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At the risk of overdoing it... I'm with you @ArchAngel72 but I do have to combine it with @Rich Ives's point: imo you can't have the exact same physical zone for every batter because of that little batter who could stand on the chalk and still be 2 inches shy of reaching the outside strike you call on the normal size kid.

I like strikes, so my knee-jerk reaction is: sure, get that. If you're working a level where pitchers struggle to throw strikes, then you have to enlarge the zone. I can't tell from that angle where the pitch was, but we gotta do what we gotta do. Welcome to the board. It's a better resource for rules study than for assessing judgment calls from poor angles.

Since this topic has been re-opened, I'm curious to know how agdz59 proceeded, and what was the result.

Rodiguez is on the staff at the WBSC. The two other Americans, Mark Winters has done a lot of college stuff including the college world series and some of the professional international leagues. Kevin Sweeney also has a lot of NCAA experience, but works in the hotel industry.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation appoints them. The WBSC was created by the merger of the International Baseball Federation (IBF) and International Softball Federation (ISF) in 2013 and headquartered in Switzerland. WBSC has 3 levels of umpires: A, B, C. 'A' umpires can work the baseball world cup, the Olympic umpires were chosen from this pool of umpires based on their evaluations over the past 3 years. Matt

I’ll make sure to help you keep the balance by ringing up any coach or player that looks at me the wrong way 😉

What, you don’t want to listen to 3 hours worth of whistling?

Absolutely agree! The unfortunate part about the level I was working is that just about every pitch was over the catchers head (or in the other batters’ box) and to the backstop. At some point you just have no choice but to call a wide zone (wider to kids with longer bats, of course) so you don’t get stuck with a walk fest that goes 2 innings in 2 hours.

Meh to be honest I have seen smaller kids stand at the back of the box as far away from the plate as they can be at that point I will open up the inside of the lines to the batters box to be a strike to them but if they are standing on that line I will close it down as I dont want to call a inside strike on a kid if it hits him. Albeit I did call one on a kid leaning heavy over the plate this year, It grabbed his elbow right over the plate and I called strike and told him NOPE stay here..

If that's 8 to 10 U Yep have at it. LL states armpits to top of knees and any part of the ball over any part of the plate. I will enlarge that to the batters box lines and top of shoulders to bottom of knees for 8-10u 12U 1st couple weeks of the season I may call that but Not right now in All Stars where I am I call it a little larger than armpit to top of knee and plate but not much. All stars I am right where LL states. I tighten the zone to that exactly. Now with that said I do admit I call my zone on average about a ball low. I dunno why its just me and I will give them the knee and the letters but not the top of them on the uni. I am consistent as all hell on it though. So its never more or less open for either team

I've always been a proponent of stating what I saw as objective fact. For example, "He beat the throw," rather than "I saw him get to the bag before the throw" or "In my judgment, he beat the throw." If a coach responds, "No, he didn't," I'll reply, along the same lines as was noted above, "OK. Now let's play ball."

Oh, and invest in a pair of plate shoes! One ball off the toes and I guarantee you will, but save yourself that first hit off the toe!

May I offer some tips/observations? I will start with the positives 1) Can already tell you look the part. Fit, dressed well, and not timid. That alone will help you progress. 2) The strike is absolutely fine. I rewound it and slowed it down and I’d say half the ball was in the channel and half on the chalk. That’s a strike at every level below HS Varsity in my opinion. 3) You need to change your strike three mechanic. This isn’t opinion, it’s fact if you want to move up. Pause the video with 0:02 left. You are looking at the ground, almost 180 degrees away from field of play. What if the batter interfered with catcher? What if runner took off? What if catcher drops the ball so batter can run? Keep your eyes facing the action and POSSIBLE action 4) you have a nice “lock” mechanism (arms locked, keeps your head at the same height every pitch), prob will need to get a little lower as level advances as most college and mlb guys lock with their forearm or grab behind their hamstrings/knees. Only thing there is you drifted with the pitch, try to stay still. When you drift, a pitch that is 1 foot outside (shouldn’t be called) will look 3 inches outside bc you moved closer to it and you will grab it 5) Work the slot, you are directly over the catchers head. Very common for new umpires, but you don’t get a good look at low pitches and especially the low outside corner, will disappear on you. And above all else, is a major safety issue. Batters hardest foul balls tend to be straight back or just to opposite side (watch mlb game where foul balls get scorched backwards). Working the slot reduces number of times you will get drilled. Not so important at the age you are doing in the video but very important when you get to guys throwing harder

Ohhhhhh...pair of PEOPLE. I was expecting a slightly...different optic. ~Dawg

You could just show your partner the rule ..." when it is not an attempt to put our or drive back a runner." That seems to describe the OP pretty well. Given the dynamic (you're new to this level, he has 12 years' experience one year of experience 12 times), the answer might better come from someone else more senior in your association.