How to get in aau basketball

“This new generation, they all stick together, they all play together, they’re all AAU babies,” Barkley said Wednesday on “Mike & Mike”, as transcribed by USA Today. “Any type of criticism directed toward them, they consider it hate. Even if it’s a fair criticism, they consider it hate. So no, it does not bother me what the new generation thinks, to be honest with you. I know they all stick together, so that’s just part of it, too.”

Moving on - here are the main positives and negatives of AAU basketball in my opinion...

Positives of AAU Basketball

Despite all the criticism AAU has received, there are two main benefits...

1.

In order to reach your potential as a basketball player, you need to be competing against the best teams and players.

AAU basketball helps achieve this.

It gives players the opportunity to play against better competition they couldn't find if they decided to stay at home and play in local leagues.

Being able to compete against top-level talent forces payers to raise their game and also exposes their weaknesses and shows players what they need to work on.

2.

For players with elite level talent, playing AAU basketball to get scholarship opportunities isn't exactly necessary...

But there have been many relatively unknown players who have been discovered at AAU tournaments and then offered a scholarship.

The truth is...

AAU basketball provides players with a great chance to showcase their skills against elite competiton in front of hundreds of coaches.

For players who don't have college coaches flying to their home town from all over the country to see their elite skills, this can be a big opportunity to miss out on.

Negatives of AAU Basketball

There are more than two negatives, but these are the two most important...

(These are true far more often than not... but there are definitely exceptions which I'll talk about later in the article. )

1.

One of the things I find most troubling is that many coaches are neglecting teaching the basic principles of fundamental basketball.

In fact, there are some teams who don't run practices at all.

One of the reasons for this is because an AAU team will attempt to recruit the best talent possible, even if the players live far away from each other.

While families are more than happy to make the trip for a tournament, setting up team practices is incredibly difficult.

And when they do get together, with 3 - 4 games a day during tournaments, there is little time for coaches to work on skills with their team.

To add to this point, coaches will see very little apart from full court presses and zone defense during tournaments.

Both of these harm youth development but definitely lead to winning more basketball games.

2.

AAU basketball is littered with poor coaching.

Much of this has to do with the fact that anyone can start an AAU team and appoint themselves the head coach.

There are no certifications coaches need or criteria to be met as long as they can recruit a team who are willing to pay for the team to participate.

During many AAU tournaments, you'll be forced to witness coaches screaming obscenities at their players instead of teaching them the game.

I have no problem with coaches being tough on their players and holding them accountable, but it appears some coaches will yell with little purpose to make their players better.

In fact, most of the time it seems like they're only yelling to draw attention to themselves.

Well, Should My Child Play AAU Basketball?

This is the question everyone wants answered.

Here's my opinion:

Despite all the negatives that come with AAU basketball, there are definitely players who can benefit from participating.

BUT...

You must find the right team.

If you can find the right program, AAU basketball can be a great development opportunity and a rewarding experience.

If you end up in a poor program, AAU basketball will be a horrible experience in many different ways.

Here are a few things to look out for when selecting an AAU team:

Good Coaching - You want to find a coach who understands the game, has good relationships with all players, and is focused on teaching them how to play basketball the right way.

Team Basketball - Make sure you find a team that promotes and plays team basketball. This will often depend on the basketball philosophy of the adult who is coaching the team.

Parents and Players - Will you and your child enjoy playing and hanging around with the players and parents on the team?

Games vs Practices - You must select an AAU team that has scheduled team practices at least once a week (preferably two). Don't join a team who only gets together on tournament weekends.

Conclusion

Exactly what is AAU basketball and deciding whether your child should participate is difficult to work out...

On one hand, there are many horrible parents and coaches who make a mockery of the sport, too much involvement from shoe companies, and not enough importance on developing good people...

But on the other hand, players can compete against the best of the best and have a bigger opportunity to get noticed by a coach who may offer them a scholarship in the future.

Whether you will have a good or bad experience will come down to selecting the right AAU club.

At the end of the day, the USA is still clearly developing the best basketball players on the planet...

And many of these players grow up participating in AAU.

While there are many negatives, the opinion that AAU basketball is killing the development of basketball players is a bit over the top.

"In Russia, children are not sent to basketball because of the dominance of legionnaires" | Articles

Yaroslav Korolev's career developed rapidly. He showed an outstanding game at the 2003 European Junior Championship in Belgrade (our team then took bronze) and was the leader of CSKA in the victorious youth Euroleague 2005. As a result, the Los Angeles Clippers selected 18-year-old Yaroslav under the high 12th number (a record among Russian players in the history) of the 2005 NBA draft. But he failed to build an impressive career. For two seasons, the basketball player played 34 games in the NBA, never becoming a full-fledged player in the rotation of the Californians.

