Thursday, February 5, 2009

Competitive Spirit

At soccer practice wg3 did well. He played follow the leader nicely, he mostly obeyed instructions, he practiced his falling down and getting up quickly with a real art. Then the coach did something I thought was pretty ingenious, he tricked them into playing soccer and this is where wg3 checked out.

The game was put the Easter eggs in the basket. The Easter eggs were soccer balls and the basket were the goals. Every kid had a ball and off they went. At first wg3 was a little bewildered and then he got it, but he didn't like one of the rules - you can take the ball away from anyone you want. He was neither inclined to steal the balls and didn't really look as though he appreciated it when the ball was stolen from him either. So as the coach slowly removed balls from the field wg3 decided he didn't like all the fighting over balls and went to climb a tree.

Eventually there was only one ball on the field and the kids were playing something that looked very much like soccer and they didn't even know it. Bravo coach! I was impressed. Wg3 was completely disinterested.

As we left coach asked wg3, "Did you like the games we played today wg3?"
"I'm not playing anymore of your games!"
"Didn't you have fun?"
"I hate your games," and he never even looked back nor broke stride.

Interestingly wg3 says he still wants to play soccer. And now I'm clued in that he has absolutely no idea was soccer is. I love wg3. What a random, spirited little dude.

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