Do we expect too much physically?

I had ten boys at our training session tonight, that's pretty good out of a squad of thirteen. Two couldn't make it because of prior commitments but one wasn't there because he's got a painful heel. Normally I'd have just brushed it off but I watched him play in a school match yesterday and he was struggling. You might not notice it normally, but as his coach I'm used to how he plays. Tonight a couple of the other lads got what seemed innocuous taps on their ankles or feet and went down quite easily too. Even my own son mentioned how the bottoms of his feet ached when he got home. With all this in mind and the fact that they're ten or eleven years old, I can only put it down to two things: over-playing or growth spurts. I learned a lot about this on the Youth Appropriate Module 2 I completed recently

I spoke to the boys about it after training and asked them what else they've got coming up. Most have got rugby or PE at school tomorrow and then some have got a rugby match on Friday AND football training in the evening. So I've decided to call off our friendly on Saturday and I'm going to try and plan a session for next week that gives them a rest physically and is much more technical based. I'm sure I can think of something I can do to set a challenge for those that are ok.

I'm sure the parents will be glad of the break, but I need to make sure they actually get the boys to rest. I wonder if many other coaches would do the same?

What would you do?