I rarely had kids on a Comp. level (soccer and snowboarding). But my two boys played Jr. Jazz, flag football, football (one season each), ran track, played soccer and baseball (oldest son). My daughter was involved in gymnastics, tumbling, soccer (one season), and tennis (mostly for fun at a Charter school). I found out that very few parents are willing to spend the time and effort to coach. So, I ended up coaching all of these team sports that I had not played when I was a kid. I learned a lot. You have all the issues of parents expectations, kids motivations and skills, age groups, other coaches, etc. One kid I coached at a young age in soccer was the child of a famous pro athlete. He was exceptionally good for his age, but very mellow and coachable. I would move him back after he had scored two or three goals. He once said, "coach, I can score more goals." I told him that I knew he could score many more goals, but the other team was not able to stop him, and we had other players and we would try different positions. He just smiled and said ok.

One frustration was the competitiveness where other coaches and parents would cheat in order to win with young kids. That really annoyed me. Having your kids wear cleats to the final game when it had been against the rules all season and pretending you didn't know (flag football). Running a specific play over and over in Jr. Jazz to get around the defense rules for youngest ages. It seems a little much to want to win that badly at that age.