Experience with Shots Up fall league?

[Anonymous]

My 9 year old son is obsessed with basketball and consistently the best player on his rec team. The coaches on opposing teams tell him to join an AAU team. We are going to try out for travel in October.

In the meantime, he tried out for the St. James fall league and was invited to join - it’s being led by Shots Up.

Does anyone have experience with this? It’s a significant time commitment and the St. James can feel like a haul during rush hour traffic.

Is it worth it? Will he play with other competitive players? Will he gain skills and receive development? I’m going to ask these same questions of the proprietors but thought I’d ask here, too. TIA!!

[Anonymous]

So he made one of the St James basketball teams, and that team is playing in the Shots Up Fall League?

The practices will be at the St James, and the games will likely be at Mt Vernon high school. If those locations aren't convenient for you, I would not bother. Your time and money are better spent on private training.

What do you mean by "trying out for travel in October"? What grade is he in?

[Anonymous]

Very helpful! Yes that’s right and thank you for your recommendation re private training. We are totally new to anything beyond rec.

He’s going to tryout for Arlington travel basketball. He’s in 4th grade (its a 5th grade team and a long shot to play up but we are going to tryout).

[Anonymous]

Private training is great but this won't hurt either. It is good to meet people in the basketball world since a lot of the opportunities are word of mouth.

[Anonymous]

my son's have played on aAU teams and have done Shot ups previously and probably will this fall. its a good mix of mostly local(DMV) AAU team and the a few teams from out of town. They have high and low divisions for each grade (i.e 5th-Advanced, 5th-Less Advanced). Some teams play up a grade or two too, to get better competition and some teams play a lower division so they can win their division tournament.

Personally I think its a nice intro into the AAU tournament world. if you are in the right division for your grade, you should have good competition and possibly have a nice shot in the playoffs

[Anonymous]

Private training is ok imo. best thing for kids to do is play. Unfortunately, there isnt a ton of consistent pickup basketball for kids and hence the AAU world takes the place.

if you can find a consistent pick up run and do training, that can be better than all these tournaments.

I wouldnt spend a ton of money on training. you can find some pretty good coaches and drills on youtube and just have your kid practice them at a park. a trainer really isnt needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private training is great but this won't hurt either. It is good to meet people in the basketball world since a lot of the opportunities are word of mouth.

This is really true and important for parents new to basketball to know. Every tryout DS ever attended was one he was invited to. Early on this wasn’t because he was good, it was just that he and I (dad) met coaches and trainers and other parents, and they’d suggest a team that was a good fit. Same with trainers and training groups.

By HS, DS would regularly get texts about runs where good players got gym space and organized to meet, he’d get invites to tryouts and invites to be a guest player for tournaments. I’d go to a tournament and end up talking with tons of parents and kids that DS had been teammates with over the years. It takes time, but building up that network is doable if you show up, are polite and personable, and don’t have a huge ego.

In my experience, it’s also a great community to be part of. Basketball kids tend to focus on manners and respect in a way that many teens don’t. My kid learned to greet all the coaches in the gym before practice, and that translated to saying hello and shaking hands with adults when walking into a room. I’ve had lots of kids who I barely recognize (old teammates of DS or even just kids he’s played against a lot) walk up and shake my hand at basketball games and greet me as “Hello [DS’s name]’s dad.” It’s really charming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private training is ok imo. best thing for kids to do is play. Unfortunately, there isnt a ton of consistent pickup basketball for kids and hence the AAU world takes the place.

if you can find a consistent pick up run and do training, that can be better than all these tournaments.

I wouldnt spend a ton of money on training. you can find some pretty good coaches and drills on youtube and just have your kid practice them at a park. a trainer really isnt needed.

There are a ton of good online resources, especially for shooting and ball handling. A couple of areas where a trainer helped my kid were:

- playing against DS. His trainer was an ex pro who was a genius at playing just hard enough to bring out the best in my kid, both on offense and defense.

- contact drills. The trainer both gave and absorbed a lot of contact on things like spin move drills or finishing layups while being fouled. Having a 6’6” 220 pound guy foul him hard made DS not so worried about getting fouled in 14U games.

- pushing DS really hard. By HS, the trainer would do drills at the end of hard workouts like having DS run sprints to being on the verge of barfing, then have him make 5 foul shots in a row, knowing that if he missed he had to do more sprints. I was not a fan, but DS insisted on doing it.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate all the insights!! Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

Yes shotsup is probably the most competitive fall league in the DMV. At least it has been the last few years.