Honest question about sports, specifically basketball

[Anonymous]

For Elevate Elite, they usually field 3 teams (A,B,C) per grade level. All 3 teams have a focus on player development during practices, but different perspective when it comes to AAU Tournaments.

The A and B team focus on winning, thus giving majority minutes to the best players vs. competitive games. For non-competitive games, playing time is spread out evenly. For C team, winning is not the objective, the focus is player development and everyone get to play a lot of minutes.

If your daughter is a starter on a FCYBL team, she has a good chance to make it to a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for the responses. One more thing I have realized is that just because you play on a travel/competitive team it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better than another player who hasn’t played on a travel team.

I feel like there is so much wrong with the sports culture here and the need to keep our kids in these sports and competitive teams even when we see no improvement.

I have a good basketball playing son who did not make a competitive team this year despite being as good as some of the kids who were already on the team. I have learned from the process that if you come in at age 12, the teams are already almost full and the team is looking for new talent. The team will not replace a bench with another bench. My child was disappointed but has been playing in a team with some friends and is the star of his team. He makes 20 points every game. He is too good for rec basketball but apparently not good enough for travel or AAU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for the responses. One more thing I have realized is that just because you play on a travel/competitive team it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better than another player who hasn’t played on a travel team.

I feel like there is so much wrong with the sports culture here and the need to keep our kids in these sports and competitive teams even when we see no improvement.

I was going to respond to your original question that was characterized as honest but then you have replied here that you think so much is wrong with sports, so I am going to assume you don't/didn't ever love a sport. There are SO many threads on parents not seeing the point if you aren't going to go pro or D1 who essentially seem to view is as throwing away their time and money. My son plays basketball 5, sometimes 6, days a week and has definitely gotten better over the couple of years on the team. So has every other player. You can't really do something that often and not improve. Statistically none will go to NBA and probably none will go D1. They love the sport. They love being part of a team. They love developing. It's their hobby. I understand many parents don't see it that way but why would someone practice violin freuquently - are they going to be a pro musician? Why would you encourage your child to draw/paint - are they going to make a living doing art? Kids should do what they love and some love sports, even basketball as non-tall kids. That's ok... they are pursuing their passion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for the responses. One more thing I have realized is that just because you play on a travel/competitive team it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better than another player who hasn’t played on a travel team.

I feel like there is so much wrong with the sports culture here and the need to keep our kids in these sports and competitive teams even when we see no improvement.

I was going to respond to your original question that was characterized as honest but then you have replied here that you think so much is wrong with sports, so I am going to assume you don't/didn't ever love a sport. There are SO many threads on parents not seeing the point if you aren't going to go pro or D1 who essentially seem to view is as throwing away their time and money. My son plays basketball 5, sometimes 6, days a week and has definitely gotten better over the couple of years on the team. So has every other player. You can't really do something that often and not improve. Statistically none will go to NBA and probably none will go D1. They love the sport. They love being part of a team. They love developing. It's their hobby. I understand many parents don't see it that way but why would someone practice violin freuquently - are they going to be a pro musician? Why would you encourage your child to draw/paint - are they going to make a living doing art? Kids should do what they love and some love sports, even basketball as non-tall kids. That's ok... they are pursuing their passion.

Thank you for your response. But you are wrong to assume that I never loved a sport or that my DC doesn’t love basketball. My DC only played rec up until now. His assumption and mine was that switching to competitive will help him develop and grow as a player. But learning that the kids who have played on the competitive team for several years or even multiple seasons are not any better than him makes me wonder what is the point of competitive team. I fully expected my kid to be the worst player on this team just because of his lack of experience playing on competitive. So I was a little disappointed that all the travel and extra practices didn’t help other kids improve that much. My point wasn’t that kids shouldn’t play sports if they can’t make D1 or NBA in fact my point was rec was not so bad after all and what is the point of competitive if the players on that team are not significantly better than rec players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So my DC joined a competitive basketball team for the first time. He is pretty good about the same as the other players on his team. This past weekend their team got destroyed at their game. They lost 0-30 something. It made me realize a couple of things:
1. All kids in our team sucked compared to the kids on the other team

2. In order to improve my DC and others on his team need to put in a lot more work. Maybe one on one coaching and more practices. But then how much should one pursue this? They still might not be as good as the other team.

3. Met a mom of a kid on my DC’s team and that kid had been on another competitive team for 2 years. This kid was not that great, maybe worse than my DC. She mentioned that her kid hardly got any play time on the other team he was on. Up until this point I was thinking that with time my DC and others will improve but if this kid has been on a competitive team for 2 years and is still not that great, what hope do I have for my own DC?

Also, it seems that a lot of this competitive/travel teams are scams if they just take everyone and then bench them?


