Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Picnic in Pineuilh
taking a break between practices. Jean-Marie (my friend who I’d met at the tournament in Moscow and who initially invited me to come and teach baseball), accompanied by the club president, was to meet me at the train station in Mussidan, a smaller station before reaching Bordeaux. I learned two things on this train from Lyon to Bordeaux: first, if it is a small station, the train stops for a very short time (about a minute). The second lesson was that the doors on some French trains are very difficult to open. Because of these two things, I did not get out at Mussidan. It was an aweful feeling trying to open this door (thinking I had ample time to exit the train) and seeing through the window Jean Marie and Alain, le president, standing there scanning the (small) crowd of passengers to find me. And then pulling away from the station, trying to figure out how in the world I couldn’t open the door.
One of the other guys in my train cabin lent me is cell phone to call Jean-Marie; luckily the next train stop was not to far away.
I was taken to a small town called Gensac where I met the Tyler
Making Pizza
Harry and Hugh making pizzas. family; they are actually from Aberdeen Scotland, and have been living in the Bordeaux/Bergerac region of France for 8 years. This family would be my family for the next week or so.
My biggest worry about the baseball trainings that I would lead here in Pineulh (that is the name of the town, the team being called the “Pineuilh Pitchers”) was that I would spend my whole time stumbling over my words that it would prevent me from doing a good job of coaching/teaching baseball. In the end, this was the least of my worries, and in fact there were quite a few of Anglophone/English-speaking players who helped me out whenever I would get stuck. For instance, I could never remember the word for ‘stretching.’ I would say ‘ok everybody, let’s _____” and then I would blank. Or I would say the wrong word. The word for stretching is ‘etièrement,’ sometimes I would say etalement (which means nothing), or etalement (which means ‘sparkling/sparkle’, or something close to that). Finally I got it on the last day.
Another one was the word for ‘target,’ which I initially thought was ‘targé’. In fact ‘targé’ means nothing, the correct word is ‘cible.’ They
Guillaume and Sebastian
Guillaume was the youngest player, 8 years old, to attend the trainings. Sebastian is Guillaume's father as well as the Minims coach. also made fun of me for the way I said the word ‘banane,’ apparently they found it absolutely hilarious.
When we got to the field the first morning of practices, it quickly became clear to me that I was the only coach for both the little league and the older team, for the whole week. There was no plan, and I was to make the plan. This was quite an evolution from the image I had in mind of being able to work with a few pitchers, maybe an hour a day or so, for a few days in a row. Instead I had two dozen players, all positions, ranging from 8 years 16 years old. The first day was a bit rough, and it took some time for me to settle into a routine, to figure out a way for this experience to be fun and productive for all of them (and for me, because it was also my first real experience with teaching youngsters baseball).
It was a whole lot of fun. I found that I was much more comfortable working/playing with the younger kids, mainly because I think they were more willing to try the ideas I
Auberge Espanol
on friday there was a potluck with players and parents. would throw at them, they were a bit more enthusiastic, but also there was a bigger age difference between me and them. It is difficult to have a group of sixteen year olds, who already have their own social dynamic in place, and try to come in and in one week build a working/playing rapport with them. Also, the 13-16 year old team in Pineuilh is the oldest team in the club; the older teams have disbanded because not enough guys were coming to practice/games, guys were going off to school, ect., and I think it is difficult to get motivated when you are the top of the top in your area, it is difficult to know what to aspire to. I experienced similar feelings working with these kids as I did playing with the Lithuanians, coming to respect and admire them for their love of this game that, even in France, is only televised (if you have cable) once a year.
On various days I asked some of the Cadets (13-16 yr. olds) to come help out with the Little League practices, and that was cool to see them work with the younger kids.
The two moments I enjoyed
Pineuilh Baseball Club
Pineuilh players, age 8-16. the most during this week of baseball was the second to last day, where we spent the whole morning with pitchers only, going over pitching technique and learning some balance/precision/technique drills. This was the time when I felt most comfortable, most confident in what I was telling the kids/guys. The second memorable moment was on the final day, when our mini-scrimmage was cancelled because rain, and instead we did running/conditioning drills in the outfield, in the rain, for two hours. I heard from more than one kid that this was their favorite day, too.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 15; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0259s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb