Guest Playing. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

[Anonymous]

My DS guests for a few different clubs here and there in tournaments. I always tell him to approach it like he's just there to help and remind him that it's not his team. Each time he's come off the bench and I think it's worked out pretty well but maybe some parents don't like it. I think kids like winning in tournaments so a few guests that kids already know can be ok. Definitely case by case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing inherently wrong with guest players - happens all the time. The question you should ask is: why did he bring the guest player?

Was the roster short for the tournament? Was the team short in a particular position? Is the guest being recruited to the team? Maybe the coach has a relationship with the family and is trying to get the kid more minutes after an injury? Maybe the coach thought a guest was the best way to get a result (i.e., little faith in the team, or the team was placed in too high a bracket and needed help)?

If the players thought positively of it then really no issues. If the players were not happy about it, then that is something to explore.

ETA: In my teams' contracts I tell the parents of my NCSL teams the aim is to get all kids equal playing in league games all other things (attendance, attitude, work outside of practice) being equal. But for tournaments I explicitly state the aim is to be as competitive as possible, to win, and we will field the players we believe will give us the best opportunity to win and that means some players might not get as much time as they would like.

Why is winning a tournament more important than giving the team (which the coach ostensibly selected) experience (that their parents paid for)?

Different poster. My kid has been on teams that often had players from the higher team guest for them. She really appreciated it because it raised the caliber of her team. It does give her a development benefit to share the field with the best possible players once in a while. Now, she was also one of the top players on those teams, so any playing time reduction tended to fall more on other kids. The top group within the team tended to attend practice more, and work harder at practice. So it almost felt like the coach was rewarding those players with a better experience when some strong guests played with them. But don't discount that these kids are all getting development value from playing (and even occasionally watching from the bench) for a more competitive team once in a while. Kids do need to sometimes experience a winning team to enjoy the sport more. If a kid is mad about playing time, maybe it will motivate them to work harder, as they can't just assume they can be terrible and get playing time because mom and dad wrote a check. Playing your worst players equally in games where all the kids' confidence could be shattered isn't always the best development move. I think the coaches also get to evaluate lower team kids against higher team kids from this. When a good B team player looks better than the A team guest, that's their chance to plant seeds of moving up. If a certain B team player is connecting play with A team players better than B teammates, it's also a sign they are ready to move up.

Obviously if the club is guesting players constantly because they just signed up way too many kids, that's greedy BS. But guesting for some occasional wins and to experience different ability levels seems OK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

We've had a coach sit the same player the same minutes whether there was 1 sub or 5. If this is your kid I'd ask them if they want to tryout somewhere else or how they'd like to improve so they aren't a fill in player to give breaks to starters. It's either too high of competition for them or an effort level the coach sees.

My player loves first team guest players. They would rather play with them and their better skills/field IQ even if they play a few less minutes then play the whole game with players who can barely down a ball and still play with their head down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

We've had a coach sit the same player the same minutes whether there was 1 sub or 5. If this is your kid I'd ask them if they want to tryout somewhere else or how they'd like to improve so they aren't a fill in player to give breaks to starters. It's either too high of competition for them or an effort level the coach sees.

My player loves first team guest players. They would rather play with them and their better skills/field IQ even if they play a few less minutes then play the whole game with players who can barely down a ball and still play with their head down.

My kid is a 2nd team player and is the top 1-2 player on the team. DC would greatly benefit playing with kids guesting from the 1st team. There is a stark difference from the top half of the team to the bottom and it really slows down the game/play/movements when they are in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

We've had a coach sit the same player the same minutes whether there was 1 sub or 5. If this is your kid I'd ask them if they want to tryout somewhere else or how they'd like to improve so they aren't a fill in player to give breaks to starters. It's either too high of competition for them or an effort level the coach sees.

My player loves first team guest players. They would rather play with them and their better skills/field IQ even if they play a few less minutes then play the whole game with players who can barely down a ball and still play with their head down.

My kid is a 2nd team player and is the top 1-2 player on the team. DC would greatly benefit playing with kids guesting from the 1st team. There is a stark difference from the top half of the team to the bottom and it really slows down the game/play/movements when they are in.

Looks like there's a few people noting the same phenomenon. Top of the team loves good guests. Bottom of the team does not, especially if they have the attitude that they've paid for playing time regardless of effort. Like many things, there's a necessary balance for everyone's interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

We've had a coach sit the same player the same minutes whether there was 1 sub or 5. If this is your kid I'd ask them if they want to tryout somewhere else or how they'd like to improve so they aren't a fill in player to give breaks to starters. It's either too high of competition for them or an effort level the coach sees.

My player loves first team guest players. They would rather play with them and their better skills/field IQ even if they play a few less minutes then play the whole game with players who can barely down a ball and still play with their head down.

My kid is a 2nd team player and is the top 1-2 player on the team. DC would greatly benefit playing with kids guesting from the 1st team. There is a stark difference from the top half of the team to the bottom and it really slows down the game/play/movements when they are in.

Looks like there's a few people noting the same phenomenon. Top of the team loves good guests. Bottom of the team does not, especially if they have the attitude that they've paid for playing time regardless of effort. Like many things, there's a necessary balance for everyone's interests.

Yup, if your kid is at the bottom of the team it impacts their minutes - so no guests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a 2012 now on a travel team. Id be annoyed about a guest player if my kid was on the bench while the guest player played. One of our coaches has a 2012 kid but she plays on a 2011 team ( play us) he will occasionally have her fill in on the 2012 team if we are short. That's fine.

sorry same poster.
On the other side of this, DDs old rec team coach asked if she could play with them last Fall. I said it was too much but she could play games if they were short and it was ok with the organization. Well he had my DD play and another travel player play when they had 13 kids total ( plus our 2) I was not happy. I felt like he was gaming the system to win and it wasnt done fairly. I told him, not again.

What's really funny about the bench thing is, the reason your kid is on the bench isn't because of the guest player.
They would be a bench player regardless

Listen carefully. There's a difference between being on the bench and a bench player.

At these young ages, it's not if you start the game or not, its how many minutes you play.
Last season, my kid came off the bench several times because the coach wanted to see how the other team was playing before putting her in. She played more minutes than most at different positions

We've had a coach sit the same player the same minutes whether there was 1 sub or 5. If this is your kid I'd ask them if they want to tryout somewhere else or how they'd like to improve so they aren't a fill in player to give breaks to starters. It's either too high of competition for them or an effort level the coach sees.

My player loves first team guest players. They would rather play with them and their better skills/field IQ even if they play a few less minutes then play the whole game with players who can barely down a ball and still play with their head down.

My kid is a 2nd team player and is the top 1-2 player on the team. DC would greatly benefit playing with kids guesting from the 1st team. There is a stark difference from the top half of the team to the bottom and it really slows down the game/play/movements when they are in.

Looks like there's a few people noting the same phenomenon. Top of the team loves good guests. Bottom of the team does not, especially if they have the attitude that they've paid for playing time regardless of effort. Like many things, there's a necessary balance for everyone's interests.

Yup, if your kid is at the bottom of the team it impacts their minutes - so no guests.

You know the coach just plays the better regulars more and the bencher still warms the bench without guest player