Youth Basketball

[SShorefan 3.0]

Youth basketball.  (perhaps youth sports in general)

Ok guys -- I want your true honest and well thought out opinions.  (I will do my best to ask this question in a straight forward manner)


Youth basketball - at which age does it become appropriate to begin teach real competition?  At which age does it become appropriate to focus on the talented kids and begin to prime them for higher level of competition?  At which age does it become appropriate to shift gears from a fun form of exercise to training and drilling?  At which age does it become appropriate to "draft" youth teams based on talent? 

I will share my thoughts later.

Thank you.

[Hoyo de Monterrey]

Middle school... 7th and 8th grade was when my school started making cuts growing up, and it's the age we cut at for the team I coach now. As soon as you are cutting kids (based strictly on numbers), it's then okay IMO because there were kids who wanted to play and could not.

[SShorefan 3.0]

Middle school... 7th and 8th grade was when my school started making cuts growing up, and it's the age we cut at for the team I coach now. As soon as you are cutting kids (based strictly on numbers), it's then okay IMO because there were kids who wanted to play and could not.

Thanks.  Anyone else have any thoughts?

[celticmaestro]

From personal experience, I started playing when I was 6 in school, just learning the basics. Then it started getting competitive around the age of 11-12 when we started doing drills and actually became a team which played other schools.

[SShorefan 3.0]

So far I've heard ages 11-12 & 13-14.

Any other thoughts?

[Redz]

I think I started playing organized competitive hoops when I was 9 or 10. 

I did not have a hardass coach and probably would have hated it if I did at that point.  We were the only Temple team in the Church league I was in.  We ended up barely winning enough games to make the playoffs my first year and I'll never forget the jerk coach on the other team.  They had by far the best team in the league and we were not that great.  Their coach had their team in a full court press the entire game and beat us something like 42-1 (I'll also never forget how **** happy we were when our best player hit a free throw to end the shutout).  It was pretty ridiculous.

Your still going have a lot of kids who don't really "get" the competition aspect of it, but I know I sure was playing to win, and was disappointed when we lost.  But I always loved legit competition and would have rather lost a game in real competition then play some fluffy game.

I guess it depends on the kid.

It is totally possible to play to win without being obsessed by it.  I do think legit competition of some sort is important.

ie: playing to win in a game of Candyland vs. my kindergartener (I RULE AT CANDYLAND ...I like to do a little in your face dance when I win  )

[Toine43]

The problem with cutting kids in 7th and 8th grade is the kids who go through growth spurts and mature a lot during that time. I was cut from a 7th grade travel team (the kids who made the team of course went on the play high school ball) because I was too short and skinny - soon afterward I started growing like crazy and now I'm a 6-1 senior in high school who tears up the rec leagues but only plays volleyball with the school. Also, if you don't give kids a chance to play in a real competitive format, then you might be wasting some good talent. Some kids are more coachable and improve more than others throughout the course of the season. I was cut once in 7th grade, and that pretty much ended my competitive basketball career. While I might not have been quite the athlete that some of the other 7th graders were, if I were given a chance to learn from some actual coaches (before 7th grade I had just played church league with random dads coaching), I might have been a huge success once I grew.

I know it's tough when you're dealing with a competitive team that only has so many spots, so does anyone have a solution to this problem?

[nickagneta]

I've been involved in youth baseball, basketball and soccer(three boys). Competitive ball always seemed to begin at the 12-13 age in all three sports. I'm not sure that is the correct area to do it. Myself, having dealt with the kids by coaching in all three sports, i think it should be at freshman high school level.

Let kids be kids and let them enjoy playing a game until they are mature enough to handle the representation and responsibility of being on a competitive team. Too many kids are turned away from sports at the age of 12-13 because they suddenly don't measure up. I think that's wrong. Kids are still too young and fragile to be put under such scrutiny at a young age.

[celticmaestro]

I've been involved in youth baseball, basketball and soccer(three boys). Competitive ball always seemed to begin at the 12-13 age in all three sports. I'm not sure that is the correct area to do it. Myself, having dealt with the kids by coaching in all three sports, i think it should be at freshman high school level.

Let kids be kids and let them enjoy playing a game until they are mature enough to handle the representation and responsibility of being on a competitive team. Too many kids are turned away from sports at the age of 12-13 because they suddenly don't measure up. I think that's wrong. Kids are still too young and fragile to be put under such scrutiny at a young age.

Oh for me soccer was competitive from the age of 6. And the coach was a hard one. So for that there was really no holding back.