Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Peer Pressure Can Easily Sway Girls

... to join the track team!

I was driving my daughter and her best friend home from their high school soccer game* yesterday when the subject of the next sports season came up. My daughter's biggest drawback in soccer is her speed and I had encouraged her to run track. She demurred saying that she didn't want to be embarrassed by finishing last in every race. I understood and the matter was closed. Her friend, an absolute rabbit of a girl, started begging her to run track with her. She pumped my daughter up and said she wasn't that slow after all.

End result: We're going to give track, specifically sprints, a try. Hurrah! The only caveat is that it can't conflict in any way with her club soccer team. Double hurrah!

Peer pressure's not always bad. If your kids hang out with the right sort, it can be quite good.

* - We played an inner city team that fielded only eight girls, three of whom were severely overweight. It didn't look like any of them knew what to do with the ball. Our team's offense is positively anemic - 2 goals is unheard of for us. We won, 9-0 and we didn't even play full strength most of the game. When a powerhouse like Steele Canyon plays that team, strong men must weep and look away from the carnage.

No comments: