There are many opportunities for players of all ages to play on travel basketball teams. There are programs geared for grade school players, junior high players, and high school players. So when we talk about whether being involved on a travel team is important or not, it may well depend on what age player we are talking about.
Those of us who are older may remember when travel ball was certainly not a requirement. In my local community (Galesburg), the YMCA had as many as 12 teams of different age levels playing right in Galesburg. There was huge local participation and it was very convenient. One effect of travel teams in all sports is that participation numbers are way down from where they were 20-30 years ago. But we have to realize, we are not going to go back to those days. And that doesn’t mean travel basketball is bad, it is clearly different than what many of us grew up seeing.
The question many parents asked me as a high school coach,”Does my daughter need to play travel basketball if they are going to be successful eventually on the varsity level?” To accurately answer this question, you have to start by looking at what does a player need to do in order to grow or improve their game. The basic ways for a player to improve their game:
1- DRIVEWAY WORK- Go out in the driveway, YMCA, rec center- and work on ball skills. This includes especially dribbling and shooting. A player can also in these spots play some 1-1 or 2-2 or 3-3.
2- SHOOTING- A special focus of a player needs to be working on their shot. The ONLY way a player is going to become a great shooter is to shoot and shoot and shoot.
3- SKILL COACH- There are many opportunities for players to pay to go to receive skills instruction. The positive from this is that the focus is not on team development, it is working on your individual skills. Helping you to handle the ball, to beat people off the dribble, develop moves.
4- TRAVEL BASKETBALL- Players have an opportunity to be part of a team, which many players find motivating. You are going to work to develop team skills- how to screen, how to run a fast break, team man to man concepts.
The first thing is to realize that you don’t have to choose one or the other. Many players have chosen to do both individual skill development and travel basketball. Parents want to provide their child with the best opportunities. Parents can feel guilty if they don’t give their child every possible opportunity. So the bigger question for parents, “Do I have to have my kid play travel basketball?”
For the grade school player or early JH player, skill development is much more important than travel basketball. So if you have to choose at a young age, choose a plan for individual skill development. Think about it this way- when your child is playing travel basketball, they may play 3 x 36 minute games. So the games last 108 minutes. You child’s team will be on offense for 54 minutes. If the coach plays 8 players and they are sharing the ball- each player will have the basketball in their hands a total of 6 minutes. Yes, they will spend time doing off the ball things and working on defense, but in terms of development of ball skills- it is going to be about 6 minutes. Compare that with 90 minutes of work with a skill coach, they will probably have the ball for 70 minutes. In the driveway, they may have the ball for 60 minutes out of 60 minutes. So for young developing players, my recommendation would be skill development over travel basketball, if you have to choose. If you can do both, great.
For older junior high and high school players, the focus shifts some. Travel basketball and team skill development takes on a more important role. But a player MUST do something in terms of skill work/instruction and shooting. If all a high school player does is travel basketball, and no skill development program- that is not going to work. With high school age players, their off-season program MUST include an individual shooting program. In general high school player’s ceiling will be determined by their athleticism and/or size, and their shooting ability. Several years ago, we had a player who was a great athlete and a great defender. We came up against a team who played us a triangle and two- and left this player open. In that situation, the player was frustrated because their minutes became limited- if you can’t shoot, eventually it catches up.
So to recap my thoughts-
1- For young players, it is more important to have a ball in their hands and work on individual ball skills.
2- For high school players- there is a real value in travel ball, but you have to continue to do skill development.
Here are some specific thoughts I have on travel ball and picking travel teams….
1- For young players a critical question- does playing travel ball increase my daughter’s enthusiasm for basketball or does it seem like it becomes more of a job for my daughter?
2- For young players- does the travel program seem more committed to winning or to player skill development? When the leaders of the program talk about their program, do they tell you their win/loss record and their tourney championships?
3- What seems to be the relationship between practice attendance and playing in games? Does the coach bring in “ringers’ for games who do not practice with the team?
4- Does everyone have to pay to participate? Do they bring in some “non-paying players” for the big games?
5- Does the program play a 2-3 zone or do a lot of 1-3-1 half court trapping? If it is a youth program and they are playing zone- I would recommend getting your child out of the program as quickly as you can. My experience is that grade school and junior high programs that play zones are not concerned about player development.
6- For any level program- ask ahead of time what the programs philosophy is about playing time. I don’t think you need to put your child in a program with equal playing time. But I think you want to make sure everyone will play some.
7- With high school age players- who is running and coaching the program? If the person has coached professionally, look up what their coaching record was at their jh, high school, or college. If it is a parent, how will that affect playing time. I had a very good point guard, who joined a travel team where the coach was the dad of another point guard. Our point guard played only about 1/4 of the time.
8- With high school players- You are paying to be part of the program. You are paying for your child to have an opportunity to improve. Ahead of time, when the program is deciding what team to place your daughter, it is reasonable to talk to the coach/director about playing time. As a parent, you are not asking for a guarantee, but you do want to have an assurance that playing time will be available. Several years ago, a travel program wanted one of my players very badly. To encourage the elite player to join their program, they invited a friend who also played for us. That was enough to convince the elite player. Two weekends into spring ball, the second player played a total of only 8 minutes in four games on the weekend. Up front, there should have been a conversation about what her role was going to be.
9- Be skeptical about labels. Travel programs will attach labels of “elite”, “national”, “gold level”, etc. Just because a program uses a label, it doesn’t mean it is what it says.
10- If you are playing to increase your chances of a college scholarship- All of the travel teams will on their website list past players and schools they went onto attend. How many D1 players are in this program? A program can be good and a program can be beneficial for the development of a high school player, but if they are not turning out D1 players, it is not a program designed of players seeking D1 scholarships.
11- If you are playing to increase your chances of a college scholarship- The elite tourneys that D1 coaches all attend are run by the NCAA and the shoe companies. While everyone loves to win, when it comes to college exposure, you want to be playing against teams that you probably lose to. Last year when our high school team played at the Batavia NCAA exposure event- our first two games were against Nequa Valley and Whitney Young who both had D1 prospects. As a result, there were 10-15 college coaches there to watch those games. We lost both games. Later we beat Canton at the same event by 25 points- there were zero D1 coaches watching that game.
SKILL DEVELOPMENT MUST ALWAYS BE AT THE HEART OF A PLAYERS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.
ANYTHING THAT BUILDS ENTHUSIASM FOR BASKETBALL IS GOOD.
THE BEST PLAYERS SPEND THE MOST TIME PLAYING BASKETBALL.
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