I am a volunteer umpire for Little League, and the umpire trainer for my area. I have developed (in Keynote, of course) both introductory and advanced umpiring clinic material, and it has been well received both by other presenters and participants.
One of the areas that is weak lies in the area for "field positioning". This is where we attempt to instill in other umpires a knowledge of where they should be on the field at any point in time in order to make the best call possible and to avoid being blocked out of the play (such as ensuring that you are not positioned so the only thng you see is the third baseman's behind). For the advanced course (weather permitting) we actually have a physical session on a ball diamond, but for the introductory course this is not often practical.
We have some slides that contain a baseball diamond and the series of slides attempt to show where the umpire(s) should be positioned at the time of a pitch under various conditions (none on base, one runner, etc.). What I would like to do is develop a slide that illustrates the movement of the umpires as various plays progress, and where the umpire(s) should be positioned as the play progresses (also showing the runner(s) as they advance around the bases).
I have a number of challenges with this, for none of which I have found a satisfactory solution.
First, and a minor issue, is representation of the individuals. I am not an artist, so representing the runners and umpires as small images is an issue. I settled on a red triange for the batter and runners, and blue circles for the umpires. I would like small avatars, but have not been able to find anything appropriate, and am not artistic enough to create the images that will be clear on a 1024x798 Keynote slide.
Second, I cannot find a satisfactory method of illustrating the progress of the play and the movement of the runner(s) and umpire(s) as the play progresses. Keynote does not have strong tools for this (or none have jumped out at me), and the use of a Quicktime movie (but then I still need the tools to build the movie) would not permit the presenter to stop and discuss issues at each stage of the play development. What I wanted to do was show the initial positon of the participants at the time of the pitch, and then represent their movements with line segments (curves, not straight lines) at each stage. I am not a Photoshop person, but I have used the Canvas product for years, so I tried adding each line segment for each stage and then copying and pasting it onto the Keynote slide, but the results were poor, to say the least.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could go about addressing either or both of the points above? I should point out that suggestions to purchase a product that costs more than $25 is not considered a solution -- I am a volunteer with no funds to pay for this hobby, and right now my financial situation is such that I cannot afford to be purchasing new software. Of course, if there is some "perfect" solution, even if it costs money, I still want to hear about it!
Thank you in advance to anyone who can contribute information on this.
One of the areas that is weak lies in the area for "field positioning". This is where we attempt to instill in other umpires a knowledge of where they should be on the field at any point in time in order to make the best call possible and to avoid being blocked out of the play (such as ensuring that you are not positioned so the only thng you see is the third baseman's behind). For the advanced course (weather permitting) we actually have a physical session on a ball diamond, but for the introductory course this is not often practical.
We have some slides that contain a baseball diamond and the series of slides attempt to show where the umpire(s) should be positioned at the time of a pitch under various conditions (none on base, one runner, etc.). What I would like to do is develop a slide that illustrates the movement of the umpires as various plays progress, and where the umpire(s) should be positioned as the play progresses (also showing the runner(s) as they advance around the bases).
I have a number of challenges with this, for none of which I have found a satisfactory solution.
First, and a minor issue, is representation of the individuals. I am not an artist, so representing the runners and umpires as small images is an issue. I settled on a red triange for the batter and runners, and blue circles for the umpires. I would like small avatars, but have not been able to find anything appropriate, and am not artistic enough to create the images that will be clear on a 1024x798 Keynote slide.
Second, I cannot find a satisfactory method of illustrating the progress of the play and the movement of the runner(s) and umpire(s) as the play progresses. Keynote does not have strong tools for this (or none have jumped out at me), and the use of a Quicktime movie (but then I still need the tools to build the movie) would not permit the presenter to stop and discuss issues at each stage of the play development. What I wanted to do was show the initial positon of the participants at the time of the pitch, and then represent their movements with line segments (curves, not straight lines) at each stage. I am not a Photoshop person, but I have used the Canvas product for years, so I tried adding each line segment for each stage and then copying and pasting it onto the Keynote slide, but the results were poor, to say the least.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could go about addressing either or both of the points above? I should point out that suggestions to purchase a product that costs more than $25 is not considered a solution -- I am a volunteer with no funds to pay for this hobby, and right now my financial situation is such that I cannot afford to be purchasing new software. Of course, if there is some "perfect" solution, even if it costs money, I still want to hear about it!
Thank you in advance to anyone who can contribute information on this.