Playing Time: So Critically Important Yet Not Prioritized Nearly Enough.
Getting opportunities to play are critical in making sure youth sport is the fun and beneficial experience we want it to be. Here is how to maximize “playing time”.
Welcome to edition 171 of The Physical Movement. Welcome to our growing community. I am honored and humbled that you are spending a few minutes with us.
This week we examine why and how to prioritize playing time, both from a parent, coach and young athlete perspective. Let’s jump in.
While the strict definition of youth sport may not be “time to play”, maybe it should be.
Playing time.
Time to play.
Actually playing the activity, not sitting on the bench watching others participate.
Thinking about “playing time” brings up examining the purpose of joining a team and/or playing a sport.
When we sign little Johnny or Johanne to play whatever sport, as parents we think of “time to play” or “play time” first.
Or at least we should.
Opportunities to play, as we have documented in previous editions, don’t happen as freely as they once did.
Today’s “play time” for our youth revolves around organized opportunities.
Hence, the prioritization of opportunities to play become very important.
Let’s break it down:
The first priority at a young age, and really all ages, should be TO PLAY, within the organized activity.
The opportunities to move, develop physical and mental skills, understand the game and the rules, work with others, adapt to different situations are just a few of the benefits from playing.
These benefits occur because of opportunities to play. Without “playing time” this development does not happen or is slowed down.
For some reason however, ensuring “play time” seems to be less of a priority in today’s youth sport.
There are many reasons for this, some include:
1. Focus on making a particular team or caliber of team. Tryouts for those as young as 6-7-8 often rewards higher skilled youth over those who have not developed the skills required for that level. Triple AAA or elite teams at 8 years old ?
Anything “elite” under 15 years old filters out the joy of playing for many.
2. Not fit or able to move well enough to meet the demands of the game. With the focus at a young age on so many games, time to develop movement skills holds young people back.
Which feeds:
3. Less time devoted on individual skill development, both with the coaches and at home, makes enjoying the “play time” more difficult.
Let’s remember that enjoyment of “play time” comes from the participants skills exceeding the demands of the game. This holds true from a very young age just starting to elite professionals looking to get a new contract.
“Exceeding the demands of the game”.
At the very highest level, this involves constant sport specific skill practice in addition to physical and mental preparation.
At an entry level, or young age, this involves opportunities to learn, try new things, figure out how to perform skills in an environment where failure is not punished.
Skill development of any one thing: Physical, mental, a new language, riding a bike etc all involved failure in first steps before developing competence and eventually mastery.
If we agree on this, then why would we start our child in an environment where this is not accepted and rewarded ?
How do we ensure more playing time for our kids ?
1. The simplest way is to prioritize “play time”. Playing time should be the criteria for determining where to register and invest your time. What teams and organizations to join should be based on maximizing playing time, not regional ranking or some other metric.
2. Your young person must be excited to try something new and want to practice.
This can not be taught: the desire to want to do something. By the way, practice does not have to be drills. Mini games, lead up games: anything where our young athlete gets touches/opportunities to get better. Development of physical and mental skill can also occur via playing other activities. This is why the sport specialization topic is such a hot one.
3. Maximize opportunities to practice and play. At the elite level of any sport, there is a simple mantra when playing time is reserved for those who play at the highest levels: “to play more, play better”.
Simple, not easy.
4. Provide opportunities for your son/daughter to make sure to their bodies can meet the physical demands of the activity. If the children are not running, jumping, twisting, turning, throwing, catching, hitting or practicing hitting the target at an early age then using those skills in a competitive situation becomes difficult.
As our young athlete gets older, this preparation must continue to include getting stronger, improving balance, power, reaction time, speed, conditioning and coordination. This is why strength and conditioning has become a priority for today’s young athlete m. Most often they don’t do enough off the field of play to prepare for being on it.
By the way, the physical preparation skill development is an infinite game, especially when wanting to make sure the athlete maximizes chances of staying healthy enough to play regularly.
Very often in my coaching time, some of the most skilled athletes or those who desperately need opportunities to get better are not healthy enough to get the repetitions needed to improve.
Nothing reduces the fun component more than being injured often.
Prepare to “exceed the demands of the game”.
All of this comes back to play time requiring fun time. It requires healthy young athletes who look forward to getting to the field/ gym/rink and actually get to play.
What happens when all is being done and play time does not follow (especially as competition level increases)?
The scenario where young athletes (and parents) are not happy with playing time. Other than playing better, what else can done?
In today’s day and age, patience is at an all time low, but even with that we can identify some suggestions:
As a coach, I always wanted our athletes to feel they could approach any of our coaches on anything. An open-door policy. This included defining expectations to all early in the time together on how to handle situations when they don’t go according to plan.
Things in youth sport, like life, often do not go according to plan.
The young athlete approaching the coach asking what they need to do to improve and play more is always a good thing. The athlete should initiate this, regardless of age, this is also a skill. A communication skill that can serve them well in life.
Coaches: accountability is a two-way street.
We ask a lot of our athletes and their families. We need to be prepared to quantify our answers when this topic is brought to us. Why is Johnny/Joanne not playing as much as some of the others? What the policy on playing time clarified at the start? Why are they not playing as much? How can they improve? How will you know if they don’t play as much? Accountability.
As competence goes up, in theory so should playing time. With competence comes opportunities to develop both physically and mentally and builds lifetime skills.
Without fun coming from prioritizing “play time”, all the rest becomes subject to the law of diminishing returns, including benefits and participation rates.