As the spring approaches many players and parents are choosing their AAU/Grassroots club. I’ve received a few emails lately asking thoughts on where to play and I thought if one person is asking – usually others are thinking the same thing. Here are few thoughts to get the most out of your AAU/Grassroots experience as possible.
How many tournaments should we play?
This statement sums up how I feel about how many games and tournaments you should play. “If you start the beginning of the spring with a weak left hand and go play 100 games from April – July, at the end of the summer you are still going to have a weak left hand.” You should be working on your individual skills 4 times as much as you play games. If a team plays 2-3 tournaments in April, May, takes June off for high school and July that’s 6-9 tournaments which I think is about right, depending on your age. Am I saying playing AAU and games are bad and all you should do is workout? ABSOLUTELY NOT – you need balance. As much as you can try you cannot exactly recreate game situations in a workout – you need to play.
My kid needs exposure
No they don’t. For the most part basketball has a natural process of getting kids to the level they belong at – for the most part. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, like Steph Curry, but his story is evidence to my point. Being good enough and YOU finding the right fit is way more important and in your control then who comes to watch you. I know of AAU program, which seems to push their kids to attend NCAA DI schools, when I rarely see any of them really excel, let alone contribute, at that level. Would they have a better experience and enjoy it more, maybe playing a slightly lower level? Probably. With that being said, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with accepting an offer to be part of an elite program where you go into the situation knowing you might not have a chance for many minutes. You can absolutely be a huge contributor in other ways — every elite program needs great teammates and a great scout team.
Choosing a program
Choose a program for your child based on who is going to coach them. Not how much free gear they get or if you can play for free. Ultimately your child’s development and experience is going to depend on who is spending the most time with them. Understandably, finances are an obstacle for some families, however, every legitimate program will have fundraising opportunities to cover your expenses.
My son or daughter made a great team through tryouts, but their school teammates did not make the cut.
Is the AAU experience about keeping players from the same school team together through middle school and high school years OR Having a different experience with new players and coaches?
What should we do?
I feel as if AAU is meant to be for the kids who are above and beyond the normal high school level and have a passion to play college basketball. Playing with and against better players is not only going to be more enjoyable for your child, but is going to make them better in the long run. In 90% of cases the reason your child made this team and the other 2 did not is because they work harder and love the game more. When I was in 8th grade I transferred schools right before the start of the basketball season. Tryouts had already taken place so I ended up going to have a ‘tryout’ in practice with the “A” team – shortly thereafter, put on the roster. Someone came up to me in the locker room a couple weeks later and said , “How is that fair? You don’t even have to go to tryouts and make the ‘A’ team.” I’ll never forget my response, which was, “I earned the right to be on that team long before tryouts happened”.
My point is that I don’t feel it’s right to hold your child back because their friends and teammates don’t work as hard as they does. One thing I live by is that “you will become the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with the most”. This is absolutely 100% true for basketball as well.
The often overlooked advantage of this is that the other two teammates, most likely, will have to elevate their roles on their other AAU team, thus improving them as individuals and making the school team better.
Now, with all things being equal, or even close to equal, I would absolutely say that you should stay with her school teammates. The advantages of this are obvious, but from the sounds of it that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
If you have basketball related questions you’d like answered please drop me an email at mike@mikeleebasketball.com. I’ll respond to all and possibly will post replies depending on their relevance to our community of readers.
For daily drills, motivational quotes and workouts follow me on Twitter – @mikeleehoops