One of the transformational changes I have witnessed over the past few years is the evolution, or maybe I should say, is the continued increase in the number of AAU type club programs available for high school basketball players.
At one time, there were only a very few Spring, Summer/Fall programs available. It seemed to me only the more advanced high school players were involved. Now it seems the number of opportunities has exploded.
Just like most topics I write about, I have some opinions about these types of programs. I don't mean to sound so cynical but I cannot help but believe some of the increase in numbers of these types of programs is simply about money. A player and their parents can easily lay out more than $1000-$2000 or more to participate. This may or may not include traveling fees, too and from tournaments. So, in my opinion, one has to consider the cost. There are, from my perspective, other factors to consider.
Now I want to be completely transparent. Over the years I coached, I had very few players get involved in AAU type off-season programs. I will confess, if you haven't figured it out all ready, I am not completely unbiased on this topic. Now I do not mean to offend anyone who is reading this and has a son or daughter involved in any type of program, nor am condemning those who may be coaching one of these programs. My perspective is very self centered. Besides the investment in money, I also was concerned about who was coaching my players? What are they emphasizing? What are they telling them? I know this may sound somewhat paranoid, but I wanted my players coached by me or a member of our staff.
Besides the money & time investment to consider and taking into consideration who is coaching your player, I had a third concern. How much is this going to actually help the player? Yes, listening to a new voice, possibly playing better competition and traveling can be all positive experiences. Let me give you an example of what concerned me. We had a very good high school player who became part of a traveling team. One spring I was attending a coaching clinic in another town and this player's team was participating in the tournament so I went to watch him play. There were ten players on each team. I believe they were playing 18 minute halves.
At the nine minute mark of the first half, the horn blew and five new players came on the court. This same pattern took place in the second half. So according to my math, each player played 18 minutes. The player who I came to watch I believe got two shots in 18 minutes. Another truth about these types of programs, is you want to be a point guard because you can almost count on some players dominating the ball over the others. I left the game thinking that is a lot of investment in terms of time and money for two shots. Now, I know I am not being totally fair in this very limited assessment.
In our program we did the following summer activities. In early June we held our own one week basketball camp. Cost to each player was $40 and this purchased camp t-shirts and awards. We then practice for about 6-7 weeks. We practiced twice a week for 90 minutes each practice. We also played in 3-4 tournaments that took us to a number of different cities in the state. Each tournament was a one day event in which we played at least 3 games. We ended our summer program the last week of July. I believe this period of time was extremely beneficial to our program. By the time we started practice in November, we already had in place a number of
defensive and offensive "tweaks" in place.
I coached in a small high school and we tried to schedule summer practices and tournaments around baseball, tennis, and other camps. If there were any conflicts, the player was encouraged to do what they felt was best. Yes, we had players miss practice and tournaments to attend family activities, camps, baseball games.
Now I did not just fall off the "pumpkin" wagon. Off-season AAU programs are not going away and players and their parents will continue to decide what is best for the development of their daughter(s)/son(s) as it should be.
I do feel if you are a coach in a program you need to decide how these type of programs may impact your own program. I fear for some players AAU may stand for it's All About U.
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