Children learn differently and it is of the utmost importance that we as parents, teachers and coaches all understand this. Why one may ask? Simple. Oftentimes we say things to them or give them instructions and assume that they understand when in reality some of them really do not.

I read an article this week about a teacher who asked all of her students in the class to close their eyes as she read a story to them. Just for a reference, let's say the story was about birds flying over a river in the summer breeze. During the reading of the story the teacher asked one student what does he/she see. The student replied, "I see black". The teacher was stunned! Her expectation was that the student would picture what was heard in the story, but that wasn't the child's understanding of closing their eyes. This is what happens quite often in school and in sports.

Coaches take for granted that kids understand the instructions given, but as coaches we need to ensure that our instructions are thorough and detailed. Sometimes we may even have to model the activity or skill that we want them to learn.

Having played football at a very high standard, I have seen junior and senior players take the coaches' instructions literally, instead of being able to adapt to various situations.

Example, a coach tells the winger go down the line, take on the defender and get the ball across. The player then attempts this task, but the defender robs him of the ball. The next time the winger gets the ball he does the same thing again causing his team-mates to get frustrated. As one of his team-mates says something to him, he replies, "Well that's what the coach wants".

Having sat and watched the Dudley Eve final between North Village and PHC in the rain I just had to smile when I saw how Village combatted one of PHC's strengths. PHC usually take on defenders, go down the line and send cross after cross into the box.

However, Village counteracted that game plan and took the line away from their wingers, thus sending them inside. The majority of the time that PHC went inside they lost the ball. This tells me that as a team PHC didn't adapt when things didn't go as planned. This is what happens to our kids in education too. When things do not appear the same or it requires a bit of thought, they struggle.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I thought North Village struggled because of the rain. Their passing game was tremendously affected as many passes went astray. What under normal circumstances would be a good pass now was not a good pass due to weather conditions, but the players on the park really struggled.

Too often balls were passed over the head of defenders and the ball would skeet out of bounds. A simple 10-yard pass was passed too strongly, making it difficult to get and eventually eluding the player.

As a former player, I was sitting in my seat going crazy saying when are the players going to adapt to the rainy conditions? Truthfully speaking both teams never did and it was a horrendous performance by both teams, with all due respect.

Again folks, it boils down to being able to adapt to different situations especially when things are not going your way or working out.

This is a skill that we must teach our kids. It is essential that our kids learn this because in life there are going to be several challenges. Some challenges will be easy to deal with, but others will baffle them and it's how they deal with adversity that will make them a better and stronger person.

We have to teach our kids to think outside of the box. We have to clarify things for them and help them understand that in life if something doesn't work you have to find an alternative option. There are always means and ways of how to counteract a situation.

Quote for the Week: A child educated only at school is an uneducated child – George Santayana.