Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe you should lookup Lamine Yamal dribbling through kids his age and playing the same way against older kids when he was at youth level
Then look where he is today and what he's doing

This attitude is exactly why this is the problem! Your kid is not Lamine Yamal. But you and every parent with a son playing up two years “because he is so good” thinks that their kid is. And you encourage them to dribble too much and shoot too much and it is super annoying to everyone else on the team. Lamine Yamal is special not just because he is talented but because he makes good decisions. The boys-playing-up here do not make good decisions, and they are not good enough to play like the stars they think they are on the older teams.

It’s a problem caused by the attitude of the kid and the parents playing up. I’ve never seen any of them come in humble, ready to improve, ready to earn their spot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this a lot.

On the girls' side, at older ages, it often is just a result of how girls grow at different rates around 12-16 or so. Usually a girl playing up at that age group is just playing with people that are physically her peers. My guess is most people watching the game would not be able to pick out the girls playing up.

On the boys' side, though, it almost always sucks for everyone except the family of the boy who thinks that their kid is the next Messi. Usually what happens is a boy will be able to dribble past kids in his age group and score lots of goals. So he will get moved up - either because the parents ask for it or the coaches decide. But then he is on an older age level and he still thinks that he is the dribbling king and he still plays as if he is the best kid on the team, which he isn't anymore. Instead he is just like a black hole where team passing moves die. The younger kids almost always make bad decisions and are way too selfish, but once they get moved up they tend to stay up, and once they have that habit they tend to keep it. So their teammates are stuck with a kid who hurts the team and actually drags the team down. But the kids' parents think he is awesome because he still dribble and shoots a lot, and the coaches just rotate him on the wing and don't ever correct his mental game.

I completely agree with fish bolded above. Players like that are 100% in it for themselves. Those parents are putting together highlight reals for their kid showing all the positive on field stuff. Can't blame the parents, but players like that (we have 3 like this) are just using the team to work on their own skills. The only win-win is when they move on and the team dynamic returns to normal. With ours, there is no beautiful soccer that is played...just ball hogging with the 1 out of 8 tries that is amazing. But, to the OP point. When players like this are allowed to play up and showboat, it can be done so to the detriment of the rest of the team.

Newsflash
All the kids should be focused on developing their own individual skills

Team isn't their job, it's the coach's

Soccer is a team sport though and if you never learn how to pass the ball and work with your team mates, you will never turn into the Messi you think you are. Wasting opportunities trying to score when you could have easily passed to a team mate who was wide open in perfect position to score also won’t make you popular with your team. We have a kid like that on the team and it came to a point that the others avoid passing to him if they have another option.

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe you should lookup Lamine Yamal dribbling through kids his age and playing the same way against older kids when he was at youth level
Then look where he is today and what he's doing

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son played 2 years up and was the best player on the team. He was fine for a season but then began being bullied by boys sitting on the bench. Eventually he quit soccer in order to focus on his other sport. Good riddance.

Never heard of a scenario where the best player gets bullied
Thats usually always reserved for the weakest players

Not when the players were jealous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this a lot.

On the girls' side, at older ages, it often is just a result of how girls grow at different rates around 12-16 or so. Usually a girl playing up at that age group is just playing with people that are physically her peers. My guess is most people watching the game would not be able to pick out the girls playing up.

On the boys' side, though, it almost always sucks for everyone except the family of the boy who thinks that their kid is the next Messi. Usually what happens is a boy will be able to dribble past kids in his age group and score lots of goals. So he will get moved up - either because the parents ask for it or the coaches decide. But then he is on an older age level and he still thinks that he is the dribbling king and he still plays as if he is the best kid on the team, which he isn't anymore. Instead he is just like a black hole where team passing moves die. The younger kids almost always make bad decisions and are way too selfish, but once they get moved up they tend to stay up, and once they have that habit they tend to keep it. So their teammates are stuck with a kid who hurts the team and actually drags the team down. But the kids' parents think he is awesome because he still dribble and shoots a lot, and the coaches just rotate him on the wing and don't ever correct his mental game.

I completely agree with fish bolded above. Players like that are 100% in it for themselves. Those parents are putting together highlight reals for their kid showing all the positive on field stuff. Can't blame the parents, but players like that (we have 3 like this) are just using the team to work on their own skills. The only win-win is when they move on and the team dynamic returns to normal. With ours, there is no beautiful soccer that is played...just ball hogging with the 1 out of 8 tries that is amazing. But, to the OP point. When players like this are allowed to play up and showboat, it can be done so to the detriment of the rest of the team.

Newsflash
All the kids should be focused on developing their own individual skills

Team isn't their job, it's the coach's

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son played 2 years up and was the best player on the team. He was fine for a season but then began being bullied by boys sitting on the bench. Eventually he quit soccer in order to focus on his other sport. Good riddance.

Never heard of a scenario where the best player gets bullied
Thats usually always reserved for the weakest players

Anonymous wrote:My son played 2 years up and was the best player on the team. He was fine for a season but then began being bullied by boys sitting on the bench. Eventually he quit soccer in order to focus on his other sport. Good riddance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this a lot.

