Both my sons played AAU; my younger more extensively. So many kids playing. But to be fair, almost everyone my son played with also played high school basketball. It was always fun to run into parents of one of his teammates who was playing for a rival high school.
But there in lies the problem. The AAU kids are getting extra coaching that other kids aren’t getting simply because they can pay.
As a parent who can afford it I would say too bad it’s my son and my money.
But extra coaching doesn’t guarantee a **** thing.
And a kid who can’t afford it may just be the next goat.
So the question has to be asked.
Why is America with all these athletes and money and training and extra coaching and private coaching not getting players that other countries are producing with much less population and resources?
What is it that they’re doing that we aren’t?
Why is the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico dominating baseball? What could they possibly be coaching there that we aren’t?
DR and PR have a combined population of 13 million. California alone is 39 million with a ridiculous amount of youth baseball being played.
I guarantee you that those kids play a lot………… on their own. Every day.
No coaches. No parents. Just old school sand lot.
The same thing in the Brazilian favelas with soccer.
The same thing with the old school basketball courts with no nets. The old rusty chains that would give you tetanus in the playground.
These kids in America fall in love with the attention. The clout. The stars. They aren’t falling in love with the game.
They complain about shoes and the ball. The field being to bumby.
African kids are playing with used cleats from UNICEF on clay dirt.
They don’t have an out. They don’t have coaching or training. They just play everyday on whatever surface on whatever wether with whatever shoes or even barefooted. And when they do get a coach the soak it all in.
If he says tuck your elbow in. They fckng tuck that elbow in.
If the say “head fake like this”. They do that sht.
They just love to play. And thank god that someone with any knowledge is helping them.
American kids? “You didn’t even play college ball, why are you even here coaching”.