Anonymous wrote:Coached a ton of little kid rec soccer, and many many years of baseball from ages 9 to Summer Legion.
The coach playing time/position rules are really the same across the games and ages.
1. Play everyone roughly equal amounts.
2. Put kids in positions where they can be safe, and, hopefully, reasonably successful.
3. Try and win only after you satisfy 1 and 2.
You can’t put a kid a first base who cannot catch the ball well. You need goalies who are willing to try and get in front of a shot.
The big difference between rec and club sports is that club sports practice much more frequently. Frankly, with baseball rec teams really do not practice at all once games start. With soccer rec teams typically practice once a week. With club sports you are going to practice 2-3 times a week.
Rec sports. other than summer sports (baseball, softball, swim, etc) basically end once kids hit middle school. Kids are doing other stuff then.
If you think playing time issues are different for club sports you are wrong. Every kid plays - you are paying for that. “But my kid is better”. Are you paying more than the other kid? No. Then shut it. At the highest levels of youth sports it is even more important to play everyone. The top soccer clubs compete for players by advertising how many kids on their teams are playing pro or playing in college. You don't get players unless you play everyone.
On an individual basis - the big thing to learn as a teen is to have fun competing as hard and as well as you can. You can’t control total team effort, but you can control your own effort. If you work hard and do your best, then you can have fun just by competing.
None of this is true of travel basketball. With basketball, the better kids play a LOT more, and the kids at the end of the bench may barely get in games. It sucks, but that’s how it works.
Also, there are absolutely rec winter sports through high school. My kid played rec basketball on a team made up of varsity baseball players all through high school.
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