Quote:
Originally Posted by RonCo
Don't confuse getting frustrated with getting better.
If high school basketball players play against college competition all summer, they are probably goign to be frustrated as heck most of the summer. But when they go back to class in the fall and play against high school competition, they will (in general) have progressed furhter and will suddenly start having a whole lot more fun. Every high school basketball coach I know, and I know a few, wants his or her players to go to summer camps and parks where they can play against better competition specifically so they will grow further.
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Ronco, you are absolutely dead on about this. Playing up does not hurt your talent level. In fact, it can make you better.
When I was in high school we had a team that played in the city rec basketball league in the afternoon and the local YMCA league at night during the week and on the weekend we would travel to other cities to play in YMCA tourneys. The out-of-town team were 10-15 points better than us as we were a short team, most of us were 5'10"- 6'...our tallest was 6'2". There were about 20 teams involved. We would usually get to the semi-finals and lose by 10 points or so. We never got frustrated. We knew that these teams were better than us.
As the season progressed, we got a little better and better talent-wise. Playing up made us better. By mid-year we would breeze through the local rec league and YMCA leagues. We were unbeaten in both leagues.
Our high school junior varsity went unbeaten that year, too... all of us tried out for the high school junior varsity as sophs... but none of us made the team. The JV coach just kept his freshmen players. We did not attend the high school as freshmen. The junior highs in town were 8-9 grades except for the high school.
As fate would have it, the high school JV cockily entered our city rec league tournament. Our team played them in the finals and we won 77-44. We showed that coach that he missed 4-5 good players that could have helped his team. We never got the chance until this game. What a satisfying victory!
Sorry to ramble and relive my life, but I love to tell that story.