For the Coach Who is also the Dad

Coaching your own child is a challenge. They seem to take things much more personally than the other kids. They seem to see a coaching tip as a personal insult when it comes from their dad. As a rule, I don't coach at home except on very rare occasions. Well this week, I mentioned a tip to my 10 year old daughter and got the expected response. Let's just say it wasn't "positive". So in a moment of serendipity, I asked her, "How would you have preferred I say that?" She thought about the question and then gave me some verbiage. So I asked her, "Can I try again?" She looked at me hard and then said I could. I walked out of the room and walked back in again just like I did the first time and this time I used her words instead of mine. Low and behold, she got her ball and went out in the backyard and tried out the idea! Enthusiastically, no less. I suggested she get the video camera out so she could see how she was doing. I helped her set it up and walked away. From inside the house, I could see her trying some things out, then talking to the camera. Then watching the video back. I think she really did improve her game a bit. That's not the point. The real gain is even better: I found a way to communicate with her on the touchy subject of coaching. We'll see if it works again next time...

Words Not Spoken To You (the adult)

We video our kids' soccer games and make highlight DVDs for the end of year party. Well, last week my videographer (alias: wife), left the camera turned off for the 2nd half of the game and turned it on as she put the camera away in the bag thinking she was turning it off. So we had an hour's worth of video of the inside of the camera bag. However, it did capture some interesting sounds.

The bag was in the back of the van with our boys (twin 6 year olds) and you can hear their conversation. One says, "I love soccer games; they're [one of] the funnest things in the world." His brother answers, "Me too." Then they both say bye to their team. Then one says, "I like our team. It's good...our team. I like the people that we choosed on our soccer team." Yes, he said "choo-said".

We may have missed half the game, but we got a gold nugget of audio.