Ds (almost 14) would like to join a football team.
I want to be supportive of this but here's the trouble.
He started getting interested in football quite late. Later than his friends. I started taking him to just for fun coaching, but in all honesty I don't think I ever saw him get a touch of the ball. He'd always try out for the primary school teams but never got picked for anything and he'd often get mean comments in the playground about his ability. It could be quite difficult as it was a small school and it was usually ds and one other boy that would be left out of the team.
He still wanted to play and I eventually found him a small friendly league to play in which was for all abilities. But even within that, it was so competitive at times and it was quite clear that he was one of the weaker players on his team. He did eventually start to show some improvement but that particular team only took players up to age 12 so that's all done with now.
He's determined that he wants to join a team, but I've heard a lot from other parents that even if you get picked to join, the weaker players never even get a game and I've heard horror stories about bullying and shouting from other parents.
I'm so worried about setting him up to fail and knocking his confidence. Of course from a fitness and fun aspect I want him to play, but I know how football can be.
We've tried to encourage him into other sports we do a fair bit as a family and tried things like Park run but he's very headstrong and only wants to do football.
Any advice appreciated.