06-08-2012, 10:28 AM
There's little logic in saying that out of say 40 games played in a year the 9 games at the Euroyouth were the ones that stopped a child progressing!!??
As someone who's studied Child Development and Acquisition of Skill at Degree level I'm confident that the youngsters going to 'all' events are learning. The young mind is extremely able at learning and the young talented mind more so. I played 1 of the lads at Mureck this year in Dundee and he played a fantastic game and showed great creativity at the board. First time up at these events is always tough but they are all learning through experience that they will need to become stronger to compete at a higher level. There's not one junior who's represented Scotland recently who hasn't come to that realisation through experience.
I'm confident that a good number will use that as a spur to move them forward in the game.
There are though always plateau's of growth and it is inevitable that there will be spells where a player appears stuck. It's during these periods they are often learning the most. I think Andy H alluded to that earlier. Far from being ditched they should be supported and if they eventually can't progress further then they themselves are likely to know they've reached their limit.
Btw, All the top Scottish Juniors under 20 are well under graded in my opinion. That takes time because of the Fide rating system and not enough Fide rated games to rectify itself. But it will!!
As someone who's studied Child Development and Acquisition of Skill at Degree level I'm confident that the youngsters going to 'all' events are learning. The young mind is extremely able at learning and the young talented mind more so. I played 1 of the lads at Mureck this year in Dundee and he played a fantastic game and showed great creativity at the board. First time up at these events is always tough but they are all learning through experience that they will need to become stronger to compete at a higher level. There's not one junior who's represented Scotland recently who hasn't come to that realisation through experience.
I'm confident that a good number will use that as a spur to move them forward in the game.
There are though always plateau's of growth and it is inevitable that there will be spells where a player appears stuck. It's during these periods they are often learning the most. I think Andy H alluded to that earlier. Far from being ditched they should be supported and if they eventually can't progress further then they themselves are likely to know they've reached their limit.
Btw, All the top Scottish Juniors under 20 are well under graded in my opinion. That takes time because of the Fide rating system and not enough Fide rated games to rectify itself. But it will!!