I love your website. I need some help. Do you have a 10 player guide to playing time? Also, how do you respond when your 2 best players are told by the referees they can't shoot? I have coached for over 40 years but this is my most frustrating season so far.

As for playing time.... thats up to the league you are playing in... IF they have rules for that..... what age group is this?

As for the shooting - the REFS have NO RIGHT telling any player that they can or cannot shoot the ball. I would report them to your league administrator.

I agree with Coach Sar regarding the ref's comment.

We will need more information regarding the age group you are coaching. There are different philosophies at each level. Also, some league have playing time rules.

Assuming this is a youth rec. league, my guess is that you have somewhat of an equal playing time requirement. With 10 kids, that means 2 teams of 5. Best thing to do is to sub them as a group by quarter so each gets 1/2 of playing time. Whether you decide to make them two equal groups or A/B groups is up to you and what you want to accomplish during the game.

As for the Ref., was there any chance that these two kids where dominating the game? Again, depending on your organization and age level, they might just be trying to make sure other kids had a chance or where not embarassed on the court. Whether the league should do this is a topic for another day.

Whether they were dominating the game or not, thats not the refs job to talk to the players about shooting or not shooting.. playing defense to tough or not to play tought D. It's there job to officiate the game and yes, they can say things like "hands off - get out of the lane" etc. OF IF they were playing to physcial too.


NOW, IF they felt that way, they could have said something to the coach, IF I was the coach I wouldn't have a problem with that. There are too many coaches in the stands now. JMO

The age group is 9-12. I have 10 players, this day only 9 were available. YES, the 2 players told not to shoot are my best players. 5 of my players have never played before, so they are a project. We have held our own losing by 3, 1, and 1 the last 3 games. If my two scorers can't shoot we would have lost by 20 or more. This is frustrating.

Chris -

Your goal for this age group should be to teach them the fundamentals and let them have fun..... especially the younger kids. I don't know how much practice time you have but one thing that I did in my summer camps was to play games to 6 and everybody had to score before any player could hit the winner. I also mixed the talent so some of the better players were with lesser talented kids. You should have seen how hard they work to get some of those kids shots.... and not complain. Brought out some great leadership qualities.

As for the game.... I still say its not up to the refs to decide who does or does not shoot. JMO