How hard is it to get into AAU from rec?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you mind sharing which teams she tried out for in 6th? I'm not OP but we're in a nearly identical situation with our 6th grader.

Anonymous wrote:Very hard - my DD tried out for some teams in spring of 6th and it was a rude awakening.

Not PP, but if she just wants to make a team, the vogues are probably her best bet as far as established clubs go. There are also a lot of smaller teams that will take almost all comers to fill out rosters. I'd look for teams in the shots up fall league that are near the bottom of the standings
https://www.tourneymachine.com/Public/Results/Tournament.aspx?IDTournament=h2024060518201840874993129579845
These teams may play other teams more at their level during the full season, but fall league tends to see a lot of disparity because it's one local league rather than spring which is a series of more regional tournaments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is she tall and a stand out player on a good rec team? If not, don't bother.

This is only accurate for the top tier teams. There are lots of AAU teams out there that have kids who look like rec league players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she tall and a stand out player on a good rec team? If not, don't bother.

This is only accurate for the top tier teams. There are lots of AAU teams out there that have kids who look like rec league players.

for girls, you can be a very short point guard and play for a top team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

Right? I can’t believe people will advocate six months of intensive *private coaching* for their young kids and then turn around and criticize parents who put their kids in travel.

At least the travel kids get to have fun with their teammates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

Right? I can’t believe people will advocate six months of intensive *private coaching* for their young kids and then turn around and criticize parents who put their kids in travel.

At least the travel kids get to have fun with their teammates.

My kid's team plays three seasons and costs about $800 when you combine spring, fall and winter. Private training costs $100 a session. If you're going to talk about spending a lot of money, don't advocate private training

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

The "travel racket" is a ton of fun for the kids if they have the right team. I will never regret my years of "travel racket" basketball even though our families social life came to a screeching halt and my kid will never play in college, let alone Varsity in HS. Plus rec is only a few short months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

I’m the poster who suggested skills training. It’s definitely a cost, but it’s more worthwhile to me than paying for a not great AAU team. I disagree with the PP about pickup ball — in my experience it’s tough to find good competition, and instead you find chaos, crowds, and bad players with big egos.

A good coach will organize 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 group training and scrimmages, which is huge for learning. My experience is that this can be a “pay it forward” situation where your kid gets to play with better players mostly at first, but also plays with worse players too as they develop. They can learn from both. Two different coaches did this for my kid.

Later, as they develop further, a good trainer might get them into private runs with college players or even current or former pros, and they can learn a TON from that.

[Anonymous]

One more thing — I suggested training over AAU for 6-12 months for OPs kid’s specific situation. At some point, you kid has to play AAU if they are going to progress. I don’t know any HS players on teams my kid played or or against who don’t play AAU in HS in addition to playing for their HS team.

[Anonymous]

My daughter plays for a mid-tier AAU club, so that’s what I’m most familiar with. It would be near impossible for your DD to make the A team. She could possibly make the B team, but in addition to playing on a rec team this winter, she needs to commit to 2-3 additional training sessions at some place like Evolution or Pro-Fit over the winter before tryouts start in February. Even then, it’s a small chance as 6th grade AAU players are all expected to have high skills and high basketball IQ, even at a not super-competitive AAU club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

I’m the poster who suggested skills training. It’s definitely a cost, but it’s more worthwhile to me than paying for a not great AAU team. I disagree with the PP about pickup ball — in my experience it’s tough to find good competition, and instead you find chaos, crowds, and bad players with big egos.

A good coach will organize 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 group training and scrimmages, which is huge for learning. My experience is that this can be a “pay it forward” situation where your kid gets to play with better players mostly at first, but also plays with worse players too as they develop. They can learn from both. Two different coaches did this for my kid.

Later, as they develop further, a good trainer might get them into private runs with college players or even current or former pros, and they can learn a TON from that.

I've seen a couple of training only girls at tryouts and open gyms. Maybe I've seen more, but these dads both wore the evolution shirts and bragged about how smart they were to wait on a team. Those girls were not prepared for how physical and rough the game is. They kept on expecting the coaches to call fouls and they started arguing that they were being held/pushed/elbowed. That's just how tryouts are. You can be great, but when someone two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier is arm guarding you (girls refs let kids get away with a lot, especially in the half court), you have to know how to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she tall and a stand out player on a good rec team? If not, don't bother.

There are far more kids that play AAU and Travel than in rec teams. How can they all be tall and stand out players??

That doesn't sound right. There's one AAU team for Arlington but a couple of dozen rec teams each season.

Travel is not AAU. Arlington basketball does not have AAU teams.

There's a girls AAU team called the Virginia Hurricanes in Arlington. There appear to only be two travel teams per grade for Arlington. That's still far less than the number of rec teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she tall and a stand out player on a good rec team? If not, don't bother.

There are far more kids that play AAU and Travel than in rec teams. How can they all be tall and stand out players??

That doesn't sound right. There's one AAU team for Arlington but a couple of dozen rec teams each season.

Travel is not AAU. Arlington basketball does not have AAU teams.

There's a girls AAU team called the Virginia Hurricanes in Arlington. There appear to only be two travel teams per grade for Arlington. That's still far less than the number of rec teams.

Girls who live in Arlington can play for clubs other than the Hurricanes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’d recommend spending six months or a year doing individual training with a good coach. My kid went from being the worst player on a rec team that always lost in 6th grade to being a starter on a very good AAU team and bench player and reliable scorer on a high school team whose starters all played D1 mid major or higher ball. AAU games did little to help that progression. What helped was (hard, uncomfortable) skills and conditioning training and playing 3 on 3 with college players.

This. It amazes me how many parents fall into the travel racket. People it’s pay to play. You get to spend a lot of money to have your family calendar tied up by driving a long ways to practices and games that are often scheduled last minute. Join a rec team for fun play and do skills training if kid really wants to improve. Spending lots of time in the car driving to tournaments does not make you a better player. Playing constant pickup during the time you could have spent driving, combined with skills training will make a better player.

pot, meet kettle. Just wondering, what gyms does a 6th grade girl go to for pick up games?

I’m the poster who suggested skills training. It’s definitely a cost, but it’s more worthwhile to me than paying for a not great AAU team. I disagree with the PP about pickup ball — in my experience it’s tough to find good competition, and instead you find chaos, crowds, and bad players with big egos.

A good coach will organize 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 group training and scrimmages, which is huge for learning. My experience is that this can be a “pay it forward” situation where your kid gets to play with better players mostly at first, but also plays with worse players too as they develop. They can learn from both. Two different coaches did this for my kid.

Later, as they develop further, a good trainer might get them into private runs with college players or even current or former pros, and they can learn a TON from that.

I've seen a couple of training only girls at tryouts and open gyms. Maybe I've seen more, but these dads both wore the evolution shirts and bragged about how smart they were to wait on a team. Those girls were not prepared for how physical and rough the game is. They kept on expecting the coaches to call fouls and they started arguing that they were being held/pushed/elbowed. That's just how tryouts are. You can be great, but when someone two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier is arm guarding you (girls refs let kids get away with a lot, especially in the half court), you have to know how to deal with it.

DP. I can’t speak to the girls game but this is a good point for boys as well. I actually think there is value in playing chaotic ball with a bunch of kids who don’t really know what they’re doing wrt fouls. It makes a player more physically and mentally resilient and also eventually helps kids learn to play physical but avoid making silly fouls.