Basketball Season: A New Start

A New Start

Basketball season just started a couple of weeks ago and I was not looking forward to it. I played 2 years ago and I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t like all the pressure that was put on me to win. I wanted to just do it for fun, but it was not fun. I never had the motivation to practice at home, so I didn’t improve much. I never remembered how to do any of the other plays and I didn’t know how to fix that. I think this year is a new chance to love basketball like I’ve wanted to. My mindset has changed and I think for the better.

First Practice 

Much to my surprise, our first practice was really fun. But instead of actually playing basketball, we did conditioning and workouts. Our coach wants us to have discipline, so he ran us...a lot. He wanted to see our limits and how far we could take ourselves. I like his attitude about it and I totally agree with him. He isn’t a hard coach. He said that we have a lot of potential and that we can be a great team. 

“Are you girls ready?” 

“Yeah?” We answered slowly. 

“10 laps around the court.” He said without hesitating. 

The first 3 laps of 10 weren’t too bad, but after the 5th, it was hard to continue. As long as I kept moving, I knew I was getting somewhere. After we finally finished that, we did squats, broad jumps(which didn’t make much sense to me), and box jumps. I really enjoyed the box jumps. I had never done them before, so they were a fun challenge. When I got up to it first, I realized how high it actually was and my confidence dropped. I finally realized how tall 3 feet was. I jumped up, but my knees hit the top. I was slightly embarrassed, but I pushed past it. Because she had done this before, my sister encouraged me to bring my feet up as a priority. I kept trying and eventually made it. It was not pretty by any means, but I did it. I couldn’t wait to try it again. Our coach was pleased with our preserverance. After each set of squats, broad jumps, and box jumps, we ran 3 laps around the gym. It was so tiring. As a treat after our first practice, we got smoothies. 

Second Practice 

Because I have class on Monday, I have to come a little late to basketball practice. We didn’t miss much though. One thing that stood out to me that time was the broad jumps. I didn’t understand them that much. We had to jump as far as we could 25 times. It hurt my core a lot. It was painful and I don’t understand why we have to do them. 

On our last two practices of the week, we scrimmaged for most of the time. I enjoy scrimmaging a lot. The first day was hard. I challenged myself to stay in the game, but it backfired. We didn’t have many subs, so I wanted to give everybody else a break. I should’ve asked to come out. After practice, I was so, so thirsty and I forgot to bring my water with me. I was in a lot of pain. The next practice, we did some full-court pressing and press-break. 

Eureka!

Most times, when I play basketball, I don’t make time to think about what I am doing. The day before the last practice, my sister had told me that I needed to hold the ball with a tighter grip so that I wouldn’t drop it and/or get it stolen. For the first time in forever, I was able to calm down and look around. It is only the Lord because I have never practiced this. 

Conclusion

Now that I’m on this level, I have a chance to be comfortable with playing and control myself. I’m excited about this new basketball season. There are a lot of opportunities to be a light to the world and to show love. I want to be a good inspiration for my younger teammates. Though I might not be able to become friends with them, I can still be kind and encouraging. In the meantime, I’m going to start practicing my free throws and perhaps some dribbling drills. I don’t want to be point guard or center, but one day I might have to do it. I might as well practice. It’s hard to voice my displeasure about certain things in basketball, so I won’t worry about trying to. I’m just going to try and focus on the good stuff.