Basketball Training & Matches 2010

When my friends encouraged me to join the Basketball team I wasn’t sure about it because I didn’t think I was very good at basketball. However, I decided to join the Monday after school training’s because of how great it was being in the Volleyball team and how much I learnt from getting involved with that.

OBJECTIVES

My objectives for this activity were to improve my basketball skills, encourage team spirit, learn how to play different positions and to perform my best during matches.

WHAT I DID

When we had our first practice I realized that the senior team members were limited, which explained why we trained with the under 15 team. This was not a problem as they were extremely good basketball players, therefore, instead of them having to keep up with us it was the other way around. I learnt a lot from them, which showed me that age does not limit your ability to be great. Soon after our first training we started competing against schools in surrounding regions. I was surprised when we won all of our games. This was mainly because we had so many valuable players in our team which I really appreciated and looked up to. During these matches I improved my basketball skills each time. My shooting started becoming more accurate and I was faster at getting to the defense zone.

Team Spirit!!

CHALLENGES

One difficulty I identified while playing basketball is that whenever I am passed the ball or need to shoot I panic and don’t take my time to pass or shoot. This usually means the ball does not go where I want it to go and it is very frustrating. During the training my coach helped me with this by encouraging me to take my time each time I am passed the ball. After a while I become more relax and started to learn how to just breathe and focus on where I want the ball to go. Of course I still get a little nervous during matches because I don’t want to let my team down, but now I can turn that anxiety into concentration.

WHAT I DID

Basketball has taught me a lot about communication and team work. I really enjoyed basketball and I will definitely continue to play for the school team for the upcoming terms. The more I play the better I will get and I am excited to see where I will be in a few months. The senior games are coming up and our school will be participating with our basketball team. I am looking forward to competing against schools from all over South-East Asia.