Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wilson head coach is the kind of mentor and presence we need more of in the DMV basketball community. Let's not get confused about this. What I don't really understand is how DC Blue Devils turned into DC Evolution, if that is what happened. It's not an urgent question. These programs come to an end and morph into something else and the grassroots scene is doing that all the time. I never heard why D School Elite folded either.

A mentor? To who? His AAU kids and good players from other teams maybe, but certainly not most Wilson kids. Wilson won the DCIAA this year starting 4 transfers. That sends a very clear message to up and coming players, and it's gonna bite them in the @ss if they can't continue to get blue chip transfers.

Coaches talk a lot about developing players, but Wilson prefers to shop for players someone else already developed.

Coach seems like a good guy but how did those 2 big men twins end up at Wilson after starting at Bishop Mac and then a year in FLA? A coincidence? Luck of the draw?

Maybe it didn’t workout at the national powerhouse in Florida. However, it was a win for Wilson. #1 team in the DMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wilson head coach is the kind of mentor and presence we need more of in the DMV basketball community. Let's not get confused about this. What I don't really understand is how DC Blue Devils turned into DC Evolution, if that is what happened. It's not an urgent question. These programs come to an end and morph into something else and the grassroots scene is doing that all the time. I never heard why D School Elite folded either.

A mentor? To who? His AAU kids and good players from other teams maybe, but certainly not most Wilson kids. Wilson won the DCIAA this year starting 4 transfers. That sends a very clear message to up and coming players, and it's gonna bite them in the @ss if they can't continue to get blue chip transfers.

Coaches talk a lot about developing players, but Wilson prefers to shop for players someone else already developed.

Coach seems like a good guy but how did those 2 big men twins end up at Wilson after starting at Bishop Mac and then a year in FLA? A coincidence? Luck of the draw?

How do kids in middle school get recruited for MAC and IAC private high school teams? You just play in the Premier Youth basketball league and hope for the best or do you send highlights to coaches? Would be grateful for any insights.

Anonymous wrote:The Wilson head coach is the kind of mentor and presence we need more of in the DMV basketball community. Let's not get confused about this. What I don't really understand is how DC Blue Devils turned into DC Evolution, if that is what happened. It's not an urgent question. These programs come to an end and morph into something else and the grassroots scene is doing that all the time. I never heard why D School Elite folded either.

A mentor? To who? His AAU kids and good players from other teams maybe, but certainly not most Wilson kids. Wilson won the DCIAA this year starting 4 transfers. That sends a very clear message to up and coming players, and it's gonna bite them in the @ss if they can't continue to get blue chip transfers.

Coaches talk a lot about developing players, but Wilson prefers to shop for players someone else already developed.

The Wilson head coach is the kind of mentor and presence we need more of in the DMV basketball community. Let's not get confused about this. What I don't really understand is how DC Blue Devils turned into DC Evolution, if that is what happened. It's not an urgent question. These programs come to an end and morph into something else and the grassroots scene is doing that all the time. I never heard why D School Elite folded either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there AAU in DC (not NoVA)?

DC Evolution
District Basketball Club
DC Blue Devils
DC Premiere
New World

Note that these clubs are pretty good (DC premiere and Blue Devils have grassroots circuit teams, the others may also). There is not lower level AAU like you find a ton of in MD or VA. I know a kid who is not super elite, and he plays for DC Evolution. The team is very good and has one of the best coaches in the area (Wilson head coach).

Was that the Wilson head coach who was fired for letting 2 kids from PG county play on the Wilson team?

Please go back to your cave. None of this has anything to do with PG county, and he was suspended, investigated and cleared. And none of that has anything to do with AAU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there AAU in DC (not NoVA)?

DC Evolution
District Basketball Club
DC Blue Devils
DC Premiere
New World

Note that these clubs are pretty good (DC premiere and Blue Devils have grassroots circuit teams, the others may also). There is not lower level AAU like you find a ton of in MD or VA. I know a kid who is not super elite, and he plays for DC Evolution. The team is very good and has one of the best coaches in the area (Wilson head coach).

