This year he started out great. Every meet he got 1st or 2nd. I couldn't be more proud of him. Especially since he really has had no formal training in this. We don't really have a high school coach who specialized in this field. Last year at the middle school the coach had gone to collage on a pole vaulting scholarship. We kind of lucked out. This year we were on our own.
Every meet every other school had a coach who watched their kids steps and form. They would help them with every vault. Since it was just me with Blake, I would make friends with the coaches. I would talk them into helping Blake with his steps and form. In the meets that didn't count they were all for it. They helped him and he did great.
We went to district today. Once again he vaulted lower than he was doing at every other meet by almost two feet. . It's like something gets in his head and he can't do what he normally does. He cracks under pressure and I don't know how to help him get over this. I have been at every meet supporting him from the side. This most important meet I was late. Every other meet I got there on time and waited two hours cause they never started on time. I was on the phone with a good friend, she was on her way to the meet. I told her to stay with him till I got there. I had to meet hubs over this new house crap. When I was on the way I got a text from my friend that he was out on ten feet. I missed it. I felt awful.
So I did something that I will be ashamed of probably till I die. I called him and gave him a hard time about not doing well. I said things like.."You did not try hard enough"...and "how could you not at least get what you got in the past". I could hear his disappointment on the other line, even heard his voice crack. He became defensive and said..."I had no coach to help me and you weren't even here, so you have no idea how hard this is". He was in tears when I got him. Talk about felling like an ass!
Now I'm not a mom who takes excuses...well maybe a little...well maybe lots. But what I forgot today is kids are not perfect as much as we want them to be. When we have our kids we don't want them to fail. We want them to be the best at everything. That's unrealistic, unless you have that one in a million freak of nature like Tiger Woods, lance Armstrong, or Michael Phelps. When I think of perfect athlete I also think they were sex addicts, juicers, and pot smokers. So I guess there are no perfect people and as much as I want perfect kids it's not happening.
Truth be told...at a lot of those meets. Kids Blake was beating were training six months out of the year. Blake did go a few times to some camps but he was far from a six month a year trainer. I think I was disappointed because this is the first sport that he was the best at. At least in his school. He is a good athlete. Blake is great at football. Not afraid to tackle or not afraid of a tackle. But no football star. He loved basketball...but we won't even blog about that. He has struggled more than the normal kid in school. This was the first thing I saw his heart in anything besides his girlfriend. It hurt me to see him not do his best at this meet.
When I got the final results. I saw the highest jump was 12 feet. His highest is 11. So he would have placed about fourth if he did his best. But this was vaulting with varsity. So the 12 feet could have been a senior. He is a freshman. So I am proud. I feel awful that I came down on him. He really did do great when I think of the whole season. I'm an asshole for getting on him.
I picked him up with every intention of staying at the meet. He was shaken though, so I took him home. On the way home he was on the defense from my not so nice phone call. He said.."coach is proud of me, I don't know why your not". He also told me he lettered as a freshmen. Which is a huge deal to him, but in my mind it's a four hundred dollar jacket. He will probably give that to his girlfriend. I said "I'm super proud, I just don't get why you couldn't vault what you do normally do". He said.."I was on my own with no support from anyone and I did the best I could". I was taken back...mostly because I supported him more than he will ever know. I begged the pig skins to get get poles for our school, I begged the middle school coach to help him. and I got boosters to give us money towards this. I got the money too. No support cut like a knife!!!!!
I do think the not so charming prince had a pretty amazing season. I'm really proud of him!
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