Around a month ago, I did start the idea to write about the sport hobbies of my kids. Well it is time for an update about it.

Let's see how things are going!

Agenda!

Well the agenda was already crowded with work, normal social activities, school and so on and the hobbies of the kids are filling it up even more. Nyls decided to it was time to add another sport to his agende, Taekwondo!

The agenda!

  • Monday: Nyls football training from 18.00 until 19.15, Lars football training from 17.45 until 19.15. And yes, it would be great if they did had their practice on the same location, but too bad it isn't.
  • Tuesday: Nyls Taekwondo training from 18.00 until 19.00.
  • Wednesday: Nyls football training from 16.00 until 17.15 and Lars Football training from 17.45 until 19.15.
  • Thursday: Nyls Taekwondo training from 18.00 until 19.30.
  • Friday: Lars football training from 17.45 until 19.15!

This is only the training schedule. During the weekend both have a football game. Nyls play at home on Saturdays at 9.15, while Lars has his home games on Saturday at 13.00. The timing of the away games do differ. But we will have to split up on most weekends. Probably I will take the away games and my wife the home games.

Lars

Lars did have a though start of the season. All friendly games were lost and the pace of play is much faster than last season. This isn't strange because they are playing 2 leagues higher than last season.

It is great to see that the team really is getting a team, although they lost all their friendlies. But for us it was also to see what type of coach they did have! Well he is strict and yells a lot during practice and games. A little bit to hard, according to me but it is what it is. If Lars does end the season with this team and coach, he will have a thicker skin :). The coach does find running lines very important and that's new to most of the players.

But he is making progress. He knows understands that the duels are harder than last season and that he has to play faster and more accurate!
The hardest part for him is the position he is playing. Last season he was the number 10 of the team and left defender. But this coach thinks that his best position is striker (number 9). So in stead of having the play in front of him, he now has the play behind him which is something he has to get used too.

The coach also has set some rules for the players and the parents. Most are pretty obvious but some aren't. 

  • We are not allowed to stand behind a goal, because this would distract the players;
  • We are not allowed to coach during the games, we are allowed to give support but not telling them what to do;
  • We are not allowed to discuss the game with the kids until after the next training. The idea behind it, is that most parents are much more demanding than the coach is. Besides that we don't know which guideline they got during the game. I can life with this!
  • Each first practice after a game, the players will receive their ratings. They will get a rating on Defense and Offense! The idea behind this is that it will be used during the mid season evaluation to see where they do need to work on and if they should go to a lower team. Also at the end of season these figures will be used, when selecting the team for next year!

Last weekend they did have their first competition game and to our surprise, their surprise, the opponents surprise and even the coach surprise they did win with 3-1.

The got ahead just at the end of the first quarter with a lucky corner goal. In thee beginning of the third quarter they did extend the lead, but just after they had a free kick against. 2-1! At the end of the third quarter, they had a great counter attack resulting in 3-1. The fourth quarter could be more described as a combination of Rugby and American football. If was foul play from both side. The ones from us did want to win the games and the opponents were frustrated. We could see the damage on Lars ankles after the game.

Lars did play very well (not only from a dad's vision). He did gave one assist and scored the third goal! His ratings were 7 for Defensive and an 8 for Offense, best of the team. The worst rating was a 3 for defense and a 3 for offense.

Let's see how they will do this weekend! Looking forward to it!

Nyls

I didn't see his first game of the season because I had to go Lars his game. Will make this up, this weekend. He had a good first 2 games and then he was tired and inattentive for the 2 last games.

But he did start with Taekwondo this week. After his first training he was surprised how hard it was and told me that it was for sure harder than he did expect and much harder than a football practice. But he did enjoy it.

He really likes to kick, that's why we did choose Taekwondo over Kung Fu or Judo. He ultimate dream is to do kick boxing, but he is only 6!
The second practice was yesterday and was an half hour longer. He was so tired when he got home, but still had so much energy from it. I even had to look up the counting to 10 in Korean! For the ones interested here it is: Hana (1), dool (2), set (3), net (4), tassot (5), yossot (6), ilgob (7), yodol (8), ahob (9) and yol (10).

After dinner he also started practicing his Ap koebi (big step with a defensive arm movement (the best way I can explain it) and Ap seogi (the same but then with a smaller step)! And of course dad had to take a pillow so that he could show his Ap chagi (some kind of kick).

The problem which I do have is that football and Taekwondo aren't the best sports to combine with each other. Both do have a different kicking technique. But we decided to let him choose after the next lesson if he does want to continue with it, then we will pay for a complete season and he will get his dobok (taekwondo suit).

Curious if he stays this enthusiast about Taekwondo! It is good that it wears him out, but he also has to stay focused on school! This is an important school year for him, learning to read and write!

So that was it for now! See you next time with a new status update. At least if people are interested in it!

Cheers,
Peter