Lacrosse

Sam has been playing lacrosse this fall. He LOVES it! Big surprise, uh?

Brian and I definitely have some concerns about this league but we just wanted to see if he liked it. It's a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds, no helmets, mouth guards, pads, ect. running around swinging sticks in the air. We would prefer "clinic style" learning to this. But he loves it. 

I may look into indoor lacrosse for the winter, something that has a great deal of instruction and skill building before sending them into a "game". 

This brings me to our other issue. 

Competitive Parents.

As I was talking to other parents on the teams I realized that Brian and I are definitely the minority. (What else is new! :) Parents looking at me as if I had 2 heads when I suggested more skill building, practicing, and learning basic concepts. They were there for the GAME! They were actually keeping score. We have even talked to the director of sports about having "clinic style" seasons but the response we get is that most parents want games. 

While their sons were running all over the field, Sam patiently waited in the defense zone. Brian trying to explain to him that certain positions only play on certain parts of the field. So he listened to Brian and maintained his position. The "lacrosse dad" sitting behind me was egging on is son to keep scoring even though he was supposed to be back with Sam in defense.

Let's just get something straight. Four and five year olds don't know what they are doing. 

Why not teach them the right way to play?

They don't know what a "game" is. They don't care if they practice running, scooping, passing or playing a game. All they care about is that they are out there. So we as parents need to curb the competitive urge and give them the skills to understand. Something appropriate for their ages. They have their whole life to compete... in every aspect of life.

But I guess it is easier for parents like "lacrosse dad" to sit in his chair and shout orders from the sidelines, rather than teach. Brian at least had enough guts to get out there and help. Oh- by the way, 2 kids did get hurt from our team. They had to sit out the rest of the time with ice.

I think this will be our last sports sign up at this facility. 

I know that we need to pace our selves.... it's only the beginning of the "sports years" with Sam and Beth. 

Oh yeah,  there a kid on the other team that we found out is 6 1/2. He was almost twice the size of Sam. The big kid was a "one man show" on the field. I love that Sam wasn't intimidated by his size and still tried to defend his goal.