Girls AAU Programs
- Thread starter TheHillZ
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Agree with the assassin as usual. It takes a lot more time to develop players vs coach them. I have seen players develop when playing for the same team for a number of years. But even then it is hard to credit just the AAU program for development. For example (and not the only case), I have seen Sean at JBS have some kids year after year get better.
I would not count Cagers, Fever, etc in that since they are mostly players/coaches from a single school, so a totally different dynamic.
It's unbalanced in a way -- the lowest paid coaches spend the most time with high school players, and in a lot of ways, high school is the only time when practice predominates. For example, in high school, a six-day week with two games has 8 hours of practice and two games. In club, there will be two practices totaling 3 hours and up to six games on a weekend.
And the problem with club is that you have to be prepared for all different kinds of presses and half-court defenses so you have to spend a lot of those three hours on set plays, especially with the younger kids. You're lucky if you have time to shoot enough, much less drill down on fundamentals.
High school can be demanding that way too but if you play league opponents twice, and you control the rest of your schedule, it's easier to prepare (most of the time).
And the problem with club is that you have to be prepared for all different kinds of presses and half-court defenses so you have to spend a lot of those three hours on set plays, especially with the younger kids. You're lucky if you have time to shoot enough, much less drill down on fundamentals.
High school can be demanding that way too but if you play league opponents twice, and you control the rest of your schedule, it's easier to prepare (most of the time).
Or..... you (generic "you" not aimed at Clay) could spend more of those 3 hours to teach the kid with a crappy school coach how to shoot, along with other skills. Then put those skills into practice when you get to those games. Coaches who think that plays win games will one day get their lunch served to them by superior coaches and probably already have...
Oh, but I forgot all these parents that pay for their kids to win AAU games and make themselves feel good about their "investment".. so yea you better work on your plays.. dont want to lose that recruiting power over parents.. its like the blind leading the blind half the time..
Oh, but I forgot all these parents that pay for their kids to win AAU games and make themselves feel good about their "investment".. so yea you better work on your plays.. dont want to lose that recruiting power over parents.. its like the blind leading the blind half the time..
So I remember the first AAU game I coached. I had a young team and we'd had two practices, I think, 90 minutes each. Our first game the other team pressed us from tip to horn and we were dismantled. The next one pressed us for a while, and then dropped into a zone. The third was straight man.
Everyone -- me, players, parents -- was frustrated because we just couldn't use any fundamental or basketball skills to score. We needed structures in place so the girls could have a chance to get the ball down court, or find shots against a zone, and I had to spend the next few weeks in practice just putting in pressbreakers, etc. (And you have to have similar structures in place defensively too.)
In high school, with two or three weeks (12-18 sessions) of two-hour practices before the first game, you can do both -- to an extent. There's never enough practice time.
Everyone -- me, players, parents -- was frustrated because we just couldn't use any fundamental or basketball skills to score. We needed structures in place so the girls could have a chance to get the ball down court, or find shots against a zone, and I had to spend the next few weeks in practice just putting in pressbreakers, etc. (And you have to have similar structures in place defensively too.)
In high school, with two or three weeks (12-18 sessions) of two-hour practices before the first game, you can do both -- to an extent. There's never enough practice time.
Don't know how young the kids were and the younger the harder it can be, but I'm all about in game coaching at an AAU tournament. Sure maybe touch on the pressbreak for 5 minutes in practice to get familiar with it, but regardless, you are going to have to draw it on the board during the game any way. As you said about high school... all that practice, and you get mid way through the season and you STILL have to draw things on the whiteboard as a reminder. So why spend a majority of an AAU practice on plays when you arent going to perfect them even if you spent ALL your practice time on them.. yes, I get in your situation, you probably had younger girls and they were not going to have fun if that went on repeat for weeks. But maybe 7th and certainly 8th and high schoolers can be extremely receptive to in game coaching and drawing a play up to immediately put into action against an opponent.
Steph Curry. did not play AAU ball because his dad (former NBA player) said you learn bad habits. Get a coach for your individual skills.
bad habits are based on who is teaching you and what bad habits are allowed to persist. Can't really generalize like that. My entire point if you have been paying attention is that players/coaches should be developmentally minded during the off season.. and too many AAU coaches view HS as the off season now...
I know some coaches can do that, but I never had much luck drawing something up that we'd never done, and then executing it, even at the varsity level. Then again, then probably had as much to do with me as with the players ...
But that said, I ran a halfcourt trap in high school and I knew if I could save it until the second half, there was no way the other team could adjust, even if they'd scouted us. That won a lot of games for us, especially when scouting was difficult to do or the other coach wasn't able to make it happen.
Against a press by a more athletic team, for example, you need a pattern of motion, and it takes time for most kids to be able to execute under pressure. But then again, maybe that's on me ...
Agreed, thats why I said touch on it at practice so there is familiarity, and then refresh with the board in game. But don't spend an entire 90 minute practice twice a week running plays. You'll be spinning your wheels and have to teach during the game anyway.
he also had a gym in his home and the means to pay for the best trainers there was.
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