Rec league sport, 15 min in, kid didn’t play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids look similar?

If it is a homogeneous group with similar ability or similar bad ability, the coach may not have kept good track. I mean it is only fifteen minutes.

Bad move to go up to coach in the middle of a game. If anything, it should be at the end of a game or after a pattern of several games.

And rec teams don’t play all the kids the same amount of time. Some may but definitely not all or even most.

Our friend coached a basketball team and one of the parents called him racist. The team was half black and half white and the best kids on the team were black plus the coach’s white child. Coach often played the best kids who happened to be black and I guess he gave his own child more playing time than benched child who was black. Coach said he often played 4 black kids at a time so how could he be racist. If anything, he didn’t play the white kids as much. Our friend stopped coaching after that and his white son is often the only white starter on the teams he plays on.

But rec leagues do have minimums for all players. If the coach isn't doing that then they shouldn't coach. This is why America- for all of its size and population- doesn't really have more standout kids. We do development all wrong.
Our league requires all kids play at least 2 full quarters. In the first few games, it is more difficult because most kids dont have the stamina to last 12 minutes straight. I started with half field practices for the first few weeks and then slowly increased to 3/4 and then full field scrimmages for almost 1/2 of my practice time. All of this with 8u kids. My kids ran circles around other teams but it also took almost the whole season for all of them to be able to last the 12 minutes.
Kids need acclimation to load for running and distance. Our games werent even on full size fields but because they had acclimated to scrimmage on a larger area maintaining wasnt a problem towards the end of the season. Most coaches either wont train the endurance, even for young kids, or go too hard too fast.

I had 3 practices a week. First practice of the week focused on what I saw missing in the weekend game. Second practice was full scrimmage to start break for drills then scrimmage working on X concept like cant score unless you pass three times or practice throw-ins from both the defensive or offensive position. Third practice was fun/sprints and then scrimmage.
I did animal sprints. I had them dribble sprint pass. I did 2v2. 3v3. I punted the ball down the field for 1v1 and made them sprint to it and then whoever got it had to score with the other person trying to defend only.

I took it pretty seriously, not because of winning, but because the kids should have fun and also learn something. I wanted all the kids to look forward to practice and I had a few kids who had a)played soccer or b)played a soccer with a team. Imagine if their first experience was riding the bench or not having their coach believe in them! Who didnt explain that when a goalie misses a ball the ball didnt go past just the goalie, it got past the 6 other kids on the field too. Or who didnt get a positive note about their attitude- hustle, teamwork, sportsmanship- at least once during the season.

The win-at-all-costs puts too much pressure on the kids and its all so the Coach can feed their egos. We did win the league btw

Pp here. I have 3 kids including two boys now in high school. They have played rec, travel, AAU, little legends for various sports. I can’t think of any rec team that played everyone equally. It has been a while though.

One of my kids is a basketball player. He played 4 quarters in every rec team he was on. On his travel and AAU teams, he played about half the time. The travel and AAU coach seemed to rotate players a heck of a lot better than the rec coach. He was benched since he was on the HS team. In HS, the starters seem to play 90% of the time. My kid is probably 7 or 8 on team and plays maybe 10 minutes per game.

His brother is a starter on his teams and there are kids who never get to play at all.

[Anonymous]

Most rec teams are required to play kids a certain amount of time. Take a look at the rule book for your league and then discuss with the coach. Make sure you request a different coach next season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the kids look similar?

If it is a homogeneous group with similar ability or similar bad ability, the coach may not have kept good track. I mean it is only fifteen minutes.

Bad move to go up to coach in the middle of a game. If anything, it should be at the end of a game or after a pattern of several games.

And rec teams don’t play all the kids the same amount of time. Some may but definitely not all or even most.

Our friend coached a basketball team and one of the parents called him racist. The team was half black and half white and the best kids on the team were black plus the coach’s white child. Coach often played the best kids who happened to be black and I guess he gave his own child more playing time than benched child who was black. Coach said he often played 4 black kids at a time so how could he be racist. If anything, he didn’t play the white kids as much. Our friend stopped coaching after that and his white son is often the only white starter on the teams he plays on.

