Hey everyone, it’s Wednesday, and I almost forgot to write this post. Even with this “slow” schedule of once a week posts, it’s been difficult for me to get back into the groove of things. Today will just be a short post about Soccer… more specifically, Kylie’s Soccer.

Kylie has been playing soccer for the best 2 half seasons, or about the last half year. However, because of Coronavirus, they haven’t played for awhile. We weren’t even sure if she was going to even play this season.

Just to clarify, she is in a really low-key league which is essentially a “Learning League” under i9 Sports. It’s been really easy for Kylie and Lucas to try out baseball and now soccer.

I wasn’t really sure if Kylie was going to like soccer, so we kind of just tried it out and didn’t want to invest too much into it. As such we didn’t buy her cleats from that get-go. Then as time went on, we kind of just forgot about it. She seemed to have fun just playing in her regular sneakers just fine.

However, in hindsight, that was probably a mistake.

Why?

Well, it’s probably my fault.

I didn’t play soccer growing up. At least not formally on a team. I just kind of played at recess with friends using whatever sneakers I was wearing at the time.

I also didn’t take into account that my daughter is already afraid of getting hurt and in general isn’t too aggressive when it comes to sports. As such, she was pretty timid about kicking the ball too hard. It also didn’t help that she got hit in the face with a ball too, early in her soccer career.

Anyways, since time has gone on and i9 is re-opening again soon with some safety precautions for COVID-19. For example, the need to use your own ball. Something in my head decided, hey remember those cleats you were supposed to buy her? We should probably buy them and let her give 100% this time around to see if she really likes it or not.

So what’d you do?

So, yesterday we went down to the mom and pop soccer shop in town, Soccer Locker. They had been closed down for nearly 2 months because of COVID-19 and were just re-opening their doors, with masks and other safety precautions of course. We tried on some cleats and Kylie opted for the pink ones, which matched her pink socks and shin guards. We also bought Lucas his own ball too… we’ll need to bring him back separately to get fitted for cleats probably.

While we were over on Kapahul, I went tyover to Chronic Tacos and got a California Burrito. It was ok, might go back again sometime so the family can try it. Kylie didn’t want to try it though, she wanted a Crunchwrap Supreme from the Taco Bell down the street.

Seems like a good day… anything else?

Yea, well today I asked her if she wanted to go test our her cleats and kick the ball around. Mind you, she wasn’t too horribly interested in continuing soccer this season. I was a little surprised when she said, “Yea! Let’s go!”.

So anyways, I pumped up her pink soccer ball and we went over the park. Then we just set up her portable net and let her kick the ball. The goal of the day was just to see if she liked it… and if possible get her to kick a few balls in the air.

It was a resounding success. She liked kicking the ball with the new cleats. Apparently, with her old shoes, she said her feet used to “sting” if she kicked the ball too much or too hard. With these cleats she didn’t feel anything and wasn’t concerned anymore. She just wanted to keep kicking the whole time.

Also, near the end she was getting a few balls in the air, which made her super happy:

Lesson learned.

When I asked her why she didn’t tell me, she said, “Oh I didn’t want to cause any problems for you or mommy.”

This monkey worries too much. I told her that if she has problems/concerns that she needs to let mommy and daddy know so we an help.

In other news, the Kirkland Signature Athletic Shoes (Costco) I bought about 5 years ago finally got some more usage… but they fell apart while we were playing.

The sole literally came apart from the rest of the shoe.

This is probably the result of sitting in my garage over the last few years with the changes in temperature from hot to cool over the course of the day.

Maybe I should buy cleats too…

TL;DR

Sometimes little things make a big difference in enjoyment.

I need to try to be more aware of what my kids need.

Also, if I’m going to play soccer with them, I need new shoes, maybe cleats?

-Sensei

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