Soccer

Addison started soccer this week at Locker Soccer. It's indoor, so we'll be able to do this all winter long if she likes it. We had to take a break from gymnastics to fit this one in, so we'll see which she prefers. I have such a hard time deciding which activities to put Addison in because I love them all....music, gym, now soccer. I also want to enroll her in dance, but there's just not enough time now with preschool and trying to preserve Chase's nap schedule.

Addison is in the 2 1/2-3 age group. She could probably be in the 3-4 group, but I wanted her to start in the younger group because the parents stay on the field and participate. The class is also a bit shorter than the 3-4's. Addison is not a shy girl, but I had a feeling she would be a little timid her first class.

They started by letting the kids pick out a spot (circle mat). Addison picked her favorite color, lellow (yellow), of course! She put it on the ground and sat right down. Then they took attendance. She was supposed to raise her hand and say "here" when her name was called, but she put on her shy face instead.

Her instructor, Coach Chad, is great and really made Addison feel comfortable. Within minutes, she was off running around with the other kids. I stood back for most of the class.

After attendance, they warmed up by playing a freeze game where the kids would kick the ball around while music was playing and had to freeze when the song said so.

Next were stretches where Coach Chad pointed out the calf, quad, and hamstring as we were stretching those muscles.

After they stretched, Coach Chad set up cones that they were supposed to dribble around and try to score a goal.

Coach Chad said they would get extra credit if they shouted "Goal, Baby!" when they scored. Addison was the only one I heard do it.

After that exercise, they lined up against the wall and ran relay races, again zig zagging in between cones.

I think there are 8 kids in her class (only 2 girls) - obviously some weren't following directions! :)

Addison did pretty good with this, but missed a few cones along the way.

The last activity was Sharks and Minnows where the parents were to kick the ball and try to (lightly) hit the kids with it. If the kids were hit, they had to lay down and wait for one of their friends to jump over them and "save" them. It was really cute and the kids actually had the hang of it. Addison said she had a lot of fun at soccer...yay!