Soccer

Kaylen started soccer today. I was kicking myself when we got there and I'd forgotten to bring my camera. There's 5 more Saturdays to go, so I should remember to take it at least one of those days, right?!

Each week, they'll do 15-20 minutes of practicing, and then the rest of the time they play a game. They didn't get to technical at this age - basically had to just keep the girls from touching the ball with their hands, and trying to kick it towards the goal - that is, the correct goal. Neither was working very well. I think both teams kicked it in the wrong goal at least once. Mostly it just went towards the corners and the sides, with 10 girls running after it. The coaches were running around on the court with them trying to tell them what to do, so that helped a bit. Also, they played in a gym, so that was good - that kept them contained a bit.

Kaylen is such a competitor, it was so funny watching her play. She was usually leading the pack, kicking and following after the ball - although rarely did it go towards the goal - mostly to the sides and corners - and sometimes behind the goal. It helped that she was one of the bigger girls on the two teams, but there were a few others that were right up there too. We are hoping the teamwork will be good for her, although none of them really got into that too much, so we'll see.

At the very least, I think most of the girls had fun. There was one that got stage fright, and wouldn't leave her mom's side. Another one or two were upset because they couldn't be the one kicking the ball all the time. And a couple (Kaylen included) didn't like sitting on the sidelines when they had to rotate out. Kaylen even got up and tried to help her team when the ball came towards her. Their team helper had to catch her and have her come back, and Jock went to talk to her once and explain why they couldn't all play at the same time. It will be fun to see how they improve over the next 5 weeks. Hopefully I'll have pictures and some improvements to post next Saturday.