Philosophy: All kids play or you play to win?

[Waynelax]

I coach kids in 5th-6th grade (11-12 yrd old) and the age old debate; Do you play to win every game or do all kids play basically the same amount etc.??

For instance, our best goalie split time with another goalie who was horrendous. Our team went 12-3 on the season which was great but when it came to tournament time. The subpar goalie really killed us and prevented us from advancing in the [playoffs).

Obviously, it was the head coaches decision to play the players who had played all season. The bad goalie went in and gave up three goals in the first period and then we could not fight back and lost 4-3 in the second round of the playoffs.

How do you guys handle this situation? Win or be fair to all???:bye

[CTLaxer]

That's a tough call. Those kids are right around the age where you want to transition from the "everyone plays" to get them acquainted with a more competitive atmosphere. I'd say go half and half with how you work out the situation. For half the games during the season play everyone equally(don't just do this for the bad teams, the kids can tell when a team sucks and when they are good and will understand you're playing everyone only against bad teams) and then the other half of the games play in a more competitive aspect. Maybe alternating games between which style you play.

Remember, a part of coaching, especially at the younger age is to teach skills, basics, sportsmanship and to build confidence. To use your example of the goalie if the better goalie plays whole games, and then the other goalie splits a game with the better one....his confidence and skill level won't get any higher and will probably do just the opposite. That's my $0.02

[Vector_Joe]

It's a difficult age, in my opinion, probably middleschool is about when you should start with competitive playing times.

However, I think the important part isn't which way you go, but rather to have a stated (in writing is even better) policy. Then you stick with it all season long. The policy could even be that all kids play during the regular season, but better kids play more during the playoffs. But whatever you do, make sure the parents are aware of the policy before starting the season.

If it is a youth league, I would think that the league itself would have a policy to follow. But an inter school/travel league probably would not.

[spenny]

Originally posted by Waynelax
How do you guys handle this situation? Win or be fair to all???:bye

playtime in our league is mandated, every player must play at least 25% of each game.

remember what the point of youth sports is:
its to teach the kids the game.

they arent learning the game if they are sitting on the bench. every kid on my team plays in every game. yes there are times when i grit my teeth and send out my worst player at a key time, but hey, he comes to practice and works his butt off. who am i to deny him a chance to play.

some kids mature later. i had a player who was pretty bad as an 8th grader, he was recruited to play at a decent (top 50) D3 school out of HS last year. i have another kid who got playing time because he was one of 4 long poles, he cracked his HS starting line-up towards the end of his soph year, putting a senior on the bench.

there are a few things that will earn you bench time: being lazy on the game field, taunting/trash talking, talking to the refs, skipping practice w/o a good excuse.

i coach 7th-8th graders, my kids are getting ready to play HS lax, so i try to make the atmosphere more competitive, but still they need to play in the games to really learn what we are teaching at practice
your kids are younger, how many novice players do you have? even if you have a majority or entirety of experienced players, you need to make sure that everyone plays, everyone is making an effort in practice, everyone should get rewarded for that effort.
i have also noticed that some of my top players are not always the players that work the hardest at practice, for me, that gets facored into playing time too.

the bottom line for me is that there is so much development left in these players, to arbitrarily decide that jimmy is better and johnny is going to sit, is silly, next year johnny may be 3 inches taller than jimmy and be the better player. the following year they may be the same height and about the same ability, or the better player of the 2 may decide that he's tired of the pressure of winning is is quitting in favor of playing in the school orchestra.
11 and 12 years old is too early for the pressure of winning and losing. these kids need to learn to be teammates, and that is one of the many things you are teaching them.

last thing: give the really bad keeper a shorty or d-pole and let him run middy or D when he isnt in the cage. same for the good keeper.

we have an alum of our youth program, 1st line midield for a top 20 D1 program, was a part time goalie/part time middy until he got to HS

[Waynelax]

I am not saying to sit kids on the bench, but when it comes to tournaments or when the game is one the line. I think the better players should play! If you go 2-12 then the better kids also lose interest! We are also trying to build a competitive program. Competition is not fair.....it is survival of the fittest! Why should the better kids who worked hard all season be punished? They get all upset when they see the "leeser" goalie prepared to go in! They say things like, "we're done now, game over" etc. And sometimes they are right! The losses we had this season can be directly related to our #2 goaile! Not that it matters, but I have also been approached by the parents complaining about this situation.

