Hi, I'm a 7th grade guard. I'm 5'1 with good quickness, average/below average speed. My jump shot isn't the greatest. How can I overcome these to play more? And what are some drills I can do without access to a hoop.(like things I can do in my room). Also is AAU worth it? Would getting in a summer league be more beneficial? And how can I find the right AAU team for me. Thank you for your time. Hopefully your advice will help.

Daniel: Don't despair young man sometimes desire, heart and training can almost overcome some physical deficiencies. Take a look at your mom and dad, are they tall, short etc. . You are only in the 7th grade and I have found that many boys sprout up during that period from 7th to 9th grade. Some advice, go to U Tube, type in Procari sweat basketball workout you will find a ton of stuff there to work on. There is absolutely nothing you can do about your lack of height so dont dwell on it, instead, work on the things you can control, like dribbling passing shooting footwork and ball handling. You take control of your game, the physical thing will happen naturally. good luck Coach mac

Daniel -

Some great advice from Coach Mac... work on those things to improve your OVERALL game..... you have no control over how tall you are but you do have control over how hard you play and how hard you work to improve your game. There are some things that you can do that doesn't take a big guy to do, take charges... dive on every loose ball - those are things I call game changers. I helped a coach (7th grade team) a little bit and one day we put in this charge drill ( look up Sampson charge drill on you tube) and the next game this kid who was 5 foot nothing took 3 chargers, the team took 5 or 6 overall and they won the game.

As for AAU - IF you can hook up with a coach/team that will teach some fundamentals along with the game... you will play a lot of games which can never hurt. You would also need to get some signicicant playing time. As for doing things in your room, I hesitate to tell you some things there without getting the rath of your mom LOL
You could lay down on the floor and practice some dribbling along your side, crossing the ball over and dribbling some more. Obviously you will need to keep the ball low. I would think that you would do more practicing all these things outside. You can do some form shooting to help with your shot... even without a ball. If you want more info on that let us know. At your size quickness is a must a long with being a good ball handler, seeing the floor and being able to start the offense or get the ball to your best shooter. Point guards typically handle the ball more than anyone else so having a good % at the free throw line is also important.

There are so many examples that I could give you where kids came into our high school at 5' tall and became All Conference players just because they had a great work ethic and learned how to play the game.
I will give you 2 examples.... 1 was a great Bball player even at 5' tall, he was a real pain in my butt for a long time but he sure could play. All Conference as a senior and I will see him this Christmas in Florida... He always tells me that he remembers everything I used to say to him and he uses that with his kids. Perfect example of growing up at a later time in his life. Another kid was 5' tall and didn't even play on the B team as a freshman... we needed kids so in his sophomore year we brought him up... he became a GREAT 3 point shooter and point guard.. All Conference as senior.

I just wanted to let you know that's its not about how tall you are - its all about how big your heart is. There is an old saying.... " It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. " I hope I didn't bore you with the stories, but IF you need anything else, let us know and we will be glad to help you out.