Let me tell you a story about an athlete who was promoted to a stronger group long before anyone around them understood why. People probably will start analysing that, they will compare the player to others, they will be confused. They saw only what their eyes could measure, and they miss everything that truly matter.
What they never noticed was the part of development that lives behind the scenes. The mentality toward training, the hunger to learn, the passion that does not switch off, the fighting spirit that wakes up every time the player steps inside the hall. These are the things a coach always sees. These are the things children rarely see in each other.
Why do they miss it? Because their entire academic life teaches them something simple and very incomplete. It teaches them that if something cannot be measured, it does not exist. They grow up believing effort is only real if it shows up on a scoreboard or a graph.
And they live like this until adulthood or living their whole entire life without even realise they were wrong the whole time. If they ever realising that, it feels too late. Time has passed, and they never learned to recognise the invisible things that make someone great.
One child may have plenty of doubts. Plenty of fear. They did not talk much about what they thing or how they feel. They did not want to look wrong or make a mistake, so they kept silent. They learned to survive, not to thrive. And without noticing, they are the one held themselves back.
But here is the twist. Even while others were held back, something inside the selected player moved faster than in others. Their speed of learning. Their speed of understanding and adaptation. Their willingness to think for themselves. Their desire to ask questions even if they whispered them. Their habit of doing their own research at home instead of waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
While others followed the crowd, this player quietly, slowly, consistently became the leader of their own development. This is why they were selected. Not by accident. Not by luck. And certainly not as an excuse. They were selected because they were already better in the places most people never look.
As a coach I always respect your decisions. I ask you from time to time if everything is alright and what you want, but there are moments when I can only point something out gently. You must be the one who opens up. If I force it, the trust between us breaks, so I wait. Patiently.
Then I try again after some time. Then I wait again. And I think about what type of experience you might need to understand what this journey is about.
Here is something you must understand. You cannot thrive in fear. In fear you only survive. Confidence will not appear without experience, but courage already lives inside you. The belief in yourself, in your strength, in your knowledge, in the world around you, these are choices. You choose to believe in these or choose to fear them. You choose every day, in school, on the street, at training.
Many young players live in the illusion that they have endless time to learn this. Some discover they do not. Or not discovering but thriving to become better quicker. Some grow. Some freeze. Top performance is not for everyone. Leadership is not for everyone. And stepping up to a higher level might look impressive from the outside, but it is not for everyone yet.
So when will you be ready? I cannot promise that moment will come. And I cannot tell you if you will ever reach it. Right now, it simply is what it is. Not good, nor bad. Just the truth of where you stand.
You are still able to develop whenever you choose to. You set the time. You set the goal. You decide if you want to be like the one in the story who became better long before they even realised it. With guidance, patience, and belief in your journey,