All the kids should play, but the better kids should see more of the field, IMHO!

And our "lesser" goalie (and I am being nice) does play D and attack too, BTW!

Maybe I am wrong, but just my 2 cents!

BTW, thanks Spenny for your input! I certainly respect your opinion!

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by Vector_Joe
It's a difficult age, in my opinion, probably middleschool is about when you should start with competitive playing times.

However, I think the important part isn't which way you go, but rather to have a stated (in writing is even better) policy. Then you stick with it all season long. The policy could even be that all kids play during the regular season, but better kids play more during the playoffs. But whatever you do, make sure the parents are aware of the policy before starting the season.

If it is a youth league, I would think that the league itself would have a policy to follow. But an inter school/travel league probably would not.

This is another problem that I have ! We are supposed to be a competitve travel team where we play other towns etc., not an inter-town youth league! We are representing our town against neighboring towns in the area. We are an upincoming program and alot of these towns have kicked out butts for years. After about 3 years, lacrosse has caught on here, and we are very competitive now! IMO, its payback time against some towns who have killed us in the past and even ran up the score in some cases!

[spenny]

waynelax, you will ultimately have to decide how to balance wining vs. learning. for me, its easy, winning is completly secondary to teaching.

several years ago my team was forced up a division, and the season was ugly. we only won 1 game, but ultimately i felt the season was a sucess because my players all ended the season better lacrosse players than they started, and i think i was able to teach them a lot about sportsmanship and how to deal with adversity and not quit or lose heart.

also, down here in NoVa youth lax is "travel" too. we play other clubs in the NoVa area, and even travel to tournaments in other states.

[Snake~eyes]

It really depends on the age group, at the level you are coaching I think its a little of both. It also depends on your league, they most likely have a participation rule and if you are coaching the highest skilled level of your age group then winning can be more important.

But like Spenny said, it is better to teach a kid how to play then to win. Sure, it can be more rewarding for some peopel to win and you get more glory but watching a kid you coached start on a HS team can be very rewarding too.

Personally I believe teaching is the number 1 thing at any levels below HS, but that is just me.

[shiftylax]

I would say that at that age, all kids should play. I think the distinction between ability is SUPPOSED to be made a little later. That being said, I think that the distinction needs to be made by the coach - not left up to parents or kids complaining. I've seen this happen as high up as high school and it just ruins everything for everyone. Now that I am coaching in a less developed area - where parents pay for their kids to play the sport - its clear that NO distinction of ability has ever been taught to the kids or the parents. I think it should be mentioned to 5th/6th/7th grade kids that they won't always be playing 25% or 50% of a game unless they work hard and become more skilled. In that respect the youth coaches become more important to the advancement of the player and the game.

[Waynelax]

I think some of you guys are missing the point! I never said anything about teaching the kids! IMO, our kids learned more this year and excelled like never before. WE received letters from parents about how the kids enjoyed lacrosse this year like never before and how players learned their respectrive positions.

I don't think I am sacrificing teaching by proposing that we play to win also!

Does the NFL, NBA, MLB etc. give up a teaching/learning atmosphere even though they play to win? All the kids learn and all the kids play. They learn through practice 6 days a week and they show what they have learned on the field in a game.

Learning/coaching/teaching does not have alot to do with a superior player getting more time than one that is inferior....imo! We work hard in practice thats why it is painful for me to let the kids down trying to be fair to everyone on gameday! WE work hard all week to be the best that we can be.....and the bottom line is that we work hard to learn and to be successful/competitive or to win, however you want to express it!

Coaching and teaching is the #1 priority for me too, but that fact has nothing to do with my question!