What is the point of all this? The mom told me that for 2 years they would drive to all these games all the way to Virginia beach etc and the kid would play for maybe 5 min at the most.

So, how much time and money do you pour into sports and travel and when do you stop?

Depends how tall he is likely to be. I wouldn’t spend anything on travel basketball unless it was very likely my kid would be tall. Just being honest.

You just have to realize that you’re doing it for the kids’ enjoyment and not to get onto a high school or college team. If they don’t enjoy being on a team at that level and going to the tournaments then don’t do it.
Travel can provide a little more experience than what is provided at the rec level. For example, my DC thinks the rec league is too easy and would get upset that other kids didn’t know how to play. It’s not they were a superstar on the travel team, but they liked it better.

OP here. Yes we had the same problem with rec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for the responses. One more thing I have realized is that just because you play on a travel/competitive team it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better than another player who hasn’t played on a travel team.

I feel like there is so much wrong with the sports culture here and the need to keep our kids in these sports and competitive teams even when we see no improvement.

I was going to respond to your original question that was characterized as honest but then you have replied here that you think so much is wrong with sports, so I am going to assume you don't/didn't ever love a sport. There are SO many threads on parents not seeing the point if you aren't going to go pro or D1 who essentially seem to view is as throwing away their time and money. My son plays basketball 5, sometimes 6, days a week and has definitely gotten better over the couple of years on the team. So has every other player. You can't really do something that often and not improve. Statistically none will go to NBA and probably none will go D1. They love the sport. They love being part of a team. They love developing. It's their hobby. I understand many parents don't see it that way but why would someone practice violin freuquently - are they going to be a pro musician? Why would you encourage your child to draw/paint - are they going to make a living doing art? Kids should do what they love and some love sports, even basketball as non-tall kids. That's ok... they are pursuing their passion.

Thank you for your response. But you are wrong to assume that I never loved a sport or that my DC doesn’t love basketball. My DC only played rec up until now. His assumption and mine was that switching to competitive will help him develop and grow as a player. But learning that the kids who have played on the competitive team for several years or even multiple seasons are not any better than him makes me wonder what is the point of competitive team. I fully expected my kid to be the worst player on this team just because of his lack of experience playing on competitive. So I was a little disappointed that all the travel and extra practices didn’t help other kids improve that much. My point wasn’t that kids shouldn’t play sports if they can’t make D1 or NBA in fact my point was rec was not so bad after all and what is the point of competitive if the players on that team are not significantly better than rec players.

As a rec family we struggle with this in a different sport. It's very clear that our rec league, at least, is about equivalent to many bottom-level travel teams (to include the coaching, before everyone starts dumping on rec coaches - we've been able to get placed on teams with good ones). As we constantly re-evaluate what we want to do with our kids moving forward, the benefits of travel for a kid who just loves to play seem to be:

1) Most (I'm sure not all) other kids want to be there - or at least their parents make them show up. My kids get really irritated by the kids in rec who don't care even a tiny bit. Just 1-2 of them per team can really set a tone, even with a great coach.
2) More reps. Most travel teams practice more often than most rec teams. Can your kid do that on his/her own? Depends on the kinds of reps. Most team sports have some situations that can't be practiced without a team. Plus for kids who really enjoy the sport, getting that extra practice and game time with friends will be fun! It's a little harder to challenge yourself alone, though certainly possible for driven athletes.
3) Assuming you pay for that kind of club, no more daddy/mommy ball.

Other than those, I think the benefits really depend, as you noted. I know kids in our sport who have had such a terrible travel ball experience they are thinking about dropping back to rec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for the responses. One more thing I have realized is that just because you play on a travel/competitive team it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better than another player who hasn’t played on a travel team.

I feel like there is so much wrong with the sports culture here and the need to keep our kids in these sports and competitive teams even when we see no improvement.

I was going to respond to your original question that was characterized as honest but then you have replied here that you think so much is wrong with sports, so I am going to assume you don't/didn't ever love a sport. There are SO many threads on parents not seeing the point if you aren't going to go pro or D1 who essentially seem to view is as throwing away their time and money. My son plays basketball 5, sometimes 6, days a week and has definitely gotten better over the couple of years on the team. So has every other player. You can't really do something that often and not improve. Statistically none will go to NBA and probably none will go D1. They love the sport. They love being part of a team. They love developing. It's their hobby. I understand many parents don't see it that way but why would someone practice violin freuquently - are they going to be a pro musician? Why would you encourage your child to draw/paint - are they going to make a living doing art? Kids should do what they love and some love sports, even basketball as non-tall kids. That's ok... they are pursuing their passion.

