The other day my eldest son wanted the front seat. It wasn’t his turn to have it and one of his brothers had that opportunity. So the boy refused to ride in the car. This is what I’m dealing with at early 13. It feels like two. As I watched that boy and the rest of my players navigate a losing football game I realized it my just be like that at a certain age.
Here is what I dealt with: I had kids who struggled early in the game and that caused all of the other kids to get down on themselves and on their ability to be successful. We made a ton of mistakes and that resulted in a really lopsided game performance and lots of infighting. They got angry at each other over mistakes and fell out of the game quickly.
This is about the mind of a 12 yr old and not the ability. Part of my job as a parent and even as a coach is to instill the framework for them to understand a support system and how to use it. This is not an advertised part of the job, but it is crucial to moving forward in life.