studies show that playing time becomes the top indicator for perceived experience of A COMPETITIVE athlete. 

WSA GOALS REGARDING ATHLETE RELATIONSHIP TO PLAYING TIME IS

1.  TO DRIVE A CULTURE OF TEAM THAT DEMANDS APPRECIATION OF PLAYING TIME WITHIN TEAM GOALS.  
​2.  LEARN RESPECT FOR TEAM ROLES
3.  UNDERSTANDING OF PERSONAL VALUE & WORTH THAT TRANSCENDS SOCIETAL NORMS

DO NOT COMPARE

WHY NOT COMPARE?

It is important that in a discussion regarding playing time that the athlete (and parent) not be allowed to drive comparisons between the athlete's playing time and other teammates'. 

Why? 

Comparison is the Death of Joy.
-- Coach Kyle Cussen

Your focus on others and what they "get" instead of you, will easily lead you astray from what should be your primary focus.  

Your primary focus should not be YOU.

If you play for WSA this truth remains beholden in our Side Before Self mantra, our Core Values, The Mission, and quite simply Who We Are (Mia San Mia) and we we are always becoming.

This is difficult, and quite honestly is one of many reasons WSA will never claim to be the best club for "EVERY" one.  Your fit at WSA requires you to be able to place greater focus on "OTHERS". 

In addition, to our club's Core Value system, there are several other reasons to not "compare" your playing time to others:

It is not your role or authority to evaluate the playing time of others.

It is your responsibility to TRUST your coach decisions and to TRUST your teammates. 

Your teammates should be valued and often in drawing comparisons to raise yourself, you in turn downplay and under value a teammate. 

It is expected that you acknowledge that we exist in Growth Mindset environment which means a coach may make mistakes.

It is understood that within a community, such as a team, that not all will agree, but that all in spite of areas of disagreement will abide by the team's manifesto, collective vision and steer in a unified direction. 

COMPLEX DYNAMIC

WHY IS IT DYNAMIC?

It is important that the player (and parent) not consider playing time for a unilateral, singular, self perspective.

If you do not acknowledge that by adding playing time to you, the team must subtract playing time from another teammate(s), you will not relate well with the coach who must consider this.

​The answer to "what do I need to do to get more playing time"is actually highly complex, complicated, and convoluted. I do not think it is the right question to ask. But if you do expect a complicated answer.
 

Why? 

​It is not possible with human comprehension to configure the range of possibilities a coach may use to construct a 90 minute game plan with 18 players. 

Do not believe that?  If a team had 4 players on it then the possible interactions between those 4 players along a single dimension are 16 possibilities.  This is 4 to the 4th power.

A full team with 18 players on it will have 3.92 X 10 to 22nd power of possible combinations within a single plane.  Add multiple planes to that (i.e. what if a player gets injured, sent off, you treat the goalkeeper position differently and do not share equal minutes, or the game goes to overtime, etc... etc... etc...). 

For a fun fact 3.92 X 10 to the 22nd power is stated: Three-Hundred Ninety Quintillion.

And while no human is processing that many combinations, such as your coach.  Your coach is ultimately required to "contemplate" that order.  Three-Hundred Ninety Quintillion combinations to consider.  It will make it difficult for any coach to explain your isolated concern to a level of sufficient satisfaction, within that range of possibilities.   ​

TIPPING POINTS

WHAT IS A TIPPING POINT?

One commonly misunderstood and miscommunicated myth regarding playing time is that playing time = player value to the team -- OR -- playing time = confidence of coach in the player.

Playing Time indicators between the coach and athlete and parent often misalign. 

Why?

The game determines a player's minutes in the matches where a game is highly result oriented (see WSA Game Typology). 

It is not necessarily the coach.

The "game" may be a game that requires a team to defend more, attack more, recover more, it might be a territorial game, played mostly in one location of the field, the game may have weather conditions, opponent conditions, fatigue conditions, that are integrated into the essence of what the game demands from your team. 

Your coach is NOT ASSESSING YOU.  Your coach is assessing the game, what the coach thinks is required.  There is no player that can do everything.  Every player has deficiencies, liabilities, in addition to strengths and assets. 

The coach might be more confident in another teammates skillsets fitting the game or even the moment of the game.  And this leaves unchanged the coach's confidence & BELIEF in you.  

That teammate the coach selected instead of you, may have been selected by the thinnest of evaluative margins.  And inside that thin margin, the Tipping Point, there is a translocation of 75% of the minutes of the game.  

It is important to get your appraisal right and not equate "minutes played" to "coaches confidence".

Assessing playing time on value to a team should be a longer term evaluation, and include intervention only after a full mesocycle (6 week window) as elapsed with unsatisfactory playing time.