It was drizzly for most of yesterday. The National Weather Service had predicted that the drizzle would only last until eleven in the morning and that we would see a high around sixty-nine. Instead the yucky stuff hung around until the late afternoon and we topped out at fifty-seven.
As a result I had a player absent. His mom didn't know if we would have practice when it was cold and wet.
In fact, the field was only dampish. Not even wet enough to soak through the pants when you sat down on it. I'll admit that it was a little cool, but after running around we were all warm under our outer clothes. It's not immediately clear to me if mid-fifties is more dangerous than the upper nineties we practiced in during the fall.
We hope to meet Aiden next time around. I've emailed his mom that we would have practice unless she got a call to cancel. The NWS is predicting a pretty good chance of rain on Thursday. I hope their accuracy is off in my favor this time.
My biggest problem at practice last night was that I forgot my big stack of little cones. Most of the ideas I had for skills practice involved having the cones. As a result, the time wasn't as focused as I hoped it would be and it was really hard on the new kids. Alicia [uh LEE see uh] was crying and Bryce kept ducking out and away.
Finally I asked David to take Kevin, Jackson, and Micah and "go over there and do something." I did some simple dribbling with Alicia and Bryce, but ended up with only Alicia. Bryce is just very young and little.
When we started to scrimmage Alicia really began to shine. I teamed her with Kevin against Micah and Jackson. She was happy and had a lot of fun with us. She laid a ball off to Kevin to score, and even scored one herself. She has a lot of power in her kick, she just needs some practice to strike the ball correctly.
Alicia really warmed my heart by her ability to take instruction. I told her, "When Kevin throws the ball to you, stop it and then run to the goal." She did exactly that. She stopped the ball, left it there, and ran to the goal. I laughed and praised her for how well she followed directions.
Bryce's mom, who is the U7 commissioner and coach of a U7 team and a U9 team, came over later and told me she thought Bryce might do better next time. It's different for him than it was for Kevin and Jackson. When they were about his age, a year ago, they were on a team that had only one experienced player and no pre-existing identity. This team is a little more daunting to join.
Posted to Games and Sport at February 22, 2006 7:46 AM