It's Back !

Monday night was our first football practice for Youth Football.

This year Mark is once again playing and he moves up to the 10 - 12 year old league.

This means he is the low man on the totem pole once again regarding size and strength. So far, he does not mind. But all we did was foot work, stances and drills. No contact yet.

I always think this is the most difficult age group sports wise. It seems you get the most variation in development and so as a result you have some really big strong kids mixed in with ones who are not quite that far along.

Some county leagues have weight limits to go along with the age categories. We do not. In fact we have at least one player on our team from a neighboring county for just this reason.

Of course, some moms think this is a bad idea because then little Jr has to get tackled or try and tackle Goliath. But on the other hand, think how Goliath would feel if he was told he was too fat to play ball. Or if Goliath tried to loose 10 - 15 pounds real quick with some stupid crazy diet which is not good for kids who are still growing.

This always brings me back to the fundamentals of football and team sports. Yes competition is fun but there are right ways to tackle and get tackled and there are wrong ways. There are good concepts of team activities which can be learned and there are bad. Plus, with any sport, the things one can learn on and off the field are equally important.

At this stage, it is more important to learn, participate and have fun; which is what youth sports is all about.

Yes folks, it is football season once again and we are in the full swing of it!

As always, Be Good, Do Well, Have Fun.