[TheKOB]

right around that age is tricky. One thing is for sure, you shouldn't be so intent on winning that you don't focus on the development of your less talented players, because that'll kill you in the long run. I'd rather have a whole team of average middies than half that are great and half who can barely catch and throw. Also, if your best goalie is doing stellar and there's no reason to take him out, I agree with spenny, let the 2nd string try out a new position. It'll also prevent a lot of down time during practice. I've played on teams where we need all the players we can get, so it's not unusual for a 2nd string goalie to be 3rd string middie. This fall we're planning on having (in addition to the usual practice times) 2 times a week when the less experienced players can get caught up to the guys from VA, MD, and so on with more individual attention from the coach. Also, last semester, I know a guy who was playing his first year of lacrosse ever definitely worked the hardest to improve (showed up early and stayed late for practice, pestered fellow teammates to come out and throw around with him, etc) and he saw more playing time than those guys who seem to rather play in a beer league. It's the same phenomenon seen in the movie "Rudy".

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by TheKOB
Also, last semester, I know a guy who was playing his first year of lacrosse ever definitely worked the hardest to improve (showed up early and stayed late for practice, pestered fellow teammates to come out and throw around with him, etc) and he saw more playing time than those guys who seem to rather play in a beer league. It's the same phenomenon seen in the movie "Rudy". [/B]

I agree, but you missed the point! "Rudy" worked his butt off! Noone gave him a free pass! He did not get the same playing time as a starter......he earned his playing time, competitively! He did not get a hand out.....again, he earned it!:agree

[roughrider]

play your best players to rack up points then send in the rest after you have a comfortable lead, or if you are far down play the new/bad kids

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by roughrider
play your best players to rack up points then send in the rest after you have a comfortable lead, or if you are far down play the new/bad kids

I am not even taking it to this extreme! I just have a hard time benching our very good goalie after he gets a shut out in the first period. Our other goalie goes in in the 2nd period and gives up 4 goals and now all of a sudden, the game is tied up. I have a hard time explaining to the kids why this was done. This scenario actually happened to our team, btw!

Goalie is different then all other positions! You can play a kid at middie, attack and even D and maybe not hurt your team. If you play a clueless kid at goalie, he will definitely, without a doubt effect the outcome of the game, I guarantee it!:agree

[TheKOB]

Originally posted by Waynelax
I agree, but you missed the point! "Rudy" worked his butt off! Noone gave him a free pass! He did not get the same playing time as a starter......he earned his playing time, competitively! He did not get a hand out.....again, he earned it!:agree

I know, exactly. I'm pretty sure we're saying the same thing. Also, keep in mind that kids that don't have the rudy mindset who aren't very good are usually the guys who don't show up in the first place...

[TheKOB]

Originally posted by Waynelax
I am not even taking it to this extreme! I just have a hard time benching our very good goalie after he gets a shut out in the first period. Our other goalie goes in in the 2nd period and gives up 4 goals and now all of a sudden, the game is tied up. I have a hard time explaining to the kids why this was done. This scenario actually happened to our team, btw!

Goalie is different then all other positions! You can play a kid at middie, attack and even D and maybe not hurt your team. If you play a clueless kid at goalie, he will definitely, without a doubt effect the outcome of the game, I guarantee it!:agree

Instead of putting him in at halftime, why not put him in in the 3rd quarter, and let the starter play the 4th. He should understand by now that what matters is the team, not his playing time. If he wants more playing time, he's got to earn it. I've been in the same situation before though, and when the bad goalie went in, the rest of the team just worked harder to support him. and suffocated the other team's O.

[spenny]

http://www.lacrosseforums.com/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&postid=105806

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Waynelax
IMO, our kids learned more this year and excelled like never before. WE received letters from parents about how the kids enjoyed lacrosse this year like never before and how players learned their respectrive positions.

this is your first season coaching, right? not to say your kids didnt have a great season, but the parents will say that every year.

Does the NFL, NBA, MLB etc. give up a teaching/learning atmosphere even though they play to win?

not the same thing, adults being paid to play.

