Aaron's Blog

Archive for the ‘Clubs’ Category

Last Saturday, Aaron and Ben entered a football tournament at GOALS (where they play on a Friday night) which was run by the Plymouth Argyle coaches. Nearly all of the Bickleigh Buddies went but, as Aaron is younger than the others, he had to be put in a different age group, so not with anyone he knew. He ended up in the orange team and was OK for the first game where he stayed in goal and generally didn’t do anything. But in the second game, he turned all silly and started crying and didn’t want to play anymore. I think it was because he couldn’t get the ball and didn’t want to do much running about. It was quite embarrassing really but we had to take him off for a bit. I did manage to get him to have another go a bit later on in the 2 hour session, as he wanted a medal and I said he wouldn’t get one if he didn’t play, so he had another go for 5 mins but the same thing happened again, so we gave up. It was a real shame but Aaron tends to be like this for some reason.  He was happy running about with Coby and Toby, kicking the ball on the pitch where we were watching Ben play! Anyway, he did get a medal at the end. His orange team came 2nd in the final standings as well, so I managed to get Chloe (the PAFC coach who coaches them on a Friday and was running this tournament) to give him a trophy. As you can imagine, he was very pleased with this as Ben had also won a trophy for his team being runners up as well. He shouldn’t really have got one though, but it made him happy and I was hoping it would give him a bit more confidence for if we go to a tournament again. He also received a specially made ‘Bickleigh Buddies’ medal along with all the other boys that play on a Friday night, so he came away with plenty of medals and a trophy!

Aaron with his awards

Aaron and Ben with their awards

Over the last few weeks at School, Aaron has taken part in the Balanceability club/lessons to help him learn to ride his bike without stabilisers, and they have worked miracles! After the 3rd lesson, Aaron was able to ride his bike without them! Miracle!

The first two lessons were taught using a balance bike, so that the children could learn to balance themselves correctly, and those that could do this were asked to bring their bikes in, without the stabilisers on. Aaron was one of them that was asked to do this, so we took it in and he has taken to it like a duck to water! Well done Aaron! 😉 The best £25 we have spent since we did this for Ben when he was in the reception year!

Since then he has ridden his bike around Gramps’ house and also up along Mount Batten with no problems at all! He has another lesson to go as well (total of 6), so he should get even more confident on it. He is itching to get out on Drakes Trail now on our next family bike ride!

Next Level Of Balanceability Level

1st Ride At Mount Batten Without Stabilisers

Aaron has been getting better and better at swimming, even though he is still in Stage 1.  He has conquered his fear of trying to lie on his back after several months where he wouldn’t do it, so that was a big milestone.  He is almost ready to go to Stage 2 and is about 85% through so hopefully it won’t be too long into 2016 before he moves up a level.

Aaron has been enjoying football training on a Friday evening at Goals, and has even been the manager’s assistant at times (because he is smaller than the rest he doesn’t feel as confident). He has scored a few goals as well but prefers to go in goal as he doesn’t have to run around as much then!

Last week, as we had booked a certain number of sessions, Goals put on a little party for the boys that included some food and drink and took place in one of their party rooms.  It was really good and the boys scoffed it all and were very tired afterwards (the food was after the training)!

It has been really good there and all the boys have enjoyed the training each week and are already looking forward to it restarting in the New Year.

A few weeks ago now, Ben and Aaron started going to football training on a Friday evening at Goals next to Home Park. It came about when one of Ben’s friends had a birthday party there and the guy who was doing the training part of the party asked if they wanted to do a proper training session each week. All the children wanted to do this, so it started a couple of weeks later on the 18th September and Aaron was invited to do it as well. The coach is actually the son of the owner of Goals as well and is only in his late teens but looks to be doing a coaching course so this would of course help him out as well.

So the boys have been going for about 4 weeks now and are mostly enjoying it! Aaron has shed a few tears as the other boys are bigger than him and he is ‘too tired’ to run around after a long week at school, but he has generally enjoyed it and has been in goal and has even been the Manager’s Assistant (the Coach – Nathan) which made him happy! 😉 Ben has also had a couple of moments when he has been unhappy but he has generally enjoyed it as well.  I must say it does get very competitive though when they play their training matches! 😉

Here are some pics of their 1st training session.

Football Slideshow