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Is it talent, or is it timing?
Five questions about what you're actually seeing, and a plain-language read-out: how much of it is your child, how much is the calendar, and the one thing worth doing next.
When a coach says "talented", most parents feel two things at once: pride, and pressure. I've stood on the other side of that sentence for years, and here's what I wish more parents knew. At ten or twelve, a lot of what looks like rare talent is timing: a birthday just after the cut-off date, a growth spurt that arrived first. Neither is your child's doing, and neither tells you much about eighteen. These five questions help you see which is which.
Five questions about the picture in front of you
Answer for how things are now, this season. There are no wrong answers, and nothing here grades your child.
Where are they in the growth spurt?
Compared with teammates: are they one of the more physically developed in the group, somewhere in the middle, or still waiting for the spurt?
Two children of the same age can be years apart biologically. An early developer borrows tomorrow's size today; a late developer hides tomorrow's ability behind today's smaller frame. Girls hit peak growth around 12, boys around 14, with a normal range of about two years either way, so the same team can hold both at once.