So, I was able to sit with the leaders of Play for Hope and teach them about child development yesterday. Mind you, these are guys that have worked successfully with street kids for a long time. I think they enjoyed seeing things defined a bit and they had a lot of questions regarding what to do in certain situations and if that was the thing I was talking about. Turns out, kids here react to coaches the same way they do back in America. Go figure. Now I will say that I have always tried to stay mindful that statistically, half the kids I coach are likely from divorced families. That, among many other factors, has always played a part in the way I coach. Also, having premier players comes along with a certain expectation of parental mis-steps, but these coaches are dealing with issues like: abandonment, AIDS, genocide, infidelity from parents, starvation, abuse - and that is the majority of the kids. What does that do to the soul of a kid and how does one coach that soul? Now, it helps that the kids here see playing on a soccer team as a major privilege. In the USA, it can seem like a burden to so many kids once the joy is snatched from them. This really confirms in my heart the things I have been learning about every childs need to answer these three questions before they can be successful in sports: 1) What makes me safe? 2) What makes me valuable? And therefore, 3) Who am I?
We are going to teach these coaches to make their teams sanctuaries for the wounded soul.
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