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[quote=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.[/quote]

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