My lil Soccer Player

Frederic and I aren't football and baseball lovers. We love soccer. So we're biased and yes, we are "steering" Luc to love soccer as well.
I want to be a Soccer Mom. I want to sit and watch soccer games where I enjoy the sport, not football where they stand around half the time, or God forbid, baseball where it's slow and could run over hours and hours. Yawn.

Since Luc was enjoying kicking a soccer ball around with Frederic this summer, and was actually doing pretty well, we decided to sign him up to be on a team. Luc was on board.
Unfortunately, the first practice was also during a heat wave in September. The first practice, everyone was dying. I was sitting in the shade with Aria sweating my butt off. We all bathed when we got home.
But then we missed two weeks being in Belgium, and Luc only had negative memories about soccer (not to mention his jersey is like a dress and he hates that. I have to use my hair tie to tie it back). So it's been pulling tooth and nail getting him to go back each week. Even Frederic being the assistant coach wasn't helping. Finally, I took notice.
The first hour of practice is technical. Luc does great, smiles, and seems to like that part. The last half hour is a scrimmage. Either our team cuts in half, or we group with the other boys of the same age from another team. That's when it goes downhill. Luc stands at the goal, will break down in tears with one look from me and a "Go get the ball, Luc!". He eventually comes over to me, begging to stay out, that he's tired and done. I let him. But I observed (difficult while chasing after Aria the whole time).
First, Luc didn't want me to take Aria to the playground while he was practicing. So I started staying. This helped. I've made sure to cheer him on, etc. Then I changed from the "we paid lots of money for you to do this, you have to go!" To "Do the first hour, that you enjoy, and you can sit out of the scrimmage after you try a little." That was the compromise of success. And I noticed, Luc doesn't like the scrimmage because he's the smallest (and youngest) on his team. There are a few huge kids and a few really aggressive kids who go after the ball all the time. Since the kids are 5, there are no rules in the scrimmage, which I explained to Luc is not a real soccer game. In real soccer, there are rules, positions on the field, yellow cards, red cards. That helped him understand. One day he even got punched in the chest.
Luc is just not aggressive. He won't go after the ball when all these big kids are beating him to it and fighting over it. I told Frederic, watching the scrimmages it like watching a rugby match. I don't blame Luc for not wanting to be there, standing off to the side, and not wanting to get hurt. I wouldn't think that was fun either. And he's not the only boy to do this.
But of course, as we have one more practice left, the second to last practice, all the kids were getting better and Luc actually stayed on the field the whole time during the scrimmage. Now we'll have the winter break and start up again in Spring, and start all over learning the skills and getting brave enough to stay in the action.

But at least he's trying new things.

The end of Fall season