It's not true that the starting five are the "best players". This is particularly true of point guards vs. "bigs". If your daughter is a ball handling point guard, then she might be the second best point guard, but not big enough to play the post or the wings. It IS probably true that she's not the best at her position.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

Usually the best kids start and that is probably what she is picking up on and is upsetting her. I am usually fair in assessing my kids' abilities to their peers (the prior poster here who was assessing their kid seemed fair) - sometimes my kid is good but the other kids are simply better. If the kids are equal in ability then it might be a rotation issue or even a work ethic issue. Kids that work all the time and push, will be chosen over a kid of similar skill that does not.

Is your kid always 5 minutes early to practice? Do they always work hard in practice? Do they hustle in games? There are coaches who reward that with starts, but then give their better players the majority of the minutes.

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

No, in 7th grade they should be old enough to earn their starting position. This is a great opportunity for her to speak with her coach about ways to improve, practice that outside of team practices, and improve enough to become a starter.

It could also have more to do with the coach than your DD's abilities. Our coach always starts DS, but the assistant coach (a dad) never does. It's been clear since the second week of practice that the assistant coach doesn't like DS for whatever reason. DS works as hard as anyone and is easily a top 5 player. We just roll our eyes now when we see the assistant coach is running the bench.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience if certain teams leave some of their stronger players off the bench at first so that those subbing are strong?

No. This is not a thing.

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

in 7th grade, I would consider it good if she was getting a decent amount of PT. She could always ask the coach what to work on to make it to a starting position.

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

Usually the best kids start and that is probably what she is picking up on and is upsetting her. I am usually fair in assessing my kids' abilities to their peers (the prior poster here who was assessing their kid seemed fair) - sometimes my kid is good but the other kids are simply better. If the kids are equal in ability then it might be a rotation issue or even a work ethic issue. Kids that work all the time and push, will be chosen over a kid of similar skill that does not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience if certain teams leave some of their stronger players off the bench at first so that those subbing are strong?

My kid has been playing for about 5 years, and I haven’t seen this. Coaches seem to start with their top 5. There may be a little movement if the 4th/5th best players are very close in ability to the 6th best player. My kid’s ability seems to be usually 4th, 5th, 6th so he usually starts, but sometimes that 6th player will replace him in the starting lineup.

DD has had a coach who had a consistent starting 5 and a consistent closing 5 if the game was close. There were a couple of differences between the two. My DD had theories and it seemed like her teammates did too, the coach never really elaborated on his reasoning though. He was a really good coach who the kids loved playing for, that was just a quirk of his.

OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

I think it matters how old your DD is, and how much playing time she gets. We've been on teams where it was 5 in and 5 out. We've been on teams where the top 5 kids play 90%.

If she isn't starting, and isn't playing much, and she is young, that isn't great. Kids need a chance. Once they're older, the best start

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience if certain teams leave some of their stronger players off the bench at first so that those subbing are strong?

My kid has been playing for about 5 years, and I haven’t seen this. Coaches seem to start with their top 5. There may be a little movement if the 4th/5th best players are very close in ability to the 6th best player. My kid’s ability seems to be usually 4th, 5th, 6th so he usually starts, but sometimes that 6th player will replace him in the starting lineup.

Have her ask the coach what she can do or what skills should she practice to become a starter.

It means that she is not one of the top 5 players.

Does anyone have experience if certain teams leave some of their stronger players off the bench at first so that those subbing are strong?

Well, it only matters in that the starting 5 are the best players, generally. So if she cares about that, then it matters to her.

Does not being part of the starting 5 in basketball mean anything? I think my DD is a very strong player but she never starts. She's starting to get upset by this and I keep reminding her that it doesn't matter. But does it?