Coaching Demonstrations that didn't quite work...

[Jojo]

shredded his shoulder demonstrating the hook slide to his team of 8yo's.

Aww geez, I did this a long time ago in a co-ed game. I'm laying there writhing in pain and I look up to the see blue standing over me saying, "You know girls can overrun second base". Pretty sure a few expletives were spewed by me.

I love to run and I'm pretty good at sprinting so I generally played the base runner during run down plays, as I got older by uppper body began run to faster than my legs and I took a few face plants before finally giving up on that.

 

[AndyS]

So, I was coaching a rec league. My AC had, shall we say, a "robust" spare tire. We were teaching sliding, and he decided to demonstrate a head first slide...

He ran as best he could toward the bag, jumped, and stretched out his hands, landed flat on his stomach, and stopped...it was like someone doing a belly-flop on dry land. His outstretched hand was probably 2 feet from the bag.

When I was coaching my oldest DD's 12u team. I setup a drill in the outfield with cones to teach going back on the ball first and then arcing back in to catch the ball. So obviously I demonstrate first and get caught up in the cones and land on my face. What I didn't realize is I pretty much fell in the landing area of the ball. So I hear gales of laughter cut short by "Coach, coa...". As I am getting up the ball hits me squarely in the back. I think the girls were sincerely trying to ask me if I was okay but were having a hard time breathing they were laughing so hard.

 

[eddieq]

When working with the 14u girls a couple of years ago, we were practicing by playing a simulated game, with the adults hitting and running the bases. I started from 2nd on the pitch like we try to tell the girls to do. SS (14 year old girl at best half my size, probably more like 1/3 if going by weight) was playing up in front of the base line. Ball hit sharply toward her, she backed up right into the basepath to field it. Knowing that I have to avoid the collision there (not just by rule but so I don't kill this kid by squashing her), I slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, my 40 year old hamstrings couldn't take it and I tore the right one. I rolled across the infield, somehow actually ending up on third (safe, too - she went for the out at 1b) and then simply crawled to the bleachers. I figure it was a good tradeoff. The girl got to live and I no longer had to run the bases.

 

[guero_gordo]

Seriously, I have to hear the rest of the story.

So would I, but I did not witness it, and his description was terse. I can only assume he was reliving JuCo glory right up to the moment physics intervened.

 

[starsnuffer]

I once got caught up explaining swing mechanics from behind a pitching machine. In retrospect I'm sure the kid couldn't hear me over the whir. Karma heard me though, I got my shorts caught on the pitching machine wheel, ripped them right off. Not my proudest moment, but I gained a new found appreciation for boxer briefs.

-W

 

[NorthMS]

Was working with the girls on deep pop flys. I decided to demonstrate. The AC hit a high pop fly. I'm tracking it and at the last second, I notice a kid out of the corner of my eye getting close (still don't know why she was there). One glance at her was all it took. The ball landed right on my forehead. I saw star monkeys. The girls thought I was so tough bc I never flinched or complained. They didn't know I just didn't want to add to my embarrassment. They thought it was funny.

 

[NorthMS]

I once got caught up explaining swing mechanics from behind a pitching machine. In retrospect I'm sure the kid couldn't hear me over the whir. Karma heard me though, I got my shorts caught on the pitching machine wheel, ripped them right off. Not my proudest moment, but I gained a new found appreciation for boxer briefs.

-W

OMG! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MarkAdams]

That is funny

 

[cmustangsfp]

Once, we did this drill/game where the coaches would stand on 3B and have the girl take off from home and round the bases. Once the girl hit 1st the coach took off rounding the bases. If the coach caught the girl before she reached home (we never did) there would have been some kind of consequence. The purpose was to get them to run faster. Well I didn't stretch out before the practice (I know that some people say stretching may or may not have helped or hurt) so I run after the first girl no problem (there were 3 coaches). When it is my second turn up, I am hauling my posterior around the bases as fast as my 6'2", 200 lb frame will go (which is actually pretty fast!) when it feels like someone hits me in the back of my lower leg with a hard thrown softball. I'm thinking to myself "We're doing running drills, Who is throwing balls?". I am stopped at 3B rubbing the back of my leg (and looking for the "ball") when I hear one of the moms behind home plate start yelling "What snapped?" I did hear a load ripping noise when the "ball" hit me. Turns out the loud ripping noise she heard was my calf muscle being torn and yes it was loud enough that she heard it from behind home plate, in the bleachers. 2 months on crutches and a year later to fully recover. Not my most proud moment as a coach.

And when the girls would stretch before every practice/game they would turn around and shout "Look Coach! We're stretching!"
It also gave a new meaning on coaching from the bucket.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Two large families were at pitching practice and they were talking about rundowns. So, the girls' brothers were there and I said "Let me show you how I like to do it. So, the girls are my runners and the brother is playing first. I have the ball and I try to run the girl back to 1st base and I did a face plant. Nice.

Here is a photo that I received last night, from one of my students that is at a tourney. She was having difficulty with her slide, I am not quite sure that she has nailed it, yet.