What is AAU vs Travel basketball and maybe also soccer

[Anonymous]

Brand new to kids team sports here - can someone please explain the difference between AAU and Travel for Basketball? We just did rec this year, but I'm learning that for older grades there is AAU and there is also travel and within travel there are multiple levels? Can someone please explain how this works? For Basketball and soccer? I feel so dumb.

[Anonymous]

My kid quit basketball pretty young. I guess there’s non AAU travel, but it’s basically advanced rec. It’s not really a path to anything beyond maybe high school JV or varsity bench.

There are levels within AAU as well (like more than 1 team per age group)

I know a lot more about soccer because that’s the sport my kid stuck with. There’s rec and there’s sometimes a sort of intermediate level of more practices, but not tons of travel and then there’s full on travel (aka club) soccer. There’s a huge range of ability levels in club soccer. Some of the bigger clubs may have 4-6 teams per age group tiered by ability.

Tryouts for both sports should be happening now/soon, so you’d want to identify your local clubs and figure out their tryout dates ASAP

Where do you live? If you give us a general area, people would be able to suggest teams, or giving more specifics on the levels.

[Anonymous]

Travel is often used as an overarching term for higher than rec.

In fairfax county travel breaks down to aau and county.

County is a basketball league called FCYBL. It is only in the winter, all the games are in fairfax county, and each Team can only take two kids who aren’t from their specific zip codes.

AAU teams are individual teams that compete in tournaments. There are lots of local tournaments, but also tournaments across the country. Who they compete against varies by which tournaments they attend. The teams also vary from slightly better than rec, to future NBA. Most AAU teams cost significant money, but some get corporate sponsors. The can be year round, but many run spring through fall with high schoolers playing on their high school team in winter. Most have competive tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Both has tryouts. Travel b-ball is with the county based on where you live. U can’t try out for another county. Like Arlington kids can’t be trying out for teams in Fairfax. You get designated team and this is only for the winter months. Cost is $350~ more or less. You practice and play in the school gyms.

AAU - u can try out at any club. It’s usually spring season (can be year round depend on the clubs). Practice/ game may not be at school gym and they do play in tournament far and wide. Costs more depend on how many tournaments they are planning to attend. But def more than travel b-ball. The club we are in run about $750

Both have A and B team. B-ball goes by grade.

Travel soccer is similar to AAU except u commit to a year. Play mostly fall & spring unless ur kid is on the top team then they could be year round. Cost is probably 2-4K a year. Soccer goes by birth year.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

OP here - my children play through our city's association. It's not county based. I wasn't aware that Fairfax County had its own league.

[Anonymous]

So if a Fairfax County kid is interested in playing basketball in the spring/summer months, is AAU pretty much the only option? Thinking about a 10yo who’s no superstar, but probably too advanced for rec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if a Fairfax County kid is interested in playing basketball in the spring/summer months, is AAU pretty much the only option? Thinking about a 10yo who’s no superstar, but probably too advanced for rec.

find a good trainer. A good one will have recommendations. Rec squally isn’t good for player development and your kid may not be happy in AAU if their skills are lacking behind the other kids.

[Anonymous]

Any other suggestions on where to go to find info on this?

DS is in 7th and just did a year of rec bball and loves it. But I’m really confused about how to find programs that would improve his skills particularly since he only started playing for fun a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if a Fairfax County kid is interested in playing basketball in the spring/summer months, is AAU pretty much the only option? Thinking about a 10yo who’s no superstar, but probably too advanced for rec.

find a good trainer. A good one will have recommendations. Rec squally isn’t good for player development and your kid may not be happy in AAU if their skills are lacking behind the other kids.

How much do people pay for trainers? We are new to this world.

[Anonymous]

For 1:1, $100/hour for an excellent trainer. Someone less experienced might charge $50-$75