Today is going to be an interesting one. It begins with soccer and before soccer is picture day. This is the boys first year doing soccer and last week they seemed to have fun. Well, Roland had fun playing soccer for 30 minutes and Windsor had fun picking up bottle caps and giving them to the ref. It was at least a step in the right direction.
I still try and help too much from the sideline, and all I can do is yell useless platitudes like, “Attack the ball,” “Push your advantage,” “Get back and help your teammates,” “Press your opponent,” “Work your angles,” and other brilliant observations.
The problem is I grew up watching Earl Weaver baseball and one of my foundational beliefs about sports is that it is ok to get beat but it is not ok to make it easy. If your opponent is going to beat you they are going to have to earn every inch and they will feel it in the morning. In baseball this means hard tags, break-up slides, inside pitches, and other violent delights on the basepaths and in the field. Make every inch your opponent earns hurt for a week.
This is not how an U7 soccer team should be playing and it is not even remotely in my children’s nature. I don’t even think Roland knows what I mean when I tell him to press his opponent. He does do it though. He gets tight on them and is good at getting the ball. The issue is he isn’t very good at following up. He’ll knock the ball lose and then watch it roll slowly away instead of going after it.
The key to sports is to offer your opponent no quarter. Make playing you the worst kind of suffering and make victory the most difficult hill they’ve ever climbed. Of course they don’t keep score at this level and are mostly playing for fun, but the kids know when they’ve scored a goal, and they also know how to count.
David Huzzard Writes 