First Football (soccer) Practice

Part of the rite of passage of being 6 in the Netherlands seems to be the joining of sport teams. It starts as early as age 4, but by age 6 here, there are more organized options, real teams and plenty of options. For Kevin, it's been all about football for at least a year. We put it off due to my crazy schedule at my former employer - trying to manage swimming lessons was already enough!

This winter though, the new job and more flexibility meant there was time for something else. We started in the winter with skiing lessons on Wednesdays, and when those finished we stepped up the swimming lessons to 2x per week in hopes of getting his swim diploma this year. Now in addition to swimming, he plays in his first soccer team every Saturday. Since the season was already running, he will be until the summer vacation playing and practicing on Saturdays with the 4-6 year olds. After the summer, He'll move up to the 6+ and have in addition to practice, weekly games.

So when we found a team where he could join right away, and two weeks ago he had his very first Saturday practice. We had soccer shoes thanks to Aunt Vivi (and Oma for shipping them over so they were waiting and ready to use!) and I wanted to wait until Little Man had had at least 2 practices before signing on and making the investment in a warm up suit and all the kit needed for an future football superstar.

On Saturday, we had to be at the field by 10am, practice goes for approx 50 mins. Luckily it was cool but clear on the day, and the sun was shining so mom could stand on the sidelines and take pictures!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but they line up all the kids, have them run lines and then they work in groups of 5-6 kids, doing exercises kicking goals, dribbling the ball with your feet between cones, kicking the ball to the goalie and then running a small loop….they mix it up really well so that the kids are busy about 10 mins at each activity.

They finish up with about 15 mins of a 5x5 game, and on his first team play, Kev scored two, count them, two of the five goals scored total between both teams! Not that Mom was proud or anything………..