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[quote=Anonymous]This is a question we continue to ponder with our youngest, who is 10.  Our older three range from pretty good to outstanding as travel soccer players, and they all took to the game immediately and were strong, aggressive, confident players.  My eldest was hindered some by our lack of knowledge of the sport at the time.  We didn't get her good skills training until she was 11 or 12, and she also was never particularly fast, which is a big disadvantage.

Having learned our lesson, we started the youngest on skills when he was 6 or 7 and figured he'd quickly become a good player since he was very fast, pretty coordinated, and stronger than the average kid.  But his first couple of years were kind of painful to watch.  At first it was as if he wanted to avoid touching the ball in games, then he progressed to the point where he was involved in the games, but constantly deferred to other players.  Last year he started to seem focused and effective on the field about half the time, and he was frequently quite good during those games while being a nonentity in the others.  This year he makes at least some great plays in every game, and occasionally plays very well for the entirety of a game.  He is very good at passing and seems to see the game well.  But his coach still tells him that he's sometimes the worst player on the field and sometimes the best, and 100% of the difference is where his head is at.

It seems to us that everything is starting to click for him, but we still don't understand what causes the lack of focus that keeps him from being locked in all game long.  He doesn't show any signs of ADHD off the field, and he absolutely loves the sport, practices, and games.  He's not particularly anxious or too much of a perfectionist.  We think part of it is he's just not particularly aggressive or competitive by nature, so he's not driven by the desire to win that motivated our other kids and a lot of his teammates.  Or it may just be a maturity issue.  As long as he continues to love it, we will support him and continue to try our hardest not to get frustrated when he seems to lose the plot.  It's hard though!     [/quote]

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