Charlie's motivation

Last summer we played a lot of soccer at mom and dad's house. The kids loved it and looked like they would be fairly good at the sport. So this spring we signed Charlie up, Avery said she preferred dance:)

Last Saturday, Charlie's first practice. The league we joined doesn't have games when kids are this young, they prefer to teach the kids drills and skills.

All excited, we get everyone over to the field, bring snacks for the team, meet his coaches, get Charlie his soccer t-shirt and then Charlie flips a switch and wants nothing to do with playing soccer.

Charlie is in a heightened emotional state right now. If he is tired, doesn't get his way, is in a new environment, he doesn't know how to tell us how he feels or deal with those emotions, so he just shuts down.



If you were to look at just this picture, it would seem Charlie is participating, about to start a drill with the coaches and team.



Then you pan out to this view and realize all the other kids are playing and Charlie is just standing. Frown on the face, tears in the eyes, not wanting anything to do with joining in.

Stephen, Avery, the coaches and I tried all kinds of tactics to get him to participate. Went out on the field with him, kept cheering for him, practiced the drills ourselves. Nothing.

Stephen and I started to get a little frustrated and angry. He LOVES playing soccer. He was missing out on lots of fun.

Finally I go out there and say "I bet you CAN'T do this drill."



Well, fire ignited. Next thing we know he is kicking the 'aliens' off of the cones. He knocks the top disk off, we put it back on and he does it again. Stephen and I take these huge sighs of relief and Avery is heard cheering for him from the sidelines.

He has so much fun the next half hour. The coaches make it a lot of fun and Charlie finally sees what he was missing. At one point coach Travis tells the kids to find their soccer balls, hold it over their heads and hop back to him...we look and Charlie is hopping backwards to him. And Charlie was so cute running off the field every few minutes to high-five Stephen.



In this drill, the coaches threw the balls across the field and the kids had to find them and dribble them back to the goal and try and score. Charlie is first to his ball, and that is him right near the goal about to take on Coach Travis. Totally determined on getting that ball in the net.



Charlie kicking a winning goal with his teammates. So proud of him for breaking through his fears and giving it a try. Lesson learned in what motivates this kid.