Learning/coaching/teaching does not have alot to do with a superior player getting more time than one that is inferior....imo! We work hard in practice thats why it is painful for me to let the kids down trying to be fair to everyone on gameday! WE work hard all week to be the best that we can be.....and the bottom line is that we work hard to learn and to be successful/competitive or to win, however you want to express it!

i dont know what your practices are like, but some of my best players arent always the hardest workers at practice, so if that's the case you are letting down the kids that are busting their butts but are either new to the game or not as athletic as some of "better" players.
anyway, regardless of their skill level, arent most of your kids working hard at practice?

i'm troubled by your "letting down the kids" comment. these arent adult or even nearly adult beings, they are children learning about sports and at least in my opinion, youth sports is also learning about life, and as you say, you are being "fair" to everyone and in youth sports that's appropriate. if you have players that arent getting playing time, and they are practicing hard, arent you letting them down by not playing them?

as for your goalie situation, i'd have him playing another position, he should get some time in the goal, but the bulk of his playing time should not come as a keeper.

remember, these kids change quickly. ive watched kids that were stars on 5/6 teams be absolute useless as 7/8th graders. ive seen kids that couldnt figure out which end of the stick to use as 7th graders get recuited to college.
for me, the youth game isnt about winning games, it about making sure they ALL have fun and ALL learn the game. if they choose to play at the next level HS, then they will find out that hard work isnt enough to earn you a spot on the field, and of all the kids ive coached, only 1 hasnt known this

[Waynelax]

i'm troubled by your "letting down the kids"
as for your goalie situation, i'd have him playing another position, he should get some time in the goal, but the bulk of his playing time should not come as a keeper.

remember, these kids change quickly. ive watched kids that were stars on 5/6 teams be absolute useless as 7/8th graders. ive seen kids that couldnt figure out which end of the stick to use as 7th graders get recuited to college.
for me, the youth game isnt about winning games, it about making sure they ALL have fun and ALL learn the game. if they choose to play at the next level HS, then they will find out that hard work isnt enough to earn you a spot on the field, and of all the kids ive coached, only 1 hasnt known this [/B][/QUOTE]

I guess we just have a difference of opinion on the age where kids should learn a little about life. Life is hard, crude, and not always fair. All the kids play, but some should play more then other IMO! If you choose to play on a competitive travel team, you should realize that not everyone is going to have equal playing time. I am sure there are kids on your team who play more then others (1st line middie for example). All the kids played and all the kids had a great year. My original post deals more with the goalie position then anything else and on that subject you basically agreed with me that maybe goalie #2 should try a different position.

And also, btw, I have been coaching lacrosse for three yrs now and this is the first time that we received letters from the parents thanking us for our hard work etc. I think of myself as a good coach who is fair to the kids. The kids had a blast this year and we did make it fun for them. All the kids will play, but the reality is that the better kids will get more playing time. I am sure it is the same way for you in some way. I would bet that your best player(s) get more playing time in general. Obviously a first line middie will play more then a 3rd or 4th line middie, no? :bye

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by TheKOB
Instead of putting him in at halftime, why not put him in in the 3rd quarter, and let the starter play the 4th. He should understand by now that what matters is the team, not his playing time. If he wants more playing time, he's got to earn it.

This is my point! Life is not all cotton candy and gum drops! What matters is the team and a coach has to make tough decisions sometimes which may hurt someone feelings. Its the nature of the beast! A coach is not a politician who kisses everyone's butt for their vote.

[spenny]

why did you bother to ask your original question then? you seem to already have your answer.

perhaps you have too many players on your team, i had 18 this spring, more than that, its hard to get everybody in

my players play competitive travel lacrosse, we play at the B level and this year we lost in the divisional semis. each of my players play considerable amounts of each game. i suppose if you are coaching A, you can start teaching them how hard life is earlier than i do with my B players

i guess i dont think that kids should be learning how cruel life is while they are still trying to learn the game. i'm done here

[spenny]

just to be clear, i am NOT advocating that every player has to spend the same minutes on the field as every other player.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by spenny
why did you bother to ask your original question then? you seem to already have your answer.

perhaps you have too many players on your team, i had 18 this spring, more than that, its hard to get everybody in

i guess i dont think that kids should be learning how cruel life is while they are still trying to learn the game. i'm done here

First of all, I had almost 30 players, which does make it difficult. Maybe I got a little carried away with the "how cruel life is" stuff!

