Soccer, Baseball, Soccer, Baseball.....
Spring Season madness has begun.
I love to watch my son play sports. He is so competitive and gives everything he has to everything he does, but this soccer season is kind of wearing on him. Oh he still loves to play soccer. He is just not loving the whole competitive soccer scene. He came home the other day and informed me that he wants to play AYSO next year.
Right from the beginning, when Max first started playing soccer, his coaches recognized that he had a natural instinct to play defense. The problem was and still is this. Max hates to be a defender all the time. He hates to have cocky boys get all the glory for wins that definitely wouldn't have come about without a good defense. For a long time we could reason that he is good at it, and if he can be good at something that less people want to do, he will have more playing time. Maybe it would even play out to be an opportunity down the road. In order to be on the team and to play with friends, Max bought into this, but it has taken the passion for the game out of it. It has become his job.
This year, his team has been placed in a league that is a good fit competitively. They have had to battle to stay in the games. They have not won, but they haven't lost by more than one point, and they have tied multiple times. Like I said...a good fit.
But,...Max is tired. When other teams score, who gets yelled at? The defense. When other teams put on the pressure, who gets yelled at? The defense. When your team can't get into scoring position, who gets yelled at? The defense. So when your team doesn't score, or loses, who gets yelled at? Not the offense, it is the defense. They would never yell at the offense, that would mean the coaches would have to criticize their own sons. Which also means they will never rotate players to see if someone else can do a better job. So Max is working his butt off only to get yelled at and he never wins a game. It is getting old, and once in a while, he would like to do something that he doesn't get yelled at for.
So, his competitive soccer days may be over, and to be honest, I am not really that sad. It wears on the mom too to have her son yelled at all the time. Hopefully he will find what he is looking for, and learn to play for fun all over again.
Most years, Max has prioritized soccer over baseball. This is the first year that he is prioritizing baseball. Which is totally fine with Jacey and me. We like to watch baseball WAY more than watching soccer. Most soccer parents do not understand this. They just see it as sitting on bleachers for two hours watching a painfully slow game. It has never been boring for me to watch my son do anything. If Max gets on base, he is definitely NOT BORING. He understands the game enough to be an influence on the other players. The other night after one of his friends struck out, you could hear Max yelling for him to run to first base. Which he did. I don't think Colton understood why, but Max did. It was simple. The catcher had dropped the ball. In fact during the game, Colton's mom told me that her son had decided not to play in Kaysville because his friends were playing in Layton. When his mom questioned him about which friends, the only one he named was Max. She was glad to finally put a face to the boy who had influenced her son. I love the fact that Max has friends that value and appreciate him. Even if we never know who they are. I had never heard of Colton until the team roster came out, and then to learn that Max influenced him to want to come play with him was a nice parent moment for me. Max has never had people seek him out to hang out. It is always Max doing the seeking. So it is nice to have an area in his life that people are validating him and seeking him out. I love you my intense son.
And to lead into my previous blog, Max has finally decided on a possible career path. He wants to be a team trainer. Another hard journey, but worth the effort if you want it bad enough, and will be happy at the end. Good choice.
I love to watch my son play sports. He is so competitive and gives everything he has to everything he does, but this soccer season is kind of wearing on him. Oh he still loves to play soccer. He is just not loving the whole competitive soccer scene. He came home the other day and informed me that he wants to play AYSO next year.
Right from the beginning, when Max first started playing soccer, his coaches recognized that he had a natural instinct to play defense. The problem was and still is this. Max hates to be a defender all the time. He hates to have cocky boys get all the glory for wins that definitely wouldn't have come about without a good defense. For a long time we could reason that he is good at it, and if he can be good at something that less people want to do, he will have more playing time. Maybe it would even play out to be an opportunity down the road. In order to be on the team and to play with friends, Max bought into this, but it has taken the passion for the game out of it. It has become his job.
This year, his team has been placed in a league that is a good fit competitively. They have had to battle to stay in the games. They have not won, but they haven't lost by more than one point, and they have tied multiple times. Like I said...a good fit.
But,...Max is tired. When other teams score, who gets yelled at? The defense. When other teams put on the pressure, who gets yelled at? The defense. When your team can't get into scoring position, who gets yelled at? The defense. So when your team doesn't score, or loses, who gets yelled at? Not the offense, it is the defense. They would never yell at the offense, that would mean the coaches would have to criticize their own sons. Which also means they will never rotate players to see if someone else can do a better job. So Max is working his butt off only to get yelled at and he never wins a game. It is getting old, and once in a while, he would like to do something that he doesn't get yelled at for.
So, his competitive soccer days may be over, and to be honest, I am not really that sad. It wears on the mom too to have her son yelled at all the time. Hopefully he will find what he is looking for, and learn to play for fun all over again.
Most years, Max has prioritized soccer over baseball. This is the first year that he is prioritizing baseball. Which is totally fine with Jacey and me. We like to watch baseball WAY more than watching soccer. Most soccer parents do not understand this. They just see it as sitting on bleachers for two hours watching a painfully slow game. It has never been boring for me to watch my son do anything. If Max gets on base, he is definitely NOT BORING. He understands the game enough to be an influence on the other players. The other night after one of his friends struck out, you could hear Max yelling for him to run to first base. Which he did. I don't think Colton understood why, but Max did. It was simple. The catcher had dropped the ball. In fact during the game, Colton's mom told me that her son had decided not to play in Kaysville because his friends were playing in Layton. When his mom questioned him about which friends, the only one he named was Max. She was glad to finally put a face to the boy who had influenced her son. I love the fact that Max has friends that value and appreciate him. Even if we never know who they are. I had never heard of Colton until the team roster came out, and then to learn that Max influenced him to want to come play with him was a nice parent moment for me. Max has never had people seek him out to hang out. It is always Max doing the seeking. So it is nice to have an area in his life that people are validating him and seeking him out. I love you my intense son.
And to lead into my previous blog, Max has finally decided on a possible career path. He wants to be a team trainer. Another hard journey, but worth the effort if you want it bad enough, and will be happy at the end. Good choice.
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