Hat Trick
The Girl scored three goals in her soccer game today. When she was younger, three goals in a game were not that unusual but now that she’s older and the competition is more even, it’s a lot harder to do. A couple of the goals were “cripples” which is to say that someone passed her the ball when she was wide open and all she had to do was shoot it someplace where the goalie couldn’t get too it. Still, they were both well-aimed, one-touch shots with a lot of pace on them with her left foot. Her offensive game has become a lot more fluid this winter. She’s still scores goals like her first one where she just beats people one on one with her quickness and athletic ability; but I am most impressed with her ability to execute in the flow of the game. That will really help her against tougher opponents when she doesn’t have such a big advantage physically.
It’s interesting to watch her development versus The Boy. Although he wrestled as a freshman, he didn’t decide to run cross country until he was a sophomore, and didn’t really focus on it until the summer before his junior year. The Girl has already decided that soccer is the sport for her. Now she just needs to work hard and focus on getting better faster than the other girls are improving. He is a good athlete but his strength is his technique. She has good technique but her strength is athletic ability. He’s two years older and that makes a difference in his maturity as a competitor.
It’s a lot of fun being the parent of kids that love to compete. All I do is sit on the sideline and cheer but I really enjoy watching them achieve. I don’t think that either of them knows how rare it is to have a passion for something and be good at it. Sometimes, life does imitate sports and I hope the lessons they learn on the playing field makes them better adults.
February 25th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I think one of the best things about parenting is watching your kids excel.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Great post. I had an Aunt that forced her girls into years of classical violin lessons. They rebelled and one is now a drummer in a head-bangers girls band.
As long as the children don’t loose sight of the academic value of school (which is easy to do) direct participation in a professional sport, as a career, is an incredibly rare occupation indeed. I think that too many youth of today are smitten by the “Pro-athlete” bug and it is a shame. How are the parents reacting at the games? Are there some fanatics that try to run the program from the stands as in our Little League games?
February 26th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Chickie: I’d watch them even if they were on the far end of the bench but it is neat that they both have something they are good at.
Wendy: There are bad parents everywhere. I used to coach when they were smaller so I know firsthand how obnoxious parents can be. Now that I’m just a dad like everybody else, I don’t say a word to the coaches no mater how bad of a job I think they are doing.
It’s all just for fun. At the end of the day, it’s how they do in school that is most important.