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[quote=Anonymous]Club coach here with a (hopefully) helpful explanation.

Assuming 12 athletes, the "ideal" roster construction is roughly as follows:
- 2-3 setters
- 3 who can play middle
- 2 liberos/DSs, maybe 3 if you had a preponderance of them at tryouts
- 5-6 pin hitters, at least 3 of whom are capable of playing six rotations
Usually you want some overlap (middles who can also play RS, setters who can also DS or hit, etc.), but something like that. Most club coaches with a roster approximating this one will wind up playing 9-10 girls in any particular set, usually with back row setters subbing for front row RSs and at least one OH playing all six rotations. If you DS an outside and/or have a serving sub for a middle (or DS both outsides), you will run out of subs somewhere on your third trip around the net, which at 15s and higher is a distinct possibility (14s and younger usually have at least one or two long serving runs that preclude that third cycle, although I saw that the second set of one of the 14 Open semifinals this past weekend went all the way to 40-38!!!!!).

Even if you're playing 10/12 in one set, it's impossible to get them close to equal time. Any number of things could be the reason (non-exhaustive): the team could get stuck in one rotation for awhile or side out really quickly; someone could have missed practice or rolled their ankle recently; a player or players could be learning a new position and not be ready for primetime yet; they could be someone who practices well but panics or shuts down in games, or dwells on that first error so much that they let it become four or five; or they might be developing slower than the coaches hoped in a key way that matters a lot for their position. These are teenagers, not automatons, and their growth and development is neither inexorably upward nor in anything resembling a straight line. There are innumerable variables at play. If the player(s) hasn't/haven't developed as quickly as their teammates and are not able to be put in a role where they can have some measure of success, the rest of the team can lose morale if that player is force-fed into a spot where they can't hide a little and/or they hurt the overall play. Even at lower levels of club, everyone wants to win and be successful to some degree (and every coach and team measures that differently, even within the same club or the same level).

Anyway, it's not quite as simple as saying "everyone should have equal playing time" (that's what rec is for) or "everyone should play in every match" (for the record, I almost always play everyone on my roster a minimum of three rotations every other set, at least in pool play, because I believe that game development and practice development are equally important). The coaches are juggling a lot of balls too. They absolutely should have had a discussion about playing time and how to earn it before the first practice, and it's always okay to ask (the player should ask first, *not* the parent) how one can earn more court time, although as someone mentioned most clubs have an explicit rule against doing this at a tournament because of the odds of emotions running high on either end (they also might have language in place about having a third party present, such as the club or age group director). If you ask, you should get an honest answer, and if you don't, then definitely take your business elsewhere next year.[/quote]

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