Not all People are Interchangeable

It wasn't until I became an adult that I fell in love with soccer. Growing up in western Pennsylvania, with names like Joe Namath and Tony Dorsett in my phone book, I only knew of the football America knew, not the one the world knew.

When we were looking for a sport for our kids to play, I rejected baseball. I had loved it as a small kid, but by the time I turned 12 my eyes were bad enough that my .423 batting average as a 9-year-old had dropped to well below the Mendoza line. There was only one kid who pitched slowly enough for me to follow the ball and hit it - I clubbed two home runs and 3 more hits off of him, but those were the only five hits of my season.

My housemate Dan at West Virginia University had played soccer in High School and tried to entice us, but we only went out once to kick a ball around. It was interesting, but I was good at basketball, so stuck with that.

Back to the kids - we enrolled them in the local Children's Soccer program at 3 1/2 years of age. Because I knew nothing of soccer, I signed up to coach. After all, my Dad had coached us all through Little League baseball, and I was going to have that same experience with my kids, except it wouldn't be as boring, and the game would finish in under an hour.

I was a terrible coach. But, that was fine, since the kids were terrible soccer players, and the referees were terrible referees, and the parents were terrible fans. Later, I figured out that that's how everyone starts everything - you're terrible. If you work at it, you can get better, but you need help and mentors. (If your parents play the game at home, then you finish being terrible where no one else sees you, but everyone starts terrible.)

But, I digress. Soccer. One of the things they teach you as a coach of very young players is that everyone should play everywhere. That wouldn't work in baseball - it takes a special soul to don the Tools of Ignorance and catch a fastball while some idiot swings a club near your head - but in soccer, to this terrible coach, it seemed like an excellent idea.

One year I had a fine young man named Statue (not his real name) on the team of 7-year-olds. Statue was a decent athlete - he was fast and agile. He was also smart. Smart kids are bad athletes when they are young. They see a ball bouncing and an opponent going after the ball, and they pause. The smart kid figures - "I could get that ball, but it might hurt." The dumb kid figures (maybe) - "I could get that ball, and that other kid might get hurt"

Eventually, the smart kid realizes that moving at speed and attacking means you will outrun the shock of the collision and not feel pain. Alas, that comes at the age of 12 or 13, not 7.

The OOPS!

At any rate, it is Statue's turn to play goalie. He, quite rationally, insists he's not too keen on the idea. "Nonsense!" I say. "Everyone takes a turn". Statue dutifully stood right in front of the small pop-up goal, planted his feet ... and watched every shot in his direction go past him into the goal whilst he stood there like, well … like a statue.

No attempt even to kick it away, move in front ... nothing. He was a statue that could stand straight and tall and turn its head and watch the ball bounce past him and nestle into the goal.

His turn lasted about 4 goals and 3 minutes. I replaced him with one of the less intelligent more adventurous kids. (Eventually I realized that the best goalkeepers have an attitude roughly along the lines of "My parents have Dental Insurance and I'm not afraid to use it.")

The Lesson

My life lesson from Statue - we're not all interchangeable cogs in the machine. We'll learn and adapt at our own pace. Calling me a goalkeeper doesn't make me one - even if you give me a pair of gloves and a psychedelic shirt. It pays off to listen to people when they talk bout their shortcomings and trepidations.

And, every mistake we make can help us get better - if we learn from it.