Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello all.
First Post!
Wondering if anyone is in the same boat as us, and/or have some strategies
Our son is approaching 14. Recently been diagnosed ASD (no surprise at our end). He is really bright, does well in school, and in the main manages things quite well but with some common ASD traits (obsessed by F1, likes smaller groups, does not see other peoples opinions well, and generally has a slightly different take on things).
Where we have the most stressful of problems is with his sport. He plays two sports at a reasonably high level but gets unreasonably frustrated with coaches, team mates, and himself.
This can be anything and everything:
- too much coaching
- coaches not listening to his ideas (he has a lot)
- team mates not listening to his instructions
- not respecting weaker team mates
- never just 'letting things go' and moving on to the next play
..... the list goes on. He loves his sport, but often it creates most of his stress.
regards
S
Hi, it would be interesting to hear which sports he does play.
Essentially at 14 (nearly) most coaches are still expecting to be 'teaching' rather than getting useful info back. this is sadly something that will not change.
I would suggest moving him into Refereeing/umpiring as a way to keep interest and apply the structures and rules. Depending on the sport possibly move to coaching. I struggled with much the same issues. however as i wasn't a coach and didn't have the playing experience i was ignored. there is sadly no way around that except to get the experience. I later went on to study Sports science and coaching at Uni.
Sports - RUGBY and Cricket.
You are correct. The coaches are happy to coach but not engage in strategy. Its for sure his ASD where he sees things on the field that others don't. This is not really a criticism of the coaching, just not what they are trained/expecting/have time to accommodate.