Football Season!

It is football season, and it is Braden's first year playing. In his age group, he is only able to play flag football, but that is to teach them the fundamentals of the game without having them all jumping on top of each other and tackling when they shouldn't be -ha! Braden says that all it seems like they do is exercise at practice, and he is right, there is lots of running, and blocking, and running, and jumping jacks, and running - ugh! He seems to enjoy it, he says that he likes it because the practices are shorter than when he played baseball or soccer. Actually, the practice for football is a half hour LONGER, but he doesn't notice at all, so that must mean he is enjoying it! When we went and registered him for football, alot of the coaches kept trying to get me to bypass the flag league and they would push him through to tackle due to his size. I was not crazy about that idea because Braden doesn't know the fundamentals of the game, after watching one practice I am REALLY glad we chose to stick with tackle for a season, he is very rough as it is already. He likes it, and the coach is great with the boys, very tough on the, lots of consequences for not listening and doing the exercises right, but it is good for them...Josh says the coach doesn't have anything on Pete Atkins - ha! Here are some pics of Braden at practice this evening.

Playing catch at the beginning of practice

Good throw buddy!

Here is a sample of some of that running!

...and there was a little goofing off going on too...which I am surprised didn't lead to more running!!

Learning to block, they have lots left to learn...good thing this is only practice number three for the season!