Superfunkomatic - Observations of the Socially Inept

i had an opportunity to watch one of my brother’s children play soccer. it’s an under-5 year old category where they play 3 on 3 in a field about 30 feet by 1/4 the length of a normal soccer pitch.

i don’t have a lot of contact with children that age so the experience was an awakening. the vitality of children is amazing. i’d forgotten how much fun we all had at that age, and how every experience on our first sports team was new.

the children were learning to run together, kick, and play but also one of their first experiences as a team and sharing time with others. interesting to see that at 4-5 years old their are no agendas, no politics just good clean fun in it’s most primitive sense, unbounded energy. the coach (my bro) even had to school the children in the art of the high five, something i’ve come to take for granted as a long time participant of sports. when he held his hand out for the tots they didn’t know what to do - they hadn’t celebrated as a team or as an individual “athlete” - for some their first time participating in a team sport.

they were sponges, picking up on all the cues around them - parents cheering and coaching, watching the other team and their mates, being lost and overwhelmed by the action around them. often, they were overwhelmed by the cues, not knowing that they were to score and often travelling in the wrong direction down the field, only to eventually right themselves and gradually turn towards the correct goal. their only goal was fun, the game was a consequence of having fun.

i wonder how that view has changed along the way to adulthood. more structured time, more focus on the goal as the result, less on the interaction, less on the sharing time with friends and the bonding. as an adult playing hockey i can see glimmers of this faded spirit, we’ve forgotten or been conditioned away from fun. the rules and outcomes often surpass the fact that it is indeed a game and supposed to be an enjoyable way to pass our time.

watching brought back things i hadn’t thought about since being a young player myself. chanting and cheering for your teammates, getting excited about learning something new from a role model, meeting friends and having fun, and how easily we’re influenced and lead by adults around us at that age. funny how watching children often sparks their parents or adults to go back and pick up that sport again as an adult. a longing for the way things used to be, simple.

the photos speak volumes more than i ever could write
http://www.toolbarmedia.com/green_dragons_05_07_05

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