Saturday, August 29, 2009

Secret to Soccer

Ball touches.

The more you touch that ball, the better you know it. If you touch it enough, you will know exactly how big it is, and how it responds to the different ways you touch it. There is NO WAY to get good at soccer without really getting to know that ball. Spending time with it, with and without other friends. To really love it and want to help it get to its goal. To share it, let it go, and welcome it back. To respect its impossible roundness, its squirrelyness, its perfection and your imperfection.

Quality time, you might call it, but if it ain't quantity time, too, you're goin' nowhere.

Call it a game, call it parenting or marriage or career or personal growth or any number of things you want to win at. Call it life. Or just call it soccer.