Parental Pressure

I coach 6 year old soccer. Its a lot of fun because the kids are just starting to get excited about the game. However, they are also just starting to become self-conscious of how they perform. At that age kids can swing either way with their desire to play, their fear of failure, and the parental pressure that is placed upon them. You might think that at 6 there isn't a lot of parental pressure to perform. "That comes later," your might say. It's true that some parents I see just want their kid to learn to love the game and have fun. They want them to do well and feel good about getting involved. Other parents must push/bribe their kid to want to play and to do more than just stand on the field and not move. Finally, there are the "gun-ho" type of parents who are yelling for their kid-even at age 6-to perform, to be better, and to work harder. These things aren't bad, but I begin to question how much you should push for those when your kid is 6 and you are yelling at him for not doing everything perfect or not working hard enough, when it is clear to me that he has been playing his best. It leads me to wonder if these kids are the ones that perform the best or if other parental approaches are better. Maybe it is just a difference in style, or maybe it is a completely different life philosophy. I don't know what these types of parents think or expect from their kids. At that age I think a love of the sport (or whatever activity the child is involved in) should be key and let the expectation to succeed build, but not at the expense of pushing a kid so hard that perhaps he won't want to do it anymore, or worse will keep doing it but because its what his/her parents expect, not because they love it.

Cross Country Travels

3.5 Days/34 Hours -- or by Google Maps account 1 Day 10 Hours
2 Nights at Truck Stops: 1 Night in the mountains of West Virginia
10 States: 11 Gas Stations: 400 oz Dr. Pepper

Surprisingly, three and a half days in a car isn’t as bad as you might think. Driving through the Midwest and small-town America was spectacular and the closest thing I’ve come to a dream trip of spending 2-3 months taking back roads of American to see the variety of events, attractions, and places that America offers. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to take that trip. I originally wanted to take longer than I did but realized I had a deadline and wanted to get everything moved before I started work, so instead of meandering throughout Kansas and Nebraska some more I decided to stop as little as possible. Although, I did wander of the Interstate Highway system and took a number of old state roads that took me through dozens of small towns and load of countryside. It was beautiful, I thought I would get bored through the long stretch of flatlands, but somehow I just found it incredible and a number of towns I liked enough to think, “I could enjoy living here.” I even discovered that Mankato, KS is offering free land to people who are willing to build a home. So move to Mankato?

Englestead Canyon -- Zion National Park

There is nothing I love more than getting out and enjoying nature. Utah is an amazing place for this because of the variety of terrain. If you have the right gear you get to some of the most incredible places, such as Englestead Canyon in Zion National Park. On Labor Day weekend we took drop just under 300' into Englestead Canyon. The pictures I have just don't do it justice. You can't grasp the distance we dropped to get into the canyon, nor the sheer height and beauty of it. It was without a doubt the longest rappel of my life. Thanks to Tom Jones, a renowned canyoneer who had just finished sending his own group through, we were able to get into the canyon by a single 300' rappel, rather than the three rope switch we were planning. After we dropped in there was no turning back so we headed down canyon through another dozen or so rappels and one of the best hikes I've ever done. Despite it being Labor Day we encountered very few people in this canyon (something about the difficulty of getting in kept most of the standard tourists out). This made the weekend perfect, since your regular hikes, like Angel's Landing, were packed with weekend tourists on a day where the park stopped letting in vehicle traffic because all the parking was gone. It just goes to show that with the right training and equipment you can still reach relatively untouched aspects of nature and enjoy the serenity of it. It was one of the best ways I could have spent my last weekend in Utah, enjoying everything Utah has to offer with my friends. Couldn't have wanted it any other way. Until next time.



Also, see my buddy Johnny's blog on our adventure.
http://jetchemendy.blogspot.com/2009/09/epic-weekend.html