He is a ten year old with learning difficulties and just diagnosed with Autism, this is something I as a parent and coach has little or no understanding of and need to look into more, not that it affects his ability on the pitch but maybe something I need to learn about so I understand him a little better, he has an amazing left foot and a fantastic shot on him, you could always count on him getting you a couple of goals a game, he would bomb up the left wing taking on all that was in front of him then power his shot into one of the corners well out of the reach of any keeper, he has been poached many times and had Derby and Forest looking at him.

This season word has got about and he gets a minimum of two players marking him out of the game and for some reason he will not pass the ball when he is under this kind of pressure, in training we always revert to two/three touch when our players hang on to the ball for too long but come match day that all goes out of the window, we have tried to explain that if he has two players marking him we will have players over that he can pass to but this fails to happen, he gets tackled then gets angry blaming the rest of the team for not being in a position to receive the ball, if he had looked up he would of seen the overlapping players we had.

How can we teach this young man with amazing abilities to pass the ball without micro coaching him as I'm sure this will just make him more upset, if we as coaches can master this he would be a more complete  player and one to be feared of in every game we go into.

Looking forward to your replies and thanks for taking time out to read this post

Chet

I manage an U12 team. This started about 5 years ago when I wanted my autistic son to partisipate and get used to working with a team.

Life has been entertaining. The reason I started my own team was that I was unhappy with the coaches I had seen. They were very uncompromising, shouted and my son's energy was not used.

My son has a wide and extensive volcabuary and you would think he was just hyper as he seems to understand everything you say. This is quite often just a front and he may not understand a sngle word you say. You need to be very clear with him and not only talk about a strategy, demonstrate it too. In team talks he may simply not understand what you say.

He may simply not want to pass the ball because he might think that makes him a failure. What you have to show him is that by making yards he is a success. Make a point in training or on a match day and give him Man of The Match for making yards. You need to find ways of rewarding him for doing the things you want him to do.

Feel free to ask any questions.

David.

  

Have fun cause it really annoys your neighbers......

Try this game though, play 4v4 and the winner is the first team to get every team member to score. This means he will have to pass to his team mates to set them up.  

I MUST THANK MY FATHER FOR ALL THE COACHING HE DID NOT GIVE ME !

All depends on how far your lad is on the autistic spectrum. If he has only recently been diagnosed he may not be all that far up the scale. Find his buttons.

My lad was diagnosed aged 2. We were taken into a room and told not to expect much from his life. He's our best mid and the fastest. He can play piano to grade 6 and apparently is a musical savont. The moral is, encourige as much as you can. Also make it very plain to praise when they achive.

Have fun cause it really annoys your neighbers......