Today, I started soccer practice early, as planned. It went well, but it needs to be better.
I got to the pitch at about 10:30 AM, following bringing the kids to school and my wife to work (and light grocery shopping). It’s easy to postpone things when you assign less value to them. But this is important, not just to me, but to my family.
Every sacrifice I make, they make. The aches & pains are mine, but there’s effort all around in this family. And when I’m stressed, everyone feels it. Lately, I’m fighting to make my training a priority… but it is just that. After the excitement of this journey (not to be confused with my endless joy for the sport of soccer) drifted away, I’m left with the realization that it’s time to work my butt off. And it isn’t enough to do what others do; at 46 years of age, I need to work harder. So hard that come try-out time, my age (let alone my playing) isn’t even a question. It’s a knockout I’m after.
A few minutes into my practice, a young gentleman walked onto the field. It was us and a squad of daycare toddlers, therefore considerably more peaceful than in previous days. Up until this point, it was a solo venture. Naturally, when I say the guy sharing my side of the pitch, I figured… Why not ask him to pass the ball around a bit? It made sense since soccer is a team sport. Oddly enough, though, I believe he was about to run some American football drills. But he obliged, and it was fun.
I’m amazed at how skillful this new generation of athletes is. They’re also strong and quickly adapt to a change of pace. I mean, he likely didn’t even play in a competitive league, and yet he relatively easily held his own. We weren’t doing much shooting (or anything rather intense), but I still.
Once he left, I felt the need to raise my intensity level somewhat. It’s not that he wouldn’t have been able to keep up; it’s just that I’m kind of more methodical & meticulous when practicing independently. And while it was a good debut, some personal work needs to be accomplished before I delve into more advanced team play.
Something I need to work on is not getting injured (as I’m sure I already mentioned in previous posts). I mean, it’s obviously great (and necessary) to be taking my FC Supra journey seriously (as the try-outs may be sooner than I thought), but, admittedly, I did hurt myself today. Being on the field for nearly three hours left me dehydrated, and for a person who tends not to drink enough water (in general), this led to notable muscle cramping and a pain in my left leg that might take a few days to heal from. And with a busy weekend up ahead, I’m off until Monday. It’s a decision some would decree as bad, but as a personal trainer for the last 20 years, I know that there’s no use in pushing an affliction.