When Ethan was a newborn one of our friends in San Diego quickly noted that he was not one of those ‘spaghetti’ babies. What she meant was, he was never limp or floppy. There was always tension in his wee body and he has always been strong, robust and above the 95th percentiles.
As he has grown nothing much has changed aside from my grocery bill. The child is built like a brick shithouse with shoulders like battering rams.
E may be very athletic and naturally good at sports but he ain’t built for speed.
And so, athletics day approached and Ethan’s face darkened every time I mentioned it. He was sure he would run last in his races and there is nothing E hates more than not being good at everything something.
As it turned out, Ethan came third in all of his races which thrilled us all no end. The icing on the cake however was the inclusion of shot put in the junior events! My boy was made to throw heavy objects! With the 10-15kg weight advantage he has on other kids in his class I’m surprised he wasn’t throwing one of them 13 metres.
So Ethan won the shot put and learned that you can’t measure everyone against the same yard stick. His big slow twitch muscle fibres are not as good at sprinting as others but come in handy when you are trying to throw metal balls like Valerie (whom he adores).
I hope he remembers this next rugby season and leaves his dreams of the back line far behind.