When a parent notices their child not getting much playing time in youth sports, they will often try to figure out why that is. Did their child miss practice? Was their child mouthing off to the coach? Did they, the parent, do something wrong? These are all valid concerns, all of which could be true. However, the most common reason is that a coach wants to ensure that his or her team wins.
Although youth sports are supposed to be a learning experience for all involved, there are a number of coaches who will do whatever it takes to win, whether that means employing cheap tactics, having far more practices than usual or just keeping the starters in when a game is well and truly out of reach. Although it is frustrating, at least this problem isn’t a complex one, and can possibly be addressed by calmly talking to the coach after a practice and asking politely whether the subs can see some playing time when the next game is in hand.
Another reason a child may not be playing is because one of their teammates has a parent who is sponsoring the team in some fashion, necessitating playing time for this individual player. This, in turn, can take away from the time the others might see, and in some occasions, can be unfair if the player with the wealthy parents is worse than some benched players. This, sadly, is not a problem that can be addressed directly, as it would be out of line to term another child as worse than another in the interests of playing time. Rather, a group of parents could address this by addressing either the wealthy parents or coach and discovering if money truly is the reason the player gets more playing time than others.
A third problem, which may be both the easiest and hardest for a parent to swallow, is that their child is simply not good enough to start. The best way to address this is practice, practice and more practice. The better a child gets at a sport, the more playing time they will get, assuming no outside factors are playing a role. While this may not be the easiest solution, as getting better is challenging, at least it is the most straightforward one.
If you want to play for an AAU Basketball Program that does NOT play favorites then please click here: STACK AAU Basketball Teams