Olympic Preparation

We began our quest olympic gold and college scholarships in early March when Katie started Lil Pros soccer at the Plex. It's not a league but more of a ten week session on some soccer basics and some skills training. These few action shots make her look like she's already been through intense training - but somehow I just got lucky on a few pictures...

Here's the stretching circle on their first day of class. Most of the parents stayed on the field to help the kids focus and get adjusted. (Read - Mommies and daddies just couldn't let go.)

Now they sit enthralled with some set of instructions from Coach Jason about the next activity. It was going to be a "getting to know you" introduction for each kid. Katie couldn't look less thrilled with the thought of having to introduce herself to her new friends.

When it was Katie's turn to say her name and favorite activity, she told Coach Jason her name and said she liked to ride her bicycle. As much as I wish this was a genuine response, most of the kids before her had said the same thing, so she may have just gone with the popular crowd. Cole, on the other hand, went out on a limb and told the group he liked to build snowmen! Love the authenticity of his answer!

I absolutely can't remember what the coach asked here, but it was a two part yes or no question and Katie responded with her hand in the air for both the yes and the no answer!

After all the introductions, the kids got lined up to play Red Light Green Light while dribbling the ball down the field. Katie and Cole were both a little nervous about which light meant "go" and which light meant "stop." It didn't really matter in the end as most of the kids kicked the ball immediately out of their range and weren't able to stop it when RED LIGHT was called. 

Once all the kids made it to center field, they lined up for another game. Katie took this as an opportunity for some freestyle stretching. She was cracking me up. (Yes, I was still on the field.)

The end of the first class rolled around and all the kids got together to join hands and yell "Lil Pros." It was the most organized they got during the whole class!

We've had a few more classes since this first one and Katie had a breakdown at the 3rd class because she couldn't catch the coach while playing chase. She started crying and I was went to see what was wrong, she sobbed and said "I wasn't running good. I couldn't catch him." Absolutely broke my heart to think she could get that disappointed in herself. We decided we may need to stop letting her catch us in the backyard every time we play chase...maybe a little dose of real life where you don't always win. But that's another lesson for another day. I want her to know that we're always proud of her when she tries her best. Man, what a heavy lesson for a 9am soccer class!