My kids took soccer very seriously

[blowtorch]

That's my youngest (the one with the shirt over his face)
My chest swells with pride

 

[pypa]

It should. It's priceless. I think the shirt over the head would have been enough, but his hands on hips turn this from "My, my, it's a tad warm out here, wouldn't you say?", to "Touch my shirt, Coach. I dare you."

Hillarious.

 

[blowtorch]

somewhere there's one of him with one of those orange plastic cones on his head, totally obscuring his vision, in the middle of a game

coaches loved him I'm pretty sure

 

[Rustbucket]

My seven year old daughter just started soccer. She usually starts doing cartwheels toward the sideline as soon as she gets called off for substitution.

 

[scottser]

I'm starting my 8 yr old in athletics before she takes up soccer. I want her to be able to run correctly first as it doesn't seem to be a coaching priority among football clubs here.

 

[radtz]

It's pretty cool how he was thinking about concussions and wearing head gear.

 

[imwjl]

That's my youngest (the one with the shirt over his face)
My chest swells with pride

View attachment 1078796

I love it. Only one of our 3 stuck with the team sports through high school. They hated some parent and coach behavior more than the sports but fortunately found stuff they loved and were busy.

 

[Mjark]

When my daughter was 7 a neighbor invited her to play on a rec team. She'd never played any kind of sport, she liked to dance but refused instruction because she "already knew how to do it" she was very good imitating any thing she saw on TV. Anyway, after about two weeks she was better than all the other girls. By the end of rec league soccer just before high school she was scoring at will. It became a little embarrassing. I could see other parents rolling their eyes after her 4th goal or so. She started Lacrosse about 12 and excelled there as well. She started all 4 years in Lacrosse in high school and her junior year her team was ranked number one in the nation. They went 20-0 and won the state championship. All the girls on that team that wanted to play in college got scholarships. Kate played 4 years DIV I at VA Tech.

My son loved sports too but got his growth after high school. He played soccer from being very little though high school but didn't have the same experience my daughter did.

 

[Kandinskyesque]

They're playing in green BT!!!
That's a good sign.
My team (bordering on religion in my family) play in green.

 

[ClashCityTele]

There are only two good teams in Glasgow - Celtic & Celtic reserves!

 

[sudogeek]

I used to love going to my kids’ and my granddaughters’ games at this stage. Usually there was a mobile scrum in the vicinity of the ball with a few stragglers on the field picking flowers, watching airplanes, and so on, happily oblivious of the yells and suggestions from the parents in the stands. Glorious childhood.

 

[glenlivet]

From a few years ago. Spiked.

We're usually good for 1 or 2 ER visits per year.

(oh, and he's fake crying...)

Currently he's nursing a shoulder injury from football....the other kind

 

[gitold]

My boys played soccer in grade school and now the middle child who is 44 comes to my house and watches soccer on my tv. I watched one game with him all the way through on his request a few years ago. At the end the game was tied 0 to 0. One of the team‘s scored in overtime and he screamed and howled with joy. I’ve have never watched it again. I’d rather watch 6 year olds play T ball. But that’s me…..

 

[raito]

In high school, I played 6 sports. 3 for the school, 3 outside. I was also the only student on both the math team and the football team. I'm down to 2 sports now.

 

[pypa]

I have a different take on sports for kids. In the NY/NJ area, schools and parents take it way too seriously. You have to pick a sport by the time you are 5-8 years old, go to camps, play a single sport all year, and specialize. Then in high school, it's all about awards and getting scouted. My experience in sports for kids has been that it's about one or two kids feeling idolized (and possibly internally feeling they've been pushed too hard) and the rest feeling crappy about sitting on the bench.

"Sports" and "Teamwork" are nice concepts in theory, but not in practice here.

My advice to any parent in NJ is get your kids into rec sports. Play a high school sport freshman year. Then quit and do something else that hasn't (yet) become unnecessarily competitive and "travel this and that". I say this fully realizing that every band kid, chess player, and debate club geek feels the same unnecessary pressure to be the best.

Get them a guitar, clear out your garage and let em play with folks in the neighborhood.

I took up running in high school for this reason. I can do it with friends, or alone. At a marathon, there are thousands of people who can simultaneously feel accomplished at their own level. No false medals or false idols.

It's not the "winning" that I mind in sports, it's the "losing". We don't live in a world where we want any losers. So why do we teach ourselves at the youngest of ages to engage in sports and games that would have us win at the expense of others? Sorry for the rant.