Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

he is very lucky to have the support network you offer around him. He will do brilliantly in life

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We have renewed Alex's licence. He doesn't have to do anything, we simply fill in a form and send it off with the money.

It means he can turn up to a class whenever he wants, or go to fight club, or attend events officially as a black belt - such as gradings and seminars.

Mrs Kwacky and I have both decided that we need to do at least one sparring competition. My lad used to go to sparring training on Fridays (known as Fight Club) so me and Sam will start going. We told Alex and he said he didn't mind coming along from time to time just to do the fitness part (it's the first half of the class - it's essentially circuit training). So, you never know, he might get his interest back, he might not. I'm not getting my hopes up.

I do know he's bored and he's struggling to fill the gap he's got. He has started going to football training but he's realised quite quickly he's a few years behind some of the lads as they've been playing since they were toddlers. Maybe he'll find a new sport to get into at his new school.

Sounds good that he will at least go for the fitness..

As for football, I started playing when I was around 9 (most people started from 5 or 6). I wasn't very good looking back.. I couldn't score a goal to save my life but I could tackle. I ended up moving to Forest Green Rovers from U13s til U16s and my last season was as a winger - I was top goal scorer, most Man of Match awards and also got MOTM in the league cup final which we won 2 of the 3 years we entered.

The following day I had a bone graft operation which spelled the end of my youth career.

What I'm trying to get at in the long convoluted manner I have is that if he has a new found passion for football, keep going with it - it takes time as does everything.

I've told him to drop back and play full back. He doesn't have to worry about the skills so much and can concentrate on using his pace and his strength. He's only small for his age but he's solid and he doesn't back out of a tackle.

He sounds like I was.. as long as he can win the ball, intercept, tackle and pass he will be okay at the back.

Lets the other kids take the glory up top because they also take the crap when they mess up

I went to the football yesterday morning. His team are having a few pre-season friendlies.

The other side were struggling with numbers, so Alex was a sub for their team. As tends to happen, when he was playing he wasn't getting much of the ball as they didn't really want to pass to him. The under 11s play 9 a side, so he was centre right. He's got a decent burst of pace.

You can tell he doesn't mind getting hurt as he was tackling and keeping his eye on the ball. A lot of lads would half jump in looking away of covering their face.

Alex needs to work on his cardio. His recovery rate is excellent but he struggles with long runs.

He did alright. His best move was a run from the back third with the ball, riding 3 tackles then passing to a striker, only for him to blaze it over.

His team are good, there's a nice mix of players and playing styles. He may struggle to get in the team but the important thing is that he really enjoyed himself.

I found out today that the British team have been looking for a black belt light heavyweight for the squad. That's what Alex is.

They're off to Florida next Spring for a UK v USA team event.

Shame he quit. Oh well.

Congrats......must feel pretty good about that!!!!

He quit Taekwondo in the summer. Had he still been doing it he would be in the national squad. But he's decided he wants to play football instead.

How is the footy going for him?

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Ok. He's a few years behind the other players so he lacks their skill. But he's a grafter and prepared to learn.

It's whether he is a thinking player which will get him noticed, get him playing FIFA that will help

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Kwacky, do you have sufficient spare time to take your son to a field twice a week and practice skills with him? There are some brilliant videos online with exercises that can be done.

General things that will really help him over time:
- Dribbling between cones then placing a shot in a goal (against a wall, between two jumpers, etc)
- Shooting in zones at goal (mark an area about 2 foot in from each post, he has to shoot between those)
- Lob passes/clearances
- Shuttle sprints then shooting/passing/clearing accurately (this is a difficult one because he has to gain composure after doing a 100% effort sprint)

There are so many activities you can do and he will quickly get better if practiced.

It's finding the time to be honest Cav

Monday - Me and wife at Taekwondo
Tuesday - me and wife at boxercise
Wednesday - Alex is at Boxing
Thursday - my session at the gym
Friday - Alex at Boxing
Saturday - Alex at football
Sunday - Boxercise in the morning

He's in the school squad and does practice with them twice a week, then he trains with a local team on Saturdays.

Did I mention he's taken up boxing as well? it's a proper boxing gym for under 18s. One of the guys (Tom) who runs it is a 3rd dan backbelt in Taekwondo and his son is 2nd dan. Alex knows them both.

He trains with Tom twice a week. There's already a relationship there and Tom has seen Alex go through the ranks before so he's happy to spend time with him and Alex knows that Tom is a good coach so he listens.

Oh fair enough, yeahhhh I see your problem re time

Boxing as well - how does he find Boxing? Clearly he was missing that type of sport which footy won't give him so he has 2 completely different sports. I wonder which one he will carry on with

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I think he sees the football more for the social side of it. The cool kids at school play football. He's going on a school trip next year with the football team.

He's getting into his boxing. He went to a couple of the Sunday morning boxercise classes we do and he liked it. He's only done a couple of lessons with Tom but he's going back tonight.

We'll see which one he sticks with.

To be fair he's a busy laddy and it's good to dip your toes into different things to be able to see what he likes and could happily stick with well into his adult life

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Good luck to him and keep this thread updated Kwacky

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Ive got a couple of videos of him boxing. I'll see if I can upload them at the weekend.

I'm waiting to see if spars and forgets he can't use his legs