Originally Posted by Anonymous
Has anyone ever had a club tryout team that did not have set lines or even starting lines. Coach randomly mixes the lines on attack and midfield. It seems to me that there is no chemistry. They are a good team that gets to the semis but do not seem to win the big game. He waits until we are either down or tied to put the best players, usually to late to play catch up. Any theories on this style of coaching, it drives me crazy!


I've seen this firsthand and I think every club team should think about doing it. Like every parent, I think my kid should be starting and he does on his school team. However, his club coach, who is very well known and highly regarded, has a philosophy of treating every kid as equally as possible. So, he does what you are talking about - has kids by position call out numbers and thats how the lines go out - 1-3, 4-6 etc. And, it does not start fresh every game so wherever we left off in one game is how we start in the next. There is also no specialized man-up or man-down team - whoever is out there at the time of the penalty is who you go with. Every club is "pay to play" and the idea is not to win every game but give equal playing time to every kid who all paid the same amount of money. It keeps the peace among the parents and usally works out to all players seeing about the same amount of field time over the course of a tournament. The club concept is to deveop every kid as equally as possible - not bury some on the bench when the going gets tough - save that for the school teams.