Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski wrote a great article on Kobe Bryant, Kobe’s high school coach, and the development of basketball players in the U.S.
In the article Kobe talks about a recent trip to Barcelona where he watched some young players and was amazed by the differences in how players develop in the States.
“Every single one, it seemed – the 8 year old, the 9 year olds – go left and they go right,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. “The older ones shoot the jump hook with the left, and they shoot the jump hook with the right. You’ve got bigger kids who can shoot from the outside, who can handle the ball and play. A lot of young players that look like (Pau) Gasol, who are just so skilled. And now you’ve got kids here in the States, 20 year olds, who can’t do those things. Damn, you’ve got max players who can’t do that.”
Kobe also discusses the work he put in with his high school coach and the problems involved with AAU basketball.
As a player you need to be more concerned with working on your game and less concerned about how many games you are playing or what AAU team you are playing for. I recently had a parent of one of the players I train, a 5th grader, ask me if he should sign his son up to play for a certain AAU team. I told him that he didn’t need to be playing AAU at all at his age and that he should spend the majority of his time working on his skills.
Don’t get me wrong, games are important, but they should be limited (especially younger players) and used to implement and test the things that you have been working on.
To read the full article on Kobe click here