We are both on the same page to a degree! I don't want you to think I am some kind of tyrant either! Coaching is not always a popularity contest! We coach to teach our kids! To let them enjoy the sport of lacrosse as much as we do! I am done here too Spenny....Thanks for your input!:bye

[spenny]

30! holy cow!

i had 24 (our league max) 2 years ago and i had a terrible time getting everybody in

at least now i know part of the problem you are having. its one thing for me to try and work in playing time for 2-3 novice players, but man, 30 kids! imho, that's 10 too many for a youth team.

you need to get another 3-4 kids and have 2 teams. practices with 30 kids must be crazy too.
if you can have a third fewer kids, i guarantee you will have less problems with playing time

[CTLaxer]

In my opinion, that's a horrible philosophy to have with your kids. An 11 or 12 year old child is still developing, and no matter where you come from lacrosse wise, you're still learning about the sport. If that is your coaching style on a regular basis I seriously feel for your kids and I assume it's due in part to your young age and lack of experience. You've changed what you said you do about 3 different times going back and forth so I don't know for sure what your strategy of sorts is. I certainly hope it's not your "tough love" idea that you're tossing around in here.

You're dealing with individuals that have not even gone through puberty yet. Focus should be on being fair to everyone and teaching them the game. Yeah, you're going to lose games because a lesser skilled player(s) were getting game time, but that's the reality of the age group that you're coaching. If you don't like that or aren't willing to allow that to happen then you should consider coaching an older age group or not coaching at all. The kids shouldn't suffer because of that.

Try thinking about this next time; your team is only as good as it's worst player. If that's your 2nd string goalie, who you *should* be playing then maybe a little extra attention should be paid to him during or after practice. Don't make 10 or 15 kids who haven't developed the skills yet suffer because you want to win, try bringing the base skill level of all your players up to a higher level. You'll be much more pleased with those results, the parents will be as well, and the kids will grow as lacrosse players properly and quickly.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by CTLaxer
In my opinion, that's a horrible philosophy to have with your kids. An 11 or 12 year old child is still developing, and no matter where you come from lacrosse wise, you're still learning about the sport. If that is your coaching style on a regular basis I seriously feel for your kids and I assume it's due in part to your young age and lack of experience. You've changed what you said you do about 3 different times going back and forth so I don't know for sure what your strategy of sorts is. I certainly hope it's not your "tough love" idea that you're tossing around in here.



Things got a little out of hand with the "tough love" talk, and I apologize for that. Again, this post got off topic and/or maybe I was not expressing clearly. My question mainly was based on the fact that we had two goalies and how to deal with the problem of playing time etc. After that, all hell broke loose!

Why is lacrosse different then other sports? If a kid says he wants to be goalie, thenthats where he should play ? I have coached footbal and baseball in the past and just because a kid wanted to be a pitcher or Quaterback, it did not mean that he was and or should be! So, if someone says he wants to play goalie (and btw the 2nd goalie has been playing for years and this is an ongoing problem in terms of his playing time) why should he split time etc with the starter? The QB of our traveling Football team does not split time with anyone, either does the starting pitcher on our traveling baseball team. Why is this different? In fact, they have a position for someone in youth baseball with a lack of skills......they call it right field and 9 times out of 10 you'll find the worst kid on the team there! Is this horrible? Would you call the little league baseball coach a bad coach or young and inexperienced like you label me??? Guess what, this goes on in probably 99.9% of the youth baseball games that are played! And how many times have you seen one of the worst kids on the field as the starting QB in youth football? Goalie is as importnat to a lacrosse team as the starting pitcher/QB in baseball and football! But you say "maybe I should not be coaching"???

