WarriorDad
Last week

Best team for girl's player development

Hi all, I would love your opinion on which organisation has the better girls program out of Casey Cavs, Pakenham Warriors and the Dandenong Rangers?

My daughter just turned 11 and will be going up to U14 for the next VJBL season.
She currently plays for Pakenham and is loving her time there. She has expressed that she would love to get into the Rowville sports academy for high school as she heard some of the boys at school talking about it. From what I have been told a very small number of kids are excepted every year. She is very determined and is putting in a lot of work to give herself the best chance when she applies late next year. Obviously, I want to give her the best chance of reaching her goal. Which is why I want to make sure she is in the best program to prepare her that is available to us.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any advice.

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CC81  
Last week

Advantages and disadvantages to each. Rangers and Cavs both powerhouses. Would typically get their 1s sides into the championship and classic. That's obviously a great opportunity. Those clubs also tend to attract a few recruits along the journey.

Pakenham is less of a power but has a good demographic profile and I’d expect their 1s to be top 20 most years.

I’ve seen lots of girls move from mid tier clubs to power clubs and I’ve rarely seen a benefit. In fact, it has been detrimental in most cases other than for the absolute best of the best.

I’d suggest most are better off being top 3 in a mid ranked club, playing good minutes and learning to take responsibility and lead as opposed to being 8-10 in a team that plays classic but playing a peripheral role on limited minutes. That assumes the mid ranked club has decent coaches and a decent program- I know nothing of Pakenham’s program.

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Frog39  
Last week

I agree with above. Going to a big club can mean you get lost in the system and end up number 8-10 on the bench with limited minutes and limited investment put into you. It's better to have more opportunity, responsibility and playing time at a mid-level club. Having said all that, regardless of where you play, if you really want to be good you need to get some private skills coaching. Team coaches don't have the time to totally invest in individual fundamentals at training. I would recommend finding a coach who helps with teaching proper shot technique, footwork, ball handing, etc for one session at work as well. At least in the off season.

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WarriorDad  
Last week

When we realised how serious she was a few months ago we started getting her private lessons once a week with and American who plays for the Big V team.
We also put her up into U14 in domestic to give her more of a challenge and so she could get use to competing against the older girls and using the size 6 ball

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Massive  
Earlier this week

she just needs to play and have fun and be in a group where she has friends. you only get better by playing. you can always move later if it suits you to do that. dont get too serious too early. girls drop out at an alarming rate becuase it gets too serious too soon. get the basics into her in a fun way and that opens the game for her to enjoy it on a friday night. engagement leads to progression and remember it is not linear and do not compare to others there are so many factors involved until they are fully grown and mature.

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hoopjunkie  
Yesterday

If you think she's good enough or tall enough to be in the 1's team of Casey or Dandy even at bottom age next year then I'd look to move her. Even if she'll be the 8-10 player in the rotation, she'll be around and be training against the best on a weekly basis which, i personally think, will be good for her development. It'll be really painful for her or you to see her benched in games though. Their 1's team also tend to have better coaches.

Otherwise, i'd stay in Pakky for 1 more year. Let her enjoy her bottom age/ 'development' year and look to find more development outside of rep ie skills academy, additional weekday domestic, school holiday camps, 3x3 tournaments, play up in domestic, multi/ other sports like footy or soccer, etc. Sometimes Rowville also has school holiday camps.

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WarriorDad  
A few hours ago

She actually just did a 2 day basketball camp at Rowville and absolutely loved it. We put her up to under 14s in domestic this season and she is currently doing a weekly private lesson with a Big V player.
We were hoping she could still play in her under 12 team for some extra game time but they wouldn't allow her to be in both. If the Jnr Super League have enough teams next season we might put her in that.

Skills academies is an interesting one. She did do lessons with AMB for a term earlier in the year but didn't really enjoy it, which is why we changed to the private lessons.

Thank you for the advice, it is really appreciated

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