a question for all coaches-talent

Its all a matter of perception.

ic cool

but will you look the speed, agility etc that person has?

They generally have a good reference point. In each sport they have protocol that can be used to test ones ability. In the case of a runner a beep test - shuttle run.

In the case of weight lifting PB's in a certain age group. In aerobics technical scores at a certian level. In Ice Skating for example their PB would be their scores from competions etc...

In the case of the Olympics it would be based on pre olympic trials and events. Officially sanctioned meets and also their pb's at certain events.

To determine ones one natural ability test it against established records and see of the person can maintain their PB under constant same time dif as others performing the same exercise in that dicipline.

It is based on criterion well established by each sporting industry. They have protocols in place to determine the ability of each athelete in each disipline that is being tested.

I would look at all of that but I would also look at the attitude of the player. If they have a bad one they probably won't get better.

I think there will be a visible skill level, but underlying that there is a thing that we all call talent which is probably undefineable. This, to my mind, is a gift from God, and if you haven't got it you never will have.
It's up to us coaches to grab those individuals when we see them and try and motivate them to use it.

I have been coaching u8 soccer for many years, I have been able to recognize kids that I think have the talent and ability to be successful, many kids that I have coached are currently playing at the high school level. What I look for at any early age, is understanding and physical skill. Its hard to explain but when you see an 8 year old kid who has skill it jumps out at you.

I think the bigger issue is what you define as 'youngster'. From roughly age 7-14 children grow/mature at rapidly different rates, especially boys which means that an 8-year-old who looks like the next Pele might be a second string player by the time he hits 12.

As an example, I coached community league soccer for five years in British Columbia. One year I was coaching the 9/10-year-old team and we had a kid who looked like a 14-year-old and who could boom the ball from our defenseive 18 into the opposite goal with reasonable accuracy; he was a good player besides that lest anyone get an idea that he was simply on the team to crack the ball forward. A few year later I saw him competing for another town as a 13-year-old and he was a middle-of-the-pack player because the rest of his teammates and opposition had reached his level of physical maturity.

I feel that coaches and parents should leave off defining a child athlete as a 'star' or 'prodigy' until they've had a chance to figure out how their body works during/after puberty. The latter is a best represented by female soccer players who may be extremely gifted before puberty, but lose some of their playing ability after their hips come out.

the thing is...i agree with laxaddict
but i also felt like other aspects of the training would also affect the youngster.
probably giving a tailored training schedule is more important.
the thing is...
even as an amateur athlete, i clearly understood how the quality of training affects your development in the sport.
at the age of 12 when i started trianing for athletics sprints, everyone could reach the standard of under 14sec given that they train regularly, hard and if they have the right attitude.
at least the coach told us that at this tender age, unless you are very very talented, what really seperates you from the other competitors is the amount of effort you devote into the sport.
we used to train 3 times a week, 2 hours everytime, occurring during after school hours.
but it is true that one of my middle distance runner pals lost some of her speed after puberty, with pronounced hip development nad bad lifestyle. lol

i feel that this boy, showing incredible talent at the age of 10 but remaining in middle of the pack by 13 may not be entirely due to talent.
maybe if you picked him up at the age of 10 and put him into rigourous training, he would be able to keep up with his performance. puberty is the best chance for a player to develop their fitness
on the other hand, if he had the determination to be the best, he will.
so it also has sth to do about motivating the kid. when he switched to another town, social life changes, his focus of life isn;t so dominated by football anymore.

apart from that, the moral support from the coaches are very important.
There will be ups and downs during training, but the coaches will motivate the child in different ways, sometimes harsh and sometimes soft.

the coach always told us was to never give up, in addition to that, he kept on reaminding me about the opponents that i had to face and it pushed me further.

it is important that they have high expectations on the kid, so that children will automatically take up as a challenge/goal that they want to fulifll for themselvs as well as the elders around them.

my coach pushed me rlly hard and always expected me to do better than i could do. this eventually made me stop but now i am just starting up again. if you push them to hard then they will think that they cant do it.