Everyone knows that basketball players need to play basketball to improve their games. Not everyone agrees on the best way to spend your basketball time. Some would say that you are better off working on fundamentals and skills, while others would say you need to actually play the game.
Any more, most players recognize a need in the summer to get on an AAU or travel team.
Here are some thoughts to evaluate the programs:
1- Who are the coaches of the team you are joining?
If the coach is a high school coach or was a high school coach, look up their coaching record. Wins and losses are not everything but if the coach running the program has never won on the high school level, it will probably tell you about their level of expertise. A coach who managed to only win 15% of their school games probably will have a limited insight.
You need to be concerned if parents are involved in the coaching. Too many times I have seen a player sit on the bench in the summer because they play the same position as a player whose dad is acting as an assistant coach.
2- How much time will they actually practice? What are their practices like?
You should look at the ratio of games to practices. You will improve and be challenged by playing competition but if you are having more games than practices, that is a major concern. Will you develop or will you just keep doing the same old things?
In practice, is the majority of time spent on skill development or plays? A parent told me that their daughter’s summer team spent about 45 minutes doing 5 on 0 learning plays, then 45 minutes scrimmaging. That is not a skill development program.
3- How important is winning to the organizer?
When you talked with the organizer, did they want to talk to you about the programs win/loss record? Realize that everyone can find a level in tourneys where they can win. You need to be concerned if the coach is obviously trying to get the team in lower level tourneys to win games.
If your team is constantly winning or playing for championships in the summer, most likely you are not playing against the kind of players who will challenge you to improve your game.
In the summer you want to play against players who are better than you. They will make you better players, and that is how you might be seen by college coaches from higher level programs. There are always stories of college coaches going to watch a high level player but a player on the other time catching the coach’s eye.
What will the playing time be like for most of the teams? If the team has 8-9 players, how much playing time will players #6-9 get. If you go away for a weekend in the summer but you only get to play a total of 10 minutes, it is not worth your time.
4- Are you getting college exposure?
If you are playing for college exposure, who are the college coaches who are at your games? Where are the colleges that past players have attended?
Realize you do NOT need college exposure to play at a D3 or most Juco schools. If most past players have gone onto play at Juco level or D3, you are probably not playing in a strong AAU program.
Where do the best players from your summer team end up playing? It should be an alarm bell if it looks like even the best players are not getting to really good schools.
5- Will you be better next season than you were last season?
Your top priorities in the summer should be to improve your shot and improve your shooting range. No matter what team you choose to play with in the summer- you MUST improve your shot and improve your range.
The only way to improve your shot, is to shoot and shoot and shoot. If you can’t shoot 30% from three in games, you are not investing enough time shooting. If you are not able to shoot 75% from FT line, you are not spending enough time shooting. To reach those shooting goals, you must be able to shoot over 50% from three and over 80% from FT line when shooting in your driveway.
6- What should your summer priorities be?
#1 Priority- Improving shot and range.
#2 Priority- Skill Development Workouts
#3 Priority- Scrimmage against people who are better than you.
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