The umps up here in NWO all say they were told the lack of pull back was a point of emphasis this year.
If they're ASA umpires telling you this...well, they are a little mixed up.
For over 100 years, in both baseball and softball, simply holding the bat out over the plate was NOT to be automatically construed as an attempt to contact the pitch. For instance, if the batter held the bat stationary in the strike zone, but the pitch came in out of the strike zone, the correct call would be a "ball" to the batter. There was never any rule saying that holding the bat over the plate equalled a bunt attempt or that the bat had to be "pulled back" to terminate a bunt attempt.
About three years ago, in the college game, the NCAA rule was modified to say that simply holding the bat over the plate was to be interpreted as "an offer", or "a bunt attempt". If the batter held the bat over the plate, the pitch would be called a strike no matter if it was in the strike zone or not.
This was a major change to how a bunt attempt was judged and interpreted. The change was made with the input of coaches (as are most NCAA rule changes, where the coaches have tremendous input on the rules committee). Mostly, coaches were complaining that strikes should be called where they thought umpires were giving batter's an advantage- even though this was exactly how the rule book said these should be called. The change essentially took the judgment of a bunt offer out of the umpire's hands and called it a strike whether the batter moved the bat toward the ball or not.
And that is how it had been called those first 100 years-
and still is to be called in ASA games! The umpire had to judge that the batter actually made some attempt to contact the pitch or move the bat into the path of the ball, not just hold the bat still over the plate. Minus one of those actions, a bunt attempt/offer was NOT to be ruled.
The following year after NCAA revised this rule, NFHS (the governing body for high school softball) made the same rule change. So, this was a point of emphasis...
two years ago and for
high school ball only, not ASA.
The following year, NSA made the same change. I believe that USSSA may have also (though I don't work any USSSA games). But, as of this date, ASA has not. They still require the umpire to judge movement of the bat toward the ball by the batter before ruling that a bunt attempt or offer at the pitch was made.
Hope all that makes sense!