On the last day of April, after a stressful week and a tiring day, playing badminton from 8am to 3pm, i had my 4th appearance at the Lower school soccer club, in which somehow i was looking forward to the whole week, because i had such a fun time the last session. 3 days before the club, i asked mr.wyncoll, how can i get the kids to listen to me, when they're just fooling around doing their own thing? he told me, "kids love competition, so try to make some games, and they'll be more interested, also try to search up some drills to do, and encourage them more"(somewhere along those lines). So yesterday, i was assigned to the station, focusing on ball control, I let them do dribbling exercises, dribbling across cones and back. I let try it a few times, then i told them we're having a competition and i split them to two groups, the first group to finish dribbling through the cones win, but i realized the teams were unfair, the less skilled team didn't even bother to try, i didn't what to do next, but then the whistle blew shortly(thankfully), or else i would've felt bad, letting them do nothing. The next group came, they were 3 girls, around 1st grade, 2nd grade. So i changed the game, a little bit different, i said the three of them go against me! i do it 3 times while each of them just do it once, losers have to do sprints. But half way through, the whistle blew, so unfortunately, we had to end it. But the best part of the the club came, which were the games! My team had 4 kids, 2 boys 2 girls, and they're ALL VERY ATHLETIC. I put that in caps, because they were AMAZING. Before the game, we had a team huddle, i told them to spread around, and pass more, i had they're fastest player play defense, and told them defense is more important than offense, because kids normally have a misconception that scoring is more important. And so that was our game plan, and i told them that we should have a team name, and they came up with the "Chameleons" , and so "1,2,3, CHAMELEONS!" and the game began. Our team played really good offense and which us score a lot of points, no one was standing alone doing nothing, all of them contributed and they were running for the ball all the time. Our defense was unbelievable, when the other team gets the ball we all run back and play defense, we had a couple of big kicks that cleared our area. The highlight of the day was though, when the other team was open just a meter away from the goal, and shoots, Nicholas from grade 1, dashes to the ball and slide tackles the ball and denies it from the going in! That was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen, I barely even see that in professional soccer! At the end of the game, we finished with a 5-3 astonishing win! Jacob, a 2nd grader, who i am fairly close with because our basketball team had 2nd grade buddies that we spend lunches with and wrote to, i called him MVP, because he scored all 5 points for us, and he was happy and i can see that he was more motivated to play.
My thoughts at the end of the day was: ya, this was tiring after such a long and hot day, but it was worth it, this fun was good because it was guilt free, and we were helping while having fun at the same time. The best part of this club was working with the kids, because kids are so emotional(although they move on pretty fast), and they're simple and it gives me a break from my stressful high school, teenage life, I feel simple just like them. Joining this club is a double win for me, im giving and having fun at the same time. I look forward to the next session!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Boys Varsity Basketball: Reflection
This year's varsity basketball season impacted me a lot, because this season meant a lot to me. It was my time to finally come out of my shell, it was my time to show what I can do in this sport. Basketball has always been my favorite sport since in an elementary student. 2 years ago, during my 9th grade year, i was unfortunately unable to do sports, i missed my chance and last year i was cut right before isac. This year, to me, was the first time that i didn't feel out of place on the team. This forced me to learn faster because it was easier for me to execute what i can do. This season especially, i learned that being good at a sport like basketball, takes more than just simply trying hard in practice, because practice hours isn't enough if you want to excel, you must do conditioning on yourself, shoot a lot, watch basketball games to boost your basketball IQ. Being guard of the team wasn't easy work. Us guards took control of the team.
