soccer practice

Ashton had his first soccer practice this morning. It was supposed to be outside, but with the weather, they moved it to the indoor soccer pitch at the keystone center.

I knew it would be funny to watch a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds run around and attempt to play soccer, but I didn't realized how cute it would be! Very funny. They sure drive those kids hard on the first day. I'm not sure how I'd do it differently but there was a lot of skill teaching that was a little over the heads of these small kids. but still, really cute.

Ashton was so proud of himself in his little shin guards and his new jersey. He thought it was pretty cool that it said Tim Horton's on it. "look at me" he says to his dad.

He had mixed feelings about it. They first got all 4 teams of kids, probably about 7 - 10 kids/team into a big circle and tried to have them dribble the ball. They had to stop the ball by putting their foot on it and then he got them to put various other body parts on the ball. The cutest was their heads, lots of little bums in the air! lol Ashton was not fond of this drill. He came over to us and said he didn't feel well. He is a little on the sick side, he has a terrible cold. We debated on staying home but I'm one of those that doesn't like their kid to miss fun stuff, so I risk the health of all others involved so he doesn't miss out.

The next drill was kicking. This is the part that he wanted to do. All of a sudden, he felt fine. He ran over to his team to do some kicking. He even managed to cut in line. He was very subtle. Just moved up one kid at a time. We left it for the first couple kids, then Jason went and told him to wait his turn. He did very well after that.

It was time for the game now. All the kids were minnows and the guy in the middle was a shark who was going to try and steal their ball while they tried to cross from one end to the other while dribbling their ball, to learn control. If they got their ball taken away, they became a shark in the next round. As soon as the man said go, Ashton was on the move, he ran as fast as his little legs could go and the whole time, keeping his eye on that shark. He made it across a couple times and then he got his ball taken and became a shark. I thought he'd love that and would be chasing the other kids and growling at them but he instead decided he didn't feel well again.

That was the last activity for the day. Their first official game is on Monday. I think he did well for his first organized activity. He's an outgoing kid but has never been in this kind of situation. He wasn't the only kid running to mom and dad though. It's to be expected when they are that age.