5th Grade Girls AAU Basketball in NKY?

Anyone know of a solid 5th grade girls AAU team in NKY??? Warriors and Royals would not be an option.

Anyone know of a solid 5th grade girls AAU team in NKY??? Warriors and Royals would not be an option.

Okay, curious...Why aren't those teams an option?

I simply know too many players that have not had a good experience with Warriors (harsh) coaching style.

I've watched Royal at that age level and while they have been successful on the scoreboard, the focus seems to be on winning by applying unorthodox defenses that create constant fast breaks and run up the score. I'm interested in having my daughter continue to develop fundamentals. Winning will come with development.

I simply know too many players that have not had a good experience with Warriors (harsh) coaching style.

 

I've watched Royal at that age level and while they have been successful on the scoreboard, the focus seems to be on winning by applying unorthodox defenses that create constant fast breaks and run up the score. I'm interested in having my daughter continue to develop fundamentals. Winning will come with development.

This statement is key. Good for you not chasing trophies. A lot of people fall into that mode and it doesn't help the kids in the long run. The kids that focus on fundamentals will come out ahead more times than not. Regardless what your record is or how many titles you have. Winning is very overrated unless its done with development of a team and not just going after the next best player. You aren't doing much for the kids when you chase trophies. Good for you being grounded enough to realize that.

I 100% agree RCC9!

This statement is key. Good for you not chasing trophies. A lot of people fall into that mode and it doesn't help the kids in the long run. The kids that focus on fundamentals will come out ahead more times than not. Regardless what your record is or how many titles you have. Winning is very overrated unless its done with development of a team and not just going after the next best player. You aren't doing much for the kids when you chase trophies. Good for you being grounded enough to realize that.

It's amazing how little basketball is learned by the girls who play on teams that simply win because the other team cant handle a press.

All though the statements are true I was at 5th grade D1 nationals this last week and a lot of teams aau - high school - college included and run a unorthodox style of defense as well as offense that includes pressure on both sides of the floor and last I checked as the kids get older these are the ones getting the D1 offers to major colleges . What good is being the best shooter if you never get the shot off ???? It's been proven you train hard - practice harder and you at any age can shine in anyone's " unOrthodox style " .. Ask DUKE

Basketball is constantly evolving and as it does so must the players. Unorthodox defenses are common at all ages of AAU. Don't get me wrong. The basic fundamentals should always be taught and drilled and this should never end MS, HS, College, etc. AAU in particular is very competitive. If you want to remain in existence as a team, you must be successful on the court. Now you never put a player's health in jeopardy or do anything unethical, but you must learn and train to be the best. That includes pressing, playing the transition game, and utilizing different zone defenses. This starts as early as 2nd grade now. I know, but it is a different game now. You can't fault coaches for adapting and as long as they are still teaching the fundamentals then they are doing good.

Any team that uses a gimmick or zone defense as its primary defense at a young age is doing every player on his/her team a huge disservice.

All though the statements are true I was at 5th grade D1 nationals this last week and a lot of teams aau - high school - college included and run a unorthodox style of defense as well as offense that includes pressure on both sides of the floor and last I checked as the kids get older these are the ones getting the D1 offers to major colleges . What good is being the best shooter if you never get the shot off ???? It's been proven you train hard - practice harder and you at any age can shine in anyone's " unOrthodox style " .. Ask DUKE

What do you mean by the bolded above??? Who are "these"?

Any team that uses a gimmick or zone defense as its primary defense at a young age is doing every player on his/her team a huge disservice.

Seems like a very old school philosophy. If you are playing any defense properly, someone would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Good zones look like a m2m and a good helping m2m will resemble a zone. Why should a team be forced to play m2m primarily if they don't have the quickness or agility to do so yet? I don't completely disagree with you. This is the way I was brought up as well, but you just don't see it anymore. Especially at AAU events.