But rec leagues do have minimums for all players. If the coach isn't doing that then they shouldn't coach. This is why America- for all of its size and population- doesn't really have more standout kids. We do development all wrong.
Our league requires all kids play at least 2 full quarters. In the first few games, it is more difficult because most kids dont have the stamina to last 12 minutes straight. I started with half field practices for the first few weeks and then slowly increased to 3/4 and then full field scrimmages for almost 1/2 of my practice time. All of this with 8u kids. My kids ran circles around other teams but it also took almost the whole season for all of them to be able to last the 12 minutes.
Kids need acclimation to load for running and distance. Our games werent even on full size fields but because they had acclimated to scrimmage on a larger area maintaining wasnt a problem towards the end of the season. Most coaches either wont train the endurance, even for young kids, or go too hard too fast.

I had 3 practices a week. First practice of the week focused on what I saw missing in the weekend game. Second practice was full scrimmage to start break for drills then scrimmage working on X concept like cant score unless you pass three times or practice throw-ins from both the defensive or offensive position. Third practice was fun/sprints and then scrimmage.
I did animal sprints. I had them dribble sprint pass. I did 2v2. 3v3. I punted the ball down the field for 1v1 and made them sprint to it and then whoever got it had to score with the other person trying to defend only.

I took it pretty seriously, not because of winning, but because the kids should have fun and also learn something. I wanted all the kids to look forward to practice and I had a few kids who had a)played soccer or b)played a soccer with a team. Imagine if their first experience was riding the bench or not having their coach believe in them! Who didnt explain that when a goalie misses a ball the ball didnt go past just the goalie, it got past the 6 other kids on the field too. Or who didnt get a positive note about their attitude- hustle, teamwork, sportsmanship- at least once during the season.

The win-at-all-costs puts too much pressure on the kids and its all so the Coach can feed their egos. We did win the league btw

Pp here. I have 3 kids including two boys now in high school. They have played rec, travel, AAU, little legends for various sports. I can’t think of any rec team that played everyone equally. It has been a while though.

One of my kids is a basketball player. He played 4 quarters in every rec team he was on. On his travel and AAU teams, he played about half the time. The travel and AAU coach seemed to rotate players a heck of a lot better than the rec coach. He was benched since he was on the HS team. In HS, the starters seem to play 90% of the time. My kid is probably 7 or 8 on team and plays maybe 10 minutes per game.

His brother is a starter on his teams and there are kids who never get to play at all.

Thats really disappointing but rec is different than HS-level sports. Rec leagues do have rules about playing time and if coaches arent sticking to it then they are doing a disservice to the kids. All kids.

And yes, I am aware I did things differently. Many parents especially those with kid who had played prior or were better skilled expected them to play the whole game and only in offensive positions. I am not here to make the next Messi okay? This is a rec league.

Every kid plays. Every kid learns. Your kid may be great at dribbling and shooting but they suck at defense or they get pissed when the ball gets past the goalie. Seems like if your kid was the next coming, they would have been able to keep possession of the ball, no? So, some kids needed to learn how to be a better team member or how to play defense. Some needed to feel the pressure of goalie. Some kids needed to see how saying something positive to another teammate gave them the confidence to try instead of being scared to make a mistake.

I told some of my more skilled kids that as they get older and they want to play a higher-level coaches are looking for mindset and skills meaning that everyone makes mistakes. How do you respond to teammates who make a mistake? Are you encouraging or are you pilling on? How do you respond when you make a mistake or lose possession of the ball? Do you throw your hands up and watch them dribble down the field towards the goal or do you shake it off and try to get the ball back or hustle behind the midfield/defense to be the next line of defense?

If all the coaches are doing is winning at all costs then everyone loses.

[Anonymous]

In travel soccer, the handbook says that every player should get to play at least 50% of the game. If this isn’t happening at the rec level, it’s sad. The coach clearly takes him/her too seriously.

[Anonymous]

I would have waited to the half and asked the coach then if my kid still hadn’t gone in. I wouldn’t want to interrupt the game, but that’s absurd in a rec league for a 7 year old. Our travel kids are guaranteed 50% of the game or even playing time excluding the goalie, whichever is less.