Thursday, October 23, 2014

Patience and Perspective

Under the lights and in the fog during the boys tournament in Taunton over Columbus Day weekend.
Two weeks to go. We are coming to the end of the season and well, it's about time. All that stands between us and free weekends is two games for Matty and a home tournament for Noah… oh, that and 3 more practices each. Still, one more road game up in Lancaster, MA and then everything local until March. I'm not a big fan of indoor soccer as a game, but I am a fan of more relaxed weekends. 

Some observations from nearly two months of soccer.

Players develop at different rates. We have one boy on Matty's team who, in an 8 on 8 game was the best player on the field. For the  U11 and fall U12 season, we'd anxiously await for him to arrive at the field (usually about 10 minutes before game time) because he made such a difference. Then the boys went to a full-field 11 v 11 game. It requires more speed and stamina, and other players have grown into it but he has yet to. 

Parents often lack patience more than kids do. Soccer is such a dynamic sport - it requires so much anticipation and mental focus. Skills that are learned at different rates (see above). It's easy for a 40-year old whose been playing soccer for 30 years to see in his mind how the play's going to develop. Harder for a 10-year-old whose been playing competitive soccer for a year to do so. 

Parents also often lack perspective. Matty's team is playing in the highest level competition in New England. We draw from the smallest state in the country and are playing against some of the best teams in all of New England. It would be unrealistic to think we'd go undefeated as we did in the Spring. Yr

It's obvious when you watch 9 and 10-year-olds in warm ups and on the bench that they are very much kids first, soccer players second. No matter how serious the competition, that's true for 12-year-olds too. Sometimes, they are so big and so skilled that it's easy to forget that.

On a personal note, it's been great to see both boys develop this season. I can see improvement in their play since the season began. Noah is playing more aggressively and enjoying being on the team; he's scored a few goals and is playing with both feet - a goal he set out for himself this year. Matthew's also playing more aggressively and has really improved taking long balls out of the air. He's played at virtually every position (save goalie and center back) and had some really strong games. 

This Saturday is my last game of the season for the house rec league, too. One of the real rewards of this coaching season has been to see the development of one of the weaker players on the team, who in the last two weeks has really shown great progress. Hopefully, he and we all have a good game on Saturday. It may be my last game as a youth soccer coach.

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