What in the world does this phrase mean?

[Lheticus]

I've tried using search engines to figure this out, and they didn't just fail, they EPIC failed. There's a slang phrase that's hardly ever used, I've only heard it a couple times in my life, most recently on last week's episode of American Ninja Warrior.

Does ANYBODY know what it means to "give a clinic"?

[Oneris]

From Urban Dictionary


clinic
"A sports term usually used to describe a one sided beating in basketball in which one player gives another player such a thrashing on the court, that he or she looks like they are giving the losing opponent a "clinic" in how to play basketball. "


Maybe it was appropriated to mean 'getting beaten badly' in any general situation?

Edit: Or maybe it was being used as a synonym for demonstrative workshop, as in 'Reading and Writing Clinic'

[Roland St. Jude]

The usual phrasing is "putting on a clinic." It means doing something in an exceptional manner or exactly the right way. It suggests the person is really showing everyone how it's done. Or that a person is showing of the full range of skills.

It comes from the sports realm where experts and stars hold clinics to show how to do things the right way. The clinicusually tries to teach a broad range of skills. Often, when held by star players, the players will demonstrate and appear amazing to the lesser student athletes.

This is very a common phase in American sports broadcasting. But it's started to be used in other contexts.

[Anarion]

I've seen it used a lot to describe games that people considered really one-sided, especially if the game was played in a really straightforward manner. When I see it, it kind of implies to me that the game is probably boring, and is most worth watching to see how to dominate a game.

[Zrak]

It could also refer to literally teaching someone how it's done, rather than beating someone so badly it is as though one were teaching them how it's done. I think the figurative use is more common in sports, but I've heard the literal use in a lot of other scenarios; someone "giving a clinic" or "leading a clinic" on warm-room yoga or whatever.

[Anarion]

Yeah, but that's less a metaphor and more literally what the phrase means.

Yeah it's not going to have ambiguity if somebody is actually offering Yoga classes or what have you.

[Zrak]

Yeah, but that's less a metaphor and more literally what the phrase means.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that the phrase could be used to refer to literally showing people how something is done, not just to "Showing these chumps how it's done."

[Zrak]

No, they are quite different. Saying that "shooting fish in a barrel" can refer to shooting fish in a barrel is a tautology; saying a clinic can refer to an actual lesson, not just a figurative "schooling," is not. Since the the context of the remark which confused the OP is very vague, I thought it best to point out that the term is still frequent used to describe actually giving a lesson; since most posts in the thread have mentioned only the slang sense of the term, it would be reasonable to get the interpretation that the phrase "giving a clinic" is no longer or has never really been used to refer to actually leading a lesson. I wanted to clarify that this is not the case and, in fact, someone on the program described as "giving a clinic" may have been leading an instructive workshop.

[Iruka]

Yeah, but you're just explaining that the phrase can also be used to say what it actually says. Which is true, but I'm not sure why it needs to be pointed out.

It's like if someone asked what the phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" meant, and after the explanation someone chimes in to explain that it can also be used to describe someone shooting a gun at fish in a barrel.

It was helpful for those of us who were not familiar with the phrase at all. I only was familiar with the word "clinic" as the medical institution, so I thought the phrase referred to a metaphorical "putting them in hospital". Now that I know this and have looked up meanings of the word "clinic", which can also refer to the teaching of medical students, I have a better understanding where the whole phrase came from.