When Did I Become Cool? O_o

Seriously, it’s a bit disturbing to me. In the 90′s, I was that socially awkward boy that loved fantasy RPGs, computer games, Star Trek and Star Wars, played Magic (which is apparently a nerd rite of passage). Not only that, I was a well-read, French speaking violinist who made a habit of spending his downtime in PE reading the latest works of Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore. The actually shocking thing was that I was also very athletic. I had one PE teacher ask why I wasn’t playing football (hint: I’m smart enough to not be a lineman at a 5A school), and let’s face it, I was a soccer player too (still am). But those moments of contemporary coolness were quickly overshadowed by my preferred company.

This has apparently changed on me. The stuff I did in between classes and on occasional weekends is now becoming de rigeur. I’ve got little kids (5-10 year olds) thinking I’m cool and wondering how can they be like me.

My first suggestion is they learn how to juggle with their feet.

I give it enough introspection and I realize, I’m not cool to people my age. I’m still the socially awkward panda at the office that people go to with esoteric questions and spout out random trivia answers to incorrect statements.

It’s that the kids two generations younger than me like that I can run and kick with them and then go and play video games with them and talk to them like they’re a peer and not a pier. I’m an interesting jungle gym that sings and dances.

Edit: What follows is a conversation with my wife:

“You became cool when you met me!”

“Heh, well that’s modesty for you. You certainly thought this guy is almost cool. If I date him, he’ll become ICE COLD!”

“Hahahahha that’s EXACTLY what I thought! “

Being a Coach

So what’s it like being a soccer coach? It’s not something I had considered…really until I met Stacy. I’ll admit, I had pie in the sky ideas of teaching them to pass and kick like I can. But after watching them run around and fall over basically nothing, I decided the best thing was to just see how hard they can kick the ball. I’ve managed to work from there to running and kicking the ball.

I work with a parent of one of the players. Jordy is nice and enthusiastic but I think he has unrealistic expectations. We’ve got three legitimate goal scorers on the team. One because he’s really good for a five year old, one because he’s fast, and one because he’s big. After that, we have some good kids but we should focus on developing skills rather than game planning. Maybe I’m on the wrong side of things, but at this age winning means as much to them as getting Mac and cheese for dinner…it’s good but not that special.

I’ve got a new game for them to play on Thursday. Hopefully more than two kids are out there so we can play it. Sharks and Minnows, tailor made for Joshua…as long as he stops tackling people. :-/

I Like to Play Soccer

I’m about halfway through the third season back playing soccer. The last two weeks have been a bit rough because sone genius at the soccer office thought it’d be hi-fucking-larious to have us play two games a week for two weeks running. I was game all the way until the end of the third game. At that point I’d strained my left quad and was hiding it. Then came last night’s game and I knew it was hurting but I roughed it out. Then I bruised my right quad 30 minutes into the game. Now if you haven’t played soccer, quadriceps are incredibly important. It’s where most of the power for kicks come from. Also since I dive a lot it’s where my primary source of shot stopping comes from.

So at halftime I was lying down stretching and hoping my legs would stop hurting. No luck. Needless to say it’s at this point that the other team presses and bow I get to try and atop more shots and take more goal kicks. We held out well enough. My problem with goal kicks is that my technique is sketchy at the best of times. Factor in sore legs and fatigue and you can forget it. Sadly the forwards weren’t reacting to it like that. Instead they would insist that I try and boot 40 yards to them every time. Ugh. Finally someone got the message and started taking the kicks for me.

Also making body twisting kick saves…bad for quads. Just sayin’.

My First Assist in a Long Time

Keepers usually don’t get goals or assists. It’s more common in hockey with a small court where two passes really do get you on the other side of the ice. It’s very rare in soccer. But I managed to get an assist last night.

The play started like this: an opposing player plays a cross, I gather it up and see a forward about 50 yards or so away. I sprint to the top of the penalty box and punt the ball as hard and as far as I can almost directly towards my forward. The ball takes a huge bounce and the forward gets the ball on the run, dashes another 20 yards and hits a rocket of a shot that stays just below the bar, well above the opposing keeper’s head.

I made a diagram of the play, wanna see it?

Did I Talk About the Derby Match?

I forget if I did.

