Jack The Goalie

Jack's coach decided to let Jack have a turn at Goalie in the last game, and I totally understand why.  Jack likes to tackle people.  Tackling people is totally frowned upon in soccer.  It's OK to gently use an elbow or a shoulder or a hip to get advantage over the ball, but Jack is too young to perfect that skill.  He just straight up drops his shoulder and lays people out.   It's obvious that he spends far too much time at the football field watching people tackle and get tackled.  That, combined with his tricky temper makes for a bad combination on the soccer field.  He is in no way trying to be a bully, he just doesn't understand.  He always says "ohhhhh, sorrrrryyyyy!" after he realizes what he has done.  The good news is that when he pads up for football in a few years that he won't have to learn to hit.  He's got that covered already.

The biggest obstacle was getting him to understand that it was all right for him to pick up the ball.  The coach was telling him to pick it up, and there he was, shaking his head telling him no.

"What do you mean, I can pick up the ball?  You aren't supposed to touch the ball in soccer."  

Good point, but go ahead and pick up the ball little Mister Stubborn Pants.

I'm not picking it up.  I'm just going to kick it.

And true to form, he spent a little time on the ground.  

Still not going to touch the ball though.

You got your head stuck in the net.  

And then you got your arms stuck trying to get your head unstuck.  The ref had to help you untangle yourself.  If you weren't so busy fooling around with your head stuck in the net, you could have stopped that ball from going in.  

Wide right, thank goodness.

Run!  

Good save, Jack!

And even though you swear you don't do a happy dance, and you get quite angry when I even suggest that's what you do after you score a goal...

You did a happy dance every time you kept the ball from going in the net.  

A really cute and funny happy dance.  

Work it, Jack.

Great job, little buddy.  Keep up the hard work.