Is this a reasonable (travel) coaching rule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rule isn’t unfair, what is unfair is that it is often unevenly enforced. The best player can show up late or not at all to practice and many travel/club coaches will start that player because they want to win.

+100 to this. That’s the main issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rule isn’t unfair, what is unfair is that it is often unevenly enforced. The best player can show up late or not at all to practice and many travel/club coaches will start that player because they want to win.

+100 to this. That’s the main issue.

The best coaches don't play those games. They will bench a star player just as easily for infractions. It makes the team stronger with better chemistry. And, this is true of the major leagues--baseball, basketball, football, Premier league soccer, etc. They will fine players for breaking the contract of missing practices, showing up late, etc.

Youth travel coaches are just awful a lot of the time. The blatant favoritism does nobody any good, and often it's the prima donna superstar that ultimately suffers the most because those habits don't fly when they get older and have new coaches.

Sports are all about discipline.

The new trend is having prima donnas practice with other teams and then show up for just certain games or tournaments. It often really messes up the team play, particularly when they put them in over kids that have all regularly practiced together and built a chemistry. I see the team usually plays worse when that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Within reason, yes. Not starting doesn’t mean you can’t get plenty of playing time later. My kids have had a number of coaches who use this rule, but have never seen it enforced where the parent reached out in advance to let the coach know heir child would be late. See their kid sit on the bench to start the game can be a powerful motivator for some parents to take practice seriously.

From a more practical standpoint, parents who are chronically late to practices often cut it close on arriving for games as well, and their kids end up needing to warm up on the sidelines before they’re ready to go in. No coach is going to set themselves up to scramble for a change in starting line up when Larla still isn’t at the field 5 minutes before game time. They would prefer to start people they can count on to show up.

+1
No, it's not the kid's fault, but if they can't be relied on to show up on time, then they shouldn't start, because it's a pain for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rule isn’t unfair, what is unfair is that it is often unevenly enforced. The best player can show up late or not at all to practice and many travel/club coaches will start that player because they want to win.

+100 to this. That’s the main issue.

The best coaches don't play those games. They will bench a star player just as easily for infractions. It makes the team stronger with better chemistry. And, this is true of the major leagues--baseball, basketball, football, Premier league soccer, etc. They will fine players for breaking the contract of missing practices, showing up late, etc.

Youth travel coaches are just awful a lot of the time. The blatant favoritism does nobody any good, and often it's the prima donna superstar that ultimately suffers the most because those habits don't fly when they get older and have new coaches.

Sports are all about discipline.

The new trend is having prima donnas practice with other teams and then show up for just certain games or tournaments. It often really messes up the team play, particularly when they put them in over kids that have all regularly practiced together and built a chemistry. I see the team usually plays worse when that happens.

I've never experienced a player not practicing with their team unless they already have one foot out the door. What sports/leagues does that happen with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re late to practice, you don’t start in the next game.

To me, when we’re talking about young kids with 5pm practice time whose working parents have to transport them, no.

And fwiw, my own kid is never late, but to me this is unfair unless the kids are old enough to be getting themselves to practice.

In travel, this is a pretty standard practice. If there are extenuating circumstances, the player and/or parents can reach out to the coach and they can almost always figure out a solution. For most players being late is a rare thing but in our experience, the chronically late are the ones late to everything and never reach out for help.

[Anonymous]

It’s silly and it’s used to control the parents.

If they player is good they go in the 1st time play stops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly and it’s used to control the parents.

If they player is good they go in the 1st time play stops.

This. DD never start because she misses half of the practices because she plays another sport that she cares about more that practices at the same time. She still plays the whole game after the whistle each half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rule isn’t unfair, what is unfair is that it is often unevenly enforced. The best player can show up late or not at all to practice and many travel/club coaches will start that player because they want to win.

+100 to this. That’s the main issue.

The best coaches don't play those games. They will bench a star player just as easily for infractions. It makes the team stronger with better chemistry. And, this is true of the major leagues--baseball, basketball, football, Premier league soccer, etc. They will fine players for breaking the contract of missing practices, showing up late, etc.

