
PLAYER COURT TIME
Approach to Player Court Time
Titans Basketball has a commitment to creating an environment where all players, regardless of their skill level, can learn to play basketball in a safe and fun environment. Every effort is made to ensure that each player is placed in a grade where they can develop their game by making an on court contribution on game days. Of course there will be situations where the skill level in any given group is not balanced. In these situations it is still the philosophy of the club that every member of the group is given a fair and reasonable opportunity to contribute.
Given the dynamic and fast moving nature of basketball, coaches need to adopt different approaches throughout the course of a game. Given this it is not possible for coaches to ensure that every player gets exactly equal court time. At any one point in time coaches have to think about issues such as:
-
Have they got the right mix of players for the offence or defence they want the team to run and
-
Have they got the right match ups against the opposition in terms of size, speed, tactics etc .
Generally, every listed player within a team should play each week and receive 'reasonable court time' (fair). Numerically that would see every player in a team with 8 players in it get somewhere between 17 - 23 minutes court time in a 36 minute game (2x 18 minute halves). But there are factors that can influence this on the day (individual foul trouble, extra players/not enough players).
There are some universal rules which guide a coaches thinking on who to put on (and leave on) a court. These include:
-
Is the player attending training, listening and learning;
-
Is the player working hard at training and at all times during games, playing their best, following instructions and playing a team oriented game;
-
Is the player behaving in a sportsmanlike manner.
-
Players (or their parent) should be free to talk to their coach about any issues they have with court time. It's best to do this away from the pressures of game day. This is to be done in a respectful manner as our coaches are volunteers.
Should any of these issues be impacting your child's court time we encourage the coach to communicate this with the player and the parent. It is important that the player/coach relationship is respectful at all times. The coach does not have the authority to 'bench' a player for a full match or a number of 'weeks'. These kind of sanctions are managed at a league level or at the club's discretion.