How to choose a basketball school in Barcelona

School, club or academy: they are not the same thing

The three words get used interchangeably in Barcelona, but they do not mean the same thing. A basketball academy usually focuses on individual skills work, often paid for and without federated competition of its own. A basketball school is the way in, for children aged 4 to 8. A club is what stands behind it: federated teams in every age group, qualified coaches and decades of continuity. CB Grup Barna is all three things at once: it works as a basketball academy in Barcelona (development and skills work from a very young age) and it is, at the same time, a club with 34 federated teams and sixty-one years in the same neighbourhood.

1. How many coaches are there per group

It's the first thing you should ask and the thing people ask least. A group of twenty five-year-olds with a single coach isn't a basketball school: it's a daycare with balls. With two adults per group, the session changes completely.

2. Whether groups are split by age or by convenience

A four-year-old and a seven-year-old can't train together: they don't have the same body or the same attention span. Clubs that take this seriously split the introductory age range into three groups. Those that don't lump everyone together and call it "level-based work".

3. The distance from home

It sounds mundane and it's decisive. An activity that means crossing half the city twice a week gets dropped by February. A neighborhood club holds up for years, because the child gets there alone as they grow up, and because their teammates are the same kids from school and the park.

4. What happens when they turn eight

This is the question that separates a school from an academy. If the club has federated teams in every category, the child moves from the escoleta to premini without changing place or friends. If it doesn't, at age eight they'll need to find a new club and start from scratch.

5. Whether there's a real women's programme

"We have a girls' team" isn't enough. Check how many women's teams there are, in which categories, and whether they reach senior level. A club with girls only at the youngest ages is a club where girls end up leaving.

6. The fee, and what it includes

Ask for the full annual price: fee, kit, federation registration and travel. The difference between clubs is usually smaller than it looks once you compare like for like.

7. Whether they let you try it out

Any club that trusts what it does will let you go along for a day and do a full session. If they make excuses, you already have your answer.

And the Barna Escoleta?

At CB Grup Barna, in the El Clot neighborhood, the basketball school is for children aged 4 to 8, with mixed teams, three age groups and get-togethers with other clubs from Barcelona and the province. On turning eight, children move up into the club's own federated teams, of which there are more than thirty-four. It's run by Julio Torralba (646 205 526), and the first session is a no-commitment trial.

Players who went through this court have gone on to reach the ACB, the Liga Femenina Endesa and FC Barcelona. That's not the reason to sign up a five-year-old, but it says something about the place's continuity.

Frequently asked questions