Thursday, July 2, 2009

Enhancing Your Appreciation of the Beautiful Game

From several of my previous posts, you all know that I truly appreciate the game of football. I have recently discovered the most powerful way to solidify and make permanent one's romance with the beautiful game. Take some time to learn and play the game. Now I don't mean you have to go out and join a league for 11v11 games and a formal season. Being a total newbie (meaning NEVER EVER have I played the game), joining some formal football league was way too intimidating. H played football growing up and recently began playing again - in an indoor 5v5 league and in an infomral 4v4 outdoor program called SoccerFours in San Francisco.

H encouraged me to try SoccerFours and eventually I did. Before signing up (http://www.soccerfours.com/), I emailed the organizer of SoccerFours - Chris. I told him that I was a total novice who has never played the game and I was concerned how I would "fit in". Chris was totally encouraging. Now that I have played with them for 3 weeks, I have come to realize (1) How out of shape I am, (2) how Chris was right in terms of me being comfortable learning the game in the SoccerFours community, and (3) how much playing the game is really the only way to fully appreciate the players that I watch as a fan and what they can do on the pitch. Beyond the obvious things like passing, shooting, dribbling skills... just their endurance to play 90+ minutes on a full-size pitch just floors me. I am sure that this phenomenon is true for every sport (I don't think people fully appreciate the demands of golf until they actually try to play the game!).

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