Good couple of weeks for my U10s. After knocking off the defending regular season champs last week, we drew 1-1 with the defending playoff champs yesterday. Played them pretty even overall, and I think frustrated them quite a bit. They haven't had too many teams challenge them as tightly as we did.

Been thinking the last couple of weeks about how I'm splitting up minutes. The league requirement is that everybody play at least half the game. Format is 7v7 with 25-minute halves, and I have a 10-man roster. I've tended to play my stronger guys 40-45 minutes, and my weaker ones 25-30. I'm always careful to make sure everybody gets the minimum, and I try to reward practice attendance and "hustle" with extra minutes where possible, but I'm definitely giving some kids a lot more time than others.

I was talking to another rival coach yesterday who says he tries to split the minutes evenly across the roster. His thought process is that it pays bigger dividends over time with more equal development for the weaker kids.

I'm curious to get the CB coaching brain trust's thoughts.

Is U10 too early to be giving disproportionate time to the stronger players? Any philosophies you guys have on splitting up playing time?