For those whom have been following me you’d know that this European summer I was going to tryout for a team that is in the UK national basketball league. As I always do every year I come to Europe to play a few summer league games.
This year I had one particular team in mind unlike past years where I would tryout for multiple teams. Reason why I chose to do things different this year was that the club director is the team Great Britain women’s assistant coach. Now that I am in a transitional phase in my basketball career from being a player to more a teacher I thought that making connections with such a person will benefit so many up and coming female basket ball players.
Meeting the team GB women’s assistant coach
A couple of weeks ago now I attended an open tryout session which to my surprise saw around 40 people turn up. As usual I tried to identify and talk to as many people attending the tryout but it was particularly great to meet the team GB women’s basketball team assistant coach and the owner of the basketball club (club will remain nameless). I could see that they were very passionate about basketball particularly trying to help disadvantaged youth use basketball as an avenue to better their lives. Something that I am also very passionate about hence why I started this blog.
Time to hit the court, my tryout disaster commences
Whilst getting some shots up prior to the commencement of the training session I was impressed at how well organised the session seemed. There were physio on hand in case of an emergency, all 4 members of the coaching staff and the owner. When training kicked off it was well run with a lot of good drills. But here is where my nightmares began!
We all know during tryouts people are all trying to show off their skill and in cases it is hard to get a piece of the ball. This was the worst tryout I have ever had! Plain and simple, the regulars on the team just didn’t pass the ball at all. I would be wide open with no one around me and still won’t see the ball. It even got to the point where eye contact was made and I have been seen to be open but the ball just didn’t come to me.
Usually when this happens I do all the little things like encourage players, talk on D, play hard D but even with this I wasn’t able to. It seriously was so deflating! Even the players I had to guard were fairly sub level players so it wasn’t as if I was able to guard top players. Few trips down I did guard one of the guards that were doing well and he wasn’t able to do anything but instead of being able to still guard him on every stoppage I was asked to switch back. To compound this issue I have also been training with a London metropolitan league team for a few weeks now. The night before this particular training session I had a training session with the London Met league team. Again, I had a selfish player that kept the ball from me. Justice was served though when I was switched to another team and I torched him.
It’s not so bad in the end
Still, the experiences this year trying out for basketball teams to play this summer has been so deflating. I really had all my eggs in one basket with the national league team hoping for the best. But as I have said in an article I published on this site (Getting a tryout for basketball clubs in Europe) it is so much better to schedule tryouts in an area so that you can increase the chances of being signed.
In all, I am not overly fussed that I most probably be missing the summer league this year. The next few weeks will be spent traveling and crossing off from my list of countries I need to see. I am at that point in my life where basketball isn’t my biggest priority. But please don’t get me wrong. If you love to play basketball and you have had a tryout like this keep working at it. Keep attending tryouts and have a read of an article (How to be seen at basketball tryouts) to use a few tips that have worked for me.
Bad experiences with tryouts will always happen but don’t let anything or anyone kill your dream. Keep working hard and things will align for you.
Best of luck!!
Have you had a tryout disaster like me? I’d like to hear from you if you did. Please use the comment section below and tell me about it.
