I think practices are the MOST important part of club lax. Your kid improves at practices, not tourneys. Practice is where they are coached and learn skills. Tourneys are the gravy. I don't need another championship t shirt for my kid, I need him to be the best he can be at lax.
Disagree, respectfully.
On competitive travel teams, not every player is necessarily going to play the same amount, but part of your job as a coach is to develop every player on your team.
“It is a tenet of good coaching that you get kids into games,” writes Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of the Positive Coaching Alliance, a US Lacrosse national partner. “Most of the benefits of playing a sport are tied to competing in games.” www.uslacrosse.org/blog/good-coaches-get-players-into-games
Coach does have to develop a player. that development happens during practice, not in a game.
I agree games are important but practice and repetitions develop and improve players.
I hear you. But not playing gets old quick. Because I agree kids will improve practicing with better players (if they are getting reps). However, they will not play in any tight game. It's okay to shorten the bench and play to win, especially at the elite team level. But a coach should reward hard work at practice and get the bottom half of the roster in for a shift or two. Not playing is unacceptable, again, in my opinion. If a coach does that he will bridge the development during practice by building confidence in the player. That combination will speed up the development of a player. A competent coach can do it, because if a kid isn't good to play, he is on the wrong team.
But why might such a boy be "on the wrong team"? . You can say that a parent might have some complicity, but considering the lax 'expertise' of the team evaluators, most of the blame should be placed on them. As a business, they take some 'inappropriate' players to fill out the team and "pay the bills, when in reality they should pass over such players and continue to recruit 'appropriate' players.
