GIRLS AND WOMEN'S TRAINING
Same standards, and better odds than the boys side.
Alex has coached women's programs as well as men's across eight years at middle school, high school and college level. Girls get the same drill work, the same corrections and the same expectations, with a plan built for their body and position.
01 / WHAT IT IS
What is different about training girls basketball players?
The training is not different. The drill work, the repetitions and the standards are the same as any other player. What changes is the plan, which is built around each player's position, body and how they already play, and that would be true for a boy as well.
Alex has coached both men's and women's programs, so this is not a coach adapting from one to the other on the fly. He has run development for women's teams at the college level and coached girls in high school and middle school, and the sessions look the same as everybody else's: heavy repetition on a small number of things, then those things tested against a live defender.
What he will not do is soften the work. Plenty of girls arrive having been coached carefully rather than seriously, and the result is a player who has been praised more than she has been corrected. That is not respect. A player who is told exactly what is wrong with her left hand and then given the repetitions to fix it gets better, and the ones who stay are the ones who wanted that.
The odds are also worth putting in front of a family honestly. On the girls side, 4.7% of high school players go on to play NCAA basketball at some division, from 356,240 high school participants to 16,823 in the NCAA. Division I is 1.4%, Division II 1.9% and Division III 1.9%. On the boys side the same figure is 3.6%, with Division I at 1.1%. Those numbers are still small, and they are measurably better.
02 / INSIDE A SESSION
How sessions are run
- 01
A plan built for one body
Position, height, arm length and the way a player already moves all change the plan. A guard and a post do not get the same footwork just because they arrived on the same day.
- 02
Corrections said plainly
You will be told exactly what is wrong and exactly how to fix it, without cushioning. Vague encouragement is comfortable and it does not change anything.
- 03
Repetition, then a defender
Heavy volume on a small number of skills, then the same skills against live pressure. The order never changes, because skill that has not been pressured has not been proven.
- 04
Decisions trained on purpose
Read drills where the defense picks the answer and the player has half a second to choose. This is the part almost nobody trains, on either side of the sport.
04 / WHAT CHANGES
The numbers on the girls side
Share of high school girls basketball players who go on to NCAA basketball at any division, from 356,240 players to 16,823. The boys figure is 3.6%.
Girls reaching NCAA Division II, and the same 1.9% for Division III. Division I is 1.4%. Every one of those is above the matching boys number.
Share of Olympians who played more than one sport as children, which is a reason to keep a second sport rather than specialize early.
The same statement reports a greater than 2 to 1 increase in injury rate when organized play displaces free play.
06 / Questions
What people ask about this
Has Alex actually coached girls and women's teams?
Yes. Across eight years he has coached middle school, high school and college basketball on both the men's and women's side, and he played three years in college as a team captain. He has coached multiple 1,000 point scorers, two of whom reached that mark after they began development work with him.
Should my daughter specialize in basketball year round?
The AOSSM consensus statement reports 88% of Olympians played more than one sport as children, and a greater than 2 to 1 increase in injury rate when organized play crowds out free play. It also flags athletes training more hours a week than their age, or past sixteen hours a week of intense training, as worth monitoring for burnout and overuse. Keep the second sport.
Is AAU enough to develop her?
AAU shows what a player already has. It does not build it. Showcases display skill and skill comes from repetition and drill work, which showcases have no time for. Playing is worth doing for the reps and the exposure. Just do not confuse a busy summer schedule with development, because they are separate things.
Where and when do you train?
Outdoors only, at Bellevue Beach Park in Bellevue, at a court in Newport, or at Swope. There is no gym and no indoor option, so weather occasionally moves a session. Private sessions are $200. Small groups of two to four and seasonal packages are available, and package pricing is not posted yet, so ask.