not to stare too hard at the ball. By softening my vision I was seeing the ball more clearly than ever before. I strung together 3 weeks of umpiring that had me feeling that I was on my way to success, at least in that area of the game.

This was followed by an ugly Saturday afternoon where I couldn't take a trick. Every small edge I didn't see or hear. The LBW shouts all seemed to be bat and pad together somewhere around that off stump, maybe just outside. In the end I lost the confidence of the fielding team and walked away feeling gutted. What caused this relapse in form? It was a bright sunny day and so I chose to wear my slightly darker sunglasses. This I believe was the root cause of most of my problems. I hope that's what it was.

The other problem for me throughout the season was a simple lack of self belief. That's a theme in many areas of my life. I know from past experience that I will be improved in that area in my second season just be feeling more natural in the surroundings.

So, where is my year 2 focus going to be? I will again be doing the laws course to strengthen my knowledge of laws of cricket. The playing conditions will again be given the focus that they need. My first year in grade has shown me that these 2 areas are where I believe I can out point almost every other umpire in the grade ranks. It is a simple matter of spending time. Hours and hours of it. Read, summarise, read again.

The other thing that I am intending to do is to attend net sessions of the 2 local clubs in my area to get practical experience of umpiring. I have shied away from it in the past because it felt a bit weird. I feel uncomfortable heading to a net session to practice umpiring. This is in spite of the comments I have heard from senior umpires that the players appreciate the efforts made by umpires to improve themselves. It's probably just my ego acting up. I think to head to a net session once a week can make a significant difference to my match day performance. Lets face it, I wouldn't go out to bat and expect to be confident and successful if I hadn't been to practice, so why do I expect to become a better umpire without actually practising the skills involved.

Another couple of things I would like to try are getting together with a few similar level umpires once a month over a beer to talk about what issues we are having collectively and seeing if 2 or 3 or 4 heads are better than 1. There are a couple of guys who I will be approaching to see if they are interested.

The final piece to the puzzle is to find myself a mentor. Someone who I can go to for advise. An experienced umpire whose brain I can pick. Basically I think I am looking for a coach. The great thing about umpiring is that there are plenty of experienced guys who you can turn to in this department. Guys who have been umpiring for 10 or 15 years are not that hard to find. I am on the lookout for an umpiring guru to guide me. The umpiring equivalent of Yoda. If you are reading this umpiring Yoda, don't be shy, get in touch.

So that's where I am going to leave it for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you on the cricket fields of Sydney before too long.