The team sports era has begun (kind of)

This past weekend Jameson had his first experience with organized sports, in the form of the AYSO U5 (under 5) Jamboree.  The AYSO kicked off with an opening night party at the fields at "Campus El Segundo".  The party was a gathering open to all age groups that he was very excited about in theory, but in practice he was a bit intimidated and shy by all of the goings on.  I tried to encourage him to participate in games, but in truth the kids playing were much older than he and I can understand why he was a bit nervous about the whole thing.

The next day, Saturday, was the true start to the season.  The format for his age group is called a Jamboree, which means that there are no teams and no practices.  Saturdays start with a 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes of drills (that are more like mini games) led by 2 coaches from the UK that are here on a coaching exchange program and then 30 minutes of playing on randomly broken up teams of 4 or 5 coached by dads.

Jameson did great on his first day!  He did very well listening to his coaches, was not overly intimidated or shy and seemed to love running around.  I the game he was able to put his first ball in the net...unfortunately it was into the wrong net.  Other than the own goal he had one other chance but the other team was playing a goalie (which I don't think they were supposed to be doing with the small nets and 5 on 5 games, but that's OK) and the "goalie" stopped the ball.  Most importantly he really seemed to enjoy it and was not intimidated.  He is probably the youngest kid out there since the cutoff for participation was turning age 4 after July 1, so I was a little nervous that the other kids being bigger would discourage him, but he wasn't discouraged at all and seemed to keep up just fine.  I have a feeling that was our first of many Saturdays on the sports field!

Our Shy Boy

Jameson is very cautious  about most anything new.  He is shy around new kids, reluctant to try new foods and needs much encouragement to do new things.  As a person who has lived a life with similar feelings I woder how to show him all the things that he'll miss out on if he continues on this course.  Logically I believe that in time he will outgrow most of these fears but as a parent I can't help but to want to help him see how much more life can offer him if he opens himself up to all of the new things that life has to offer.  I'm trying now to boost his self confidence.  We'll see how that works.  I have also been trying lately to help him focus his feelings on all of the positive things happenning from day to day.  Wouldn't it be great to help my son become someone who naturally tends to see the positivity and beauty in his life!