Yaroslav Korolev returned to Russia, where he played for Dynamo under David Blatt, tried to return to the NBA through the Development League, and also managed to play in Spain, Greece and the United League. At the age of 29, the basketball player ended his career. Now Yaroslav lives in Los Angeles, but often visits Moscow. In an interview with Izvestia, he spoke about his new job, the prospects of Maria Vadeeva in the WNBA, the mistake of the Lakers club that signed LeBron James, and the problems of domestic basketball.

— You haven't given an interview for a long time. What is Yaroslav Korolev doing now?

- I have my own basketball school in Los Angeles, with a full-fledged coaching staff, a manager. We work with children aged 3 to 13, giving them in-depth training in all aspects of basketball. We have both a beginner level and 8-10-year-old children already working in teams. Games are played on Sundays. Once a month, we go to a tournament, the essence of which is simple: three matches are played on Saturday, according to their results, you either go to the playoffs for the games on Sunday, or you go home.

In addition, we also train trainers for schools that work on an after-school program. If the school and the children are interested in learning more about basketball, we send one or two specialists to the school. It must be understood that this is not an additional physical education lesson when a teacher throws a ball to 20 children, and they do what they want. We have each coach working with a maximum of 10 children for one hour, but this time is very busy and as productive as possible. 15-20 minutes - dribbling, 15-20 - passes, then - throws. If the place in the school allows, children can play, but it is important to take into account one point: this is an after-school program, and the level of training of students is very low.

- If we consider any education as a kind of social or professional lift, then on which "floor" is your school located?

- Let's start at the bottom and look at how basketball works in the US. The first floor is parks and streets. The trainers are volunteers. Parents themselves bring their children to training once a week, and on Sundays all those who come are divided into two groups, and they play among themselves. Second floor: the best players are selected from the same children, who are assigned additional training. These classes may be chargeable. Sometimes parents who once played themselves become coaches. The third floor is most likely my school. Children purposefully go here twice a week: one training for technique, the second for tactics. The next step is to select the guys among those who have been visiting me for two years already, into a group with which we will analyze the video. An hour before training, we get together and watch our games, evaluate certain situations, learn to analyze the opponent. The fourth floor is already high school (the senior stage of school education in the USA is 9-12th grade). The fifth floor is a college or university. Sixth - pro, optimal - NBA.

Photo: from the personal archive of Yaroslav Korolyov

— How many children study at your school?

— About 100 people pass through every week. Someone is booked for one time, someone for two times a week, and someone for three times.

— How financially profitable is this project?

— Of course, it is profitable, but we do not stand still and want to stop. My past in the NBA still attracts people, the parents of the students are more supportive of this. If we develop at the same pace, then in a year I can say that everything suits me.

— What else do you do besides school?

— My family and I travel a lot. Our children will go to first grade next year, we want them to study in Moscow. My wife and I decided that we would raise children in the Russian cultural tradition. Our twins are six years old, but they are already engaged in swimming, gymnastics, and mathematics. For some reason, they really like the "mathematical" development. And they play basketball. Learn English and Spanish.

— Do you have a desire to open a branch of the school in Russia?

- Of course there is, but it is much more difficult to do. The biggest problem is the lack of interest on the part of parents. By and large, children don’t care where they are brought. They are interested in everything. Parents must see the goal. My wife and I, for example, when we sent our children to mathematics, clearly understood the reasons for this decision. It's the same with language. How can you understand in Russia that basketball will help a child in the future when he is only 6-7 years old? In America, the situation is very clear. Basketball opens an insane amount of doors to high school, colleges, universities. Parents invest in their children now so that later it will bear fruit. For example, it can help a child study for free at the University of South Carolina, where a year of study costs $80,000. This is one of the main goals of parents. The demand, as you understand, is there, and it is very large.

- Do you still have a relationship with the Clippers?

- I work with the Clippers youth project, I am often invited to various parks for tournaments or exhibition matches. Still, the years in the NBA were not in vain. I often speak, share my experience, give master classes to children. Of course, I have some status, but I have never been proud.

— By the way, how do you assess the current situation in the club from Los Angeles?

- They have a lot of young players who clearly understand their roles. The team was created long and painstakingly. The Clippers are one of the few clubs in the NBA that I like. We can say that their style of play is very close to European. There are at least four players who play the European way in one way or another: share the ball, look for a more comfortable position, help partners. Among them, for example, Patrick Beverly, who performed in Russia.

The opposite is the Lakers. I didn't like their decision to acquire LeBron James at all.

- Explain your opinion.

