My travel schedule is light for at least the next couple of months and that has afforded me the opportunity to be the head coach for both my daughter’s U10 team and my son’s U12 team. This is a recreational league that only has one practice and one game per week, with the practices on different days, so really it’s not that bad from a commitment standpoint. As long as I don’t have any conflict on game day I’ll be OK.
I’ve coached my daughter before but never my son, so this is a great opportunity. Today was the first practice for both teams, so I was unusually busy with morning practice at 9:00 and afternoon practice at 2:00 (normally I think that will be the game schedule but since this is the first week we used the time for practice). As I have written about before, soccer is great exercise. My coaching style is to coach quietly on the sidelines during games, but to get actively involved during practices. So I try to stay involved with dribbling drills which included sprints from mid-field to the goal line and back, maintaining control of the ball. That got tiring!
None of these drills are particularly hard, and I paused enough such that I didn’t keep my heart rate up like a full scrimmage, but it was definitely enough to notice it.
But really, being a coach is not about the exercise directly, it’s about being involved for my kids first and foremost, and secondarily an excuse to get a little extra fitness in a different way than I would normally get it.
It’s only a seven week season but it should be fun!
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