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Slow Starts -- Ugh!!
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Author:  ljw [ 20 Feb 2014, 08:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: Slow Starts -- Ugh!!

Jeff, at what age do you put in in the don't play rules? How about parents who don't commit to practices. Next year will be our 3rd year with this group (they will be 5th graders cyo) have a couple kids who miiss more then half the practices. Want to have a policy next year that clearly states that if you can't bring your kid to practice don't expect to watch them play on game day. Hard for me to do in 4th but I feel they should have more commitment as they get older. It really hurts the kids who are at every practice.

Author:  JeffHaefner [ 20 Feb 2014, 09:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: Slow Starts -- Ugh!!

Never been in that situation for youth players. I'm not sure how I would handle that. Depends on the situation I suppose.

The first thing I'd probably do is talk with the parents. I suppose my approach would depend on my relationship with them.

If the parents are just losers and the poor kid needs someone positive in his life and can't help his parents don't bring him, I'd probably make an exception. Or maybe I'd be proactive and arrange for car pooling and figure out a way to get him to practice.

It's tough because with high school kids I can put the smack down and teach responsibility. With youth kids it's mostly on the parents to get them there. And I don't want to punish a kid because his parents are idiots.

Maybe you can start by talking with the parents and see what can be done to get them more often. Maybe track attendance and report it back to the parents and players. Reward players based on attendance. Maybe with more playing time?? Maybe some other incentive?

I have found that by tracking metrics and then reporting them back to people, it improves their performance. So simple but works. It also makes your case a little more justified when you can show a parent or player on paper that they have missed 50% of the practices!!

Author:  Coach Rob [ 20 Feb 2014, 13:23 ]
Post subject:  Re: Slow Starts -- Ugh!!

ljw wrote:
Jeff, at what age do you put in in the don't play rules? How about parents who don't commit to practices. Next year will be our 3rd year with this group (they will be 5th graders cyo) have a couple kids who miiss more then half the practices. Want to have a policy next year that clearly states that if you can't bring your kid to practice don't expect to watch them play on game day. Hard for me to do in 4th but I feel they should have more commitment as they get older. It really hurts the kids who are at every practice.
I think it depends on the league, they may have rules about play-time regardless of how many practices a player makes. Once you have tryouts and move to a more competitive league, all bets are off regarding play-time.

It can be extremely frustrating when kids don't show up for practices, they miss concepts and it's not fair to the kids who make it consistently. I like Jeff's idea of some type of incentive so it makes the kids not want to miss.

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