While we can all get hung up at times on player development, training methodology, practice design and all those other adult-driven concepts which give us the illusion that we are in control of the process of a child’s development, every now and again the children themselves give a stark reminder of who we are actually dealing with.

I was given one of these reminders in a session I did recently with a group of 9 year olds.

The session was designed in order for the players to begin to understand the principle of ‘Support.’ The kids were playing a game of 4v4 with some task constraints.

After about 5mins I stopped the kids and asked them what they had noticed after I had changed one of the rules of the game?

After waiting a few seconds for an answer, one player put his hand up and gave an answer that told me nothing about the practice, but everything about the group of players I was working with:

“I’ve noticed there are a lot of flies around today.”

After we all had a good laugh I allowed the game to continue uninterrupted until the end of the practice.

It served as a wonderful reminder to me that kids aren’t mini-adults and gave me a great insight into the mind of a child during a practice session. The same child probably also still believes in Santa Claus.