My ten years old got into soccer recently and he’s getting good at it, except, he has this paranoia that he’ll get blind (or will have severe eye damage) if he traces the ball through the air against a sunny backdrop. Because of this he won’t practice in the evening and this is when most training happens.
We had an eclipse recently and I think he took the “don’t look at the sun” mantra way too far and I don’t know how to undo that.
Please help!!!
In: Physics
Just a consideration, and this may not be applicable to your son as I don’t know your son:
He may have sensory issues that are feeding into these worries. A lot of kids with sensory issues aren’t always aware they are feeling something different than others do and don’t always communicate the issue well to others. So it could be as simple as “The sun really hurts and disorients me at dusk + scientists say the sun can be really dangerous + going down the rabbit hole of eye damage + likes to follow rules and science” and you can get behavior that looks a lot like OCD, but isn’t.
If this is the case, you aren’t going to get anywhere with logical arguments unless you make those sensory triggers more tolerable and comfortable for him.
My suggestion is to get custom sports goggles that have transitions lenses, so he can be somewhat shielded by the bright light, but can also play as it starts to get darker.
Also consider, he might just not like soccer and this is his excuse.
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