Saturday, September 10, 2011

Timbit Soccer

Drew started soccer this afternoon through our local AYSO chapter. He is in the Under 5 group, which is sponsored by Tim Horton's. His group is called the "Timbits," which is the name for the donut holes at Tim Horton's. Drew was so excited to get dressed up in his uniform and go to soccer today! He is number 81. Each week, the children are put into different groups where they will learn soccer skills by playing little games.

The Timbits headed out to do their first drill. They played a game called, "Coach Says," where they had to follow the coaches' instructions. AYSO is staffed entirely by volunteers, and Drew's volunteer coaches this week were a couple of young teenage boys. They were very kind and knowledgeable, but they weren't great at communicating with 4 year-olds. Many of the children were pretty confused.

The coaches said to sit on the soccer balls. Drew followed this direction ok, but he struggled with many of the skills. Jim and I are planning to practice some of the harder skills with Drew at home this week.

In the second game, the children had to listen and follow directions, but the directions all had a pirate theme.

There were frequent water breaks.

Toward the end, half of the group put on orange pinnies, and they had a little scrimmage. They mostly clumped around the ball, but there was one little boy that kept taking the ball to the goal and scoring. He probably scored three or four times!

Drew loved running around with the other children.

The final skill they practiced was shooting at the goal.

The coaches pretended to try to stop the balls from going into the net, and the children were thrilled to get the ball past their coaches.

Everyone's favorite part of the day was snack time. Each child got a juice and a snack.

On the bottom inside of Drew's jersey, it says, "I just played. I'm thirsty!" After each of Drew's soccer practices, he can go to Tim Horton's and show his little shirt hem to get a free drink. We stopped at Tim Horton's on our way home, and Drew got a chocolate milk and some Timbits.

The worker loved Drew's shirt!

Drew had a great first day of soccer, and we are looking forward to five more Saturdays of soccer this fall!

I shot a little video of the pirate skills game. I'm hoping that Drew will get a little better at his soccer (and listening) skills as the season goes along.


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