Ep 383 Should You Split Your Players Into A and B Teams, and How Do You Explain It to Parents?

- TeachHoops.com - CoachingYouthHoops.com: practice plans for every age, with skills, pictures, and videos laid out step by step. New and updated for this season, with free samples so you can see what they look like before you buy. - NukeHydration.com: a cleaner alternative to the sports drinks loaded with additives. Use code **YOUTHHOOPS15** for 15% off any order. - HeySami.com: pulls TeamSnap, PlayMetrics, LeagueApps, and coach emails into one schedule, updates the family calendar automatically, and sends traffic, weather, and when to leave alerts. Coach Collins puts today’s topic on the Mount Rushmore of youth coaching headaches: the A and B team split. Coach Bill agrees. It causes more angst, more emails, and more “I’m leaving” conversations than almost anything else in the youth game. Coach Bill raised this topic recently on the Hey Sammy podcast with a sports mom, and her answer was simple: it comes down to communication. His addition is that parents sometimes have to trust the coach. A B team placement might sting, but in the vast majority of cases nobody is picking on your kid. There are bad actors in every system, but the coach is usually trying to do one thing: put the kid in the best possible position to succeed. Coach Collins goes back to the classroom. You do not put a student in pre calculus when they are ready for algebra. A parent might believe their son or daughter belongs in pre calc, but if they are not ready, the right class is the one where they are learning alongside kids at the same level. The pushback coaches always hear is that the kid will get better playing with better players. Coach Collins disagrees. A kid who does not know the law of cosines does not get better by sitting in a room where everyone else does. They get frustrated, their classmates get frustrated, and nobody is where they need to be. Coach Bill adds that the teammates feel it too. - **You meet kids where they are.** Each group is learning with kids at their own stage of development. - **Better cohesion.** A players are not frustrated by a teammate who cannot catch the ball or does not understand a five out offense, and that player is not drowning. - **Both groups are challenged.** Split a sixth grade class evenly and the strong kids stop being pushed while the developing kids struggle. - **Fewer blowouts.** If your B team plays legitimate B teams, the games are competitive. Both coaches admit that does not always happen, since some “B teams” are really A teams. Coach Collins notes that at the youngest ages, second and third grade, you may not need a split at all. - **Friends get separated.** Kids may not be playing with their buddies. - **The emails, texts, and threats to leave.** Some families will head to another program that promises an A team spot. - **Apples to oranges.** Another program’s A team might be your B team. The label does not tell you the level. - **Roster numbers.** Two teams means you need enough players showing up for both. - **Scheduling.** Finding the right competition for two levels is real extra work. Coach Bill’s verdict: the pros still outweigh the cons over the long run. A split does not mean the groups never see each other. Coach Bill scrimmages his A team against his B team regularly, which pushes the B players to get better. To keep the A team sharp, he scores something other than points, such as rebounding. If the B team outrebounds them, the A team runs the difference. Or whatever the B team scores becomes the number of down and backs the A team runs at the end of practice. When the list goes up, many parents hear “you don’t think my kid is good enough,” or “my kid is stuck on the B team forever.” Neither is true. The right message for the kid is: okay, you didn’t make it this year, let’s get after it. More reps at home and more work. It is an education process for the kids and the parents. That is why the coach has to set expectations before the season starts. We are having an A and B split. There will be tryouts. Here is how you make the A team. And placement on the B team does not mean your kid is not good. Coach Collins recently read an article about playgrounds. They used to be dangerous, and now they have swung so far the other way that a kid can barely twist an ankle on one. His concern is that this generation has had almost no failure at all, and some failure is okay. His own son hit a wall in his basketball career, did not like it, and learned a lot from it. Coach Bill’s point is that the stinging part is exactly what prepares kids for life, as long as the parent teaches them how to get through it. Your friends may have made the A team. You may be working your tail off and still not be there yet. That is okay. Coach Collins has heard it plenty of times: my kid has worked harder than anyone. Maybe so. But he could spend ten thousand hours practicing singing and he is never going to be Beyonce. Effort matters, and it is not a guarantee. Coach Bill has heard the variation aimed at the trainer: you’ve been working with her, so why isn’t she on the A team? The money I’m spending! His answer is that he does what he can with the time he has, and the player still has to put in extra work on their own. If you have the numbers and it fits your program, an A and B split is better in the long run. Put kids in the class they are ready for, use practice to push both groups, and communicate early and clearly how teams are built and how a player makes the A team. Everybody wants to make the A team. Tell them exactly how. **Learn more and get everything you need for your season at** TeachHoops.com - The parent perspectiveAlgebra before pre calcThe pros of an A and B splitThe consPushing both teams in practiceWhat parents hearA little failure is good for kidsHard work is not the only variableCoach’s takeaway Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices