Soccer a la Four Year Old

Yesterday was Adara's first soccer game. It was quite the experience. The coach was a very nice man, the father of one of the girls on the team. He obviously knew a lot about soccer, but it was just as obvious he'd never handled a pack of four year olds before.

The children responded in a variety of manners to this new experience of being on a soccer team. To start with, our field was next to a playground, which meant that three of the nine kids made up their mind before even starting the game that they didn't want to play, they wanted to go to the playground. One of the girls refused to put her green jersey on, because it wasn't her favourite colour, and downright refused to play until the last few minutes of the game when her mother literally carried her onto the field and left her there. Another girl shivered and cried and refused to move whenever forced to leave her mother's lap. She didn't end up playing at all. One of the boys got something in his eye the first few moments of the game and spent the rest of the game running while clutching his eye with one hand. If this is conjuring an amusing mental picture for you, you should have seen the real thing! I spent most of the game chortling quietly to myself while trying to look supportive and enthusiastic.

Comparatively, Adara did very well. She went on willingly whenever she was asked to, she ran about the field, and she tried to follow the ball as much as she could. She didn't seem to really get the idea of taking the ball away, or what she should do with the ball when she had it, but I figure that will come eventually. We did coach her at home a bit and explain the rules, but she's such a sociable little person that she was too distracted by all of the interesting people and their dramatics to really play. On the whole, I think once she catches on she'll do well, as she likes to run and has good coordination. In the meantime, she had fun (despite being confused), got some exercise, and got to interact with some other kids, which is good enough for me.

Seriously, though...if you ever need your spirits lifted, watch a four year old soccer game. Highly entertaining.