Coaches can’t really tell how old the various child hockey players are; all they can see is who is doing better and thus, by inference, who appears to be more talented. Many coaches will tend to treat the more “talented” players with more praise and better instruction and to give these players more opportunities to play in games. And these players will be viewed as more talented not just by the coach but also by the other players. Furthermore, these players might be more willing to practice more because they are told that they have the promise of playing at very high levels, even
...more
