sliding

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my dd knows how to slide,but hurt herself pretty good twice.now she is afraid to slide .this has been going on all year.i know its in her head,but being 10u and doing everything else well,i let it "slide".she is moving up and i know i have to work with her. any ideas?

 

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Best sliding teaching aid is the old "Slip and Slide". We should still have enough hot days to get her out and let her play while geting her sliding mojo back. We do a "refresher" every spring.

 

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What LCTiger said, plus make sure she has sliding shorts and at least one leg sliding guard. Those help on the dirt, although some scrapes can't be avoided, they are just a fact of softball life.

 

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I'm all for the slip n slide and the sliding shorts and leg guard. I think all girls needs to learn how to slide. My daughter was plowed over this past weekend and we spent the night in the hospital and now have to go thru many dr visits. Please teach them how to slide.

 

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I bought a Slip & Slide and could not get her to slide. What worked for us is a little peer pressure. Many of her friends learned to slide so she slid the first time and ever since.

 

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Large pc's of cardboard on grass works wonders. Lay one large pc on top of the other on grass and practice sliding. We take it easy at first, by having them walk up and grap a bat that both coaches are holding each end of and then slide. Take away the fear and make it fun.

 

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Large pc's of cardboard on grass works wonders. Lay one large pc on top of the other on grass and practice sliding. We take it easy at first, by having them walk up and grap a bat that both coaches are holding each end of and then slide. Take away the fear and make it fun.

Point out when doing this to pick which leg they want to put under them and swing under the bat and then keep their hands up in the air. Now have then take their hands backward and they will feel their balance point change and most likely teeter totter backwards. The hands and arms positions will effect their balance.

Now come around to the front of them and gently kick the outstretched leg and point out if it is stiff they could hurt their knee or ankle. Then reach out and grasp the one hand and count to three and pull them up and get them to recognize with their momentum they could pop up.

 

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Our team had a young girl break her foot this summer while practicing (at home) sliding on her slip-n-slide...

 

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The slip-n-slide usually works well, its a fun way to get girls to slide, but when it comes to dirt have sliders, a sliding pad, and knee socks pulled high, that should help for the most part.

Sliding is important! A girl on our team playing SS got hurt twice because girls didnt slide going into second. 1st was bad [out for 2 weeks] 2nd time she was just shook up a little. But not sliding can turn worse, I hope she gets over her fear!

 

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The posts here are excellent for teaching a player to slide. However, I think the question related to a player who knew how to slide but was injured. Fear is very tough to overcome. Fear isn't a girl or a sissy thing. A player overcoming the fear to do a necessary function of the game is far more complicated than a slip-n-slide

 

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another thing you could try during the winter or if its raining is to go to a basketball court or something similar and slide with sweatpants and socks, no shoes. It's really fun because you slide halfway across the floor. That's how I learned and I now love sliding

 

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you just have to keep her head up and make learning how to slide fun

 

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so how do i approach it then from the mental aspect.

 

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did she get hurt on a Hollywood style base. everyone complains when you dont have these type of bases, yet these are the bases girls break ankles and legs on. The key is to slide earlier.

 

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My DD has gone through this fear of sliding in the past. She wears two sometimes three pairs of sliding shorts ( no kidding) and a leg slide guard and still usually has a chonic open area on her thigh for the summer. Learning how to hook slide has helped some because you are not depending on the force of the slide with the defense bearing down on you to get on the base. This hook slide also helped with sliding into home because the of the catcher usually clamping down tight in front of home plate. But mainly she got over her fear of sliding because she had more fear of the coach if she did not slide LOL!

 

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I think peer pressure can be a great thing. The first year we used the slip-and -slide, we said it was to be a cool-down aid after practice. Did that for about 10 minutes. Then, I had my nephew the baseball star show-up, and he demonstrated how to slide on the slip-and-slide. Now, it was strange to watch some of the girls freeze up, not wanting the do the same thing they had just done for fun! No one made fun of anyone, and after about 20 minutes, they were all sliding like pros. i think if you train them right early, and as others have said give them the right protective tools, the mental side should follow. This is a time to be gentle and reassuring. I saw more than a few tough Marines freeze up looking down a rapelling tower, and they were actually encouraged, not yelled at, so work her back into and rebuild her confidence. So to the peer pressure thing, have 5 or six of her friends over when it gets 90+ on saturday, bust out the slip-and-slide, and just let them have fun.

 

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I must say, it is necessary that the girl slide into the base because if the runner plows into the fielder, it may be an interference. A couple of games I have seen have been won or lost because someone slid or didn't.