Yesterday, my daughter came 4th in the 100 metre race at her School Board track meet. When she ran her first heat, she gave it just enough to come second and advance to the semi-finals. But after the morning race, she started hoping for a rain cancellation so that she wouldn't have to run again. Based on her ambivalence about that whole thing, I'll admit that I didn't expect her to make it into the finals. She surprised me and came first in her semi-final heat to advance easily to the finals. In the finals, she made me proud. She raced hard and earned a fourth place ribbon.
Having been a 100 m and 200 m runner throughout my school years, I was excited to see her taking an interest in running early on. She's a naturally fast runner and could do very well at sprinting or at short cross country (and has done well every time she's competed). But, she's not fond of running at all. In fact, where I liked the individual sports, she much prefers to play team sports. Funny, I can't understand the point of chasing a ball around and neither of my kids can see the point of running or biking with no end goal. Even in a race. They've grown up watching their parents (mostly their dad!) run in races, but they still can't figure out why someone would WANT to run in a race.
So, while my daughter seemed to appease my plea (and apparently one from a number of her school mates and teachers) to run at the track meet, she really wasn't that happy to be there and kept hoping that it would be cancelled due to rain (not a chance!).
When it comes to team sports, though, in over 8 years of shuttling kids to games and practices, I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard complaints from either of my kids, saying they don't want to go to said sport. I've heard them sometimes mention that they're not excited to go (usually, power skating or dryland training), but they don't ever put up a fuss and they're generally ready on time to leave. I count myself lucky. So, instead of trying to get them to do something they clearly don't want to do, we've tried to encourage them to do the things they enjoy doing. The reward? It's always a treat to see your child on the field/ice/court playing a sport they love. You can see it in the way they move and the way they play. But most of all, you can see it in the smile on their face.
As adults, when we think about fitness, keeping healthy and staying in shape, I think we need to follow a similar philosophy. What do you love doing? Whatever it is, it's time to just do it.
