Friday, March 18, 2011
Lacrosse - New Territory
In my younger, less sagacious years I always thought it a meathead, provincial sport.
But like a total Moron my prejudice was based upon absolutely no first-hand experience.
On Long Island now, we're deep into lacrosse country.
And my wife signed the 6.33 year-old Prince up for the spring season. I was moderately against it but my wife insisted and promised to take him every weekend, and to practice with him.
However lacrosse is not exactly kickball so the kid has to practice a bit if he has any hopes of keeping up with his neighbors who've been wielding lacrosse sticks since they were 3. Seriously.
So I'm learning some of the basics and am so far enjoying flipping the ball around. Who knows - maybe I'll end up loving the sport?
Thinking back on my youth sports experiences, my father FORCED me (tears streaming down my face!) to sign-up and play Biddy Basketball (8.5 ft hoops) when I was 8. It turns out that despite that unenthusiastic introduction, b-ball became for me an all-consuming passion - my favorite sport even to this day some 30 years later.
Also, my own father grew up a huge baseball player. Sure he steered my brother and I down that road but after 2 years we both gave it up in favor of soccer - a sport my father had ZERO experience with (like me with lacrosse). In fact a few years later my mother told me that she and my father actually *celebrated* when we gave up the passion of his youth, baseball. But guess what....he and his first wife became all-out soccer nuts themselves as me and my siblings took to the game.
BTW, lacrosse isn't exactly cheap - about $200 for equipment!
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6 comments:
I do have a similar experience with those obscure sports. I told my son that he would always play a sport every year. The first one he picked was FENCING. Talk about expensive equipment! That bee-looking helmet was over a grand.
From that point forward, I picked his sports. And usually by how much the equipment cost.
Lacrosse is not as gay as kickball, though. When that world-wide kickball tournament starts, I shut out the entire world for the duration.
C'mon.
Kickball is only *gay* if you toe the ball.
I think that the gayest part of kickball is when one player brushes up against another player's shirt and the brushed-shirt player rolls around on the ground for five minutes acting like he's hurt.
I played lacrosse in college, until the startup team "leaders" decided everyone should chip in a hundred dollars or so for matching uniforms and pizza parties (girls team it was).
This poor college student said nope. Already sprung 60+ for stick and balls. NOT going to blow anymore for pizza parties with girl jocks. No thanks.
But it was fun playing it. I still have the stick and one of these days I'll start teaching my kids the fine arts of cradling.
Lucy,
Did you know that organized sports teams have (almost) a Nazi/socialist origin? They were tools to pit *one group against another* - exercises in manipulated class agitation!
I wrote a post on it but can't find it at the moment.
When I myself played youth sports I had an unarticulated yet palpable disrespect for my opponents. Contrast that attitude with those foreigners who kick a ball around on the beach - or the random guys who get paired up on the golf course and have a grand time.
"exercises in manipulated class agitation!"
I'll buy that. They certainly work well for distraction and wealth redistribution. I would see it as applying more to spectator sports though, than participatory sports. I think engaging in competition is good for kids, but the key word is "engaging".
Paying for do-or-die allegiance (ie adult fans, pro sports) is high on the Goebbels scale.
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