Youth travel coaches are just awful a lot of the time. The blatant favoritism does nobody any good, and often it's the prima donna superstar that ultimately suffers the most because those habits don't fly when they get older and have new coaches.

Sports are all about discipline.

The new trend is having prima donnas practice with other teams and then show up for just certain games or tournaments. It often really messes up the team play, particularly when they put them in over kids that have all regularly practiced together and built a chemistry. I see the team usually plays worse when that happens.

I've never experienced a player not practicing with their team unless they already have one foot out the door. What sports/leagues does that happen with?

Soccer. To placate some parents, they will let the kid practice with an Academy/MLSnext, ECNL, etc team---or it is done to soften the blow of a full out demotion to the lower team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rule isn’t unfair, what is unfair is that it is often unevenly enforced. The best player can show up late or not at all to practice and many travel/club coaches will start that player because they want to win.

+100 to this. That’s the main issue.

The best coaches don't play those games. They will bench a star player just as easily for infractions. It makes the team stronger with better chemistry. And, this is true of the major leagues--baseball, basketball, football, Premier league soccer, etc. They will fine players for breaking the contract of missing practices, showing up late, etc.

Youth travel coaches are just awful a lot of the time. The blatant favoritism does nobody any good, and often it's the prima donna superstar that ultimately suffers the most because those habits don't fly when they get older and have new coaches.

Sports are all about discipline.

The new trend is having prima donnas practice with other teams and then show up for just certain games or tournaments. It often really messes up the team play, particularly when they put them in over kids that have all regularly practiced together and built a chemistry. I see the team usually plays worse when that happens.

I've never experienced a player not practicing with their team unless they already have one foot out the door. What sports/leagues does that happen with?

Soccer. To placate some parents, they will let the kid practice with an Academy/MLSnext, ECNL, etc team---or it is done to soften the blow of a full out demotion to the lower team.

I think my kid would be embarrassed to practice with a team they either didn't make or got demoted from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re late to practice, you don’t start in the next game.

To me, when we’re talking about young kids with 5pm practice time whose working parents have to transport them, no.

And fwiw, my own kid is never late, but to me this is unfair unless the kids are old enough to be getting themselves to practice.

In travel, this is a pretty standard practice. If there are extenuating circumstances, the player and/or parents can reach out to the coach and they can almost always figure out a solution. For most players being late is a rare thing but in our experience, the chronically late are the ones late to everything and never reach out for help.

THIS. Our coaches and most of the parents on our team know we will be late to most practices due to my long commute from work to pick up DS, and then drive an hour in heavy traffic to get to practice (and I'm a single parent who does all the driving to/from practices). But at least we make it to almost all practices unlike others, and we are always early to games

Coaches need to understand the burden of early practice start times as many of us work in 9-to-5++ (more than 40 hours/week) jobs dealing with long commutes (no telecommute option for me).

[Anonymous]

How young? We are always on time to practice. However, I would not support that rule at my son's age group (12). Kids are getting more serious about their travel sport and the coach should start the kids most likely to help the team succeed in the game, whether or not their parents get them there on time on a given day.

[Anonymous]

How young? We are always on time to practice. However, I would not support that rule at my son's age group (12). Kids are getting more serious about their travel sport and the coach should start the kids most likely to help the team succeed in the game, whether or not their parents get them there on time on a given day.

To clarify, because that is best for the team. My son plays a position where he is partnered up to work together with another player. It's most fair to him to be partnered with the most effective player, not the one whose mom or dad got them to practice on time the day before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re late to practice, you don’t start in the next game.

To me, when we’re talking about young kids with 5pm practice time whose working parents have to transport them, no.

And fwiw, my own kid is never late, but to me this is unfair unless the kids are old enough to be getting themselves to practice.

The standard rule is similar to this. The difference being if your kid is really good these type of rules do not apply.

[Anonymous]

On my kid’s high level travel team, absolutely kids show up late due to traffic. Many families have to take the beltway, and there’s no way people aren’t gonna get hung up in traffic sometimes. It seems to have zero impact on who plays how much.

[Anonymous]

You can always schedule ubers to take the kid to practice.