Death by 1,000 cuts or “Don’t Cut Kids in Your Youth Programs”

So…if you don’t know my background, start here…though most probably do by now, by crackie. I figured that’d be the end of me courtside. Nah…I wound up running a school program, coaching HS in the fall and because it is Illinois, Jr High volleyball in the winter time. Because I’m the varsity coach and I’m also the 8th grade coach, it means I’m effectively in charge of all-things-volleyball for every VBer in the school–which means I get to “impose” my philosophy top to bottom.

Part of that? No cuts, ESPECIALLY with the junior high athletes.

Cutting younger athletes is dumb, regardless of what you think is their athletic level. Now–for Illinois people, I’m aware that there’s a post-season roster limit, so that you’ll only be able to dress 15 once regionals come around. But for your team, so what? Why cut?

I read about coaches talking about cuts on a regular basis. Coaches talk about:

• I hate cuts but you can’t have so many kids on a team (12-15)

• Cuts are needed to cut the deadwood limiting the ability of ‘top kids’

• If you don’t make cuts, you can’t win. Less-skilled athletes get in the way of winning.

Channeling some Jules Winnfield: Oh, that’s it? Well, allow me to retort. What does success look like?

(just a random old person cultural reference)

Quicker answer: That’s bull crap.

Winning does not require a smaller roster. Player development does not require a small roster. You CAN have a large roster and still have an effective practice. You CAN have a large roster and win on the scoreboard. To be fair, on most days we have two coaches and 46 players. We have two courts and 30 balls. Those 46 players qualified for State at the 7th AND 8th grade levels.

You know what large numbers of athletes requires? Coaches to be prepared, coaches to come organized, coaches to have energy. It requires making an effort to treat each athlete as an individual and to understand what skills they are capable of performing well–and where those skills can be used during an actual competition–and then the coach needs to know how to use those substitutions.

Beyond that, a coach MUST understand that there will me mistakes made. So? Mistakes are learning opportunities and it doesn’t matter if you win 25-5 or 25-15 and if that’s the difference, what harm is there in using your bench, gaining them playing opportunities.

Because it isn’t really about the scoreboard if you are doing it right–it’s about developing life skills–confidence, teamwork, work ethic. Giving bench kids an opportunity provides that. With our 7th grade, we started the year with 50% of the girls unable to serve over the net successfully. We had 0% who understood rotations or ANY aspect of things like freeballs or defensive positioning. We made a conscious effort to get kids time–and now we have 100% of the girls able to serve over the net consistently, 2/3 overhand…the others just on the later end of physical development.

So, great, you cut to 12. What are those 12 cut kids doing? You’ve taken away an opportunity for their growth–and from a VB standpoint, the opportunity to create lifelong volleyball fans. What about that 13th kid who just hasn’t hit puberty hard yet and grows 5″ in the next five months? Oops. Oh well.

What about your high school program? You cut to 12. Are all 12 going out in high school? What if the best kid also has a fantastic volley-game in tennis? Is a scratch golfer? Runs a 5-minute mile? What if you have multiple kids like that? Now all of a sudden, you’ve starved your high school program of numbers–and developmental players.

(This philosophy doubled the number of kids going out for HS VB.)

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Now, some would think this is a contradiction, but with travel teams, I think there SHOULD be a roster limit. In this case, parents are paying for the instruction and the maximum playing time practical. For me–that means club teams should have 8-9 players, 10 at most. If you have more kids per team, you’re just using #11 and #12 to line your checkbook. Instead, take #11+#12 from four teams and put together a new one! …a great opportunity to get a new coach some experience and grow the game.