Those of you who know us will be bemused by this week's title. We are not thought of as a 'sporty' family*. But today Mr M enjoyed his first session of 'footy training'. It wasn't planned. It was completely unexpected. But, boy, did he have a good time (and go to sleep without any trouble).
It came about because today was our day for collecting Jack and Charlie after school. And it was their first day of footy. After school we went to J and C's house to get ready for footy. (Aussie Rules, that is.) And at 4.30pm we all went down to the oval to kick a football around before training began. As the whistle blew and the coaches called the kids together, Mr M and I began to prepare to depart ... but then he was invited to stay and there was no hesitation, he wanted to train with the Under 8s.
For the next hour, as the evening got chillier and chillier, Mr M played 'Octupus' (a great game of tips I've never played before), practised kicking and passing and (this is what he did best of all) sitting on the ball listening to the coaches. He LOVED it. It's fair to say that his ball skills aren't very good. He has suffered from my illness last year by missing out on a lot of outdoor activity and so we are behind on gross motor skills. So it was pretty exciting to watch him enjoying training so much and getting a little bit better at throwing and catching a ball.
We now have to make a decision about whether to let him keep going. There's no pressure. He can go to training and not worry about things like playing games. And the timing is perfect being on a Monday evening when I'm not working. I guess we'll just wait and see how much he talks about it and asks to go again. And I'm loving the healthy exhaustion that meant he was deeply asleep by 8.15pm.
* What really makes someone 'sporty'? Do you just have to be devoted to a particular team - even if all you do is watch games? I hadn't really thought about sportiness until tonight. I'd gone along with the line that we weren't sporty. When I think back over my life, though, I've often been deeply interested in 'sport'. Frequently, it was disguised as dance. But there have been quite long periods of running, tennis lessons, aerobics and yoga classes, swimming. What I have never been is interested in 'team sports' - although even as I've typed that I've remembered that I've happily watched an awful lot of cricket and basketball over the years, and English football too. I guess 'sporty' is just another generalisation that hinders more than it helps us understand people.
