Occasionally, a school-age sports team’s practice is cancelled with a note like this:

“A lot of players can’t make it tonight, so we’re going to cancel practice. Enjoy the night off.”

In an over-scheduled hyper-busy culture, this message is usually welcomed by parents.

However, this also marks a missed opportunity.

If a team of fifteen practices for two hours with a few coaches, what does it look like when the numbers are much smaller but the schedule remains the same? A slim crew of a half-dozen might benefit greatly from that focused coaching attention. Let’s look at the details. Let’s revisit foundational skills. Let’s work out some bugs.

The limited attendance may be an opportunity rather than a cause for cancellation.

So a question for your group or organization: how many make it worthwhile? How many do you need for a practice or program to run? Is five enough? What about two? Only one?

Sometimes we need to cancel. Other times, there might be an opportunity.