It was a new experience for at least half the boys, including my Bear.
Last week was a wake-up call for sure with all the running around. Then it got some getting used to wearing the darn helmet & mouthguard for the entire practice. TWO hours with his head in a vice. Well, it felt tight for the first couple days but after that he was fine. I guess the helmet started molding to his head so it felt more comfortable. The only time the boys were allowed to take their helmets off was only if their water bottle didn't have a straw. That's right! The coaches were pretty strict about keeping their the helmets on. I guess so that they'd get used to the weight of the things on their heads.
Of course, the Bear was super excited to get onto this next step and get all his gear on. I mean he was anxious all last weekend. Wouldn't you know that I had to go to the last equipment pick-up last Sunday so that I could get a tutorial on how to put all the pads in the proper place. Of course, I had a couple pads in WRONG.
This week the coaches continued to have the boys do push-ups, sit-ups, up-downs, and a bunch of different agility exercises.
Then all the boys got training on how to tackle. Here's the Bear getting some one-on-one instruction on how to properly engage another player. The Bear was so hesitant when he was first doing this. I was surprised to watch how much restraint he was using during the exercise.
The Bear started having fun by mid-week as the coaches had them running plays. Defense got to put on redcaps over their helmets. Here's my guy getting some one-on-one training on what he needed to look for and where he needed to move. I think he's a safety here.
Even though he started the week a little hesitant with the tackling, he ended the week really well. The team did their first round of "King of the Circle" and the Bear did fabulously. He ended up placing 7th out of 28 boys. He really impressed the coaches and got their attention with his performance.
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