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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not nonsense at all. My DD is the small and super technical player who is really not a great athlete. She has not learned to use her body in that way… but is amazing when she is 1:1 with the ball. Her lack of athleticism shows up in games where she cannot win the ball, cannot keep the ball, or cannot get big balls out of the air. It doesn’t matter that she can do a million juggles, every move in the books, or rainbow after rainbow at age 10. She is less effective in games because of what she lacks in her body. Just stating facts. [/quote]

What's that got to do with the price of beans?  Here's the original nonsense statement taken line by line:

[i]"Remember You can teach an elite athlete to have great technical skills but its almost impossible to teach a great technical player to be an elite athlete."[/i]
False.  It is no easier to teach a tall, strong, fast kid to have great technical skills than it is to teach a kid with incredible balance and eye-ball-foot coordination to run faster.  Nor is it easy to get a kid who can't be bothered to practise his skills to put in the thousands of hours work necessary to gain those skills either.

[i]"The top level players at the college a pro levels are both elite athletes with elite skills."[/i]
No they aren't.  This is plain not true.  The top players all have elite skills, and most are above-average athletes but they are not all elite athletes.  This is because all those factors are important for success, but the technical skills are more important.

[i]"So just to play the percentages for successful development. Youth academy coaches should and usually do select the better athlete."[/i]
This isn't true either.  They should select the kid with best all around combination of skills and weight technical skills more heavily than athleticism since the technical skills are more important.

[i]"Leaving the smaller least athletic player to work harder to extend their playing career."[/i]
Sure, all other things being equal, it is better to be more athletic too.  But all other things are not equal.  Technical skills are not something which can just be acquired by any kid who can run fast.  So while the less atheltic player may have to work hard to extend their career, the unskilled player's career is already finished.

So back to your daughter.

1.  Her 1v1 ability is important and a good thing.  Juggling and rainbows are not.  Practising freestyle skills definitely helps improve technical skills so I would hope that her ability to perform those skills is reflected in her first touch and control - which should lead to her being able to keep the ball.  Keeping the ball is largely a product of technical ability and if she really can't says more about her technical ability than her athleticism.

2.  Winning the ball in the air is a skill which depends on athleticism - so that's a reaosnable area where you could argue her athleticism is holding her back.  It's a tertiary skill though and just not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

3.  Winning the ball in general is more about anticipation and aggression than it is about athleticism.  The best ball winners are usually not the fastest kids or the strongest kids - they are just the kids that refuse to quit.[/quote]

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