Was that the Wilson head coach who was fired for letting 2 kids from PG county play on the Wilson team?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Packline = difficult/impossible to teach kids.

What you want to avoid is kids getting used to trapping in AAU when no fouls are called, then trying to play like that in high school - scratching and clawing in the traps. Doesn't work at higher levels. Trying to tip passes won't either. That exposes the defender to basket drive

I'm the dad who posted above. Do you mean an on-ball defender? I can see if the on-ball defender bites on a pass fake before a perimeter player has dribbled, then he's vulnerable to a drive.

But what was talking about is something that my son has recently started doing after much urging by his trainer. He's tall but more importantly very long --- an inch taller than me with 7 inch higher vertical reach, and he's finally getting a hand up to deny passes when they come anywhere near him when he's playing off-ball defense, whether they are to his man or a perimeter player is trying to thread the needle and pass inside. It doesn't take him out of position -- he's just moving a hand, but due to his length he's constantly surprising guys by deflecting their passes to a teammate or out of bounds. That's the kind of very basic defensive aggressiveness that so many kids don't seem to think about, and whatever coaches can do to teach it seems like a good thing to me.

It's refreshing to hear that people are using trainers to teach defensive fundamentals. What you normally see is trainers teaching eight year olds to do step back threes or bragging about the grind they put players thru. If I was searching Coachup for a trainer I would definitely consider anyone who said that he/she strongly emphasized defense in workouts. That's probably a recipe for a failed training business however.

Caveat - I love basketball but don't know much about m2m, zone, traps, etc....

My kid does training at Evolution basketball and it feels to me like they do a lot of defensive training.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Packline = difficult/impossible to teach kids.

What you want to avoid is kids getting used to trapping in AAU when no fouls are called, then trying to play like that in high school - scratching and clawing in the traps. Doesn't work at higher levels. Trying to tip passes won't either. That exposes the defender to basket drive

I'm the dad who posted above. Do you mean an on-ball defender? I can see if the on-ball defender bites on a pass fake before a perimeter player has dribbled, then he's vulnerable to a drive.

But what was talking about is something that my son has recently started doing after much urging by his trainer. He's tall but more importantly very long --- an inch taller than me with 7 inch higher vertical reach, and he's finally getting a hand up to deny passes when they come anywhere near him when he's playing off-ball defense, whether they are to his man or a perimeter player is trying to thread the needle and pass inside. It doesn't take him out of position -- he's just moving a hand, but due to his length he's constantly surprising guys by deflecting their passes to a teammate or out of bounds. That's the kind of very basic defensive aggressiveness that so many kids don't seem to think about, and whatever coaches can do to teach it seems like a good thing to me.

It's refreshing to hear that people are using trainers to teach defensive fundamentals. What you normally see is trainers teaching eight year olds to do step back threes or bragging about the grind they put players thru. If I was searching Coachup for a trainer I would definitely consider anyone who said that he/she strongly emphasized defense in workouts. That's probably a recipe for a failed training business however.

Anonymous wrote:Packline = difficult/impossible to teach kids.

What you want to avoid is kids getting used to trapping in AAU when no fouls are called, then trying to play like that in high school - scratching and clawing in the traps. Doesn't work at higher levels. Trying to tip passes won't either. That exposes the defender to basket drive

I'm the dad who posted above. Do you mean an on-ball defender? I can see if the on-ball defender bites on a pass fake before a perimeter player has dribbled, then he's vulnerable to a drive.

But what was talking about is something that my son has recently started doing after much urging by his trainer. He's tall but more importantly very long --- an inch taller than me with 7 inch higher vertical reach, and he's finally getting a hand up to deny passes when they come anywhere near him when he's playing off-ball defense, whether they are to his man or a perimeter player is trying to thread the needle and pass inside. It doesn't take him out of position -- he's just moving a hand, but due to his length he's constantly surprising guys by deflecting their passes to a teammate or out of bounds. That's the kind of very basic defensive aggressiveness that so many kids don't seem to think about, and whatever coaches can do to teach it seems like a good thing to me.

Packline = difficult/impossible to teach kids.

