(no subject)

[janradder]

So last night was Arie's first T-ball practice and while I was looking forward to it, as I said before, I was kind of nervous, expecting Arie to be much less coordinated than the other kids.  Instead, not only were the other kids at the same level as him, Arie actually excelled at fielding.  The kids were rolling grounders to each other, working on catching and fielding balls and the boy that Arie was paired up with was rolling those balls pretty fast and usually off to one side or the other.  Arie made quite a few spectacular stops, scooping those balls right into his glove, his eyes and head tracking the ball, moving to his right or left as needed, like he'd been doing this for years.  It made my heart proud to see him actually excelling at something athletic instead of working as hard as he could and still being behind the others.  The kid even blocked a hot shot with his body, pulling his shins together and getting his body and glove down to keep the ball in front of him.  And more importantly, it hurt and he stopped, and then grimaced with pain but instead of yelling at the kid who'd thrown the ball and creating a huge scene (which is what his normal reaction usually is), he let the pain subside and then went right back to playing catch, telling the kid it was alright when he apologized.

Over all, the night went really well and everyone came home happy (Arie most of all I think when he realized, after getting home with the Powderhorn Athletics shirt, that he actually got to keep it).  My only complaint was that as the kids were being told that they had a game on Friday night, Arie asked, "Who will we be playing against?" to which the coach responded, "We'll be playing with Lake Hiawatha."  I really don't understand why people can't just let kids compete.  That is, in fact, what they'll be doing, just say it.

Comments

[michaeljasper.livejournal.com]

Go Arie! Kick the crap out of Lake Hiawatha!

Seriously -- that is awesome. I can't wait to get the boys into sports, to see which ones they like (and which ones they're good at). Too cool.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

It was really nice to see -- the kid really struggles with just about anything even remotely athletic.

[st-writes.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it went well and he had fun (and you did, too)

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[pierogi-queen.livejournal.com]

Way to go Arie! I am sooooo proud of him. Remember when he announced that he was going to be Big Papi and only had to know how to hit?? Sounds like you did a good job teaching him Jan -

Reading this makes me wish I lived closer so that I could go to his games and cheer him on.

Hopefully your tee ball league won't go totally bonkers with the political correctness and stop keeping score :)

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I don't think they do keep score which is all right, I guess since the point of it right now is just to let them figure out how baseball is actually played. At the same time, though, what's so wrong about keeping score? These kids aren't so Fragile that they're going to be completely broken and fall apart if they "lose" a game. Competition is fine-- it's a part of everyday life -- it's just when it gets ugly that it becomes a problem but these kids won't know how to be good competitors if they're never allowed to actually do it.

But, apart from the rant, wish you could be here, too.

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! Terrific Yay!