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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] Which club ensures 50% of playing time?
 My kids got very little time (10 to 20 minutes total max) per game after long hours drive for away games, very frustrated. 
 I would like to know the club name and try out the club.

[/quote]

Playing time should be earned, not just given because you showed up.  If your kid doesn't get the level of playing time you hope for, I would suggest you do look elsewhere (either level down, or another club), and I don't mean that to come across harshly.  Development occurs at practice and outside/additional training, not during official matches.[/quote]

[b]Playing time is earned when you pay the fees.[/b]  If the kid is not good enough to play more than ten minutes a game then the club should not have taken your money - and having taken your money the kid should be given more minutes.

And while development certainly occurs outside matches, it absolutely occurs in matches as well and match minutes are a very important part of development.

However I agree that you should look elsewhere if the club treats your kid this way.[/quote]

Absolutely true for Rec programs, and lower level travel.  Not true for ECNL.[/quote]

It's true of ECNL too.  The club should not make offers to players who will not get a reasonable amount of playing time.  Not necessarily completely equal playing time, [b]but 50% of the game is a perfectly reasonable expectation[/b].  10 minutes, or even 20 minutes, is not reasonable for a kid paying full price.  If the club takes money from kids they know aren't good enough to play that's just wrong.[/quote]

Why?  Just because you paid too?[/quote]
Yes.  It's a competitive team so playing time shouldn't be equal, but the club has an obligation to place kids on a team where they can get a reasonable amount of playing time - which I put at about 50% as a minimum.  If you tell me 45% is OK then I won't quibble with you - but if a kid is getting 10 or 20 minutes a game the club should not have offered the kid a spot on that team - they're just taking your money and not giving the kid value in return.

Note that I'm not making a blanket statement that any kid should get 50% playing time on a highly competitive team. I am making the dual statement that one of the following is true:
EITHER (a) the kid should get 50% playing time,
OR (b) the kid is not a strong enough player to justify 50% playing time, in which case THE CLUB SHOULD NOT HAVE OFFERED THEM A SPOT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[quote] Some of these ECNL rosters are more than 20 players, so you're math doesn't work even if the coach wants to.[/quote]
18 rostered on game day.  Math works fine on game day.  And the club should rotate the kids who sit out - given injuries it's usually either zero or one, or occasionally two kids who end up sitting out in any case.   If the club has many more than 20 kids on the roster then the same applies - club is ripping you off.

[quote] And if the goal was just everybody gets to play (regardless of their capability, regardless of their skills, regardless of the effort they put it, regardless of their attitude, etc.), then what's the point of having a top tier league (which is what ECNL is supposed to be)?[/quote]
The point of a top tier league is to get the best players together to play - not everybody - the best players.  So either the kid is on that level and deserves to play a reasonable amount, or they are too weak and they significantly impact the performance of the team - in which case the club should not have offered them a spot and taken their money in the first place.

Sure not all the kids deserve to play identical minutes - and there needs to be room for the coaches to incentivize effort and improvement etc.  But the club is obligated not to take money from kids who aren't good enough to be on the field.

[quote]If you want more playing time, go somewhere else (where presumably your kid would be in the top half of the team) or move to a lower level of travel.[/quote]
Indeed.  That is likely the best solution if the kid is not good enough - but the kid would have been far better served if the club told them that upfront instead of taking the money and then giving the kid no playing time.  If the club had said ot the kid "We're making you an offer for the top team but you're not really good enough so you'll only be playing ten minutes a game", do you think the kid would have forked over the cash - or gone to that lower level team?  Since the club wanted the cash, they offered the kid the spot - knowing full well that he wasn't really good enough and that he wouldn't play.[/quote]

Your whole thesis is based on the assumption that ECNL teams add kids to be subs. What generally happens is over time better players occasionally join and they push starters down the pecking order. Top teams generally look to add impact players who can become starters first and foremost. Just know that as an incumbent player there is a kid out there looking to take your spot.[/quote]

Kids are usually added at the beginning of the season.  If a kid that was previously on the roster is no longer good enough to play for whatever reason, the same applies: the club owes the kid a conversation either to cut them, or to offer them a spot on the understanding that they're not going to see the field much.  If the club offers a spot (for whatever reason) to a kid who they don't expect to play without explaining that that is the basis of the offer then the club is taking your money in bad faith.[/quote]

What?

Kids are added at the end of the season and coaches don't have an opportunity to see the whole team together consistently until mid August realistically.

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