Last year Eric & I considered signing the girls up for softball, but after looking over all the registration info we panicked about the time commitment & cost. It turned out to be a good decision on our part because a few weeks later our oldest broke her arm and would have missed the whole season anyway! But after 6 months of talking about it with the girls and preparing ourselves mentally for (especially) the time commitment we registered both girls for winterball softball...and WOW what a season it was!
Myhusband got "talked into" being the little one's t-ball team's manager but was also able to con two more dads into coaching positions..three dads in charge of eleven 4 years-olds...I have to say the guys did a great job and the girls had a wonderful season. By the end of it though our little one was over it, we got through the last few games...but just barely. She (and daddy) will be taking a season off.
Our oldest's softball journey was really amazing..at least to me it was! :) At the first practice after throwing balls with her coach for 5 min she hurt her finger and came over to me crying. I took a look at it and then encouraged her to "shake it off" and go back out there, it took some convincing but she did go back and seemed to enjoy herself. That night after practice she told me her finger still hurt and after checking it out I discovered it was purple & swollen! It took a week but she managed through with a sprained finger. Believe it or not she went back for the next practice! By the next week she realized that all the other girls on her team had either some or a lot of experience while she had none. She was ready quit, before the first game she was crying and begging not to play because "all the other girls are better then me" so I made her watch some 10 year-olds playing and showed them how many mistakes those girls were making even though they had been playing for a long time. I was trying to show her that this wasn't something she was going to master over night but something to keep working at. We did manage to get her to play the first game but batting? batting was another story...during the second game, it was her turn to bat and she was crying and refusing to bat, she was just so scared and when your batting everyone is watching and if you mess up everyone knows. She HATES to mess up and she really, really HATES for anyone, let alone everyone, to know she messed up!!! It took mom, dad, all 3 coaches AND the ump to talk her into batting but she did and accidentally hit the ball too! It was awful & hysterical at the same time. Softball was hard for her and watching her struggle every week to master the skills needed to play was SO hard for me! But at the same time I knew that letting her preserver through was a WAY more important lesson then how to throw or hit the ball.
But you wanna know what I really loved about our softball season? And yes there was plenty to love about our season I swear! It toughened my drama queen up! Generally all it takes is a paper cut to cause her to cry for half an hour and need medical attention. Through the course of the season she was hit by the ball many times, sometimes hard and sometimes soft but injuries were part of the deal and by the end of the season my ouchie drama queen was gone and a softball princess had taken her place. You should have seen the looks on our faces the day she was hit in the leg by a ball and all she did was literally brush off her leg and got back into her batting stance or the time she got hit in the chin and didn't tear up until AFTER she had made the play! Now I'll find scratches on her and I have ASK her how she got them because she longer comes to me crying about them when they happen!! It really was an amazing transformation.
And even better? By the end of the season she LOVED softball and is excited to play again in spring. She still doesn't like batting but I'm thrilled she isn't letting that stop her from playing the game. I do have to add that her team going undefeated in the regular season and coming in 1st place in the Turkey Tournament certainly helped make our VERY competitive girl fall in love with softball! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment