At U13, the physical stature of boys ranges from those who are still boys to those who are turning into men. Some of the Toronto based teams we play have "men". Some of the Niagara teams have big boys, but not men. By men, I mean the level of aggression, physical size, muscle tone and strength, speed, etc. I am not sure of why this phenomenon is the way it is, but it's true.
We do not have a big team. For me, it's important to teach them everything I can so when they catch up to their opponents, physically, they are equipped to compete. This requires patience from coaches and co-operation from parents.
Last night my team was literally run over. We played a team that had 5 "men" who literally bulldozed their way to our net. Speed, strength, intensity that you usually don't see until U15. Had we had an inexperienced referee with a quick whistle, a lot of their play would have been halted, but their only "foul" was being big. They deserved no whistles and I would not want to see a boy punished because he's growing faster than others.
I could not be unhappy with our players. Maybe I'm going coo-coo, but we did a lot of things well. We executed wall passes, short-short-long plays, penetrating passes, stayed organized, strung together 5-6 passes on many occasions and had some very, very good ideas throughout the game. Our goalkeeping has also been solid. We just had no answer to their speed and strength.
My fear for some early bloomers is that they succeed because of their physical dimensions and their coaches do not refine their game because they are having current success. Then, when everybody else catches up, they are very average because their technique was not refined and their speed/size is no longer an advantage. I've seen it over and over.
More confusing is this is where (U12/U13/U14) boys become men at different stages yet it's also where we start discarding players in our provincial/national program. Canada/Ontario Soccer's LTPD and the new Ontario Player Development League is directly addressing that. A lot of late bloomers did not bother asking for re-evaluation and took other pathways to success.
Still, playing big boys, small boys, whatever, our 1v1 defending and commitment to denying forward progress still needs a lot of work.
I can't change our size or our opponents, but we will continue to strengthen their technical toolbox so they are ready when the time is right.
The best way to make the most of the situation is to work to play faster/smarter and move the ball where they "ain't" and BEFORE they get there. So we have to ensure our processing and decision speed is quicker than their running speed.
It's good for me to have Coach Paul in a situation like this. His older son was a late bloomer in hockey and is achieving success later in his youth career. He was discarded from travel teams several times up till 12 years old, yet, he stuck with the sport, worked hard and is regarded as a very good player.
On a lighter note, another thing that I find that needs work is our ability to "give 5". Some of our boys are weak in laying a good "five" on their coach or teammates in the right situations. I'm talking high five, low five, that type of thing. We'll fix that too. :-)
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