Sports day

We were invited to take part in Sports Day at Jacks school. I've been somewhat dreading the invitation, I'm not a sports person or even much of an outside person so the thought of doing both at the same time along side all the other childrens' football mad fathers was a little daunting. Still the odds were that I would only be looking at a three-legged race and that would be ok.

Egg and Spoon

Running

On the day the weather was great, the sun was beating down and the air was deathly still. One hundred or so parents took to the tiny field in wait for the children to appear. I'd worn my trainers in anticipation, otherwise I had dressed in light clothes as I'm prone to heat exhaustion but some of the other fathers were prepared for war. Some wearing tight fitting low friction, low drag shirts and shorts along with £200 trainers and drinking lucosade I felt I wasn't taking it seriously enough.

Bag Tossing

Balancing

The kids eventually filed out of the classroom all wearing their team coloured shirts. For about an hour they moved from sector to sector performing the various activities for each sector. There was running, jumping, hopping, egg and spoon racing, football manoeuvring, hurdles, bouncing, relay running, bag tossing, and balancing. Each team was scored for each event, Jack's team won the frog jumps, and the inning teams were announced at the end. I don't know if there were prizes.

Bouncing

Relay

Lots of the parents were complaining about the apparent lack of competition in the events. It was a very "everybody wins" environment but all in all I think it was done pretty well. While I'm all for competition I do understand why many organisations now a days have opted for the non-comparative approach. Many kids don't like to lose and no one likes to see a child cry. In my experience it's not the kids it's the parents that ruined schoolyard competition, kids will cry for a bit but then get over it where I've seen all out fist fights break out over a father disagreeing with a loss.

Stepping in Hoops

Hurdles

So sports day ended, Jack's team won one event and we went home. To my relief there was no parent participation at all, which is just as well, the sun was blazing and I was starting to feel a little unwell. Jack had a good time.

Football

Frog Jump

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