Basic question re starters/play time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One club my DD was on clearly articulated that playing time is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the coach. Some players on that team almost never stepped in the court weekend after weekend.

That's the rule on competitive teams. If you are on a developmental team, you should expect all the players to get on the court at some point. The "star" players on developmental teams should try out for competitive teams if they find this frustrating.

As someone new to this how do we know if a team is developmental or competitive?

It depends on the club. It is easy to figure things out for clubs with multiple teams per age group: The top team is usually competitive and play time is earned. The bottom team is typically developmental. The middle team is somewhere in between. Things are less clear with clubs with only one team per age group. They might pretend that they are competitive (and have policies as if they are competitive), but they are comparable with developmental teams in other clubs. The easier way to find out is to ask either at a parent meeting (before the tryouts), during the tryouts, or before you accept an offer.