[spenny]

first, kids mature at different rates.
look at it this way, as a little kid, i was the kid in right field. my teamates would groan when i came up to bat. they would groan when the ball was hit to me. i was so that a coach told me to get hit by the ball as it was the only way i was going to get on base. i told my parents that and thankfully that was the end of baseball. i started on lax a couple of years later, as a HS frosh, i not only made varsity, but saw considerable time on the field (ugh, as a middy!) i earned 11 HS varsity letters, in lax, hockey, soccer, track, and squash. so clearly it wasnt because i was a hopeless athelete.

lastly, to this day i detest baseball, hate it, hope it goes out of business. do you want to be responsible for some kid feeling that way about lax?

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by spenny

lastly, to this day i detest baseball, hate it, hope it goes out of business. do you want to be responsible for some kid feeling that way about lax?

Hey, I hate baseball too! At least we agree on that ...LOL!
I hear you and beleive me although I got carried away on this post. I enjoy caoching and do care about the kids and their development although I might have come off as some kind of monster at times. I guess there is a fine line between being fair and being competive. I guess to be a decent coach we have to forgoe undefeated and or winining seasons sometimes as to not isolate some kid for his lack of ability. Thanks for your help Spenny.....I do appreciate your input! :bye

[CTLaxer]

Wayne, there's nothing wrong with wanting to win. I heard a great quote and I think it's applicable to most youth sports till kids hit high school. "Winning isn't everything, but the desire to is". At the younger age, winning isn't everything, but giving them the tools and abilities to for the future is. As I said before, it's all about the age you're involved with. If you were talking about a high school team or a club team, I'd say go based on skill and effort in practice. I didn't mean to go off on ya, just sometimes that stuff hits a nerve with me.

Good to know we're all on the same page arguing about the same stuff :laugh

[spenny]

not too flog an already WEAY dead horse, but as kids mature they can handle more pressure (pressure to win among other things) 11-12 year olds arent even teens yet, most arent ready for that pressure.

at the age i coach 13-14, i still measure a successful season not by Ws and Ls, but by how many players reached the goals i set for them.

i treat it much like teaching a class, i write a rough lesson plan at the beggining of the year for the whole season, altho depending on how the team plays and the season goes, that will get changed.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by spenny
not too flog an already WEAY dead horse, but as kids mature they can handle more pressure (pressure to win among other things) 11-12 year olds arent even teens yet, most arent ready for that pressure.

at the age i coach 13-14, i still measure a successful season not by Ws and Ls, but by how many players reached the goals i set for them.

i treat it much like teaching a class, i write a rough lesson plan at the beggining of the year for the whole season, altho depending on how the team plays and the season goes, that will get changed.

I certainly agree with all that! But let me rephrase my question for the 100th time....If one of the worst players on the team decides he wants to play goalie while you already have an allstar calibur goalie who starts, how do you handle this? Sure he can come in to mess around in a blow out or whatever, but when the game is on the line???

My opinion is that, not everyone can be quarterback, not everyone can be pitcher, and along those lines, not everyone can be goalie! It's more a question of position as opposed to playing time etc. This kid can go play on a middie line, or attack etc. but maybe we have to draw the line at goalie (the most important position on the field, like QB or pitcher).

Your comments?

:bye

[CTLaxer]

I think conventional wisdom will tell ya if you only have 1 goalie, chances are something's gonna happen and you're going to need a backup at some point. Work with both of them. At that age, all it takes is a season for a kid to go from the best guy on the team to the worst, and vice versa. Your "awesome" goalie might decide to switch positions, or move away, or his parents might not let him play lax anymore, or he might break his leg skiing over winter break or any number of other things. Now if you forced the other kid who wanted to play goal but wasn't good to go to a different position instead of having him work along side the other goalie, you'd be putting yourself is a serious disposition.

Another thing to consider, especially at that age is that even though they are just kids, children really, they still know who is good and who is bad and the bad kids know they're bad. So trying to shuffle around the bad kids to positions that can't hurt you, kind of like spenny's baseball story, aren't fooling anyone least of all them. As I said before, I'd just split the time with them, maybe giving the better goalie a bit more time but don't cut the other kid short and give him every opportunity possible to show his stuff.

