Our school district sent home a flier about their “Youth Soccer Academy” back at the start of the school year. Since we don’t have enough going on these days, we thought it would be a superb idea to commit ourselves to 8 weeks of soccer. LOL
Ian got a t-shirt and a soccer ball with our registration.
The lessons are run by the coach and players from Sweet Home High School’s Varsity team. The players are so good with the kids.
After this 1st class, they split the group up in 2 session (one at 9am, one at 10am). We probably only have 10 kids in our class now.
The first part of the session is spent warming up and practicing their soccer skills. The coach does a really great job of making all of the practice seem like a game.
Here the coaches are demonstrating how to play one game/drill. They’re pretending to be bears (complete with growling) and working their way in between all of the balls on the ground. In addition to being bears, the kids also get to run backwards, hop like bunnies, and fly like planes.
While they’re weaving in and out of the balls, the coach will blow his whistle and yell out a body part to put on the nearest ball.
Apparently, Coach yelled “left knee”. LOL
The kids playing…..
(Ian is in the dead center, near the lighter colored blue pad on the wall. Blue basketball shorts with a foot on the yellow ball.)
Listening to instructions for the next game……
Getting ready to play…….
Ian got tagged by the “swamp monster” (one of the high school kids running around making silly noises) and is waiting to be tagged again/released from being frozen….
Dribbling the ball to avoid getting tagged by the swamp monster again……
Waiting for someone to dribble their ball between his legs to unfreeze him……
Dribbling his ball between a teammate’s legs to unfreeze her (with a little hand action LOL)…..
Listening to instructions……
Water break……
The second half of the session is spent playing a scrimmage game against the other kids…..
Huddle and high-fives after a good first practice…….
He had so much fun!
Videos……
Warming up and doing drills:
Playing a scrimmage game (where Ian picks up the ball with his hands LOL):
Ian really enjoys playing soccer. Enough that we’re considering NOT doing t-ball/baseball next summer and just continuing with the soccer. And, if you can believe it, it was my baseball-loving husband that suggested that! LOL
For my readers that are Sweet Home High School alumni, the turf field is in the room that previously was the swimming pool. It blows my mind that the pool is now a turf field. LOL