Hi Marc, first off, let me agree with some of the other comments you're going a great job.

That you're trying to help and involve he is huge, keep at it I have every confidence you will find a way eventually. 

Having been faced with similar situations in both boys and girls teams in the past, the thing I found important and helped me a lot was to keep going..

Looking at her experience compare with the others: has she been training since U8? You mentioned the team had been goiing since then. Is she one of  your smaller players. In which case avoiding conflict with bigger players, may, I suggest, be a perfectly sensible solution to a difficult problem, one which may well sort itself out once she hits her early teens growth spurt and can then compete on an even footing for strength and speed.

You mention you have some high fliers who she is struggling to keep up with. Do they have older siblings? If so, the football they play, away from your sessions, will probably be at a  much high level and when compared with their peer players who don't have this opportunity  and subsequently they will  show brighter. Does she have the opportunity to practice away from your sessions? 

I've seen ownership come up a few times and that is something to build on, Coaches can't play, we can only watch, the need to be able to make decisions within the game becomes increasingly important and training needs to reflect this, It may start with picking what colour bib, but this leads to deciding how many defenders 

For me environment is everything, get that right and the rest falls into place.

They need to feel safe, not just physically, but emotionally, if they give it go praise the effort, praise the attempt and they will try again, and again until they have success. Criticise the end result and they may not try next time. For some players it will click in training, for others it may take a few games before it clicks but they will get there with your support. Players are sponges, they soak up everything you say and do, they just reproduce it at their own rate and in their time. I've had, and still do, have sessions where at the end I come home and think what on earth am I doing this for, they haven't picked anything up. And then, a few weeks later, an occasion within a game happens, and the player who couldn't or wouldn't do it at the training session all those weeks ago, will successfully execute the action. So keep at it, be patient, if players can learn to embrace and not fear errors and see them as the learning opportunities they are, they will then own their learning.

You mention she just receives the ball and gets tackled. In your warmup games, try to include opportunities to hide/shield the ball. Tag games are great for this and also improve ABCs.

Apologies about the ramble, but I feel your pain and wish you and your players every success in everything you try, and if it doesn't work, give it another go, and another, until it does. Good luck.

Regards

Phil

Thanks Phil.

Good to read the responses and know I'm not alone and am trying, doing a lot of the right things.

Weirdly a lot of the players are the eldest siblings but they do seem to all have varying levels of involvement in football outside of the team.

That is one of the things I discussed with her parents and she is now attending a weekly football session where there is a focus of technical ability and only 5 or so in the class.

Hoping this will start to reap rewards for her in group and team scenarios.

Thanks,

Thanks Phil.

Good to read the responses and know I'm not alone and am trying, doing a lot of the right things.

Weirdly a lot of the players are the eldest siblings but they do seem to all have varying levels of involvement in football outside of the team.

That is one of the things I discussed with her parents and she is now attending a weekly football session where there is a focus of technical ability and only 5 or so in the class.

Hoping this will start to reap rewards for her in group and team scenarios.

Thanks,