- Over the past two years, the team has been recruiting young players to develop them along the lines of the head coach's vision. Ingram, Kuzma, Ball, Hart ... LeBron came, who now commands everyone and tells who and what to do. Look at that segment when the team played without James, who was injured. They made their own decisions, they thought for themselves. I really liked this segment. LeBron is back - again, together with Rondo (the star point guard of the Lakers. - Izvestia), they move the chips. Luke Walton's role as head coach has been greatly reduced.

- Lakers president Magic Johnson can't handle LeBron either?

- He makes certain decisions, but James is too big a figure. If he appears in any organization, this is no accident and one must wait for some events. You could say that LeBron makes decisions at the level of the Magic. I have a lot of respect for LeBron, two or three years ago I liked him less. Now he is on par with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. But when it comes to style of play, James doesn't fit the Lakers. Too many players gathered in one piece to "lie down" under it. Either he doesn't fit the team, or the team doesn't fit him.

— When Timofey Mozgov played in Los Angeles, did you communicate?

- We saw each other a couple of times, but did not communicate.

— Why do you think he fails to reach the level of play that he showed in Denver or New York?

- To be honest, I don't follow his career.

- You must be following Alexei Shved. Isn't he too early to return to Europe?

- I don't think it's too early. He shows excellent results, became the best sniper of the Euroleague. I don't remember a Russian player showing similar results. Will he go to the NBA for the second time? It's up to him to decide. I know that he loves the USA, he is comfortable here, but there should be a puzzle that suits him completely: playing time, a good contract.

Let me remind you again that the NBA and Europe are completely different styles and they continue to move away from each other.

- What is the increase in divergence?

- In Europe, the interests of the team are put higher. The team has goals, tasks, the head is the coach who leads. The NBA is getting bigger and bigger. Players decide everything, everyone adapts to them. Players create the mood, they do what they want. In the NBA, basketball players don't focus on defense, everyone only looks at offense. In almost all matches, both teams score 100 points each.

No one wants to enter the three-second zone, everyone is standing and playing on the arc. And this, it must be noted, has a very detrimental effect on children's and youth basketball. I've played a lot of times against teams where the point guard just brings the ball forward and sends a 3-pointer head-on. At the same time, the coach does not tell him that it was a bad throw, not optimal for the team. The coach reassures the player and says that he didn’t finish with his legs, that he didn’t reach his arm, and so on. Why are the other four players needed then? The children watched the NBA, saw how James Harden plays, and decided that they, too, would only make long-range shots.

— Do you communicate with any Russian basketball players?

— We often talk to Sergei Bykov on the phone. They became friends with Masha Vadeeva when she played for the Sparks. Very friendly with her brother.

— What do you think about the future of Maria Vadeeva in the WNBA?

- With such data, discipline, responsibility, she has excellent chances. We must not forget that it came from European basketball, where the rules of the game are different. Masha needs to get used to the American style. If you threw the ball into the ring, then no one can tell you anything, even if you threw from the center circle. Vadeeva needs to understand this difference.

In general, if I was asked to show all American basketball in one episode, then I would no doubt point to the video where LaMelo Ball throws from the center of the field, having previously indicated that he would do just that. This is the quintessence of American basketball.

— How would you rate your career in the NBA? What was missing, what went wrong?

- First of all, I'll say that I don't think the 2005 draft was weak. Still, the top players started to play with us: Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams, Chris Paul. Yes, and many others have achieved excellent results.

As for my career… It's all so complicated that it's impossible to describe in 2-3 sentences. It is not known what would have happened if I had stayed in Moscow. Or if I had been drafted by Boston. I don't want to use the next two arguments as excuses, but still. Firstly, I had certain problems with the Achilles (Achilles tendon. - Izvestia), which lasted quite a long time. They did not allow me to fully develop my physical abilities. After all, I was only 18 at the time. Secondly, before the NBA, I actually did not play in adult, men's basketball. I did not perform for several years, like Luka Doncic, among men, spending 15–20 minutes on the floor.

I was drafted as a prospect, but I had to fight in my position with players who were much older than me, in weight, in speed. I needed to completely rebuild. Apparently, they expected me to quickly adapt to the American style of basketball . .. It is very difficult to talk about this, since there are many reasons.

- Was there a chance to renew the contract with the Clippers?

- After my two-year rookie contract ended, I was called to the Clippers' management and told that they wanted to extend the agreement for another three years. That they like my game, the difficulties of my adaptation are understandable, the desire to grow is welcome. Therefore, a three-year contract was offered on different terms. Naturally, I agreed without thinking. But then the worst happened. Literally the next month, our “big” ones got injured: first Linas Kleiza, and then Elton Brand. Moreover, Elton tore his Achilles while exercising in the gym with a coach. The club's management was forced to acquire two key players, and these two could not be "thrown out" due to contracts. Therefore, I became the player that the decision was made to abandon.

