Fed up of child's football coach

[YellowRoses100]

I've looked to see where I can post this. But not sure so posting for traffic.

Firstly I want to say the guy is really decent and I do fully appreciate him volunteering his time for the team. On a personal note I get in well with him.

My child has been playing football since they were 4. They've had some bad luck with teams. Due to bankrupsy, no one able to coach etc. So they had to change teams a few times. They have now played for this team for 3 years its Sunday team and they're in Division 2. The players on the team are good. They all play for different teams on Saturdays at Junior Prem level as well as some County players.

At the end of last season they lost a few players to other teams and recruited some new players, some never played before.

They're a great bunch of kids. However my child and loads of the others are getting fed up with the managers tactics. He always has 4 subs. And he changes 4 players at once. He calculates how much time each player is entitled to play for equally and this is how he subs. However he doesn't sub players off with mixed abilities. The team will be winning and then he will put on the 4 weakest players, and remove the 4 strongest players. They have now lost all their matches this season conceding the lead when changes happen. My child has asked him to stop doing this. They said its confusing and mixes up the game too much. Opposition parents have told us their team hold back their strongest players till he does this and then subs them on as they see the managers tactics.

My child is now wanting to leave the team and I feel really sad about this as they struggle to make friends, but they are really ambitous and they want to win.

This is a really tricky position to be in as I know I'm not the coach but
I do volunteer to run the line, take pics and am always early to set up. I always thy the kids snacks. Even though my child plays in other teams this is the one they really wanna excel in and I feel conflicted. What would you do?

The coach has always stated that FA say they all require equal playing time. I really think my child doesn't want to play anymore. She's really demotivated now.

Fwiw this is a girls team and league. And a lot of girls drop put at this age that's what I'm worried about.
The issue is that the coach seems to care more about the 'easiest' way to give equal playing time to the detriment of the team and club.
I don't blame her for feeling demotivated. If you're taking the time to train and be dedicated and want to compete then it's hard showing up to training and matches knowing that it doesn't matter how well you play or try, you're probably rarely going to get a win.

I've no experience with football, but if it's like other enrichment I've been involved in then an easy way to demotivate children is to ensure they don't have a realistic chance of success.

I suspect if the coach isn't bothered about being successful as a team and won't reconsider their approach to subbing, you might have to find another team if you want DC to have a chance at age-appropriate competition.

I appreciate everyone's messages.

I'm going to encourage my child to keep at it and complete the season. If it doesn't improve I'll let her decide what to do. I don't want her to give up so new into the season as I also believe losing is a hard path to improving yourself. It builds resilience and tenacity.

She and her team mates may choose to speak to the coach again, I don't know. They did this autonomously from parent's. They are old enough to be doing this themselves.

Hi,

We were in a similar position with my son's coach. They got to U15, and the coach was still doing a similar subbing thing and not doing trials. It ended up with quite a few of the players leaving halfway through the season. Not just the stronger players either, the new players too.

People commenting on the OP's child being sulky obviously have no idea how competitive it gets in team sports at this age. They play to win. They want to win. It's what motivates them to get off tech and train.

The problem with the coach in our team was he coached too many teams and used the easiest method to sub and do team sheets rather than looking at it tactically. So by the end of the season, we only had 11 players, and the team fell apart. It was a shame. He's now gone onto a different team whereby they also get equal play time and games, but the game tactics are better, and they win more. It was so demoralising losing every match.