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PostPosted: 07 Feb 2013, 09:36 

Posts: 1
These comments really help me a lot. I also am a coach of 13, 9/10 yr old, girls. I am required, by the league, to play each one 6 minutes. It is challenging and totally messes with my game plan. My biggest problem is I only have 5 or 6 that play well. The rest are first year players. I am going to try the spreadsheet approach in our next game.


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PostPosted: 07 Feb 2013, 13:48 

Posts: 1
Playing time certainly be a challenge at the youth level especially in a club/AAU format where you also need to be competitive. The question you really need to answer is, what are the goals for this group? Your goals as a coach and then the goals and expectations of the athletes and finally the parents. If you go spreadsheet with a group of parents who want certain levels of overall success and are unable to deliver, then you run into the issue of maintaining their support. On the other side, if they are developmental in mind and more team oriented, then you will be fine. You can't always get a clear buy-in one way or the other, but if you are talking about it, I think better things result.

Personally, with 7-8 graders, through discussions with parents at the start and with the players during the course of a season, we talk about turning up the level as we go. For example, to the players and parents: "Early on I am going to be spreading out the playing time to give you an opportunity to get comfortable with the speed the intensity of the game. But we are not looking at an equal share situation. As we progress over the course of x many games, we are going to turn up the focus and intensity. You will play in every single game, that is a promise, but your time may be limited based on what the team needs in order to be successful. Additionally, when we have the opportunity to get guys who normally get fewer minutes more minutes, we are going to do so."

The message from me is relatively clear. When we are in a dogfight late in a season, the deep bench knows their opportunities are going to be limited. When the game is against weaker opponents or the other team is subbing deep, our deep bench guys know that their minutes are going to increase and that this is their opportunity to showcase what they are learning.

At times, I find ways to "hide" a deep bench player in the starting rotation. Often at the youth level this means simplifying things for the group during that rotation. Keeping these kids engaged and working on developing, then getting them the most minutes overall during a season is the most important.

If you have 40 minute games, you are looking at 200 available playing minutes for your team. Over the course of an 18 game season, you are looking at 3600 playing minutes (not counting OT). If you share early, then rotate based on game situation ( up by 15-20 pts, or down and the game out of reach, the starters sit extended minutes ), then track your minutes each week towards the expected minutes. Every 3-4 games, you are going to see if how well the balance is working out.


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PostPosted: 22 Aug 2017, 19:17 

Posts: 1
I think you should use a fitness tracker, such as the Samsung Gear Fit. It has an awesome timing feature that I use to give my kids equal time on our tablet.


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