Thank you for your response. But you are wrong to assume that I never loved a sport or that my DC doesn’t love basketball. My DC only played rec up until now. His assumption and mine was that switching to competitive will help him develop and grow as a player. But learning that the kids who have played on the competitive team for several years or even multiple seasons are not any better than him makes me wonder what is the point of competitive team. I fully expected my kid to be the worst player on this team just because of his lack of experience playing on competitive. So I was a little disappointed that all the travel and extra practices didn’t help other kids improve that much. My point wasn’t that kids shouldn’t play sports if they can’t make D1 or NBA in fact my point was rec was not so bad after all and what is the point of competitive if the players on that team are not significantly better than rec players.

I'm responding to your response... I'm not sure how to identify myself . I understand your point now. I would say that in my experience, especially for basketball, that your situation is rather atypical. Where I live the travel teams are light years better than rec. Rec is where kids whose parents make them play or who have never played before go and the better kids who stay in rec either tried out for travel and didn't make it or want to concentrate on another sport but not totally give up basketball. The kid you described should definitely improve if he is playing that much basketball. Frankly that child is not particularly athletic and the coaching was probably poor with more emphasis given to starters/coaches kids. You also should be playing against much better talent in the tournaments that you are in. Perhaps if you live somewhere with an excellent rec program then it's different but my kids have played Jelleff and a couple of different rec leagues and the talent is night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great thread - provides good perspective. Can someone comment on how much of this is relevant for girls travel basketball. Are there any clubs/teams you recommend that focus on the developing the whole team? Are the top teams like Fairfax Stars, Elevate Elite just picking best players each season and cutting the rest or do they focus on player and team improvement?

On the girls side, all of the Stars, Elevate, Takeover, Durant players on the top high school teams will get scholarships. The clubs are eager to tell you how many D1 offers even the last girl on the bench has. What they don't tell you is how few of the girls from their top 8th grade teams end up playing for their circuit teams. My daughter is on one of those teams and there is a ton of turn over. Some of it is players wanting to play somewhere else and some of it is girls being cut. It's probably 70/30 the former

[Anonymous]

I would not do that, but maybe it's important to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
On the girls side, all of the Stars, Elevate, Takeover, Durant players on the top high school teams will get scholarships. The clubs are eager to tell you how many D1 offers even the last girl on the bench has. What they don't tell you is how few of the girls from their top 8th grade teams end up playing for their circuit teams. My daughter is on one of those teams and there is a ton of turn over. Some of it is players wanting to play somewhere else and some of it is girls being cut. It's probably 70/30 the former

*** There seem to be a limited number of good teams so girls move around between teams a lot then? Are there any DMV teams where you are not likely to be cut if you keep working on your game (not necessarily putting in effort to be elite) and get to enjoy playing at a fairly high level?

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by switching to competitive? Is it an AAU team or travel team? Where do you live that a rec team is just as good as AAU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by switching to competitive? Is it an AAU team or travel team? Where do you live that a rec team is just as good as AAU?

Not an AAU team. Just a competitive team with local travel. I didn’t say the rec team was just as good as the travel team. I said my kid who only played on rec is just as good as the kids on this travel team even though these kids have played travel for 2 years. Mine only did rec. The rec teams aren’t good because some kids don’t know how to play at all. That is why we switched to competitive.

[Anonymous]

The bigger AAU organizations will field multiple teams according to level of play. So an A team. A B team. And so on. A 33-0 drubbing is an organizational failure. One of those teams didn't belong in that division. Most league play will strive for some baseline parity among teams. Or at least they should. Unfortunately, AAU is not well regulated so you never know what you're getting. Oftentimes rec ends up being a lot more fun for kids of varying skill levels who don't take it too seriously.

[Anonymous]

Our 11 year old is on the tournament travel team on his club. He’s been there for years and he starts—though that might be about to change. The same core group has played together for years. The team has been on the receiving end of those lopsided losses and on the giving end. Three weeks an ago they lost three games in a tournament by an average of 20 points. This past weekend they won four games by an average of 20 points and lost in the championship game by 8.

The point is that the skill level varies.

What’s the point? Find a group families that like each other and play together for the fun of the game. Neither your kid or mine is likely to play beyond high school. So just enjoy the ride and let your kid learn some life lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by switching to competitive? Is it an AAU team or travel team? Where do you live that a rec team is just as good as AAU?

Not an AAU team. Just a competitive team with local travel. I didn’t say the rec team was just as good as the travel team. I said my kid who only played on rec is just as good as the kids on this travel team even though these kids have played travel for 2 years. Mine only did rec. The rec teams aren’t good because some kids don’t know how to play at all. That is why we switched to competitive.

Are you in the DC area? In northern Virginia, my son is playing on an AAU team for the first time after playing only rec until this season. He was extremely dominant in rec…regularly scoring 85-90% of his teams points and often more than the entire other team combined. On his not terribly high ranked AAU team he is one of the two weakest kids on the team.