One Year of Soccer

This past weekend, Eliot played his last spring soccer game. He played both the fall and spring seasons, making for a full year of soccer. He has come a long, long way even from last fall.

Eliot started taking lessons back when he was two (and a few months) with Lil' Kickers. There, they play games involving soccer skills, like red light-green light. I remember his first class, he didn't even want to stretch with everyone. He was so scared. Then he got TOO into it. He would run around and not listen to the coach. On his third birthday, I took him to a class and had to take him out early because he headbutted a girl. I will never, ever forget that for my entire life. Ughhhh! But, it is memories like that that make me realize that we are indeed making progress. After that class session ended, we took a little break until the fall.

As I've said before, Eliot would just cry on the field for his first fall soccer game. Then he grew in confidence and made a goal almost every game. He was still greatly distracted since he was just as happy to run around growling like a dinosaur or play airplane. He was three at the time.

This spring season, though, his concentration has really improved. He is so ready and "in it" for the game. He inches up just waiting for the play to start. Maybe he's just paying attention or maybe he is really fast, but he has done a surprisingly great job recovering the ball and taking it down the field. He's actually quite good, I think, for a four-year-old.

I'm not putting pressure on him to be anyone or do anything specifically. I just tell him to go follow the ball and have fun. I praise him for his hard work, not necessarily getting goals, and he really seems to be having a great time. I'm not trying to say he's Olympian. I'm not saying he was handed a scholarship today. I'm just saying that I'm proud of him for trying his best, giving it his all, and not just crying or growling at people. He's growing up.

Jack has been so eager to play soccer too, so I have him signed up to start Lil' Kickers class in a couple of weeks. It is a parent-child class, so he will get to interact with kids his age, play structured activities, and kick a soccer ball around. I'm excited to share in this journey with him too. As for Eliot, he will be taking summer Lil' Kickers classes too that focus on developing skills and applying those skills in scrimmages. I also signed him up for a week-long soccer "camp" in June--it's only an hour in the morning, though. He was even asking this morning when he was going to soccer.