- Immediately after the NBA, you came to Dynamo Moscow. Why didn't it work out there?

- We can say that this is lost time. I believe that at that moment I was ready to participate more in the gameplay. I proved it with my game. But Dynamo had a very strong squad and ambitious coaches: first Blatt, then Pesic. If I had been in a different team, perhaps I would have played more.

— Do you follow Russian basketball?

- I follow and even see a way to correct the situation. This idea is not new, but still very relevant. There should be more Russian players in domestic top clubs so that they can realize themselves. The most striking example is the Athletic football club from Bilbao. Only players born in the territory of the Basque Country are eligible to play in this team. If you were born in Madrid, then please play for Real Madrid or Atlético. If I was born in the north of Spain, I would root for Athletic, for my city, for my friends. And when it says "Central Sports Club of the Army", but in reality. ..

— Let's say there are two decent teams in Moscow, but there are only ten Russian players of the corresponding level. Where to get the rest?

- It seems that there are no players in Russia, they are, they need to be developed. I am by no means against foreigners, but let's remember the recent past. CSKA played in the 1990s with two foreigners, and the team was very strong. Dynamo played without foreigners and showed excellent results. Then people wanted something more, and legionnaires began to appear. Now it’s just the dominance of legionnaires, and this, by the way, is one of the reasons why parents don’t send their children to basketball.

Look at the same Spain. There are 18 teams in the Premier League. For the 40 millionth Spain there are players for 18 strong teams, but we, it turns out, do not. There are 15 clubs in Superleague-1. And there are only nine Russian teams in the United League. A little strange, isn't it?

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Events

• Meeting of the Governor of Ugra with the champions of the Summer Paralympic Games

  On November 26, YUKIOR hosted a meeting between Yugra Governor Natalya Komarova and athletes participating in the Summer Paralympic Games “We are together. Sport".

  11/28/2022

• Paralympic lesson at YUKIOR

  On November 26, a Paralympic lesson was held at YUKIOR. The event was organized by the Center for Adaptive Sports of Ugra with the support of the Government of the Autonomous Okrug and the Ugra Boarding College of the Olympic Reserve.

  11/28/2022

• VII regional conference "Prospects for the development of the VFSK TRP in Ugra"

  On November 25, YUKIOR hosted the VII scientific-practical conference “Prospects for the development of the All-Russian physical culture and sports complex “Ready for Labor and Defense” in the municipalities of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra”.

  11/25/2022

• Round table with the participation of FMBA specialists

  November 17 at the Ugra College of the Olympic Reserve a round table was held with the participation of specialists from the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia (FMBA).

  11/17/2022

• Meeting with celebrities

  On November 14, students of the Ugra Olympic Reserve College met with famous Russian skiers. The event was held as part of the "Meetings with successful people" cycle.

  11/15/2022

• Opening of the training session "Time of the First"

  November 14 in the Ugra College of the Olympic Reserve was the opening of the next training session "Time of the first" for sports gifted children.

  11/14/2022

• Solemn initiation into Yukiorites

  Today, on November 11, a solemn ceremony of initiation into Yukiorians was held at the Yugra College of Olympic Reserve.

  11/11/2022

• III All-Russian "GTO Games 2022"

  On December 15-18, Samara will host the III All-Russian TRP Games 2022. The best athletes from all over Russia will take part in the competition.

  11/03/2022

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News

• Anxiety.

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  November 1-30, 2022 The Unified Social and Psychological Service "Hotline" in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra is holding an action.

  11/09/2022

• To the attention of those who live in the hostel!

  When settling into the dormitory of the Ugra Boarding College of the Olympic Reserve, you must provide a certificate of epidemiological environment (valid for 3 days).

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  07/20/2022

• Attention!

  From June 20 to August 1, the swimming pool of the Yugra Boarding College of the Olympic Reserve will be closed for repairs.

  06/07/2022

• Memo for citizens of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, DPR, LPR

  Guided by the memo, you will be able to register for migration, receive medical assistance, resolve employment issues, and seek support from volunteers.

  05/24/2022

• Attention staff and visitors!

  May 16 at 20:00 in the Yugra College of the Olympic Reserve will be carried out anti-mite treatment of the territory.

  05/13/2022

• RUSADA. Athletes' rights memo

  The Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA presents a Leaflet on the rights of athletes at all stages of anti-doping activities.

  04/25/2022

• Extension of quarantine for a new coronavirus infection

  From February 1 to February 8, the quarantine for coronavirus infection is being extended at the Yugra Boarding College of the Olympic Reserve.

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