Is Summer Basketball Hurting the Game?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and wonder if there isn’t some truth to it. While the coaches and players have to love all the games it really takes away from camp time. I’m a proponent of both.
1. I love the idea of playing basketball to get better and I push that. I can do drills till I’m blue in the face but if I’m never in a game situation I don’t really have a chance to really grow as a player. You have to combine both.
2. I love the thought of coaches that are AAU specific as long as those coaches run disciplined systems. When I played AAU ball i had a coach who thought that if we didn’t get rebounds it was because that God was punishing him. Looking back, the guy had some issues and wasn’t the right fit for us. PLayers don’t need babysitters, they need coaches.
3. Kids need the summertime to work on specific skills. I would literally take 1-2 hours a day just to work on my shooting, dribbling and passing. Kids now are spending that time in Las Vegas waiting for the next game. I can’t blame the kids because that is where the recruiters are so you have to go there, but the summers are now so packed that kids fall behind in a number of areas as a result.
That’s why I’m so mixed on this topic. The recruiting of younger players has changed the landscape of summer basketball so much that it makes it very difficult to judge. What would I have done? I would’ve played in as many summer leagues as I could so i could get seen as a player. That’s why we play isn’t it?
The majority of the people who visit www.hoopskills.com come here because they want to be better players and give themselves any edge they can so they can get to that next level. That next level might be junior high, high school or college but we each have a next level that we are trying to attain. For those trying to get to college it is tough to fault going to as many AAU tourneys as possible just to be seen.
However, let me throw this out. Get a good mix of both. Make sure that the summer is planned with enough downtime to work on some of the weaknesses that are made apparent during the games. Coaches are watching and if you continually show that you can’t shoot then take a tournament off to work hours on your jump shot. Just as many kids who want to help themselves during the summer actually hurt themselves by playing poorly because they are unprepared.
