PLAYING THE GAME
Salut ma fille belle. Comment êtes-vous?
This week Tristan (Mr10) stepped up a notch in his quest for sporting supremacy. Firstly, on Monday as the last EPL highlights show of the season was about to begin, he confided in me that he now really likes watching football not just playing it. This weekend both his club and school sides won important games and he has since dragged me up to Melwood Oval twice now (in full kit) to practice his shooting. These sessions always finish the same way, namely with him taking a penalty, the scoring of which, will result in his school/club/Arsenal winning the game and therefore the league. If by chance I should save it, or in the unlikely event he misses, his commentary continues along the lines of… “… brilliant save from the keeper, but oh no, what’s this? The ref wants it retaken… one of the players must have infringed on the box… the pressure this boy is under now… I can hardly watch.” He then spits (of course) and calmly steps up and sends the crowd into raptures as I inextricably go the wrong way!
Listening to him jabber on like this I find really rather amusing, as I too played many a ‘commentary game’ with my football mates when I was his age. I was always playing for the mighty Leeds United and frankly, as I remember it, without me they would never have won anything.
Commentating out loud, or silently in our heads, is quite common in males apparently. Adam Spencer was only discussing the subject on the radio recently. Men will, if simply walking up the street, invariably commentate on their ‘sensational performance’ as they duck and weave ‘racing’ against all comers. The innocent people being overtaken have no idea they are even in a race let alone that they just lost the Gold medal to the up and coming Pavement World Champion. That’s just one example of course, but it’s clear that men and boys tend to apply this to everything and anything they do, no matter how mundane the task. It probably stems from our overactive male competitiveness. Make it a competition and we will always apply ourselves like crazed animals.
The highlight of Tristan’s weekend was shopping for his first pair of Skins. Overpriced bike shorts that promise extraordinary ‘dynamic gradient compression’ to expedite muscle recovery following strenuous activity. That’s the science. The fact is though that his friends have them and he sees professional sportsmen wearing them, so he just has to have them doesn’t he? Even if they do cost $80. This outing proved quite expensive as he also needed new trainers. Needless to say, the only ones he wanted and ‘felt good’ were the most expensive child trainers available. These Asics Gel Kayano 16s with Duomax technology for support and stability, promise to do for his feet what the Skins will allegedly do for his legs. All I know is they were 30% dearer than my New Balance 608s.
So, I look forward to watching him play next weekend. Sport is clearly becoming an ever increasing important part of his life (he also made the long jump team this week) and so I have no qualms at supporting him and paying for this equipment. It may be debatable how much the physical properties will improve his performance, but it should not be underestimated how important it is to also massage the psychological side of his game.
: Dad