What you want to avoid is kids getting used to trapping in AAU when no fouls are called, then trying to play like that in high school - scratching and clawing in the traps. Doesn't work at higher levels. Trying to tip passes won't either. That exposes the defender to basket drive

Great analysis. Maybe what's best for defensive skill development and aggressiveness together is a man-to-man defense that incorporates pressure and trapping options (and we know that the packline-type of m2m was created expressly as a pressure defense, and that UVa sort of traps the ball-handler with the big in screen and rolls); a trapping 1-3-1 zone is also beneficial because players must close out constantly, such as for the skip pass to short corner; and what's the worst kind of defense for skill development is some kind of passive 2-3 zone where the players stand around or slide no more than a few feet. Unfortunately, you will see the third option a lot in youth basketball unless the league bans zone.

Anonymous wrote:Teams win in youth basketball by playing a trapping 1-3-1 zone and running set plays that use off-ball screens in a continuity pattern. Players develop fundamental skills in youth basketball by playing man-to-man defense and running 5-out motion offense that forces decision making on court and teaches pass, cut, and screen. How to reconcile these facts?

Hmmm.... I'm a dad, not a coach and not a big Xs and Os guy, but I'll bite.

>Teams win ... by playing a trapping 1-3-1 zone...
>Players develop fundamental skills ... by playing man-to-man defense
I hear this a lot, and it's probably true in some way that I don't fully get, but the thing that I like about coaches teaching youth players a pressure, trapping defensive scheme is that it teaches defensive aggressiveness, which is, to me, the most critical factor in effective defense. Most kids could be deflecting passes and getting steals every single game if they bothered to try, but most don't. Teams that set up half court defense and play man to man often seem to have a "taking turns" mentality where they seem to believe that after a shot or rebound it's the other team's turn to take the ball up the court. Teams that are aggressive about trapping internalize the idea that it's never the other team's turn -- every pass should be stolen or deflected, every time a kid picks up their dribble is an opportunity for a trap, and every inbound play is an opportunity for an easy bucket.

>Teams win ... by ... running set plays that use off-ball screens in a continuity pattern.
>Players develop fundamental skills ... by ... running 5-out motion offense

1) I don't think post players are going to learn fundamental skills playing 5 out. This is a good scheme for teams with small, quick guards, but I don't think it transfers to high school and college.

2) All set plays that I know of include off ball screens and decision making (different options for shooting, plays that run their course, then reverse and replay on the other side or go into another set play), so I'm not sure I see the distinction here so clearly. In my experience, the biggest knock on trying to run set plays is that many coaches seem to have the idea that they should check the box of teaching some set plays, so they spend a practice or two on 5 plays, then for the rest of the season they ineffectively shout the names of half remembered plays to the point guard during games, and, if they are lucky, 3 of the 5 kids know what to do. If coaches are going to teach set plays, they need to really commit. They should break them down into manageable components and teach those (which kids can then use on the fly), find ways to incorporate them into offensive and defensive skills drills, do them with live defense (rather than having 5 kids walking through plays and the rest standing bored on the baseline staring into space and ignoring the coach).

Honestly, if I were coaching I'd teach a motion offense because kids younger than high school don't usually practice enough or have the attention span for really learning set plays. Even more than a standard motion offense, I'd try to teach some basic offensive concepts -- pick and roll, give and go, pick and pop, drive and kick, running the baseline. Then I'd have kids use those in 2v2 and 3v3 a LOT so that they have some idea of how the game works. In my experience, too much AAU is some guard who think's he's Kyrie trying to ISO a defender while the rest of the team watches, then passing in desperation when he gets in trouble. Having kids who know SOMETHING effective to do both on and off the ball at all times (other than just watching the play) is worth a lot.

Some coaches want another consolation bracket medal for their man cave, that's all it is

Teams win in youth basketball by playing a trapping 1-3-1 zone and running set plays that use off-ball screens in a continuity pattern. Players develop fundamental skills in youth basketball by playing man-to-man defense and running 5-out motion offense that forces decision making on court and teaches pass, cut, and screen. How to reconcile these facts?