This morning I took the boy to his football session, a lovely little low-pressure weekly kick-about. There are so many clubs for kids which have the dubious appeal of teaching young people how to compete, how to be a strong team member, to be supportive in the face of loss, to be merciless in your desire to win and all that shit. This place is nicer than that. No proper club, no matches against other teams, just a nice warm up and a couple of games against friends. Easy. The coach, Danny (possibly the kindest man in earth), has a sweet natured approach. He includes everyone: boys, girls, from the possibly-too-young to the old-enough-to-play-somewhere-more-serious, expects participation but not at anyones expense, and has a zero tolerance attitude to moaning and cheating. He is an untrained community activist by nature and I love him. The boy will probably not realise his (strange and frankly unsupported!) dream of being a professional footballer if he continues playing at this little club, but he might learn how to be a nice chap, and thatll do.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 09:04:29 +0000
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