Juniors

My 5 year old son C loves soccer. I’ve mentioned it a few times…probably more than a few times. He plays a lot of soccer and eventually, the coaches he has been around knew it was time for a bigger challenge. They bumped him up to juniors to see what he was made of.

The first few sessions of juniors, C struggled. He looked out of place against kids that were sometimes almost 2 years older than him. The moves that he relied on don’t really work against kids that could make up ground in just a few steps after getting shook.

I didn’t know if this was necessarily the right move since I didn’t want his love of soccer to be taken away by a huge rough patch. What I had to remind myself is that he went through the same thing when he was 4 years old playing against almost 6 year olds. He figured it out and I was counting on him to eventually figure this out as well.

After those first few sessions, C eventually got more comfortable. He wasn’t so quick to pass the ball away and he was also trying to make some moves to score. As he started to recognize the other boys, he knew their tendencies and knew where on the totem pole they were (and knew he was slowly climbing).

I also kept reminding C that he was there for a reason and it would make him a better player. He knew it and would be quiet on a lot of the car rides home, but I could tell he was processing everything. I look at him and in these tough moments in life, it is where life is happening. I want and hope my kids realize this because if things are too easy, it’s time to find another challenge to work hard at to see how high you can climb. Then when you look back, you’ll be proud of how far you’ve come, regardless of if you achieved your goal (no pun intended). Then it’s on to the next challenge and goal (pun intended).