Question about elementary / middle school team sports

[Anonymous]

It depends on the sport and the level. On a basketball team that rosters 10 or 11 and gives 7 or 8 most of the minutes, players 9-11 are going to play as hard as they can even if it means running up the score

[Anonymous]

Most competitive leagues and some rec leagues use score differentials in determining rankings. Don't expect coaches or the boys to back off when that's the case.

Personally, I think it's less good sportsmanship and more in line with giving everyone a trophy not to let both teams play their best. I say that as the parent of a child whose team was blown out by more than 40 points in a basketball game when they were 9 years old. What did my child's team learn? That as good as they thought they were, there were boys out there who were a lot better. Some kids found this discouraging. Others got motivated to work harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most competitive leagues and some rec leagues use score differentials in determining rankings. Don't expect coaches or the boys to back off when that's the case.

Personally, I think it's less good sportsmanship and more in line with giving everyone a trophy not to let both teams play their best. I say that as the parent of a child whose team was blown out by more than 40 points in a basketball game when they were 9 years old. What did my child's team learn? That as good as they thought they were, there were boys out there who were a lot better. Some kids found this discouraging. Others got motivated to work harder.

It’s not just boys. My daughter’s team also determined rank with score differential. They were going to play hard. I thought it was poor when parents would cheer loudly when it was a blowout. Our team was pretty good about being respectful when we were on a winning side of a blowout. The coach would switch up positions when it was extreme and use it for training, like having them try out new things. I agree with this poster, intentionally letting teams catch up the score is the everyone gets a trophy mentality. My kids have been on both sides of blow out games.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, the take a certain number of passes before you can shoot strategy only works if the coach is genuinely trying to be a good sport. My son had a terrible coach who only wanted to win at all costs and he’d tell the kids to do the pass thing once he was forced to due to the score, but then he’d just let two kids pass the ball back and forth to each other till they got to the requisite number.

[Anonymous]

I coached my 4th grader's rec team and had some well-matched opponents this past season, but also some blowout wins. In the blowouts, once we were up a bit and it was clear how the game was going to go, I'd generally swap out better players have a bit more bench time, and I'd have them focus more on defense than scoring, and then the last thing I did was set specific objectives for the top players... e.g. I'd pull aside Larla (top player) and say I don't want you to score any today, but I want you to try to find a way to set up Larlo (mid-to-bottom player) to score for us. And they'd take on that new challenge with enthusiasm.

I found this to be a good approach because it built camaraderie gave the mid-to-bottom players encouragement and a positive memory to have scored/contributed in that way (a confidence boost that would often carry over so they weren't just standing around watching their more skilled teammates take over in closer games). At same time it also set up different challenges to keep the more-skilled kids engaged... they had to figure out how to draw the defense to them while still being able to create a passing lane to their teammate and get creative with that.

Unfortunately, there are some coaches out there who run up the score, which is poor form unless it's a competitive league where those points really matter in the standings (which, if so, is poor league design at this level, IMO). Some coaches just seemed more focused on winning than player development and sportsmanship, which is a shame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I coached my 4th grader's rec team and had some well-matched opponents this past season, but also some blowout wins. In the blowouts, once we were up a bit and it was clear how the game was going to go, I'd generally swap out better players have a bit more bench time, and I'd have them focus more on defense than scoring, and then the last thing I did was set specific objectives for the top players... e.g. I'd pull aside Larla (top player) and say I don't want you to score any today, but I want you to try to find a way to set up Larlo (mid-to-bottom player) to score for us. And they'd take on that new challenge with enthusiasm.

I found this to be a good approach because it built camaraderie gave the mid-to-bottom players encouragement and a positive memory to have scored/contributed in that way (a confidence boost that would often carry over so they weren't just standing around watching their more skilled teammates take over in closer games). At same time it also set up different challenges to keep the more-skilled kids engaged... they had to figure out how to draw the defense to them while still being able to create a passing lane to their teammate and get creative with that.

Unfortunately, there are some coaches out there who run up the score, which is poor form unless it's a competitive league where those points really matter in the standings (which, if so, is poor league design at this level, IMO). Some coaches just seemed more focused on winning than player development and sportsmanship, which is a shame.

That only works if your bench players aren't better than the other team. On my DD's team, 8 kids will usually play in a close game. In a blow out, everyone plays and the kids who don't usually get much playing time get offensive sets run for them. They aren't that much worse than the rest of the team and they generally expand leads in blowouts because they are trying as hard as the can after the other team has given up