Jazzy Jaxon

I love sports. I like to play for fun. I really don’t have a competitive bone in my body (ok, maybe a small one). So sports and all kinds of games are really fun but I hate it when they get too stressful. We have four boys. I see myself watching lots of sports games in my life. I want them to play sports and enjoy them but only if they want to. I don’t want to force anything on them. I do want them to learn the skills and play for fun. If they get good and want to focus on it- then great. We can deal with that as it comes.

My husband loves the Utah Jazz. He watches all of the games that he can. Until last season he watched them alone or I would join him when kids were put away for the night. I love the Jazz too. I just have a hard time watching the whole game. I like to do other things and keep tabs on the score and watch the last 5 minutes. Andre would point out that if it is a really close game down to the last seconds then I don’t like to watch because it is too stressful!

Last season the boys got interested in watching parts of the game with their dad. Tanner always asked to watch “football” with dad and Jaxon really got into the playoffs. It was fun because we got to explain who was who and what the rules were. Last year a lot of Jaxon’s friends signed up for Jr. Jazz- the local basketball league for kids. I decided that Jaxon was not ready because basic skills (like dribbling a ball) were not quite there. We decided that we would take Jaxon to a Jazz game instead because that would be exciting and help him want to learn about the game. He was so excited to go. He really didn’t feel well the day of the game (we bought the tickets weeks early) but he went anyway. Andre and Jaxon enjoyed the game and came home. They walked in the house and I asked Jaxon how it was and he threw up all over the floor!

This year Jaxon brought a flyer home from school about basketball and said that he really- really wanted to sign up for a team. I noticed that there was a basic skill class offered. They had four classes that taught 1st and 2nd graders things like dribbling, passing, defense and shooting. So I signed him up for that thinking that if he liked that then we would consider signing up for the team. In the first class he learned how to dribble the ball. It was awesome because this was something he did not know how to do and he became obsessed. He was dribbling the ball all over my house. Then he hated the other two classes. So I figured I was off the hook with the Jr. Jazz team. I asked him about playing on the team and he said, “no way”. Then on the last class the teacher asked who was going to play for the Jr. Jazz and every kid there raised their hand. I guess Jaxon felt a little bit of peer pressure because he came home determined to play on a team. I had said that he could play if he really wanted to so I went to sign him up. It was past the deadline- I had to pay an extra 5 dollars. So this was another chance to ask Jaxon if he really wanted to play and he would not complain about it (we have had previous experience in soccer and karate). Jaxon promised he would not complain. The added bonus was that if you sign up for Jr. Jazz, you get 2 tickets to a real Jazz game.

Jaxon started obsessing about the Jazz game he would to go to. We did not know which game it would be until the end of his team’s season so he just had to guess. He got a list of all the games and some of them had a poster for the first 500 people there. He was obsessed with going to the game that gave out the Jazz team poster. “I’m going on January 18th no matter what!” he would say. I told him that he could go to another Jazz game if he paid for his ticket with his own money. Then at his first Jr. Jazz game they gave every kid a poster of the whole team. So that was the end of that obsession. He has not mentioned going to a different game since then. Jaxon loved the fact that he was going to be on a Jazz team. Whenever he heard a commercial on the radio about the Jazz he would say, “Maybe they will mention my name!” He is really cute.

Jaxon started his games in December. He really did not want to go- but with a little bit of reminder of his promise he went with a good attitude. For 1st and 2nd graders the basket is 8 feet high instead of 10 feet high. They don’t call traveling or double dribbling or anything. They have two rules. 1) Only one person can guard the person with the ball. 2) You can’t guard the person bringing the ball down until they have crossed the half court line. It is a good thing they don’t call any other rules because the kids can barely do that. Jaxon didn’t like it at first but he knew he had to stick with it because he promised.

I decided that I was never going to sign him up for basketball again. He told us too many times that he did not like it. He would go to the games and tell everyone that he was only there because he got Jazz tickets. He just felt like he wasn’t very good. I told him that none of the kids were very good at this age. I also told him that the only things I cared about was that he had fun and that he ran up and down the court with all the other kids. He really did start having fun- cheering for his team and running around. He started really getting it and guarding some other kids.

So it turned out to be a good thing. He was so excited about his trophy and the Jazz tickets of course. The last game of the season he came home talking about next years Jr. Jazz team!!

Why don’t children come with instructions?