After some discussion and views on this one

I have took over the u16,s this year in a local grassroots team.

so youth development phase

and i know there will be some people saying "kids need to get used to not being picked, their nearly adults"

but not for me im afraid

This is a team that 95% of the time during their years has been picked on the best players starting in the 11.

So this year since i took over i have sent an email to all parents to say that for me to coach with my principles i will be rotating all 18 players as equally as possible, the one incentive to all players is those who recieve coaches player of the week and players player and parents player will play the following week.

i know this will be a difficult process to follow but its something i as a coach want to do for all the players to benifit from.

players of the game will be rewarded and all players will be rewarded for actually wanting to play and be part of a team.

Something that for me backed up my principles was, pre season we have played quite a few teams so far one being an acadamey side a few standards above ours in coaching levels and accesability.

this team had brought a camera so they could film their performance, the good thing about this is they kindly let us have a copy of the video.

After a few nights of being a saddo and collecting stats, one of the main things was that over a 60 minute match the ball was only rolling for 29 minutes throught the duration.

17mins in the first half and 12 mins in the second half.

My point is, that as coaches in grassroots if we put winning over the development of ALL the kids we coach, then those same kids that spend at least the first half of every game on the bench will;  using this example have around 15 minutes to play and touch the football along with the rest of both the teams

That for one is no good to any child that wants, and graces you with their presence twice a week to play football

its also a massive snub to their parent who is having to find 1,2,3 hundred quid a season for their child  to play football

and also something for coaches to think if they should be coaching grassroots at all in my opinion.

i have been transparent with the parents and players and so far have had no comebacks, but we have not started the league yet.

My aim is to improve EVERY player even if its just very slightly

cheers lee