![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A junior someone is having more or less a tantrum before they get into their parents car at pickup this afternoon. I have the window open and there's no avoiding the sound of someone small and grumpy.
--
Tired today, and my mouth feels vaguely furry.
--
Can't remember if I've talked about hockey this year. Last year in B-grade with a familiar and solid team was fun but exhausting. So I'm really glad I got dropped back into our C-grade team.
The comp this year is A/B grade and C/D grade, eight in each. After two rounds, top 4 teams will be the upper grade, and the bottom 4 will be the lower grade. Sounds pretty fair.
We lost a bunch of players from Team 1 - including some of our most skilled ones - and added a bunch of new players. So some of the best of last year's Team 2 have gone up into Team 1, and Team 2 has dropped back into the C/D dvision. So we have a team with a core of the less-focused players from Team 2 last year (look, I can play well, but I generally need people to challenge me cos I'm a lazy arse) and a bunch of returning-after-a-break types. Some of whom are pretty solid.
And one complete newbie.
More about the newbie later.
One particularly good thing is that we have 'acquired' two defenders from Team 1 (one has been having persisting back and hip issues and the other came with her, I suspect), so while we are not strong in the forward department (a couple of good forwards went up, which is completely deserved and very necessary in the case of the younger one) we are doing solidly in the defensive line!
Also, I think I might have to start working on being a centre half: midfield, controls the play, drops to defend, and backs up to attack. Ugh.
I've only played one game so far this season, and it was against the team we played against in the grand final two years ago. The only team we lost a game to. The team we beat in the grand finals after a draw at full time, extra time, and extra extra time, until it was decided in the penalty shoot-out. OOF.
Anyway, there are a few grumpy people on that team, and I think they were rather frustrated that the score ended in a 0-0 draw. Which, IMO, is a win all its own!
I'm pretty happy to be in this grade with this team. I'm not a standout player, but also, it's not as though all the friends I was closest to have gone up a grade while I've been kept back - not the way it was in 2019 when it felt very deliberate. Also: I'm older and not quite so mobile or flexible or energetic. Yes, I still do a LOT of things, but I'm tiring far more easily these days.
So, yeah, this grade should be a relatively restful year.
--
Now about the complete newbie.
She's the teenaged daughter of a woman who I campaigned for in the federal election last year. I got to know the kid then, and she was sweet, but quiet and a bit shy.
Spotted her dad at our promotion day, where we did the sausage sizzle at Bunnings (Bluey's "Hammerbarn") with our hockey club. Chatted with him a while, made a joke about G or her mum playing, which he said it wasn't likely. And then, that evening, I get a message from her mother to say that G was interested.
So G started coming along to training and it was obvious she was a complete beginner. And not just a beginner, but not even sporty. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's a size/awkwardness thing, but she's a big girl and doesn't appear to be comfortable in it. I suspect there's teenaged self-consciousness thrown into the mix but possibly also a tendency towards introversion.
Add to that some serious anxiety/overstiumlation issues. Now that I think about it, I recall there was a gathering where her mum went while canvassing, and she found it so overwhelming she had to go back out into the street for a bit to recover.
And hockey is not a calming game - loud and noisy, lots of shouting - even if it's not angry shouting, it's still noise.
So she's not dealing well with the game. She had to go off the field because she had a meltdown when the ball accidentally hit her foot.
I feel like she needs a season of getting comfortable with her body and the stick and the ball, and also of learning the sport. She came as a complete complete beginner, which we've had before, but also without the personal resources to be able to learn the game. And by herself, no friends, although everyone is being kind to her.
I don't know if it will be enough. I am trying to reinforce that we are glad to have her (and we are) but also I don't know if there's a way to help her along in the journey. It may be that she and hockey are functionally incompatible, at least at this point in her life.
*sigh*
--
I got the flu vax last Friday. Will go back and get the most recent COVID one maybe next Friday.
--
Phew, really tired. Might go have a lie-down before bible study group.
--
Tired today, and my mouth feels vaguely furry.
--
Can't remember if I've talked about hockey this year. Last year in B-grade with a familiar and solid team was fun but exhausting. So I'm really glad I got dropped back into our C-grade team.
The comp this year is A/B grade and C/D grade, eight in each. After two rounds, top 4 teams will be the upper grade, and the bottom 4 will be the lower grade. Sounds pretty fair.
We lost a bunch of players from Team 1 - including some of our most skilled ones - and added a bunch of new players. So some of the best of last year's Team 2 have gone up into Team 1, and Team 2 has dropped back into the C/D dvision. So we have a team with a core of the less-focused players from Team 2 last year (look, I can play well, but I generally need people to challenge me cos I'm a lazy arse) and a bunch of returning-after-a-break types. Some of whom are pretty solid.
And one complete newbie.
More about the newbie later.
One particularly good thing is that we have 'acquired' two defenders from Team 1 (one has been having persisting back and hip issues and the other came with her, I suspect), so while we are not strong in the forward department (a couple of good forwards went up, which is completely deserved and very necessary in the case of the younger one) we are doing solidly in the defensive line!
Also, I think I might have to start working on being a centre half: midfield, controls the play, drops to defend, and backs up to attack. Ugh.
I've only played one game so far this season, and it was against the team we played against in the grand final two years ago. The only team we lost a game to. The team we beat in the grand finals after a draw at full time, extra time, and extra extra time, until it was decided in the penalty shoot-out. OOF.
Anyway, there are a few grumpy people on that team, and I think they were rather frustrated that the score ended in a 0-0 draw. Which, IMO, is a win all its own!
I'm pretty happy to be in this grade with this team. I'm not a standout player, but also, it's not as though all the friends I was closest to have gone up a grade while I've been kept back - not the way it was in 2019 when it felt very deliberate. Also: I'm older and not quite so mobile or flexible or energetic. Yes, I still do a LOT of things, but I'm tiring far more easily these days.
So, yeah, this grade should be a relatively restful year.
--
Now about the complete newbie.
She's the teenaged daughter of a woman who I campaigned for in the federal election last year. I got to know the kid then, and she was sweet, but quiet and a bit shy.
Spotted her dad at our promotion day, where we did the sausage sizzle at Bunnings (Bluey's "Hammerbarn") with our hockey club. Chatted with him a while, made a joke about G or her mum playing, which he said it wasn't likely. And then, that evening, I get a message from her mother to say that G was interested.
So G started coming along to training and it was obvious she was a complete beginner. And not just a beginner, but not even sporty. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's a size/awkwardness thing, but she's a big girl and doesn't appear to be comfortable in it. I suspect there's teenaged self-consciousness thrown into the mix but possibly also a tendency towards introversion.
Add to that some serious anxiety/overstiumlation issues. Now that I think about it, I recall there was a gathering where her mum went while canvassing, and she found it so overwhelming she had to go back out into the street for a bit to recover.
And hockey is not a calming game - loud and noisy, lots of shouting - even if it's not angry shouting, it's still noise.
So she's not dealing well with the game. She had to go off the field because she had a meltdown when the ball accidentally hit her foot.
I feel like she needs a season of getting comfortable with her body and the stick and the ball, and also of learning the sport. She came as a complete complete beginner, which we've had before, but also without the personal resources to be able to learn the game. And by herself, no friends, although everyone is being kind to her.
I don't know if it will be enough. I am trying to reinforce that we are glad to have her (and we are) but also I don't know if there's a way to help her along in the journey. It may be that she and hockey are functionally incompatible, at least at this point in her life.
*sigh*
--
I got the flu vax last Friday. Will go back and get the most recent COVID one maybe next Friday.
--
Phew, really tired. Might go have a lie-down before bible study group.
Tags: