Entering The World of Sports

For the past few years Alyssa has been begging us to let her play sports.  She's always shown an interest in wanting to play baseball and last year began asking to play soccer.  In the past our concerns were always that she was just a little bit on the small side for anything that would require physical contact with other children not to mention that she was slightly behind on her motor skills.  So at the age of 3 we put her into a dance perspective class here at our local rec center.  In this class children ages 3-5 would learn dance techniques and strengthen their muscles through play.  It was wonderful, she loved it and unfortunately it only lasted the summer summer that she turned four.  This past summer (as she turned 6) we decided to put her back into the dance classes.  This time we signed her up for an Introductory to Ballet class at the rec center that was designed to introduce children ages 5-7 to ballet plus as an added bonus we could attend one of the fun Dance Perspective Classes each week.  Since June 2010 Alyssa has enjoyed going to her ballet class each week and as it turns out she is quite good at ballet and catches on easy.  On the other hand the class is very repetitive in what they are learning and Alyssa has been yearning for something new and a little more upbeat to do.

Back in January the signs went up outside of the schools advertising registration for the Spring 2011 baseball season.  Alyssa was ecstatic and of course was begging us to let her play.  So after a little discussion we decided that we would register her for T-Ball.  With registration done we received a notice that the season would be starting about mid March and that we should be contacted by a coach no later than March 11th concerning her team placement.  Immediately Alyssa was ready to go out and purchase her baseball equipment and begin learning to catch.

Three days ago we finally received a phone call from a team "Mom" asking if we'd been assigned to a team yet.  After talking for a bit she invited Alyssa out to the field for that night's practice to see if we would be interested in their team.  Practice was to be held at one of the local parks for 5:30pm. So after picking Alyssa up from school Wednesday and telling her the good news we headed out to practice that evening for what would be her first T-ball practice.

Once the coach arrived he wasted no time in gathering the kids together, learning their names, and starting them off with some stretches to loosen their muscles. 

After stretching they had to run a quick lap from the field around the trees and back.

Then the coach had them line up and practice getting in front of and stopping the ball.

Their next lesson was in the name, position and running the bases.  Each child had to make sure to touch the base with their foot as they ran by and called out the name of the base.

And we finished the night with a little batting practice.  I unfortunately wasn't able to get any pictures of Alyssa actually batting because it was so dark out by that time and the park we were at did not have any lights, but I was able to get a quick one of her waiting her turn.

On Thursday the team had it's second practice for the season.  That night the coach decided to place all of the kids out into different positions on the field and have them practice stopping the ball and throwing it to the basemen. Alyssa's position for the night was Short Stop.

Then on Friday evening the team had their third practice.  Yes, that is three nights in a row that we have been out on the baseball field practicing!  These poor kids are really working hard.  Anyway, again the coach decided to place them back out on the field in different positions for some more practice on stopping the ball and throwing it to the basemen.  This time Alyssa was playing left field. 

Afterwards they did have the kids practice running the bases and sliding into home plate but unfortunately by that time it was again too dark for me to get any good quality pictures. 

Over the past three days Alyssa has had her ankles rubbed raw by her cleats, was hit in the top of the head and knee with the ball and hurt her leg sliding into the bases but each day she has continued to go out to practice without complaining.  She really has shown me how tough and determined she truly is and is already begging me to take her out to the park to practice today.  So for now it looks like our schedule for the next 10 weeks is going to include one night of ballet and at least three days of baseball.  Now we just can't wait for the season to really start and the games to begin!