A Soccer Win For Me

Whew, what a victory. My little son has been having trouble with soccer and this morning we went. He played. He had fun. No complaints.

You see he's an incredible soccer player - pardon my bragging but he's only 5 and very quick, agile, good with his feet, and really understands the strategy of passing and teamwork. While the other kids are spinning around looking at the sky, playing in mud puddles and catching butterflies, he's juggling the ball, yelling 'OFF SIDES' and 'THAT'S A PENALTY' and scoring goals.

However, our nemesis has been his shin guards. He finds them completely uncomfortable and itchy; so much so that he has quit in the middle of several games because he can't take it any more and marches back the car. Now I imagine that his discomfort is more them just 'shin guard' related. I am sure there are psychological elements at work: stress, social and internal pressure to perform, over stimulation, intimidation (there are some equally if not better and more aggressive players) and just pain old exhaustion. So, I think the shin guard discomfort is more symbolic then anything.

Anyway, every Sat. morning I wake up early and immediately feel anxious wondering what trouble I will encounter that day. I have tried many different strategies to deal with this. We have bought him about 5 different pair of shin guards, have used the hard, mean, angry line ('don't be a quitter!'), have used guilt ('you team is depending on you! They need you!), and even bribes ('if you play I'll get you ice cream after the game'). All of which have failed miserably and ended up with everyone in tears.

Finally, this morning we hit the perfecta. Armed with his newest and most comfortable pair of shin guards we purposely arrived late, missing the preliminary practice and making it just in time for the game. Success! He played like a champ with little shin guard struggle. Now we just have to make it through 2 or 3 more games and then the season is over. It's amazing what a 25 minute soccer game can do to ones ego. Forget his for a moment, I'm just psyched I didn't have to crawl out of bed at some ungodly hour on a Sat. morning for nothing!