Cutting Kids Should be Avoided

Inevitably with each season that comes and goes across all sports, kids get cut. That sucks.

So why do we have cuts then? (There are practical reasons–and some bad ones)

• Limitations of facility space

• Coaching capacity–that varies…more experienced coaches can almost always work with more athletes effectively than a novice coach.

• The coach takes pride in being tough

• The coach doesn’t want (or have) the time to prepare a practice plan for 20+ kids.

• The coach is anticipating headaches from dealing with parents.

• The coach doesn’t want to take the time to work with lesser-skilled young people.

• Winning is emphasized over emotional or physical development of young people.

Things like facility space is valid. It’s hard to run a solid VB practice with more than 24 kids to a court. Experience is critical–but oddly, it is the novice coach who tries more often to work with large groups rather than the experienced coach. The others on that list–that’s just laziness.

In 29 years (eek) as a head coach and as a club director, I’ve never, not once, cut a kid. I REALLY REALLY REALLY believe cuts should not be permitted for any reason other than facility capacity. (If you agree with this but struggle to conceptualize how to do it, this is a practice plan for up to 48 kids with just one coach available)

I’ll also confess, the kernel of this is personal. A zillion years ago, a tough coach made me the *only* cut off a team because I didn’t completely understand the sport’s tactics and there were an odd number of kids so that made partner-drills impossible. 1-of-25 kids. It then sucks by the way when 95% of your class gets out early to go to a game and you and one other kid are left behind.

That leads to a big reason why you shouldn’t cut: I never played that sport again. I didn’t watch it at all until 20+ years later. I was 11 years old. Cutting a kid changes life paths. And that’s not a one-off. The American Association of Pediatrics notes that between 70-80% of children give up sports by age 12-13 and *NEVER* play sports again. The reasons? Coaches yelling at them, physical punishments for mistakes, and…getting cut because that means they aren’t good–and if you get cut in 5th grade, you’ll get cut in 6th and 7th…so why go out at all?

Why are you cutting kids?

If you have 90 middle school kids and can dress 12 per level–that’s 36 kids. Why not take the other 54 kids, create six teams of 9 and give them the opportunity to play intramural round-robin tournaments on Saturdays? (It’d be like club except without the parents paying $3,000). Need coaches? –*GREAT* opportunity to have your HS seniors come in, give them a plan/structure, and a chance to lead…and be role-models for the kids who look up to them, not to mention building ‘tradition’ within your program? Now everyone is playing–everyone gets a chance to think “Hey, I’m not good…yet, but I LIKE this sport!”

–When I was a HS coach, the JH basketball coaches cut a guy because he was awkward, couldn’t shoot or dribble. Two guys cut out of 20 who went out. Well, he hit puberty late, wound up 6’9 but never played basketball in HS…small schools–think a 6’9 kid would’ve been useful? (He wound up running cross-country instead.)

–As a 7th grade coach, I had 16 girls. You can dress 15 for the Illinois post-season. At the Regional, I dressed all 16. The ref came over and told me “You have 16 dressed–you can’t do that.” I replied that I knew that–and that I only had 15 on the written roster. #16 wasn’t going to play. She said “She can’t be out there.” And I answered–then you go tell her that. The ref’s response, “No way! I’m not going to do that to just one kid.” I answered “Exactly.” The kid went through warmups and didn’t play. She DID go out for VB in 8th grade, more coordinated, stronger, taller. She stuck with VB through HS and then went on to be a D1 track star. If she’d been cut, would any of that have happened?

The lazy response to cuts is stuff like “Well, Michael Jordan got cut.” He did–from the varsity. He still played JV. Also, you are talking about one of the 10 greatest basketball players of all time.

So when it comes to the point of cuts–don’t unless it is the last-ditch option. Ask yourself, how can I add people in? Be creative–stagger practice times, ‘modify’ the gym with clotheslines, create a system of ‘stations’ for skill-work, increase the pace of your drills, figure out how to rotate kids through things quickly. Or ask for help. Leave a message here–I’m happy to discuss it. Find John Kessel–he’ll help, because keeping kids playing ‘grows the game.’ Ask questions in coaching forums. We owe it to future generations to teach them leadership, teamwork, and the value of doing physical activity!