AYSO Area 9R - Balanced Play

Most regions throughout the area and particularly those participating in inter-region play, follow the "3/4" rule. This means that no player shall sit out two quarters of a game until all players on the team have sat out once. This is commonly referred to as the "3/4" Rule.

For divisions that have free substitution, coaches shall make every reasonable effort to balance play time for all of their players.

THE "3/4" RULE

While AYSO National mandates that each player must play at least half the game, this policy when adopted into the Region P&P and as adopted in the area wide P&P for inter-region play takes that a step further as we believe very strongly in the Everyone Plays Philosophy. It is important that coaches do not allow one player to play an entire game while another player sits out twice. So each player must play at least 3/4 of each game, except when that is mathematically impossible. Those exceptions are described below.

The exceptions to the 3/4 Rule in the "regular season" are as follows:

If a team has a full roster for any division other than U12 and division with free substitution, it is impossible for all players to play 3/4 of the game. At least 2 players will play half the game, and the remaining players will play 3/4 of the game. The players selected to play half the game will play 3/4 of all subsequent games until every other player on the team has been selected to play half the game in those games where all players show up.

Exceptions will be taken if a player is injured or decides of their own volition to sit out. Coaches should also ensure that the same player is not sitting out half of a game multiple times while other players do not have to sit out half of a game.

GOALKEEPERS

Best Practices:

To ensure that all players get plenty of opportunities to play as a field player, it is recommends limiting the amount of time a player may play in goal during the "regular season". A player should not play in goal for more than 2 quarters in a single game during the regular season. Coaches are strongly encouraged to rotate players in goal.