Convincing a young soccer player he's good at track

Why is he soaking wet?

You don't convince them. Just make track as enjoyable as possible as he continues to hopefully do both. When the kid is about 15 he'll have to choose.

What state are you in? In most states soccer is a fall sport for guys and soccer is in the spring (club in summer, fall, and winter...but that is another story!).

As the previous poster mentioned, the kid and parents should figure things out sooner than later.

That should have been - TRACK is in the spring...

You can never convince parents. You have to convince the kid. Also, he's only 10. Are you looking out for the kid or yourself?

If he plays club or even academy then might as well give up. If he's a beast football player then let him play. I only switched to track because the injuries were a bitch.

Dude. He's 10. Let him play soccer all he wants. It'd be hard to motivate a 10 year old kid to simply run. Soccer is probably the best training he could be doing if her really has track talent. When he is in MS or HS in a few years, revisit and see if he is ready to run for real.

It's not me at all. My sense is that he WANTS to run, but his parents are pushing the envelope with soccer. They have "invested" (ahem) a ton of time and money into the sport, and it seems as though they're looking for a return down the road. It breaks my heart for the kid. I wouldn't be surprised if he has already attempted to talk with them, and they've given him the "you're doing club soccer, son" speech already. I would like to talk with them and, if nothing else, give them some perspective. If they saw that perhaps their son would be much better served pursuing track (if success is the only goal - per the parent's previous statements/attitudes), then perhaps they'd allow him to run.

Again, if it were totally up to the kid, I'm guessing he would run. It's just not tough. The parents are making the decision, not him. I guess more than anything I'd like to advocate for him and for my sport. This has nothing to do with me personally...

give the kid a towel wrote:

Why is he soaking wet?

He is wet from high school track coach drool.

*It's not tHough" - oops .

Coach wrote:

You don't convince them. Just make track as enjoyable as possible as he continues to hopefully do both. When the kid is about 15 he'll have to choose.

Yes, that's the idea, of course. I try to make it light and fun (super relays, games, challenges, etc), and I think he had a blast. Problem is, he did both sports last year and parents have said he's only doing one this spring.

Leave him alone. He likes his soccer. I ran 5:30 as a 10 year old. 60 pounds tops. And I ended up a sprinter. So stop with your prognostications. Sport is not that important. Especially track

Again...he is 10. Ten. One Zero. Let the kid have a childhood. Get back to him in 5 years once he starts to shave.

I had this friend who ran 4:55 in 7th grade and we all thought he would be state champ by 10th grade. I had never broken 6:00. By the time we were juniors I was running 4:25 and he'd never cracked 4:45. And I mean, he trained just about as much as me. He just sucked in HS. He dropped track as a senior.

My point is: It's REALLY hard to judge talent at 10.

Just let the kid play soccer lol. If he wants to do tracl he can do track. Focusing on soccer will probably be more enjoyable anways

If he's only doing one this spring and it looks like his parents want him to do soccer then there's nothing you can do. Hopefully he can continue to run/race other times of the year.

More often than not the youth track kids burn out and end up doing another s port or none at all, and the youth soccer kids burn out and or end up doing track. Let him and his parents know how Good could he can be when he's a HS runner. The best training now for a young kid is soccer training, swimming and gymnastics anyway.

This is a lot of meddling over something that you admit is a guess about the child's preferences.

Get him good at soccer and send him to Europe or South America. He'll make way more than he ever could running.

youth track coach wrote:

How do I convince the parents that this kid could be really, really good? He had a blast last year, and I think he's afraid of letting his soccer-crazed parents down.

I remember the day when I broke the news to my father that I would be foregoing the rest of high school soccer to concentrate on distance running (via joining cross country).

He really never forgave me as he was trying to live his dream through me. Could I have played D1 soccer? Probably but the truth was I liked track & field because the winner of the race received a first place medal. In soccer, the top player may not always receive the most recognition. You could score two goals in a 2-1 match or completely manhandle the offense of the opposing team but if you are your parents haven't sucked the right d!ck yet then nobody will ever know who you are.