December sports and activities

[mommyatty]

…And I just bought plane tickets for DD and me to go to Orlando for her to play field hockey in a tournament next month. Luckily I have plenty of miles, so it was $22.

[sdlaura]

erbear we’re in SoCal.

[madringal]

Well, we lost our first meet to our biggest rival team for the first time in 26 years last night. That hurt. But DD1 dropped 1.69 seconds in her 200 free for a new PR. Unreal! That was unsuited, unshaven, un tapered in a regular practice suit after school on a Tuesday, compared to her suited, shaved and tapered time from last season! She was on a freaking cloud!

[mae0111]

DD1 made the A team for school basketball! I’m shocked! She said the coach has her playing point guard. She’s normally small forward so this is a huge change. I hope she likes it!!

[mae0111]

DD1 had her first school basketball game. They lost, but they didn’t do too badly considering they’d only practiced together twice (vs their opponent, who had been practicing 5x a week for over a month and had already played 3 other games together).

DD1 played great! Most of the kids seemed nervous and a bit shy to shoot. DD1 got in and started shooting immediately, which got others trying as well. She scored a couple, which was great! I’m hoping it gets her confidence up.

[sdlaura]

So in the ongoing saga of which softball team DD should be on….

We went from the travel softball team back to her old league/the town league. Town league has rec teams, competitive teams (tryout based), and all-star teams that run May-July. During the spring season, if you want to do a competitive team you also have to play on a rec team. I think it’s the league’s way of making sure the teams are balanced/games are actually fun to play and watch because you have some girls on each team who are experienced softball players. Then the less experienced rec players can learn from their more experienced teammates.

So, there are two competitive teams in each age group. DD and her friends are the younger year of the age group, so her friends are all on the B team. There’s one tryout per age group and then the league determines who makes what team. DD tried out on Sunday and we found out yesterday that she’s the only 6th grader on the A team. The rest of the girls are 7th graders. The coach is good (he was actually her first rec softball coach), but both his daughters are on the team and one is a catcher - DD’s main position. Two big reasons we switched from travel to town league was friends and playing time, and she’s likely to get less of each on the A team vs the B team. But it’s hard for us to argue since we’re the ones who left and came back and there was no requirement for them to even let her back on one of the competitive teams when plenty of other girls wanted to be, too.

I’m trying to be optimistic about it for several reasons:

1. She will also be playing on a rec team, likely with at least one of her same age friends (there is a draft, but I also put in friend requests), and on the rec team she is likely to be the most experienced player/only or main catcher.
2. She really could use some experience in other fielding positions, even if it’s the outfield, to become a more well rounded player.
3. The competitive spring teams are just from January-April so if she’s unhappy with the experience, when she tries out for all stars in early May she can say she only wants to be considered for the younger team.

Having not played team sports growing up, I had no idea how much decision making and jostling is involved in which sports teams your kids end up on I would have thought it would just be better to make the A team, but I’ve learned that’s not always the case.

[mommyatty]

DS has been in ninja classes for months. There is a rock wall they climb across, and DS has just never been able to do it. He has dysgraphia, which is a motor planning disorder, so his brain just absolutely could not figure out where his hands and feet were supposed to go and then have his brain tell his body how to do it. Yesterday it finally clicked and he just DID IT, over and over. He also did every single station, even the ones that require bilateral movement and movement that crosses the center line of his body. And the ones that require a lot of strength, like pushing himself up with straight arms on the bar and hanging for a count of 5. I’m not sure why the sudden leap in development, but honest to God I almost cried. He felt so proud, and my MIL and I were absolutely giddy.