The bout was quite fun. Stacy S did well initially but the other team noticed she was running hurt and they took advantage. I started to cringe when I saw her out there because I knew she was hurting but toughing it out like a true derby girl. Overall the team didn’t win bit they did well. The first team was smoking the other side when we left. Which got me to thinking about the viability of a men’s derby league.

I say no way for several reasons. 1) watching ladies on skates jostle and shove is fun. Sweaty dudes…not so much. 2) Too much testosterone. It kinda ruins current games to have preening jackholes go after an try to avenge a prior hit. 3) Guys would try to hurt each other.

Derby girls have an amazing sense of camaraderie that I don’t see guys banding together to display. Guys get too cliquish where the girls seem to have made being a derby girl the clique.

To change speeds, I’m now in my ninth game of my soccer come back. I’m trying to get something I’d avoided doing my whole soccer life and getting a respectable goal kick. I’ve learned the technique now I’ve got to consistently apply it. It’ll help our defense to not have to wait for me to be ready for a counter attack.

My current team is not as good as my coed team. They’re more fractious and likely to get mad at each other very quickly. No one has blamed me for anything just yet but I’ve prolly got a screw up in the works. I think that keepers are so rare that they don’t like to piss off the ones they’ve got. I would like to play in the field every now and then. Just to see if I can beat someone off a dribble. When I dribble as a keeper people stay away from me because I tend to get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to calls. It’s a naturally ingrained reaction to not hit the differently dressed guy.

Maybe I can get a half out of the box this summer.

Saw two movies, played in two soccer games

So, new list time. Technically Tron Legacy and The King’s Speech are 2010 movies, but I’m listing them in the order that I saw them, so they fall in my 2011 list.

Which currently looks like this:

1. The King’s Speech
2. Tron Legacy

 

The King’s Speech is an excellent film. The dialogue is engaging and you genuinely feel bad for someone who’s led a very privileged life because he is forced to do something we almost all dread: public speaking, and he has to do it around a stammer. In the 2010 Oscar race, I felt Social Network had a lot of the qualities  to make it, but this movie came in and swept them all away. I’d easily have Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush as my picks (if I actually had any influence) for best actor and best supporting actor. Helena Bonham Carter makes a good case for her to get best supporting actress, but I’d have to see the other films.

The other end of it is Tron: Legacy. Not a bad film, actually a good popcorn flick, but it’s quality is nowhere near the King’s Speech. It’s basically the same movie as Tron only with more backstory and twice as much Jeff Bridges. Stacy really got into it and I think benefited from not having seen the first movie at all. Overall, seeing it in 3D was a waste. I never noticed it when it was in 3D or when it wasn’t. Maybe I’m just losing my ability to notice it, but overall I’d just save the money. Overall, I just wasn’t superimpressed by anything in the film, it just seemed like they skipped around in the story too much. Maybe the flashbacks were obnoxious to me…they could have shown a lot of that in the front end to better explain things…ah who knows. It doesn’t work out that way. Narrators and flashbacks really just get on my nerves most of the time. Sometimes they work, but not in this case (again, for me).

So, I made myself a promise that once I broke a certain weight goal, I’d go back into soccer. Stacy S. talked me into going back a little bit earlier, forcing me to bust my hump (made the goal, btw, and an extra 20 lbs beyond it). First practice, I badly jam two of my fingers, and I come back sore as hell. Second practice: no hand injuries but I’m still sore. Did a lot more running.

And then the games, three weeks into the season and we’ve played two games. Lost one due to rain, but I was going to miss it due to a trip, so I’m not too terribly upset. First game out, I was nervous as hell. I made a good showing for my first game back, but the other team ran all over us. They had sharp passes and good dribblers, and we couldn’t seem to match up. At some point, I got too tired to react and it just started raining goals. Ended badly for us, and I didn’t have much I could take out of it except “don’t run around so much”

Second game went better for the team, but much worse for me. I made some errors early on that got us down 3-2. Eventually I sorted myself out and only gave up one more goal, but I was really annoyed because I’m coming out of the box too much, and one of the goals was because I wasn’t being aggressive enough inside the box. So, what I need to work on is being patient with my defense and not rushing out of the penalty box to get the ball. I’ve been beaten too often. So, I’ll stay back more until they’re in the box. Also, on crosses, everything is mine from here on out. Shouting and all of that, I can’t let them get crosses because players now are adept enough with their heads to beat me. Our team won that one, so the offense really saved me there.

Just somethings I need to work on.