I often hear that to fix US youth soccer, there needs to be promotions and relegation out of these letter leagues. In other words, it needs to be all about winning. Isn’t it?
Development could be an excuse for “I don’t know how to manage my players to get the best out of them therefore I am rotating them through my lineup hoping something will stick” or “oops I have signed up too many players and now I am making them all share minutes so I don’t piss the parents off”.
We had a coach when my son was 7 who allowed his players to dribble and take on players. We didn’t pass to each other much. Parents used to get so frustrated. He used to say it’s easy to teach passing later but he can’t teach a kid to dribble when he is 13. 5 years later, many of his players are now scattered all around the top teams in the area. Some have learned to pass and some still haven’t learned, but they sure can all dribble.
Only time will tell if a coach is right or not. Sometimes we parents focus on the present and on what’s good for our kids at this time, you can have a good coach and you don’t know it. Then again this is pay to play, you have to do what makes you and your kid happy.