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Lower Ability Player Not Developing

Marc Hollis

Hi all, looking for some advice.

I'm coaching U11 girls and a core of the team have been playing together since U8. One of the girls has always been a bit behind in terms of ability and awareness/understanding but the gap has been getting bigger over time.

I took over coaching this season and in training she cannot compete with the other girls, no matter what restrictions or rules I put in place. I've tried passive defending, no contact, walking pace, and many other things to try to even the playing field a bit but she just cannot seem to be competitive with the rest of the team (or opposition in games).

Excluding warmup and technical drills, she won't get a touch of the ball or make a single tackle and the same happens in games.

To keep her involved I have to spend a disproportionate amount of time with her so I asked a coach to time it in our last session and of the hour, I spent 15 mins individually with her and less than that individually with the other players combined.

Any tips on how I can get her more involved or how to make sure her needs don't take too much time away from the other 13 players on the team?

Thanks in advance.

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  • 0 in reply to Nicholas Good

    Hi Marc & Nicholas, To echo some of the other comments on this thread the benefits of keeping young players involved in sport are massive across all areas of their development so well done to you both for the great work you are doing to engage some of the less able players at your clubs. In addition to advice offered already you could divide your session between individual activities, small group work and whole group work or games. This will allow the players to get appropriate physical movement and contacts with the ball during individual work; for you to use grouping effectively during small group tasks and to continue to use STEP principle during whole group work so that the players are supported as much as possible. It should also be acknowledged that where the differences in ability are significant it's not always possible for even the most skilled coaches to bridge this gap. In such circumstances the best you can do as a coach is to show all players you genuinely care about them and their development and to continue to adapt activities, rules and conditions to make the practice as inclusive as possible.