On the girls' side, at older ages, it often is just a result of how girls grow at different rates around 12-16 or so. Usually a girl playing up at that age group is just playing with people that are physically her peers. My guess is most people watching the game would not be able to pick out the girls playing up.

On the boys' side, though, it almost always sucks for everyone except the family of the boy who thinks that their kid is the next Messi. Usually what happens is a boy will be able to dribble past kids in his age group and score lots of goals. So he will get moved up - either because the parents ask for it or the coaches decide. But then he is on an older age level and he still thinks that he is the dribbling king and he still plays as if he is the best kid on the team, which he isn't anymore. Instead he is just like a black hole where team passing moves die. The younger kids almost always make bad decisions and are way too selfish, but once they get moved up they tend to stay up, and once they have that habit they tend to keep it. So their teammates are stuck with a kid who hurts the team and actually drags the team down. But the kids' parents think he is awesome because he still dribble and shoots a lot, and the coaches just rotate him on the wing and don't ever correct his mental game.

I completely agree with fish bolded above. Players like that are 100% in it for themselves. Those parents are putting together highlight reals for their kid showing all the positive on field stuff. Can't blame the parents, but players like that (we have 3 like this) are just using the team to work on their own skills. The only win-win is when they move on and the team dynamic returns to normal. With ours, there is no beautiful soccer that is played...just ball hogging with the 1 out of 8 tries that is amazing. But, to the OP point. When players like this are allowed to play up and showboat, it can be done so to the detriment of the rest of the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this a lot.

On the girls' side, at older ages, it often is just a result of how girls grow at different rates around 12-16 or so. Usually a girl playing up at that age group is just playing with people that are physically her peers. My guess is most people watching the game would not be able to pick out the girls playing up.

On the boys' side, though, it almost always sucks for everyone except the family of the boy who thinks that their kid is the next Messi. Usually what happens is a boy will be able to dribble past kids in his age group and score lots of goals. So he will get moved up - either because the parents ask for it or the coaches decide. But then he is on an older age level and he still thinks that he is the dribbling king and he still plays as if he is the best kid on the team, which he isn't anymore. Instead he is just like a black hole where team passing moves die. The younger kids almost always make bad decisions and are way too selfish, but once they get moved up they tend to stay up, and once they have that habit they tend to keep it. So their teammates are stuck with a kid who hurts the team and actually drags the team down. But the kids' parents think he is awesome because he still dribble and shoots a lot, and the coaches just rotate him on the wing and don't ever correct his mental game.

I completely agree with fish bolded above. Players like that are 100% in it for themselves. Those parents are putting together highlight reals for their kid showing all the positive on field stuff. Can't blame the parents, but players like that (we have 3 like this) are just using the team to work on their own skills. The only win-win is when they move on and the team dynamic returns to normal. With ours, there is no beautiful soccer that is played...just ball hogging with the 1 out of 8 tries that is amazing. But, to the OP point. When players like this are allowed to play up and showboat, it can be done so to the detriment of the rest of the team.

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this a lot.

On the girls' side, at older ages, it often is just a result of how girls grow at different rates around 12-16 or so. Usually a girl playing up at that age group is just playing with people that are physically her peers. My guess is most people watching the game would not be able to pick out the girls playing up.

On the boys' side, though, it almost always sucks for everyone except the family of the boy who thinks that their kid is the next Messi. Usually what happens is a boy will be able to dribble past kids in his age group and score lots of goals. So he will get moved up - either because the parents ask for it or the coaches decide. But then he is on an older age level and he still thinks that he is the dribbling king and he still plays as if he is the best kid on the team, which he isn't anymore. Instead he is just like a black hole where team passing moves die. The younger kids almost always make bad decisions and are way too selfish, but once they get moved up they tend to stay up, and once they have that habit they tend to keep it. So their teammates are stuck with a kid who hurts the team and actually drags the team down. But the kids' parents think he is awesome because he still dribble and shoots a lot, and the coaches just rotate him on the wing and don't ever correct his mental game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Do the parents of the two years younger and can't hack it kid own the club and pay the coaches?

No, that is the crazy conspiracy theory view. Usually on the girls' side the girl playing up can handle it just fine. People freak out when "an 8th grader" is playing with high school sophomores, but typically the younger girl does just fine.

And for the boys, it makes sense to move the kid up. It's no good for him or a team in his age group if every game is just him dribbling past everyone and scoring. Neither he or his team will learn or develop that way. The coaches or parents who move a kid up in that situation deserve credit. The problem is - and this is always what happens - when that kid gets to the older age level he still plays like he is better than everyone on the field. The coaches don't correct his mentality. His parents certainly don't - they are almost always yelling at him "dribble! shoot!" And so the older team, that is playing in a more developed and advanced way, is stuck with this one kid who detracts from the overall style of play of the team.

Usually parental pressure is involved - they don't want their "star" kid to be moved up to a team where he doesn't get much training time and his coach yells at him every time he dribbles instead of passes. If a coach says we will move your kid up, but he won't get much game time, that's when a lot of parents will leave. But for sure, everyone else on the team knows that the young guy just dribbles too much and loses it too much and doesn't pass when he should.

Anonymous wrote:

Do the parents of the two years younger and can't hack it kid own the club and pay the coaches?