Opinion of youth basketball development in the UK?

I can speak with a bit of experience of seeing kids develop the last few years

From what I've seen there's a handful of good coaches in most counties passionate about what they do

And all the best players in the county eventually end up with those coaches somehow

And only a tiny fraction of young kids in UK ever get proper serious basketball coaching. Most PE teachers at schools don't really know what they are doing. But show willing

So most of the kids who play at school don't have serious basketball coaches. They are playing the game without really being developed. 

and if you want to develop you have to go looking for a proper club team. And there aren't many to find. They aren't likely to find you.  And although you then get the best opprtunity to develop its only in UK terms. And always going to be limited. 

but most young kids given the opportunity to play and develop love to play basketball. It's a cool sport to them

my son fell lucky and had a great school coach who took him and his mates to a good level. Represented his county and his region. Still plays the odd game for his school when they have them to play. He had to give up club basketball to focus on football last year. At a certain age you have to focus on one sport. He's 16 now and just been given a scholarship at a pro football club. If it wasn't for football I'm sure he'd still be playing basketball but to that limited UK level. In football over here you have no limits now in what you can develop into. Whereas basketball you are limited. I think Kareem Queeley has or had by far the best chance of becoming a serious player in world terms when Real Madrid got hold of him age 13/14 ish and took him under their wing. 

must look to see how he's progressing?

anyone know?

numbers wise I think plenty of UK a kids play basketball but only a small percentage are getting serious training or know how to run plays, And I guess those numbers aren't event a pinprick when it comes to kids playing basketball in USA and without the real high end training and development as well, 

ps the worst part of junior basketball is that often parents are as bad as football parents at spoiling the atmosphere and respect at many games. Felt sorry for the refs a lot of the time. All junior sport get spoiled by parents. The kids would be better without parents being there IMO

sorry that's a bit of a ramble

I'll throw in my 2 pence here as a teacher and a youth basketball coach.

Primary school teachers get so much CPD if they want it and can become skilled coaches at any sport if they choose to, in the recent years I've qualified as a rugby union, American football and running coach. I personally have run coaching clinics for teachers and taught them plenty of skills and drills, how to up scale and lower them. I've also always handed out information on where you can take your budding sports star next if they so wish to get better. Outside of teachers teaching PE which is probably only about 50% at best of them, PE lessons are run professional sports coaching with loads of qualification in many different sports. I personally disagree with this approach but thats not the point.

Secondary school teaching jobs are the hardest teaching job to get. Because of this they are also incredibly skilled and dedicated to improvement in their field. Obviously there are always some who get through the cracks but thats a very rare case. Schools also employ them based on their chosen sport. If you've got a football mad PE teacher working in a department, the school are likely to look at someone who has a passion for a different sport. They share knowledge and have a stronger team because of this.

However, with all that being said this is the most important part. PE isnt about sport! That may be lost of many of you, its lost on a lot of people. PE is, always should remain, about developing healthy relationships with exercise and food, not sport. That gets lost on some, especially if you're an America nut. A child who wants to become a pro football player doesnt join their school team to make it happen, just like they wouldn't join their school team to play pro basketball. That's their job to find clubs to make it happen. Not the schools.

As a Coach now. Now this is probably biased but it is what it is. I coach for the Plymouth Raiders Development, it was a childhood dream of mine to do so and I'm proud to be part of it. As a club, what we do, I personally think is amazing and I'm not going to name names but some googling and you could find them out.

Our coaching staff include many coaches with over a decade of coaching experience. We have several coaches who coach for the Aspire programme, several South West England coaches, a coach with experience coaching england, the current basketball England childrens coach of the year, several coaches who have assisted in the bbl, several coaches who go to the states to coach at elite coaching camps and after all of them, there me. We run a huge network of , I believe 7 U12s and 4 U14s CVL teams who have weekly coaching and monthly tournaments. From there we then have an U14 regional side (They went undefeated last year at U12) and 2 of the side play South West England. An U16s regional team (that's my team) and an U16s National League team (With one of them in the South West Squad). We have an U18s National league squad and our Academy at U19s. We also have a programme at Plymouth College (private school) and run their programme. Finally we also have an U16s girls programme.

Everyone involved in youth basketball in Plymouth are working tirelessly to not just improve the standard but also improve the opportunities for all play basketball at whatever level they are. This includes a seniors Basketball session twice a week and a walking basketball session.

Wheelchair basketball, they run a phenomenal programme which keeps on expanding, the guy who runs it works tirelessly to improve standards, and helped me during my brief time in a wheelchair. They run 2 teams in the national league with their 2nd team currently undefeated.

Local league is just what it is everywhere else but we have 1 team who do a lot more. Unity through basketball run a huge amount of programmes. They have woman only session, beginner women only sessions, open sessions, children sessions and over 35 sessions. They raise huge amounts for charity using basketball in many different forms and get loads of people who missed the boat as children involved as adults.

I've gone on a bit, but I truly believe we are building something special down here.

I fell into the sport at 11 and found it to be more accessible compared to football. Wasn't very talented at footy but not many kids played when i started with basketball. At 16 I decided I wanted to coach and now have coached various age groups. My mentors for the best 6 years have been ex BBL Pro's, two in particular being Dave Harris and John Smith (From Carolina) who both spent time with Leicester Riders, learnt a lot from them as a player and coach.

Also having coached competitive matches I completely agree that basketball parents ultimately ruin the game and abuse the refs unfairly. This lack of respect also gets passed on to the players from their parents to, thinking their opinion is more important that the coaches. You get it everywhere and I have had to tell parents countless times about their attitude. 

Taking a team of Under 19's to a competition in Finland this summer, all of whom are extremely talented and are constantly trying to be poached by European teams whenever we enter. Unless you play for a youth team affiliated with a BBL club or play for England etc its rare for players to become pro even if they are talented. I suppose it is a very trivial subject with a variety of reasons why players can/cannot make it pro. 

My younger brother played against kareem and said he was a formidable opponent and he always guarded him in games for national league and school. Both were good mates and represented east midlands a few times before he left for madrid. Talented lad who decided it best to leave for Europe rather than stay in the UK, maybe its a good idea for our more talented young players to take a stab at Europe rather than here or the USA,  they seem to do better.

He is currently averaging about 28 MPG, 13PTS, 5REB, 3AST and 2STl, 1BLK

I think that youth coaches in the UK are generally fantastic as they do it for nothing but the love of the game and to get people playing!
Technically of course there is huge variation as you would expect with volunteers. I've come across many excellent coaches with many different styles. I'm lucky enough to coach with a few. I'm at best an average coach but I've got 33 years experience playing and probably 25 coaching in some form. I'm reliable though and willing...counts for a lot in this country!

What I try to do is follow the current BE guidelines for the various age groups and inject some common sense depending on the level. We are primarily a community club and not an elite programme. Our best kids are usually tempted away to Eagles and there are now two other NL clubs growing not a million miles away.

Ultimately its up to the players as well to improve if they want to. I was lucky to have some great coaches when I started playing at 15. In particular Branny Bazany who many on here will be familiar with. I can still hear his voice in my head "Mattttttt, Matttttt - you are sh*****t" :-).
Wouldn't wash these days but it toughened me up and I learnt an awful lot from his time as our coach. Good coaches like good teachers are remembered for life.