Last weekend my lil’bit played in a softball tournament in a nearby town. This is our first year on a team from our town, and our first tournament as well. It amazes me the passion and energy that can be found on your local sports fields, on any given weekend. There were multiple teams from all over, with all kinds of skill levels and talents.
My kid..she loves to compete. She is competitive. She has an energy, and a determination that is a joy to see. That being said…she’s TOTALLY 7. Her team plays for fun. They practice once a week. They win some, they lose some.
There was a team that we played this weekend though…wow. They practiced 4 days a week. (Ya’ll…that is only 3 nights off. I can’t even!) Their warm up was synchronized by single word commands. They did drills in unison. It was amazing. They matched from head to toe, in branded bright colors. It was intense.
One of the positions that stood out in particular to me, was their catcher. The catcher position at this age has typically been a place holder…she wears the gear, she attempts to catch the ball, but there is also a coach behind her who typically gets it and throws it back to the pitcher (another coach). Well, as I am sure you can predict, on the other team, their catcher was LEGIT. She was in the crouch, she had a rocket arm…she was amazing.
Guess what happened after two innings? All of a sudden, unprompted by our coach, our catcher was also in the crouch. She tried to catch each pitch that came her way, and made some pretty good attempts to throw it back to the pitcher. This was our last game of this season, she’d never once done that before.
All because she had seen someone better than her. All because she watched, she saw someone better, and she was challenged.
always learning,
Amber
Thank you for sharing this! I love the lessons that we can learn from a seven-year-old. Great reminders here 🙂