Kicking It Up A Notch!

A few weeks back, I expressed my frustration with my older daughter about her commitment to soccer and taekwondo.  Well, the talks are starting to pay off.  The past two weeks, we have seen renewed commitment and intensity in her involvement in both sports.  Last weekend, she told me that when her body told her to just quit, she told her body to shut up and keep going.  As she said, the ball was going to be hers regardless of what her body was trying to convince her of. 

Today at her “Extreme Team” taekwondo practice, one of the “Masters” that coach the group forced everyone to stop because the lack of intensity was so poor from everyone.  He told them that practice should be hard.  If practice is hard now, then the matches they are in later won’t seem as hard.  It will be easier for them to keep going and win because they will be physically and mentally stronger and prepared for what is to come.  He asked them to simply stay home if they can’t or won’t try their hardest every week – that they wanted people there that were willing to push themselves to the physical limit to get better each week.  Our girl kicked ass.  Her kicks were fast and hard.  She kept herself in the matches.  It was great to see.  After they were done, the two Masters were huddled together talking about the way people are improving, and they called our girlie over to tell her she did fabulous today.  I think she floated out of that dojan.

Soccer was another success for her today.  Oregon fall was definitely upon us.  It was pouring down rain….almost the whole game.  She played goalie and did great.  The second half of the game, she was all over the place – in a good way.  You could see the internal struggle with herself as the game went on.  I could hear her internally yelling at herself to keep going, and it kept her team in the game.  And, the coaches all noticed it as well.  I was standing behind the coach who, at one point, gathered the girls today, pointed at my girl, and said “see her  – look a how she isn’t giving up even though she is wet and cold – she is the only one out there still running on our team – you guys need to go in there and do that”.  Wow! 

So, the kick in the butt verbally worked.  And, I can tell she is understanding and feeling the difference between now and before.   And, I think the positive reinforcement from the coaches is simply reinforcing it.  I’m very proud of her.   More importantly, I can tell she is proud of herself!

What do you think?

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