We need to think about how far ahead the players can think. What the future is like for them and what they are thinking about.

If you’re a young kid, you’re not thinking about next month. If someone says your birthday’s next month, you have no idea how long that is or how many sleeps that is. You have no concept of that kind of time. As we get older, we have a greater concept of time and what it means. That also means that time has a reference to our goals. So, a smaller kid generally needs to experience success a bit faster than an older kid.

A 10-year-old child can maybe work on something for a week. A 12-year-old can work a month with the goal of trying to get to something. A 15-year-old kid might be able to work on something for several months.

When we talk about time, the goal can change within those time frames and therefore the success or challenge also change. We start to reflect on how much risk the players are prepared to take, how much time they’re prepared to invest, how we position the environment in little increments or big chunks.

So, when we’re having practices with younger players, we might be trying to get them a little bit successful every day, whereas actually with older players, they don’t need to be successful every day. It’s actually quite good for them not to be successful and go through the process of working towards something. We need to understand how the player is perceiving time in order to pitch goals that are at the right level and that those goals relate to the level of success they might need to keep being motivated to push towards that goal.