My son is becoming an oddity for his age – he participates in three sports (baseball, soccer, swimming). I know it sounds crazy, but at 10 the pressure is on to specialize. I harbor no illusions that he is or will be a great athlete, so I’m happy that he continues to want to do all three. My daughter only swims, not out of a desire for specialization, but a lack of interest in other sports. We have simple rules — if you want to play, fine; if you don’t want to play, fine; but if you do join a team, then you need to be a responsible team member.
I’m not sure he’s going to continue with soccer — he liked baseball so much this season, he wanted to play fall ball but we had already signed up for soccer. The first year he played on a team, it stank — they didn’t score a single goal all season. The second year, the team got better — they scored goals (Kyle got four, but who’s counting) and they actually won a couple of games. The third year, last year, his team, minus its best players, merged with another team, and managed perhaps a few goals towards the end of the season. He decided to stick it out, and this year the team, minus a couple of its best players, again merged. So far, they’ve managed one goal in three games that weren’t even close. He had hurt his ankle in the first game, but gamely played on until he couldn’t run on it anymore.
We had a 7:30 AM game this Saturday, and when I woke him up to play he immediately started complaining about his ankle and limping about. When I pointed out that he had previously told me his ankle was fine and that he hadn’t limped all week, he told me it had hurt but he just didn’t say anything. We had a discussion, and the result was I made him go to the game. I tried to emphasize that as part of a team he shouldn’t back out at the last minute. While keeping my game face on, I did worry that I was doing the wrong thing.
They didn’t win, but Kyle got to play center forward and was around the ball most of the time he was in the game. He didn’t limp at all, and didn’t run any slower than normal. After the game was over and we were walking to the car, he said his ankle bothered him now, but hadn’t during the game. I told him that it was because he was too busy during the game to notice, and asked if he had fun playing. “Yes”, he said, “I had fun and I’m glad I came.” Amazing — sometimes I do make the right decision.
