Yesterday we did a project for soldiers of the Bundeswehr. This took place at the Home of the Berlin Sluggers in Berlin Neukölln. Coaches that participated where Quinn Heiner from the US and Player/Coach of the Berlin Flamingos. The project was an English language project linked with Baseball. Rather than learning abstract vocabulary, the 13 soldiers preferred having a hands on Baseball experience including practice, playing and Barbacue all in English.The weather was perfect as we met up at 10:30 am. After a brief introduction the warm up was on its way. Following the warm up we were playing catch and getting used to the gloves. As everybody got more confident with their catching skills, we switched to some outfield and Infield drills. In between we had to have a few water breaks as the heat really picked up by noon. That’s also when we started with a scrimmage using a tee in the first inning and switching to slow pitch starting from the second Inning on. Sure enough the stomachs started growling from all the physical and mental activity. So we had to heat up the grill and close the baseball session. Some of the soldiers really caught the baseball fever and we exchanged contacts. It was a mixed group of individuals from different units that all signed up for the English class, which is offered to soldiers who’s service time is about to be over. For us it was a nice learning experience and hopefully something to build on in the future…
We would like to thank the Berlin Sluggers e.V. for their help in making this project possible