Seems like a very old school philosophy. If you are playing any defense properly, someone would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Good zones look like a m2m and a good helping m2m will resemble a zone. Why should a team be forced to play m2m primarily if they don't have the quickness or agility to do so yet? I don't completely disagree with you. This is the way I was brought up as well, but you just don't see it anymore. Especially at AAU events.

I think the keys to his quote is "primary defense" and "at a young age". He's saying at a young age, winning with gimmicks is not the way to go. You see a lot of AAU teams that are very successful at a young age because they trick their opponents or the opponents aren't skilled enough at the young age to do anything about it. It becomes a layup line for the other team. But once that team develops skills, that won't happen. And then the team that is used to getting layups doesn't know how to score when a team can now protect the ball and they aren't getting layups. That happens all the time with young AAU teams. The skill and athleticism eventually wins out. Until the 6th or 7th grade, you are much better off pounding skill and fundamentals than chasing trophies or those players will eventually get left behind. Playing gimic defenses at a young age is creating success from the other team just not being able to deal with it. That sends false messages about how good a team is. If a team wins 50-10 and 95% of their points came off layups, does that make them a good team in the 5th grade??? It might appear they are, but if that other team is serious about it and works on skills, that other team will be right there when it actually matters down the road and probably pass some of the other kids on the team that crushed them.

My old AAU team was living proof of that. The first AAU game we played, we lost 50-4 to a very good team. We scored the 4 in the last minute of the game. Fast forward to the 8th grade and we beat the same team each time we played them. We were not big, but we developed the skill to compete at a high level. Now, they are all seniors and Juniors and if you look around the 8th, 9th and 10th region, they are amongst the best players in those regions.

I believe the Tarheels have a good 5th grade team. If you are looking for your daughter to learn the game, Legacy is the best around for skills!! The lil' legacy program is teaching skills to 7 year old's that most middle school girl's don't have.

Seems like a very old school philosophy. If you are playing any defense properly, someone would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Good zones look like a m2m and a good helping m2m will resemble a zone. Why should a team be forced to play m2m primarily if they don't have the quickness or agility to do so yet? I don't completely disagree with you. This is the way I was brought up as well, but you just don't see it anymore. Especially at AAU events.

If you can't tell the difference in a man to man and a zone then either A. you are clueless when it comes to X's and O's or B. The offensive team attacking is doing a horrible job of making the defense move.

I am talking about teaching defensive fundamentals. I don't care what "defense" you think is best...the best defensive players all know how to contain and/or pressure the ball, play off the ball with correct spacing and technique, help and close out on shooters, defend on ball and off ball screens, rebound etc. I could go on. Gimmick defense that allows players to bypass any of the techniques above is NOT helping them as they get older.

I have seen girls teams at a young level run zone presses with 5 players on the backcourt, simply because the offensive team doesn't have the ability to throw over the zone yet. You see numerous teams run various half court and full court presses that would NEVER work as the kids get older/stronger and more skilled. These things are great for wins at a young age, but don't translate as they get older.

And don't tell me that teams have to play zone because "they don't have the quickness to guard man to man." You don't have to have elite quickness or agility to guard someone man to man...you just simply have to know HOW to guard them. But it's easier to teach a 5th grade girl where to stand in a 2-3 zone then it is to teach her proper footwork and technique to guard someone quicker in a man to man defense. When that girl gets older, and she still doesn't know how to guard someone the coach will put her on the bench. And it doesn't matter if that coach likes to play "zone" or "man", they still have to have players that play with strong defensive technique and fundamentals.

Very nice reply magic fan because a lot of " coaches " as we call them make money from 1 on 1 training sessions and we can teach a kid to dribble 3 balls at one time and do what I feel is nice gimmick moves with the ball that NEVER get applied in a game situation . Coaches as you said are clueless because they at any age are not teaching the kids game management and situational basketball play ... I see the best skilled players in tight games and when told to foul or run clock are not fouling and putting up 3s at inopportune times thus preventing the team from finishing out the game .so all the things that you said are important and big factors in player/game management .