Even at the high school level, kids can amaze you. This past year I had a defenseman who was just horrible. Never had his head in the game or in practice, never gave any effort, didn't have strong stick skills or anything. Us coaches just basically considered him a body on the field and not an asset to use. Well one day, during a tough game, he turned on and had the best game of his life. He was the best pole we had that game. Slides were right on the money, he was blocking passes, throwing nasty take away checks and basically just destroyed the attackmen he was up against. Us coaches couldn't believe it, a kid that was so lethargic and uninterested in improving and didn't really appear to care or have the ability to be a good lacrosse player exploded before our eyes and kicked some serious a s s

And on my girls team, we only have one goalie. she's awesome and is probably the best goalie in the state as far as i'm concerned, if she ever got hurt, or moved away(almost happened) my team would be screwed because we have no backup.

There's my $0.02.....again

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by CTLaxer
Another thing to consider, especially at that age is that even though they are just kids, children really, they still know who is good and who is bad and the bad kids know they're bad. So trying to shuffle around the bad kids to positions that can't hurt you, kind of like spenny's baseball story, aren't fooling anyone least of all them. As I said before, I'd just split the time with them, maybe giving the better goalie a bit more time but don't cut the other kid short and give him every opportunity possible to show his stuff.



Thank you for your input it is appreciated. First of all I don't think asking a kid to play middie, attack or D is like Spenny's story of being stuck and right field and asked to be hit by a pitch by the coach. Secondly, we do train this kid at goalie in practice and he is always ready to go into the game if needed. Again, to reiterate what I said many posts ago, the second goalie split time with the starter all year long so its not like he was discouraged from playing goalie.

Also, your story about the defenseman can certainly happen and I have witnessed this phenom with one of our players. But I find it less likely to happen at the goalie position.

I can talk about this post for years, and it seems like everytime I try to sign off, I am drawn back to it... :banghead :bye

[LAX-L-DER]

Recreation league = everyone plays

Tournament team = best team on the field (usually represents your community and you want to showcase it to other communities) If your up by a lot, put in the kids with so so talent but worked hard.

[DukeLax2]

at a young age u play for fun until, if u have them, playoffs, then u use ur best guys. at that age u just want ur kids to have fun and not overwhelm them. i assume its not a tourney team so therefore there are gaps in ability, at my school, the middle school kids play for fun most of the time

[spenny]

Originally posted by LAX-L-DER
Recreation league = everyone plays

Tournament team = best team on the field (usually represents your community and you want to showcase it to other communities) If your up by a lot, put in the kids with so so talent but worked hard.

actually, that sums it up pretty well!

[Frihed89]

As a coach it is your job to develop all the players to their fullest potential. You need to be clever about getting the best out of each kid and then using his assets in games when they are needed. If you bypass/ignore the kids who are struggling you aren't doing your job. Be a model for the kids. Equal expectations for all; equal treatment for all - criticism and praise. Make sure the kids know what you will tolerate and what you won't, and never, never let them cross the line. They will respect you for this and they will give their all. I promise you.

[Waynelax]

actually, that sums it up pretty well!

Spenny are you kidding me ??? You argued this point with me the whole thread...WTF? This was my point and you argued with me to the bitter end....you have got to be kidding me!

See above for the comment Spenny responded to! :dummy:

[MontclairLax]

Im not really sure what to do in this situation. THis is a little to far for 12 years olds as a coach but devise some sort of system that combines effort/showing up for practice/what you can do in a game. I always feel bad for the kids that work their asses off because this is their first year but get little playing time.

[Waynelax]

As a coach it is your job to develop all the players to their fullest potential. You need to be clever about getting the best out of each kid and then using his assets in games when they are needed. If you bypass/ignore the kids who are struggling you aren't doing your job. Be a model for the kids. Equal expectations for all; equal treatment for all - criticism and praise. Make sure the kids know what you will tolerate and what you won't, and never, never let them cross the line. They will respect you for this and they will give their all. I promise you.

This is certainly some good advice! :clap: