We recently interviewed 100+ parents from our database and asked them all about their training preferences, budget, and expectations and we loved gaining these insights and want to share them with you! Check out this blog post for a recap.
We hear often from parents with young children that they aren't sure when to get serious and invest in more 1 on 1 or group training sessions. We also hear that it's hard to know how much to invest financially in your child's athletics, what is normal, and reasonable. What we found will hopefully be helpful to you.
Most parents started to take training more seriously at around 10-12 years old, which was also when intervention by professionals felt necessary.
Of those who did spend time or money in training, here is what they said they did:
88.5% of this group said that their kid(s) attended camps or clinics. These can be valuable, but at a young age, they can also be a "daycare session". Camps are still well worth going to, they bring fun and friendship to your child, but we wouldn't suggest camps replace training sessions.
A whopping 64.4% say they hire personal trainers. Based on the level of the player, where you reside and the trainer here are what you can expect to pay per session:
1 on 1 training on average is $50-$150 / session.
Small group (2-4 kids) on average costs= $30-$50 / session
Large Group Training (4+ kids) on average costs $20-40 / session
Annually, this group claims to spend: 
29% believe to spend more than $2000 annually on basketball training! Does this surprise you?
A basketball shooting machine makes training at home as efficient as hiring a personal trainer, and when you break down the potential costs of hiring a trainer over a year, the machine would already be paid off:
We like to compare this to renting or leasing a car. If you lease a car, you pay a monthly fee to use the car. It fulfills an important purpose, but you do not own the car and have to give it back once the lease is over. Similar to training, if you pay for a trainer every session, they bring great value to the player but the cost just accumulates, because you could never "own" the trainer. There are additional costs that aren't accounted for as well, like driving mileage and time to meet them.
If you took the money that you would pay for a trainer and invested in a basketball shooting machine - you could train EVERY day and pay MUCH less over the span of a player's career.
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Based on these results, and the knowledge that we bring as former players and parents ourselves, we agree with the data. A good time to start taking basketball training more seriously is around 10-12 years old, or 5th grade. This means FUN training! Training that is lighthearted yet starts to teach the player about dedication and discipline.
When the training starts to get more serious, it's worth sitting down and doing the math:
How often will the player go?
What are you being charged per session?
Would you be better off getting a Dr. Dish Shooting machine that provides training in addition to efficient reps?
It's something to think about...
*To learn more about a basketball training solution designed specifically for home, meet the Dr. Dish Home. Depending on how serious you are, we also have the Dr. Dish iC3 Shot Trainer, which can increase reps by 300%!