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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Im a big soccer parent.  Coached in rec for all our kids.  One kid played through college.  One passed on college ball as could not play D1.   Still, you have to keep a parent ear to the ground.  Is this adolescent griping, but overall he enjoys things, or is this part of the process of your kid recognizing that maybe this sport is not for him.

Soccer is not a great sport for everyone even if they are good athletes.  The reality is that it is a sport for fast kids.  A skilled slow kid can play through high school but they will be constantly challenged.

Step 1 though is a parent assessment.  Your kid is smaller now than his peers.  Where will he be at 16?   Your kid is 12/13 now and lots of growing is yet to be done.  You can do the most for your kid by looking ahead and thinking about where he will be size wise at 16,17,18.  Speed too is very important in soccer.  It’s the reality of the game.  Now, a kid may slow down at 12/13/14 due to growth spurts an being temporarily uncoordinated.  That’s fine.  The kids with early growth spurts have an advantage but every coach knows that others catch up.

Finally - any sport or activity requires practice outside of team practices.  Singing, painting, athletics - it doesn’t matter.  To get good you have to practice more than everyone else.  I learned this years ago with my oldest - who wanted to pitch in high school.  I took him to a facility where they gave pitching lessons.  I figured this would give him a leg up on everyone.  Except, I learned, basically every kid in the area was already doing the equivalent.  I learned and got my daughter some outside soccer training starting at 11.  She did that for 3 years and it helped make her into a very good player.

So - my advice at this point:

1.  Listen and be supportive but don’t make any quick decisions.

2.  Assess where he is going to be physically at high school ages.  Soccer is pretty forgiving about size but speed is always important.

3.   Pick up some outside training/instruction for what he is interested in.  If it is soccer - find a good older high school player who would work with him an hour or two a week (do it with a friend and split the cost).  Having 3 is actually helpful in working on things.  If it is something else then make the assessment on what would be needed.  You don’t have to hire a pro player.

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Your advice is nonsense after saying soccer is only for fast kids. Typical American ignorant.

Who won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012 in a row? Yeah, no “fast” players physically, rather (extremely) fast-thinking and superior technical abilities. [/quote]

yep, a bunch of obese dudes waddling down the pitch. You could drop through league one and into norther league and would probably stiff have difficulty finding any field player who would be classed as slow [/quote]

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