Makechnieland: Soccer

This spring we signed Tate up for his first sports season. Saturdays were pretty much the highlight of my week. The kids were ages 3-5 but most of them were between 4 and 5 and man, you could really tell a huge difference between that four and five years. A lot of development goes on there. A few of the kids, regardless of age, had what Glenn called the "Eye of the Tiger" and knew just what to do, got right in the middle of the action, some even threw in a good tumble or fall at the end of every "play" just for fun. But most of them were just plain funny to watch. Tate was not an "eye of the tiger" player, but we expected that. He doesn't have much agression or competition in him. He just doesn't. Which I think is a bit frustrating for Glenn, just figuring out how to relate because I think Glenn has agression and competition in his veins instead of blood. But, holding Finn while watching Tate play probably helped him out a bit, knowing that Finn is going to be more like Glenn. Finn was SO MAD that we wouldn't let him get out there and get the ball! He wanted to play so bad and he's barely one and a half. It was pretty funny/exhausting. It's like wrestling a very strong bear cub for an hour.
Anyway, Tate did great. He learned to listen to his coach, and participated great during their practice. Soccer was just an hour every Saturday. The first half hour was a "practice" where they played games and ran little drills. The second half hour was a game against another team. I'm grateful for that first little practice part because Tate was not excited about getting in the swarm of kicking legs during the game part, so the practice gave him a chance to actually touch the ball.

"Hey guys, I kicked it in the goal!"

"That's awesome, Tate! Let's hug!"

Sometimes even the practice got a little long. Picking grass or dandelions helped pass the time while waiting your turn.

Or there's always wearing the cones as hats if you get bored.

Every practice they had some sort of drill where they each got to kick the ball in the goal. That was every kiddo's favorite part.

This one was duck, duck, goose. If he called you the goose, you had to run to the ball and kick it to the goal. Tate loved that.

Learning to stop the ball with your foot.

Just biding his time.

Aaaand here he is during the game.

He was pretty confused/frustrated when he did get in the middle of things and he got pushed over. He usually ended up telling us and his coach about it for the rest of the game. We tried to explain that this was part of the game and what you had to do to get the ball. He thought it was very impolite.

Here's Finn in the middle of saying his favorite new word, "Baaaa" (Ball, of course.)

The kid is always happiest when holding a ball, though playing ball with Dada (his other favorite word) is obviously even better than playing ball by himself.

Sometimes if Finn was lucky, there were dogs to go visit during the game.

Tate, in his soccer gear. He loved his shin guards the most. He said they made him look like a blue storm trooper.

The last game Tate really caught the, "I wanna get the ball during the game" bug. It might have had something to do with Glenn bribing him with ice cream. Previously, he didn't really have any desire to get in the mess during the game. He just sort of trotted after the pack around the field. But that last game, he ran as fast as he could go, followed the ball around the field, and even kicked the ball a few times. It was a huge improvement! Of course, the whole caring thing came with a side effect of being really frustrated when other kids took the ball away from him once he got it. There were tears. His coach was awesome.

Coach Brian even held his hand during the last few minutes and ran around the field with him helping him get some ball contact again. He was such a great coach. So sweet and encouraging to all the very different types of little kids on our team.