His Best Practice
Sep. 21st, 2012 04:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayLast night, my grandson had the best soccer practice he's had since joining his new team, Fusion Pegasus. The Fusion teams are a group of so-called "club teams" which play out of the Jones Rd. facility of the Family Sports Center near Baldwinsville, NY.
He joined the team a little over three weeks ago, after a successful 10-week tryout with a new outdoor league which FSC started at the beginning of the summer to give club team kids, and others, a chance to continue playing over the summer.
I'd been on his case, recently, because he seemed to be "dogging it" a bit once he got comfortable with his summer team, the Portland Timbers. He'd had a great first game with them and then seemed to be letting himself be out-worked in practices and out-played in games.
Granted, it was a little difficult to decide exactly what was going on with him since the level of competition was significantly higher and he seemed a little intimidated by that. Still, one fairly obvious thing seemed to be the lack of effort at practice.
(Another factor, quite honestly, was a lack of quality, consistency, and basic continuity, in the coaching. He had several different coaches for what they call "skills training," over the summer, and he seldom had the same coach for games as he'd had for skills training earlier in the week.)
But I figured that something was up when the manager of the facility coached Jason's last practice and seemed to be giving him some special attention and a somewhat appraising look-over to which Jason, thankfully, responded well. Then, after the final game, which the head guy also coached, he came over to the sidelines to discuss Jason's placement on a regular team for the coming year.
Afterward, Jason and I had a heart-to-heart about the kind of effort and competitive drive it was going to take to be successful at this level and how I wasn't going to ask his grandma to put in the extra hours at work if he wasn't going to work at practice and be competitive in games.
And he immediately responded that this was what he wanted to do, rather than go back to his Eastwood team where the emphasis was solely on the fun rather than personal development. He said, and I quote, "I really want the challenge."
Anyway, he was matched up in last night's practice with a kid who was about a head taller and 20 pounds heavier for one of the one-on-one drills that they use in their skills training. And although he was beaten in the first three go-arounds, he seemed to be gaining ground with each one.
On the fourth try, he finally won and continued to win through the next four. Which left the bigger kid thoroughly PO'd by the end of it. He also paid attention to instructions, showed good effort in the drills, and didn't fool around between them.
But the icing on the cake came after we had rushed home so that he could go to his K-8 open house with his dad. Jason is in what's called an "inclusion" class, which means he's with kids who have developmental or learning disabilities, and the teacher told his dad that every day he helps a little boy in the class who appears to have some pretty profound disabilities.
Yeah, I know, what a kid. We just hope and pray that he'll be able to stay on track, through all of the challenges in his own life, toward something that's productive, fulfilling, and worthy of the talents we've always felt he has...
LPK
LiveJournal
9.21.2012
He joined the team a little over three weeks ago, after a successful 10-week tryout with a new outdoor league which FSC started at the beginning of the summer to give club team kids, and others, a chance to continue playing over the summer.
I'd been on his case, recently, because he seemed to be "dogging it" a bit once he got comfortable with his summer team, the Portland Timbers. He'd had a great first game with them and then seemed to be letting himself be out-worked in practices and out-played in games.
Granted, it was a little difficult to decide exactly what was going on with him since the level of competition was significantly higher and he seemed a little intimidated by that. Still, one fairly obvious thing seemed to be the lack of effort at practice.
(Another factor, quite honestly, was a lack of quality, consistency, and basic continuity, in the coaching. He had several different coaches for what they call "skills training," over the summer, and he seldom had the same coach for games as he'd had for skills training earlier in the week.)
But I figured that something was up when the manager of the facility coached Jason's last practice and seemed to be giving him some special attention and a somewhat appraising look-over to which Jason, thankfully, responded well. Then, after the final game, which the head guy also coached, he came over to the sidelines to discuss Jason's placement on a regular team for the coming year.
Afterward, Jason and I had a heart-to-heart about the kind of effort and competitive drive it was going to take to be successful at this level and how I wasn't going to ask his grandma to put in the extra hours at work if he wasn't going to work at practice and be competitive in games.
And he immediately responded that this was what he wanted to do, rather than go back to his Eastwood team where the emphasis was solely on the fun rather than personal development. He said, and I quote, "I really want the challenge."
Anyway, he was matched up in last night's practice with a kid who was about a head taller and 20 pounds heavier for one of the one-on-one drills that they use in their skills training. And although he was beaten in the first three go-arounds, he seemed to be gaining ground with each one.
On the fourth try, he finally won and continued to win through the next four. Which left the bigger kid thoroughly PO'd by the end of it. He also paid attention to instructions, showed good effort in the drills, and didn't fool around between them.
But the icing on the cake came after we had rushed home so that he could go to his K-8 open house with his dad. Jason is in what's called an "inclusion" class, which means he's with kids who have developmental or learning disabilities, and the teacher told his dad that every day he helps a little boy in the class who appears to have some pretty profound disabilities.
Yeah, I know, what a kid. We just hope and pray that he'll be able to stay on track, through all of the challenges in his own life, toward something that's productive, fulfilling, and worthy of the talents we've always felt he has...
LPK
LiveJournal
9.21.2012
