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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For a nine year old, one of the best ways to improve at basketball is to take the spring off from basketball and play flag football, soccer, or lacrosse instead. Sounds strange I know, but great basketball players have a solid base of athletic skills. If you are okay with tackle football (fall sport), skills like playing through contact and exploding into gaps will transfer to basketball. It's more fun for a kid to simply play a different sport with transferable skills than to work 1/1 with a basketball skills trainer. If your son really just wants to play basketball, Evolution Basketball in Merrifield has clinics for younger players, and those are fun also bc it's a group setting. In the end, the best training is intense 3 v. 3 with a coach who understands the game. I'm not saying Evolution necessarily provides that. Frankly, almost no one does. But just playing AAU games or just training 1/1 with a skills trainer won't be as effective as playing 3 v. 3 or 2 v. 2 with coaches pushing the players.[/quote]

This is really good advice.  There is a huge amount of skill transfer from football to basketball, and learning to play with contact is a big help.

Also re: 2 on 2 and 3 on 3:  I was driving home with DS last night talking about a teammate who has great skills but fades into the background in 5 on 5.  DS commented that DS used to be that way until he started playing 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 in scrimmages organized by his trainer a couple of years ago.  There's nowhere to hide in those situations, and kids have to step up.  Kids that are nervous in 5 on 5 don't have time to be that way in 2v2 or 3v3 and they will enjoy those situations a lot more.[/quote]

Does anyone know of 3 v 3 or 2 v2 in or near Alexandria city?  Merrifield is too far out for us, [/quote]

It's tough to find sometimes.  We lucked into 3 opportunities like that when DS was invited to train with groups that trainers and coaches ran.  2 of the 3 experiences were very uncomfortable for DS at first because he was the youngest, smallest, least skilled, least confident kid in the group, but he grew into the situation over time and those experiences transformed his confidence playing with his AAU and school teams.

Other than lucking into an invite, your best bet for finding a situation like that would be finding small group training through an organization that has AAU and developmental teams.  I think, for example, that MADE in Rockville MD does a whole multiweek program based around 3 on 3 where they switch up teams, do instruction and then do 3 on 3.    I'd search AAU basketball in your area and make some calls.   You can also just google "small group basketball training Alexandria" and see what you get.  [/quote]

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