Kicking a football

is not easy. By this I mean I do not mean a soccer ball but the other more elliptically shaped ball beloved of the peculiarly Downunder game of "footy" or "f'ball" or "footer". 

To the best of my knowledge this game is played on a wide scale in only two states. The rest of the country is apparently more inclined to rugby or soccer...although sports mad Downunderites play those things here as well.

But, I digress. Going about other things yesterday I was occasionally young M... who lives diagonally opposite. He was in the front garden of his home kicking a football. He is five, going on six. He is not a big child for his age but it was a full sized football. (There are smaller versions for small humans.) He was out there for well over an hour bounce, kick, fetch the ball and do it again. 

T... and H... who live opposite are also active boys but not in this way. Their parents come from New Zealand so rugby rules in that house. They are also involved in child size marathons and the like - which they seem to enjoy. This might be because their parents do similar things. But, I have never seem them do what M... was doing with such concentration or persistence.

I spoke to M..'s mother about this. When he was at the early walking stage he actually seemed more than usually uncoordinated. That was when they started the ball skills. Something must have clicked because he was riding a bike without trainer wheels by the time he was three. These days he "jumps curbs" and does other heart stopping things.

How did it happen? Perhaps he has some innate ability but yes his parents and grandparents have spent hours with him on these skills and on cricket skills.

What does he presently want to be when he grows up? A footballer of course.

"I hope he will do something else as well," his mother told me with a sigh.