Sunday, January 30, 2011

Cradle

This cradle is not your "Rock A Bye Baby" variety.  This one is much more interesting.  It's the lacrosse cradle.  A craft that must be mastered in order to effectively play the game of lacrosse.  A skill that is the most difficult to learn. 

Until Saturday, I had no idea what cradling was.  I learned quickly.  Sidney started her first day at lacrosse skills camp and this was one of the skills that was introduced.  Apparently its important.  The coach asked that the parents stay to watch a video on the art of cradling.  This is serious business. 

Cradling How-To

The kids were briefly shown how to hold their stick and then asked to mimic their coach's technique.  I can tell you that there were balls flying out of the nets, rolling across the floor and kids running like ants toward a pile of sugar.  It was crazy.  My daughter--the consummate perfectionist--was visibly agitated at her inability to master the cradle on the first shot.  My first instinct was to hop off the stage, on to the floor and give her the "what for" in light of her poor attitude.  I refrained. 

For a brief moment I was able to talk to her and all I could say was "stick with it, you're doing great."  It was obvious that my encouragement had fallen on deaf ears.  She could not see past her perceived shortcoming to see that every other child on the court was struggling with the same thing she was. 

After practice on our walk to the car I asked her if she enjoyed her first day at lacrosse.  Her simple response was "no."  When I asked her why her answer was "because I don't."  I didn't pursue it.  I knew why she didn't like it. 

My mission became to understand the cradle so I could teach her how to hone her skill.  I watched a video (that's right...I got on YouTube and watched a "how to"), consulted with Aaron and together we learned how to cradle.  We were able to teach her pretty quickly and rebuilt her confidence within a matter of minutes.

"Sidney, do you like lacrosse?"  "Yes, I love it.  It is so much fun!"

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