Here's a warning about training for parents,,,,
The two year younger girl this poster describes, they exist in nearly every town, usually a coaches daughter or a kid who has been brought into the sport early because an older sibling plays. They get out to an early jump and stand out head and shoulders, even on a top travel team at a very young age. They always get surpassed when the teams get older. You will see in 7-9th grade, all the kids with the rare athletic ability finally start catching up in stick skills, these kids disappear. You start wondering why that little kid with incredible stick skills doesn't look so good anymore. This post isn't singling out any one girl or meant to be mean in spirit, it is more directed at parents, to put their kids lacrosse success into perspective, it is a long process with lots of leap frogging through the years. At the end of the day, stick skills in only a small part what makes the great ones great, much more to do with athletic ability and heart.
I think we're trying to say the same thing. I completely agree with your post. I was disagreeing with the whole idea that talent makes a defining difference in children and I was using this feisty young lady as an example. Sorry for the confusion. The kid is competitive and works hard, that's her talent ( and IMHO that is more important than lax skills because it helps you win at life). You just can't really see "talent" in children which is what the original poster was implying. They all develop at different paces. Talent certainly does matter later on as the late bloomers catch up and is a defining difference by high school. As does heart and dedication to your craft.
I would also like to add that being a coaches daughter certainly helps develop skills early on - however, it is not a requirement. My older daughter picked up a lacrosse stick before I ever did. I never knew a thing about lacrosse but I've learned. When it became apparent that it was important to my daughter - I made it important to me. I watched practices, listened to the coaches and hung around at clinics and so forth. Yeah, she's better than me but you just can't beat having a catch with your kids. It's fun. Anyone can be a student of the game, learn something new and help pass on that knowledge to kids. You don't have to had played lacrosse to teach kids lacrosse or be involved with the sport.
