Determining a Starting Lineup As Coach

When putting together your starting lineup (the kids who play in the game first), keep in mind that you usually have more kids on the list (a list of all the kids on your team) than they can play at the same time. Also, kids want to spin and play different positions throughout the game.
Some leagues require that children take turns on the lineup; In other leagues, this rule does not exist. Be sure to check out your league rules!
Suppose you have 15 kids on your soccer team roster. The rules state that only 11 children can play at a time – this means that four players are seated outside. The hard part for you as a coach is making sure no kid sits more than a quarter before everyone else, and making sure each kid gets a chance to play in several positions: up front as a striker, some working on defense, some time in the middle of the field, maybe a few minutes as a goalkeeper.
This policy is evident in the majority of youth associations. As a coach, you have to rotate the players during matches so that each child takes a turn to sit. This is the other purpose of the score sheet: to keep track of children who missed games and to ensure that you are being fair about this distribution.

Keep the good players on the field

Let’s say you have kids of varying abilities on your team and they all want to win. How do you maintain your team rotation, while at the same time making a competitive effort? By the time you’ve had your team through a few training sessions, you’ll have a pretty good idea of ​​who your best players are.
Ideally, whenever you put your team to play, you always keep two or three of your best athletes on the field at the same time. While they all take turns and sit at different times, if you plan well enough, you’ll never have to face a situation where all of your best players are sitting at the same time.
In other words, everyone still plays the same amount of time in the game, and everyone plays different positions. But with a little advance planning, you can plan it so that you always have a competitive team on the field during the game.

Announcing your team’s starting lineup

Before announcing the starting lineup for the day, remind the kids of one key ingredient: it won’t make any difference to the starting lineup because everyone is going to be playing the game today.
This is important because every child wants to be in the starting lineup. Perhaps most important is the fact that all parents want to see their children in the starting lineup. In fact, no matter how much a parent objects and says, “It’s okay — I understand if my child doesn’t start,” the truth of human nature is that she will be disappointed.

To reinforce the point that you won’t play favorites and treat some kids special, during the first game of the season, make sure your son or daughter is seated in the first part of the game. That’s right – by not putting your child in the starting lineup on opening day, you’re sending a distinct message to other kids and their parents that you’re definitely not ‘playing favorites’ this season.
While this may not be very fair to your child hoping to be in the starting lineup, explain it to your child this way: “Everyone has to sit during the season. It just so happens that it’s time for you to sit down first.”