Ok...put your hand out in front of you and make the "thumbs up" signal.
And then suddenly hide your thumb inside your fist. Do this a few times. You've just learned to sign the message, "My basketball coach has no thumb."
How do I know this? Well my wife and I signed our son up for little league basketball. The other night we took our son, who is five years old, to his very first basketball practice.
The first thing I did was introduce myself to his basketball coach. He stuck out his hand and as I looked down to shake it, I immediately noticed that the dude was missing his thumb on his right hand!
No problem...I was cool. I went right ahead and shook it without missing a step just like any other right-thinking polite American would do. I supressed the urge within me to say, "Dude! WTF happened to your thumb?"
Yes, I supressed the urge to say that. Instead I looked him square in the eye as I gave him a firm handshake and told him it was a pleasure to meet him. I asked a few questions about the team which he answered and then I took a seat on the bleachers next to my wife and we waited for practice to begin.
When all the kids showed up, the coach (we'll call him "the coach") took all the kids out to the center of the court and had them all sit in a circle with him as he explained to them all the things you'd expect a basketball coach to explain to a bunch of kindergartners. You know...stuff about teamwork and having fun and being good sports and stuff like that.
I watched and listened and saw one of the kids (not mine thankfully) raise his hand and then point to the coach's hand. Well the cat was outta the bag, wasn't it? So he went through the obligatory explanation of how he lost his thumb. I could barely make it out...something about a tractor.
Well with that out of the way, they all stood up and he had them line up to do dribble drills (say that 5 times fast).
So if you've ever seen 5 year olds on an organized team having practice, you know the drill (pardon the pun). The coach is giving instructions and half of them are listening and only half of the ones listening even understand what they're supposed to do. The other half, the half that isn't paying attention are usually doing something important like staring at the gym lights, spinning in circles, or of course picking their noses.
They started the drill and as my son waited in line for his turn to dribble the ball down the court, he caught my eye and smiled and held up his fist with his thumb sticking up. So I smiled big back at him and thought, "Oh good. He's having a good time out there."
I made my thumbs up back at him to let him know that I was his biggest fan! Then he suddenly hid his thumb inside his fist. And so I was thinking, "Yeah boy! You got the power!"
And I pumped my fist in the air back at him.
But then he got a discouraged look on his face and shook his head at me and gave me a thumbs up again , which I returned back at him. But he shook his head again and gave me a thumbs up and then hid his thumb inside his fist again. And then he pointed at his coach and did it again.
My wife had also been watching him and I asked her what he was doing. She shook her head and said, "Don't ask!"
And I thought for a minute and then I said to her, "He isn't trying to tell us that his coach is missing a thumb, is he?"
And she looked at me and said, "YEP", and then she shook her head again. Well we tried to sign back at him that he should pay attention to practice and not us. But he wouldn't stop. So we started nodding profusely hoping he'd understand that yes, we know that his coach has no thumb. I guess he got that but he signed it at us a few more times during practice just for good measure I suppose.
The funny thing was that he apparently thought he was being discreet and in his own way I suppose he was. I mean at least he didn't shout up at us, "Hey Mom! Hey Dad! My coach doesn't have a thumb!"
And yes, more than once a basketball meant for him bounced right past as he tried to give us the international sign language for, "My basketball coach has no thumb."