Our team this year, in my opinion, had the most potential compared to our teams in the past years. This year's team was really new, new teammates, new coach, and "new"bies. Last year's ISAC team had 5 seniors, which meant 5 new players had to take their spot(including myself). We were low in experienced players this year, so in the beginning of the season, a lot came to tryout, most of them were completely new in basketball, the ones who found interest in the sport and were eager to learn, stayed in the team. Our team learned and improved very quickly in just a span of around less than 2 months. We started from not even knowing where to stand during free throws, and not even knowing how to pass, dribble and do a simple layup, to becoming able to box-out, grab rebounds, break presses(even though not that well), and executing plays. On the first day of ISAC, we were all confident and excited to win some games! Our first game was with Brent Manila, a young team, but challenging, the first half went smooth, we executed our plays, and held their team down, but once we started getting turnovers in the second half, we let go, and let them take the win. The same thing happened throughout the our games. One thing i learned was that it was all up to ourselves and our mind set, because we knew we could do I already. But we weren't tough enough.
This ISAC meant a lot to me, it was my first basketball ISAC, the one where I've been striving for since grade 6. Before our team left for ISAC, many teachers came and greeted me good luck, and some of them asked me about my hip that was operated on just 2 years ago. I smiled and said, its all good, better than ever. This reminded me of the times when it happened, I was willing to give give up anything to be back in the court, when I came back to school, I would go watch the team practice in my crutches, i felt jealous of all those healthy people, i was eager to play, and that feeling came back to me, and i said to myself that I will play my heart out. After the first day was over in ISAC, i was extremely tired, and i passed on the bed, shivering, as soon as you know it, i was having a fever. Both me and my roommate, Adam, thought i was just too tired, and so thats what i told myself. This continued, until ISAC was over, only when i was playing my fever would go away, i thought it was maybe the adrenaline rush or something. At the end of the tournament, i realized little spots on my body and arm, I realized i got measles!!!
Although we lost, i was still proud of our team because we played clean and we respected every team. And even though losing to team we weren't suppose to lose, we still weren't sore losers, to me that was the most important, especially as an athlete, you have to respect yourself, your teammates, coaches, referees, and most importantly, your opponents.
Our team this year, in my opinion, had the most potential compared to our teams in the past years. This year's team was really new, new teammates, new coach, and "new"bies. Last year's ISAC team had 5 seniors, which meant 5 new players had to take their spot(including myself). We were low in experienced players this year, so in the beginning of the season, a lot came to tryout, most of them were completely new in basketball, the ones who found interest in the sport and were eager to learn, stayed in the team. Our team learned and improved very quickly in just a span of around less than 2 months. We started from not even knowing where to stand during free throws, and not even knowing how to pass, dribble and do a simple layup, to becoming able to box-out, grab rebounds, break presses(even though not that well), and executing plays. On the first day of ISAC, we were all confident and excited to win some games! Our first game was with Brent Manila, a young team, but challenging, the first half went smooth, we executed our plays, and held their team down, but once we started getting turnovers in the second half, we let go, and let them take the win. The same thing happened throughout the our games. One thing i learned was that it was all up to ourselves and our mind set, because we knew we could do I already. But we weren't tough enough.
This ISAC meant a lot to me, it was my first basketball ISAC, the one where I've been striving for since grade 6. Before our team left for ISAC, many teachers came and greeted me good luck, and some of them asked me about my hip that was operated on just 2 years ago. I smiled and said, its all good, better than ever. This reminded me of the times when it happened, I was willing to give give up anything to be back in the court, when I came back to school, I would go watch the team practice in my crutches, i felt jealous of all those healthy people, i was eager to play, and that feeling came back to me, and i said to myself that I will play my heart out. After the first day was over in ISAC, i was extremely tired, and i passed on the bed, shivering, as soon as you know it, i was having a fever. Both me and my roommate, Adam, thought i was just too tired, and so thats what i told myself. This continued, until ISAC was over, only when i was playing my fever would go away, i thought it was maybe the adrenaline rush or something. At the end of the tournament, i realized little spots on my body and arm, I realized i got measles!!!
Although we lost, i was still proud of our team because we played clean and we respected every team. And even though losing to team we weren't suppose to lose, we still weren't sore losers, to me that was the most important, especially as an athlete, you have to respect yourself, your teammates, coaches, referees, and most importantly, your opponents.
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