My oldest child is 15, and he played in his first AAU basketball tournament this weekend. It was fantastic to watch him play and see areas in which he can improve. More than that, it was cool to just watch him and my nephew play. I watched some of the best talents in Seattle play, and I was very impressed.
I just wanted to share some of my observations from this weekend.
- Passing into the post is a lost art. Not so much for girls and the women’s game. More boys at the secondary level and college. Either open players posting up were not even given a look or simply poor passing attempts with no real understanding of angle or passing to a particular hand.
- Kids are tremendously skilled. I saw 8th graders dunking, moving the ball around at an elite level. Plays were being made by players as young as 4th grade that showed how much development or players has evolved since my time as a young baller.
- The basic fundamentals are not emphasized as much as they should be at this age. The players that do understand fundamentals really stand out. I need to do a better job if my son understands the basic fundamentals. There were times when I knew I mentioned a particular action but maybe haven’t emphasized it enough yet. One example that I saw was very few players boxed out, including my son. While he did have a 10 rebound game and an 8 rebound game, he rarely made sure to put a body on an opposing player as the shot went up. This is something that I noticed from a lot of players.
I sound like an old man, but I was impressed by the level of play at all grade levels. I’m looking forward to watching more and hopefully getting in the gym with some of the bigs that I saw!
Thoughts Processed 