Hi James, 

I agree with Lee's advice he needs to feel in control of his own environment, which in a match can be difficult as you have other players impacting on this. The game in its full form is chaos and it may be this triggers the response you see.

I have 2 nephews one of which is on the spectrum and one who although not recognised as such shows all the signs that he too is on it, but is able to manage the situations better. An there's the rub, all players are different, they are all individuals. We like to label in football: he's a gk. he's a striker or a defender, we like to label and to an extent this gives support the player if they themselves see themselves this way. Autism is a blunt term that cannot even begin to cover these individuals that just process things differently to what s considered 'normal' whatever that is. I found that the different environments of a training session and a match did prove too much at times, the triggers that brought out difficult responses were hard to spot. I tried hard with little success at first to make the environment and expectations at a training session the same as those in a match, and gradually bit by bit he came up with his own strategies to deal with the challenges that came within the game. in hindsight he improved my coaching and communication with all my players, by making training games real and close to the game at the weekend he got to experience situations that initially would cause difficult responses added to this was a firm emphasis on effort over result, praise the fact he tried to do the right thing and that rook some pressure off as all players were given small targets (reflecting what we covered in training) in the game and we always achieved some in not always all, but that gave a positive feeling of moving forward which was not linked to the did we win or not/ success or fail.  I try to create an environment where mistakes are not feared but seen as a challenge to be solved. I hope the above ramblings make sense and wish you and you player and players well in the coming season.

Hi James, 

I agree with Lee's advice he needs to feel in control of his own environment, which in a match can be difficult as you have other players impacting on this. The game in its full form is chaos and it may be this triggers the response you see.

I have 2 nephews one of which is on the spectrum and one who although not recognised as such shows all the signs that he too is on it, but is able to manage the situations better. An there's the rub, all players are different, they are all individuals. We like to label in football: he's a gk. he's a striker or a defender, we like to label and to an extent this gives support the player if they themselves see themselves this way. Autism is a blunt term that cannot even begin to cover these individuals that just process things differently to what s considered 'normal' whatever that is. I found that the different environments of a training session and a match did prove too much at times, the triggers that brought out difficult responses were hard to spot. I tried hard with little success at first to make the environment and expectations at a training session the same as those in a match, and gradually bit by bit he came up with his own strategies to deal with the challenges that came within the game. in hindsight he improved my coaching and communication with all my players, by making training games real and close to the game at the weekend he got to experience situations that initially would cause difficult responses added to this was a firm emphasis on effort over result, praise the fact he tried to do the right thing and that rook some pressure off as all players were given small targets (reflecting what we covered in training) in the game and we always achieved some in not always all, but that gave a positive feeling of moving forward which was not linked to the did we win or not/ success or fail.  I try to create an environment where mistakes are not feared but seen as a challenge to be solved. I hope the above ramblings make sense and wish you and you player and players well in the coming season.