Practice, Practice, Practice

My daughter’s first softball game is tomorrow night. It will be her first time playing a softball game—or even seeing a softball game, for that matter. She’s feeling a little nervous.

We had six pre-season practices scheduled. Her team managed one complete practice. Two were cut short and the other three were cancelled, all because of the weather. We thought she would have one more practice this afternoon, but this morning we learned this isn’t the case; it’s raining, so it would probably have been cancelled anyway. Not only that, we learned that, once the games start, there will be no more practices.

Upon hearing the news, my son remarked, “Practice is something that can come in handy.”

My daughter was rather more alarmed. “Practice doesn’t just come in handy; it’s something you have to do!”

As a kid who’s practiced her flute at least five days a week for the past three and a half years, my daughter is familiar with the positive effects of practice. She’s also rather unfamiliar with going into a performance scenario underprepared. So, she’s kind of freaking out.

As a mother with little patience for practice (at least for myself. “Perfect” I like; “practice,” not so much), I both admire and feel a bit puzzled by my daughter’s commitment to practice. Although I’ve made a conscious effort to help my perfectionist child embrace practice, I’m not sure I can take credit for her attitude about it. I just hope she keeps her love of practice because I’m not sure how I would help her recover it were she to lose it.

In the meantime, it looks like I’ll have to fill in the gaps in her softball practice schedule. Maybe I’ll get myself a glove and we can play some backyard catch (or at least some “throw”). Unfortunately, I’ve never played softball, either. I’ve never been a team-sports person. Getting picked last for my entire youth put a damper on any enthusiasm I might have cultivated for team sports. Luckily there are lots of instructional softball videos on YouTube. I’m sure we’ll have watched them all by the time the game is rained out tomorrow night.