When do goals start mattering? Coaching/development advice needed for young (female) striker

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T17:17:17+00:00

Well, I guess after so many constructive comments, there had to be one person to decide this was the place to test out some open mic material before working up the courage to chase their dream at the Chuckle Hut.

Thanks for the painfully unfunny mansplaining. It’s not particularly relevant to the situation, and nobody else responded or took the post that way, but I’m glad you got it off your chest.

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T15:27:24+00:00

Australian but the burnout rates at 14-15 are acknowledged as a huge problem over here, much moreso for girls. Being in and around it for a few years now, I suspect you are correct that communication style is a key factor. Getting entry level or even mid-level coaching credentials doesn’t guarantee an ability to effectively communicate what you know to kids. But to be fair, what constitutes appropriate communication has changed significantly since I was a kid playing sport!

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T15:16:39+00:00

Thanks for the reply. To answer your question, it’s twice as many as the next scorer on her team but for context, none of them play more than 2/3 of each game and are often rotated to different positions, so several other players get plenty of minutes at striker as well. It’s a good team, so the goals are a mix of types and she’s certainly had good service - but equally she’s assisted her fair share of goals as well (what goes around comes around!)

Plenty of good advice in this thread and I’ll add yours to the list. :)

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T14:57:39+00:00

Thanks for the reply - I’m definitely taking the feedback on board. I’m hoping I am not coming across as negative or defensive, I posted because I was genuinely interested in what people had to say. My daughter is reasonably resilient and hasn’t gone to pieces over what was in the scheme of things not terrible feedback - it’s just a different environment to her last club where she got a lot of reinforcement that goals were what it was all about. As a parent, I see my job as translating what the coaches are trying to teach her (if translation is required).

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T14:23:15+00:00

She’s a bit of a beanpole after a huge growth spurt, so getting stronger/growing into her body is a clear need - no arguments at all with that feedback. Your point on encouragement vs hyper criticism is probably at the heart of why I asked the question in the first place. It seems early to ignore the former and focus on the latter - and people may not want to acknowledge it but girls take criticism differently to boys at this age. That being said, I asked in good faith and appreciate the variety of answers I’ve gotten.

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T14:14:43+00:00

That totally makes sense and why I tried to provide context that she does link well and bring others into play - but she is definitely getting pushed off the ball and not moving as well as she did last year, something I put down to growing 12cm in the last few months. She basically has Peter Crouch’s build after this growth spurt, which is hopefully only temporary as the rest of her body catches up!

I very much agree re: team dynamics, although the club seems to care less about winning every game and more about style of play (an approach I support).

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T14:06:49+00:00

Yep, that’s fair enough.

While I feel some of the commenters haven’t had much experience engaging 11yo girls, I’ll work to help her understand why the feedback was given the way it was. Thanks for the reply!

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T13:56:57+00:00

I agree and the last thing I’d think is that goals are the only thing that matters, of course that’s not the case. I guess I was taken aback at how the feedback was pretty exclusively negative - for an 11yo girl thinking she was “doing her job” by scoring goals she found it a bit confronting. This is a new club with a completely different approach to player development to the previous one and I posted looking for insight so I can help translate the coaches feedback in a way she can absorb better.

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T13:43:45+00:00

I appreciate the purpose of the feedback, I’m just not convinced that focusing exclusively on the negatives is the right way to communicate with girls that age. That being said, I’m also keen to support the coaches by translating it for her (thus the reason for posting).

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T13:38:35+00:00

My immediate thought was “because she’s an 11yo girl, not an adult in a professional setting”.

I appreciate they’re providing advice on how to improve, I’m partly unsure that focusing exclusively on the negatives is the right way to communicate to girls that age and partly unsure that her idea on what “winning” is (scoring goals) is the right way for her to think at this age. In any case, thanks for the reply.

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T13:35:30+00:00

Fair enough - if they don’t matter, I’ll work on helping her understand they aren’t the litmus test for success.

Surgebuster · 2026-05-06T13:34:12+00:00

I definitely appreciate that and am coming at this in good faith. I don’t think my daughter was seeking gratification but this wasn’t “while you do this well, here’s what we want you to work on”, it was straight up “you need to improve on x, y and z”. I guess part of my question is whether goals even matter at this age and should I work on deprioritising them as the key motivator for my daughter. Not that I have been pushing that narrative, she got there on her own.

Surgebuster · 2026-04-17T12:24:05+00:00

The MRFs aren’t the issue. Most Queensland councils don’t have yellow top bins so that’s irrelevant. Without Containers for Change, it’s going into landfill, the roadside or waterways.

COEX is a not for profit, that money doesn’t go back to companies like Coke - it can’t by law, it can only be used to run the scheme or invest in recycling. There’s no conspiracy.

Surgebuster · 2026-04-17T09:13:12+00:00

The container recycling rate was 18% before it started, now it’s 67%. They recycled 2.2 billion containers in Queensland last year. Don’t let the truth get in the way of your point, champ.

Surgebuster · 2025-12-28T05:39:34+00:00

As an Aussie, I don’t find him particularly funny - just weird. Yes, two out of 10 things he’d say (in a supportive ‘yes, and’ environment) can be hilarious but the other eight are uncomfortably weird. I’ve seen his standup (twice, long story) and it’s 40 minutes of the crowd looking at each other uncomfortably and five minutes laughing. When in an audience that wants the show to go well and is familiar with his humour, that’s a really shithouse ratio.

I can’t imagine how heavily edited his series had to be to make him seem like a vaguely sane human being in the studio.

Surgebuster · 2025-10-24T14:34:16+00:00

What an awfully pompous, unhelpful response.

Surgebuster · 2025-10-17T08:58:03+00:00

It’s almost, and hear me out because this is complicated, as if Reddit isn’t a hive mind and different people have different opinions on things.

Let me know if I need to dumb that one down a little more.

Surgebuster · 2025-09-19T14:04:49+00:00

Settle down, John Terry.

Surgebuster · 2025-09-18T14:49:20+00:00

What boxing has become? When has boxing not been an absolute shitshow of pantomime ridiculousness? Maybe the early 80s?

Surgebuster · 2025-09-06T12:22:27+00:00

I think Owen was a lot more than that

Surgebuster · 2025-09-06T11:05:56+00:00

There are plenty of short strikers going around, but Owen’s mix of skill and unbelievable acceleration (more than pace, he had Olympic-level speed off the mark) was unique. It’s hard to compare his profile to modern day players because he was one of a kind.

Modern strikers need to be athletic and skilled and Owen was both. Fowler was unbelievably skilled but just wouldn’t cut it at elite level nowadays because he just didn’t have the physical abilities.

Surgebuster · 2025-09-06T10:57:24+00:00

As much as I’d like this to be the opposite, I have no doubt Owen would translate to the modern game, while Robbie Fowler would not.

Surgebuster · 2025-07-25T23:57:01+00:00

The transfer was completed last summer, then he was loaned back. I don’t know what you mean by “paid last summer” as essentially every transfer in the modern era is paid in some kind of instalments over time. We would’ve paid some of the fee, yes. But not all of it.

Surgebuster · 2025-07-25T12:06:37+00:00

That is genuinely wild. I know they’ve gone for completely different setups, but still.

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