Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:idk. my kid was a major ball hog for years and her coach never really stopped her. I'm glad though in retrospect because she developed incredible ball handling skills. she moved clubs at 13 and had to learn a whole different way of playing. her new coach loved her skills but was able to teach her when and where to dribble and show her skills.

I think this is the concern others have - the ball hog is hogging most of the development. So at 13 their kid can't make a better team as they've been sitting around watching another kid dribble for years. If everyone tells their kid to be a ball hog, there's no passing at all. Then it comes down to who recovers the ball from the other team defensively. Everyone wants to recover it, and now we're playing bunch-ball like 5 year-olds.

If you are giving this much credit to a players ball-hogging for your child’s potential ability to make a better team at 13, you are completely focusing on the wrong thing.

Your 13 will not make a better team not because of the coaches “team tactics” or another players ball hogging, its their lack of technical skill. Before 13, focus on individuals skills and learning to use it in a game. Have you thought that the ball hog doesn’t want to pass to other players bc all the other players have shitty touches?

This isn't wrong, but it is pretty selfish. Sometimes the best development path for your own kid is to also be extremely selfish. In the presence of a single ball hog, other parents will start advising their kids to also ball hog. The ball hogs will move up and learn to pass, and the current passers will stay on crappy teams.

I’m going to assume the ball hog refered to by the OP is not very good. That is, they are trying to develop/hone their individual skills during game time and prob not doing much outside of game time.

Because most players don’t really complain about a ball hog that is more successful than not because parents and kids like to win.

My kid was a ball hog. Played striker for years and was never coached at all on what to do with the ball. But no one complained because they were effective. And they were effective because they practiced their passing, dribbling, juggling on their own time whenever there were no games or practices and also watched pro soccer all the time so eventually learned when to pass, take on a 1v1 or dribble
and carry, etc.

All of that a kid can do in their own time to get better (assuming they want to).

FWIW, my kid no longer plays striker because when they moved to a better team, the coaches could tell he had the skills and confidence to play any position. Being a ball hog was essential for them to develop the confidence to use skills they were learning on their own.

So I say work on your individual skills first before becoming a ball hog.

Ball hogs and apparently thier parents too never think they do anything wrong and think they are the only one that puts in the work and have the skills. Most forwards want touches and don't just want to make run after run and never see the ball because no one ever tells their 'skilled ' teamate to pass to the open man. If it was child that put in the work and never saw the ball you would think differently winning or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it insane that adults pressure their kids to not pass to their teammate because that player dribbles more than the parent (who know nothing about soccer or development) would like. Do you also pressure her to not pass to the kids that pass it’ll directly to the wrong team or dribble out of bounds under no pressure? Or is it just the dribblers that you don’t want her to pass to?

Parents are the worst, purposefully creating a toxic environment.

Rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior is innate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully the coach handles it. When DS was u9 he played in a game where the ball hog on his team scored several goals and played his best game ever. After the game, the coach met with the kids and praised my DS for his passing and a few other players for various things. He said nothing about the ball hog. He didn’t say a word about all the goals scored. You could tell the kid who was a ball hog was expecting praise for the win. It seems to work because he passed the ball more after that.

They don't. They enjoy winning. If they hated it they'd bench the player and take to them. This isn't rec soccer. The coaches at most clubs are just there to get wins to keep parents happy and their free thousand dollar fees paid to then a year.

Anonymous wrote:I find it insane that adults pressure their kids to not pass to their teammate because that player dribbles more than the parent (who know nothing about soccer or development) would like. Do you also pressure her to not pass to the kids that pass it’ll directly to the wrong team or dribble out of bounds under no pressure? Or is it just the dribblers that you don’t want her to pass to?

Parents are the worst, purposefully creating a toxic environment.