Roo Enjoys Soccer...He Loves Swimming

Roo has been having a fantastic soccer season, especially if you compare it to last fall.  The league changed the format to 3 v 3 for U6 so there is much more focus on skill development this season.  The coach is good at moving the kids from one activity to the next and they're required to keep their ball with them the entire time. The concept of "keeping your puppy on a leash" has worked really well and Roo understands that he should keep the ball closer to him when he dribbles rather than kicking it as hard as possible and sprinting after it.  They've had another coach come and help with the team once in a while, he's the travel team coach for our area, and this has given the kids on Roo's team an almost unfair advantage in the coaching arena.  I love that Roo is learning all these skills and he's even learned to turn with the ball, a pretty advanced skill, but it would be even more awesome if this coach provided a little help to all the teams to help improve the skills of all the kids.  Regardless, it is so much fun watching Roo play in games this year.  He's fast, has pretty good ball control, loves scoring goals and is suprisingly competitive and physical, plus he's really receptive to our guidance.  He's enjoying playing which is fun for us since we both played and Bug can't wait to join in the fun!

Roo's real love right now is swimming. We switched him from group lessons to private lessons and the instructor really pushes him. This has been working out great and he is turning into a really good swimmer. Whenever I take him to lessons he comments that he wants to swim every day of the week.  We've asked the instructor to get him ready for swim team.  I would be by the fall he'll be ready to join in the fun.  I'm not sure if we're ready to be at the pool every day of the week but the benefit is that we can exercise at the gym so it's good for all of us.  Now we just need to get that little Bug in the pool and swimming!

Roo's 1st Soccer Practice

We signed Roo up for soccer this fall. We decided to put him on a 5-6 year old team rather than the 4-5 year old smart start program so he could be on his friend Connor's team. Roo's really shy so we figured having a friend on the team would help get him out on the field. Connor wasn't able to go to the first practice because of the earthquake. Roo went and was very reluctant to go out on the field. I finally convinced him to go out there and he did what I expected. He stood around a lot on the field during the scrimmage portions but did follow the coaches instructions when they were doing a few drills. We need to practice basic skills with Roo so he can better know what he's doing on the field. He's actually not very aggressive at all, which isn't a bad thing, and after a little coaching I was able to get him to chase and kick the ball on a few occassions during their scrimmage portion.

His favorite part of practice was probably running to and from the field for water breaks. If Roo lacks a sense of competition in a scrimmage environment, he for sure showed it running to and from the field to the bench. He was always trying to be the first to get his water and fastest back to the field.

He's enrolled in swimming too, and that starts later this month. We're curious how he's going to do once he learns to swim. Is he going to be an individual team sport sort of kid who wants to be his own score but still have a team of friends? Only time will tell.

And finally, the next day after practice Roo noted that he had bumped into another player and they both fell and was that ok. He had fallen a couple of times either from bumping into or being bumped and got up well on his own, no crying or that sort of thing. I told him that sometimes you bump into people in soccer and it's ok as long as you're not trying to hurt the and you say sorry and help them up. He seem relieved. Can't wait to see how the season progresses!