Ways to play high level basketball at 35
I’m currently 38 and still love playing basketball. I always look forward to every training session and even getting some shots up. Is there really a used by date for basketball players?
I have found coaches to get nervous when they find out about my age. Recently I contacted a team to tryout and hopefully play summer league for in UK. I was met with an email voicing concern for my age. Why? I scrimmage every weekend with young basketball players that are rep level in Australia. I can definitely keep up with them, in fact when we play one on one I usually win. I think that’s an experience thing.
So what is the problem here? The way I see it, if you can still play the game at the high standard then coaches need to pick players on merit. I think not giving a chance to the older players is a form of discrimination. It’s time this stops! There’s no excuse.
Having said that though, I also believe if you are 30 and above maybe it is really hard to commit to training sessions. Usually rep teams have 2 a week practice and at least one game a weekend. Some of these games are played far away. In cases it’s not uncommon to lose a whole day for basketball.
If you are 30 and above there’s a high chance that these players have a family to take care of. The time needed to play rep means that there’s less time for the family. When kids are involved basketball should never take priority. NEVER! Your responsibility to your family comes first. I can understand coaches not picking people due to players not being available for training and games. I totally get that.
What’s the alternative for keen basketball players with families? There’s a few ways that a good level of basketball can be played. The easiest is to get a group of like minded basketball players together and play in tournaments. In Australia there’s a host of tournaments that run through the year (rep quality) that any team can enter. This will cost money though, but at least this will enable you to compete at a decent level.
Tournaments
Tournaments do not isolate teams by age; unless you want to play in a specific age group. Some tournaments run grades for players 35 years old and over. If you have experience playing very high levels of basketball I do not recommend this to anyone. The best bet is to sign a team up and play a grade that you’ll be comfortable with. Rule of thumb when entering a tournament team in Australia; A grade will be players that are in SEBL, BIG V Championship and Div 1 calibre. So it is quite a high level of basketball. In Europe I personally haven’t played out of season tournaments, but the European Summer League do not have different levels in the one tournament. Teams get placed in a pool and play each other. It’s not uncommon for a BBL (British Basketball League – top league in UK) team to play a EBL (English Basketball League – lower professional league in UK) Division 2 team.
Tournaments are a great for the older generation as they are run on a weekend or a public holiday weekends. No preparation for the tournament is mandatory especially if the team is full of friends whom are all on the same page; pressed for time. Perfect if you have a family and all you can afford is a weekend away.
Domestic Basketball
The next way you can play a very competitive level of basketball when you are older is to play domestic basketball. Some A grade competitions like Knox and Dandenong still have a high standard. These grades are usually compromised of ex representative players that still can play. Domestic basketball is a weekly thing unlike a tournament and can be expensive. Seasons run from 20 to 30 weeks and team sheet and venue entry charges apply.
Compared to tournaments domestic basketball is costly, far more time consuming than a tournament and you play the same teams every season. Domestic basketball also means you have to maintain numbers every week. From experience filling in for my friends team this is sometimes impossible. People get injured and sometimes people couldn’t be bothered, it is super hard to maintain a team.
Pick up ball
In Australia and Europe there are groups of friends that organise pick up basketball games that generally run for two to three hours. How this works is a group books a court for a period of time and everyone chips in to meet the court hire charge.
Best thing about pick up games is that you can be selective about the people that attend. It removes the trash talking cock heads and people that are shit.
Although pick up ball is a great way to keep in touch with friends there’s a whole heap of negatives. Attendance from my experience is hard to keep even tough sessions get run once a week. Without attendance court hire charges can be very high. Personally as a competitive basketball player I get a bit sick of playing the same players all the time.
As I said, catching up with friends is great but if you’d like that extra competition you are not going to get that running pick up games unless you open it to the public. From my personal experience attending organised pick up games it is a tight nit group and sometimes they just don’t pass the ball if you are an outsider. I really don’t know why they make pick up games available to the public when attitudes of the group suggests otherwise. Yes, I’m venting a little here.
As you can see I am very one sided when it comes to over 35 basketball. It really is a shame there isn’t more options available to the older players. If you are a basketball player that is older or time poor that would like to play in a tournament drop me a note in the Ask A Question section. I plan to put a tournament team in so if you are interested let me know.
Thanks for reading the article, do you have another way over 35’s can play competitive basketball? I’d love to know as I am keen myself. Please use the comment section below and share your thoughts.
