Honest coach feedback

[Woodwork]

To clarify: playtime was not the focus of my post. I believe that everything is earned and playtime should not be expected.
Although it IS my belief that playtime is essential to the development of a player, that isn’t the reason for my suggestion regarding a contract. The mutually beneficial agreement that I would love to see established was more about a commitment between the coach and player to allow the kid enough time to “prove” themselves before being replaced. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be other players on the team to share time with but I think it should mean that the coach isn’t recruiting replacements mid season. Kind of like a dead period to recruiting.

Implicit in what you are saying is that playtime should be expected if it is earned. But, "earned" means different things to different coaches. If a coach favors kids (who likely got more playing time) coming from another team, it may tell you something about how the coach thinks a spot is earned.

 

[notintheface]

99% of what your kid is going to learn about the game is going to be learned during training sessions. Before you commit to a new team, watch a couple of sessions and check to see that the coach is providing feedback to all the players, not just yours. For youngers, that means primarily skills, with a bit of shape work thrown in. For olders, it depends on the level of the team but again you would expect mostly shape work and advanced movement.