Alison Curtis: Should I push my daughter to play soccer?
Alison Curtis: after her own foray into sports as an adult, daughter Joan has also taken to the pitch
My daughter Joan recently joined a local football team. She has played various sports through school and bursts of tennis in our local club but up until this month, she hasn’t been part of a team.
I know I have written before in this column about the importance of sport in children’s lives and in particular girls. The importance of encouraging this side of their lives past those tricky drop-off years of 13/14 years old.
We all know the physical and mental health benefits of being active and involved in sport but it wasn’t until Joan joined her local football club that I could really see it with my own eyes.
What started out as a simple posting in a WhatsApp group by a fellow parent has turned into the single most positive force in Joan’s life right now.
A wonderful parent, who has always encouraged sport in the lives of her son and daughters, let everyone know that the local soccer U12 girls club was looking for players. My husband spotted the opportunity for Joan and eventually talked her into “giving it a go.”
Joan turned up with my husband to a training session but stuck to him like glue. She was encouraged by her pals, their parents, and the club manager to join the game just to see how she liked it. Instead, she wouldn’t leave my husband’s side and he said it was reminiscent of when she was four or five and super clingy.
They left that practice session both a bit disheartened. But again her pals, their parents, and the club manager came to the rescue. They invited her to another practice session and drove her to watch some matches without any obligation to join in.
Fast forward another week, and Joan was in the jersey and on the pitch. She was a little bit tentative at first but soon attempted to get the ball and to pass it.
She was absolutely buzzing when she came home from that training session and she gave me a blow-by-blow rundown of the events and an explanation of the rules for me. It was wonderful to see and my husband and I were so proud of her.
I waited to see how the commitment was after the following training session before I bought her a pair of football boots and shin guards. Again she was beaming coming home and said she wanted to go back so I jumped online to buy the necessities.
Once everything arrived along with the socks and jersey the club supplied her, Joan was out on the green opposite our house, fully kitted out, every night after dinner.
We could see she was dedicated, she was hooked and it was the thing she really wanted to be doing. She was practicing and giving it her full attention and her drive to improve was so clear.
The beautiful game had given her confidence and drive and this is the beauty of sport. And the benefits of what our children will get from it are so immense and will carry with them throughout their lives. The skills to win, the ability to cope with losing, and learning to support one another to achieve great things. For now, I am so happy she loves football, long may it continue!
