We have a very social kid and that’s great. School has been a great way to resolve some of the grief of losing his friends from the Philippines, most especially, since he’s really good at making new friends. He hasn’t made any super close friends yet, but we’re starting to hear some reoccurring names. It’s not unusual to get a flyer home weekly with upcoming school events and extracurricular activities. The hard part has been setting expectations on what we can and cannot do. Up to this point we’ve participated in just about everything.
It all started with the Football flyer. He was pretty set on being able to attend, and at first we had a busy weekend planned. Once we told him he couldn’t play he started to silently cry. We cracked. Honestly, we have been wanting him to be social with his peers from school and, most of all, really want him involved with physical activities to help get him in a little better shape. All that taken into consideration we changed our mind and were able to shuffle things around to make Football work out.
He was pretty pumped the day of, and all in all, he had a blast. We talked to a few parents and got the scoop on how things worked. This was just a “workout” and not a tryout. Football really doesn’t start for another 3 months and kicks off in August. We just have to be careful to find the balance of being a “sports family” and still being able to do fun summer traveling. We still have time to bail on Football over all, but that still doesn’t mean it won’t happen, and we have a lot to work on if he does decide he really wants to play.
The highlight reel:
We’re going to have to work on our hustle a little bit, and on top of that, he really hasn’t played any sports, so I think running around outside and building some muscle tone is sorely needed. Christopher loves to be outside so that won’t be a problem. He’s expressed interested in going jogging with dad.
He ran with mom at an after school fun run, another after school activity he was too excited about to be told no on. Beth said it was a struggle but he stuck with it. He may lack hustle but he does stick with it. We thought Football day might end in disaster but he came out loving it and had a ton of fun. Next up, Baseball. We actually had a choice to make. He came home to the USA telling us he loved soccer, so that became a choice. Then the baseball flyer came home and he had to choose. Surprisingly, he chose baseball. I was actually pretty excited about that.
The hunt was on for baseball gloves. While I’ve found everything else from my childhood, all packed away at my parents house, my old glove has eluded me. I found a softball mitt on clearance during a store closure and snapped it up. It’s great and all, but it’s massive when you’re trying to just toss the baseball around. Christopher was gifted a mitt and since he’s never used one had a bit of trouble with a new one. I ended up ebaying a larger used mitt and he’s taken to that one.
So we have to work on running, hitting, and catching. He’s actually got a great arm and has an accurate throw. I decided that we would just work on catching and throwing. At first he’d just hold his glove up in the air and I would just throw the ball at his glove and he’d try to grab it as soon as it hit the glove. That was ok for a while but then we had to step it up and I started to have him hold it in front of his chest and I’d throw it so he’d have to react. We had mixed reactions and I was very shy to throw it at him for fear it would clock him. He took one to the cheek like a champ and wasn’t that phased. We got a hot tip and swapped over to a tennis ball and we could catch and throw a little more confidently, and I was hopeful he’d have enough catching experience to show his stuff at the actual tryouts.
The day came and tryouts were upon us. Coaches all had their clipboards outs for their scouting session. Oh boy.
Herding cats, our cat is in green. The hats hand numbers on them for scouting purposes. 
Pitching tryouts
There were four drills: Ground ball, pop fly, hitting, and pitching. He looked pretty good grounding balls, and that wasn’t something we had practiced at all. Something was amiss though, he was tossing the balls back to the coach and they weren’t making it. It was an easy throw for him but they weren’t making it. Pop fly was the same situation. He only caught one of five thrown and his throws still weren’t making it. Next up was hitting. He actually connected with a bunch of soft pitches but he yelled like a samurai every time he swung, something we’ll need to correct. It was more of a leisure activity for him and he really wasn’t grasping the importance of what was going on. Lastly was pitching. Not everyone tried out but Christopher just followed the crowd and ended up in there with a bunch of kids.
The coaches gave him a little talk after the first pitch and he didn’t do the worst, and I was pretty impressed with his ability to take direction, so I’m hoping the coaches take that into account in placement. He said he had a lot of fun. There was no running involved this time through, so we can work on hustle at home before things really get rolling.
I was so excited he liked it we went out and threw the ball around some more once we arrived home. He decided he really wanted to hit balls so we changed it up from throwing. While tossing balls, he was having a hard time connecting. I helped him fix his stance and immediately fixed the samurai yells. Once we had things tightened up a little bit he started hitting them a bit better. The one thing that suddenly occurred to me while he was swinging was that his frustration at not hitting them triggered the realization that he has no idea how baseball is even played. I wasn’t exactly trying to get the balls past him, they were doing that on their own, but he thought the idea of the game was for the pitcher to throw them so he can hit the ball.
After I tried to explain that the pitcher didn’t want him to hit the ball, I immediately talked him into watching a game, something we hadn’t even done yet. It took three innings of explanations but he finally had a moment where it clicked and he said he understood what was happening. That was a big deal so I’m feeling a lot better now that we have a sort of baseline in how to play the game.
After everything from a fun weekend was over, it suddenly occurred to me that getting old sucks. My shoulder is shot! I didn’t exactly think that I should take it easy on my arm. I was so enthusiastic, I really went overboard. I guess I’ll be taking it easy for the week and letting my shoulder recover before we toss the ball again.
Our first official practice with our assigned coach is upon us! Stay tuned for more on ESHPN.
