Playing Time

It is vital that you understand that High school sports are not Recreation league sports. It is not a pay and your kid plays type of program. One of the main discussions I had with my JV coaches early on was whether or not we cut at JV or not. We decided that we would not cut, but I can say upon reflection I am not sure that was the right decision. In a sport were I have had past teams with 11 players there were still players on that team that played very little, the idea of having 20 plus players is an administration nightmare. I have kids on my varsity team that work so hard and almost never play, that is their choice and I commend them for it, I don’t hear from their parents about playing time and their parents still volunteer at our events, because they respect the program and my decisions on playing time and practice time and discipline.

We have only one choice at this point. Educate the parents on what our sport is about and how to support your son or daughter to become a player that gets more minutes.

So start here;
1. First – let’s focus on how you can support your child and give them the opportunity to be a more productive player. Right now I am hearing a lot of “my son/daughter works hard and should play”. Negativity from the parents spreads to the team and is counter productive to all. I do not force your child to work hard or participate on the team, any player is free to quit at anytime. I would ask myself if it is the player who is upset or are the parent’s opinions affecting the player’s attitude. I am a parent of a kid in a very competitive sport, and it is hard to pay the money and see the hard work and not have my child be a bigger part of the competitions. But I have to really look at her abilities vs. those in front of her. I have decided that I will get her the extra training to be more competitive. Remember to try to adapt to the program not ask the program to adapt to the individual.

2. The other rumblings I hear comes from perceptions on what is said at practice by coaches and communication coming home from coaches. In the 23 years of coaching I can say with 100% certainty that what is said to the players and what is repeated at home are two completely different things. If you have a question, email your coach and ask, just keep it clear and professional. Just remember that playing time is a very touchy subject and is more between the players and coaches than the parents and coaches. There are a lot of things that happen between the coaches and each kid that goes into the decision on who does what. Parents are not getting the whole story ever from their kids. Reality is every situation is unique, try not to make assumptions about why someone plays and someone doesn’t, because you really do not know the whole story.

3. Academics vs Sports. My rule is this, don’t use your sport as an excuse for missing school work and do not use school work as an excuse for missing practice. Time management is vital to success in a competitive sport that demands so much time and effort. If the kids are given the opportunity to have time to study in the library and or they get out of practice early to study and they do not use this time wisely, who is responsible for them. The answer is they are. At some point the kids need to be held responsible for their actions and decisions.

The question is what can you do to help your kids get the skills they need to play for me at varsity? We will give every kid the same opportunity to train in the off season, and that were the success of our program comes from. There is no entitlement to playing time in our program

1. Swimming is vital. Not just getting across the pool, but getting their fast and having the ability to have the stamina to do it four 4 quarters. The best way to do this is to train with the most competitive program available in our area. Just swimming high school and summer rec is not enough anymore, if you want to be a high caliber player. CCA – Coach Scott runs a winter and summer high school program that is aligned with polo off season training. Email Scott at scott.marchetti@gmail.com and go to CCAswimming.org for more info. When you look at the better programs that beat us they beat us on speed and strength. Best case is we get most of our players to swim for CCA and swim and play polo for WHS. That is part of the equation.

2. Next is learning the fundamentals of the game and playing at a high level in the off season. I am running a Summer Woodcreek program for boys and girls this summer. It will be set up in a way that we train for specific Woodcreek needs. Also it is vital that many of our kids try out and play on a competitive team through ARC or Sac Polo. The key to this is to make a 14, 16 or 18 under team, then keep a good attitude and go to practice and the tournaments all summer long. Woodcreek practices over the summer will be outside of the comp teams schedule and will allow athletes to do both. Off season training is all about attitude, with the right attitude and work ethic the kids will improve.

3. The third component is strength training. Going to the gym randomly is not strength training. Going to the gym and randomly lifting weights is not strength training. Commitment, Consistency and following a program are the keys to getting bigger, faster stronger. As most of you know I am doing the p90x program. It has been great and it works, I have lost close to 25pounds and I am so much stronger. There are many options out there, but it is getting the kids to commit to it. http://beachbodycoach.com/GGuensler is my p90x website feel free to contact me if you are interested in giving it a try….

4. If your child commits to speed, strength, nutrition, and game knowledge not only will they get the opportunity to play more we will probably be a very competitive team at all levels.

Remember to stay positive, none of my coaches or myself have any intention of having a negative affect on the kids, as you should not have any intention of have a negative affect on us.

The coaches I have hired at every level are doing above and beyond their job description. Can we do better? Of course, but please work with them not against them. If you want better communication then be proactive and communicate with the coach, don’t sit in the stands and bash your kid’s coach. Every coach will respond to your emails and phone calls in a timely manner.

Thanks