Slip Sliding Away : Clinic Teaches Players How to Get Down and Dirty

Alex Manilla was hoping for a break in the weather last week. Unfortunately it was a sunny day.

That meant a little extra work for Manilla, who was at Leuzinger High to conduct a sliding clinic for the softball team. He teaches players to slide on wet grass to reduce the risk of injury and build confidence.

Manilla had given a clinic at Hawthorne High the previous week under what he called optimal conditions--the day after a thunderstorm.

“I was hoping for rain, but I can’t always be lucky,” said Manilla, shaking his head as he stood with a water hose in hand. “We didn’t even have to water the field, there were already two inches of water. The wetter the better, we want it to be like a big Slip ‘n Slide.”

It took Manilla nearly 45 minutes to soak the grass at Leuzinger to his satisfaction before he could begin instruction. He checked for rocks and debris and set up bases, which occasionally drifted away from their desired location on the thin film of water.

The players had been warned about the day’s itinerary. Most came dressed in sweats and old T-shirts. Many were barefoot or wore only socks, heeding Manilla’s suggestions for achieving the “minimal coefficient of friction.”

Manilla begins his clinics with the figure-four slide and also covers the pop-up, hook and head-first slides. He walked through the figure-four slide demonstrating correct leg position.

But when the time came to slide, none of the players was too eager to step forward until Manilla took the first plunge, uh, slide.

“They don’t want to get dirty or wet at first,” Manilla said. “It happens all the time. They’re a little apprehensive about their hair and makeup. If they see this guy can do it, they aren’t quite as reluctant.”

It’s a ploy Manilla said has never failed.

“It was funny,” junior catcher Michelle Acosta said. “This man was supposed to be showing us and he looked like he was having the fun, sliding all over the place.”

Hawthorne Coach Michele Moran found it so entertaining, she decided to take a few slides herself.

“Sliding was something I never really wanted to do unless I was forced into it,” said Moran, 31, who played softball at Loyola Marymount in 1980 and ’81. “To be honest, this is a lot safer than dirt. He did a really good job.”

Manilla, who umpires softball at levels ranging from Little League to semi-pro, conducts the clinics free of charge and plans to offer his services to other South Bay high schools.

He started his clinics nearly six years ago at Little Leagues and local junior highs after growing tired of watching numerous players suffer injuries because of improper sliding techniques.

Manilla, a 1984 Leuzinger graduate, was an assistant at his alma mater for four seasons before coaching at Bishop Montgomery in 1991. He guided the Knights to their first Southern Section playoff berth in six seasons. He was an assistant at Hawthorne last season.

“Coaching is still in my blood, but giving clinics is my way of giving back to the community,” said Manilla, who hopes to return to coaching next season. “Coaches teach players how to hit and to field, but they don’t teach them how to slide.”

Manilla played baseball at Leuzinger as a junior and senior, but said he perfected his teaching methods primarily from his experiences as a coach. He started with players sliding on cardboard in the infield before switching to grass one misty morning.

“Cardboard was effective, but it was not that exciting,” Manilla said. “We figured, ‘Why not water the field?’ We tried it out and it was a lot of fun.”

That’s the response Manilla usually receives from players. However, a parent of a Hawthorne player was concerned her daughter would get sick from sliding in the wet grass and complained to Principal John Carter.

It was an isolated incident, according to Manilla, who said he always stresses to players to bring an extra set of clothes. Leuzinger Coach Sharon Curdo scheduled the clinic at the end of practice so players could change immediately.

But there was a problem neither Manilla nor Curdo anticipated.

“The water was so cold and people didn’t want to get muddy at first,” Wendy Padilla, a sophomore shortstop said. “But after you tried it the first time and saw how easy it was, you didn’t want to stop.”