My son played for 3 seasons up to U13 level and I assisted the bloke that ran the team. Trouble is he started to think he was Jose Mourinho last season and started favouring the better players at the expense of playing time for others to the extent that at one point just because we got to a semi-final (more by default than a run of wins) he sent a message round to all the parents in the week leading up to the game saying some boys might not get to play because it was such an important game. What's wrong with playing your strongest team I hear you cry! Nothing if you are playing adult football but at Youth level the FA Guidelines recommend that all players in the squad should get a reasonable chance of playing in every game and recommend every players gets at least half a game. As my son was one of the players likely to miss out I took exception to his approach particulary as my son was getting rather pissed off with turning up in freezing conditions and geting maybe the last 15/20 mins of a game. I too was getting rather annoyed as the fact that they played on Sunday mornings meant I had to give up my own Vets playing time and I didn't feel I was getting good value for the rather pricey subs I was paying for him to stand on the touchline. Always a tricky scenario with kids and parents but I do believe reasonable playing time should be given to all.The outcome did in fact work in my favour as my son got so pissed off that I questioned his approach to team selection pointing out that if we had got through to the final then he would be excluding certain players from the glory of a Cup final. The upshot was that my son left the team, I jacked in assisting and I am now free to resume my Vets playing on a Sunday morning.....not that that influenced any of the above
Thanks everyone for your good wishes, advice and insight. Firstly they do now play on full size pitches, actually it was a massive playing area for an amateur pitch, so lots of space to actually play football and just hoofing it usually meant giving the ball away. The goals seemed to be full size as well which was more of a negative, both goalkeepers had no problem dealing with most things but when it's physically impossible to reach a ball due to your height there is not a lot you can do. From a personal standpoint all was good as my son managed to get a starting berth and in fact played the whole 70 mins. But Norman is absolutely right about equal game time for all. A couple of the boys seemed to be short changed in that department and hopefully that will be rectified in the coming weeks. I actually did some research a few years ago and the things boys/girls want the most are; equal game time and to impress, receive praise and approval from their coaches/teammates. Winning matches is way down their list as is winning medals/trophies. The most important thing for me today was for my son (and everyone else) to enjoy their football. To want to go training next week and keep playing up until their adult years. Too many drop out around this age (u13) and usually that means the end of the road for them where playing team sports are concerned. Fortunately for my son his new team are a good set of boys and they've been superb at welcoming him to the club. Hopefully he repaid their kindness and generosity a little bit today by scoring and providing the assist for the winner.
Read on and all will be revealed in a later post. Was like flipping Wembley...was knackered just watching.
