We have had a couple more games since the last post that I’ve done for basketball, unfortunately nobody was able to get photos taken for us, cause everyone was busy. But for the upcoming British School basketball tournament we have asked a couple of friends to take photos for us. We have a game Tuesday (4th of Dec), Wednesday (5th of Dec), Friday (7th of Dec) and the following Monday (10th of Dec). Hopefully we will do well for them cause we’ve been working hard through practices and practice games against other schools to improve on the skills we’ve learnt through this season, which is a lot considering we barely had any when we first started.
Here are the reflections from each practice game that I have participated in (shown perseverance and commitment in my activity), in the last couple of weeks. They have all been pretty tough because other than AIS, all the other teams are either part of the national team or they have one of the best basketball teams in Colombo. But we still tried our best.
Gateway – 16th of NOVEMBER (at our school) – We lost by about 30 points
This game wasn’t too good for us, not in terms of the points, but in terms of the way we played. I was really nervous when the game started off cause I knew that they were a really good team and my energy was pretty low because I had it already set in my head that we weren’t going to do very well and the rest of the team had the same mind set as well. Because of this we were all over the place during the game; not boxing out and getting the rebounds, but worst of all was how we weren’t even working as team team to try to make a shot. Sure we went through each play “strategically”, but we weren’t really thinking about what we were doing. After our “assistant” coach, Justin, pointed out that we weren’t looking up when we had the ball and were making rash decisions. I realized in myself that whenever I had the ball, I didn’t look around, but I just looked up saw a teammate and just passed the ball to them without thinking. I hadn’t looked at all my options. What I (and the rest of the team as well) needed to do was look at all the options we have, but I think because I was panicking cause of the defender standing right in front of me and cause we were playing against a really tough team, I just ran through whatever I was doing, without even thinking (increased awareness in strengths and areas for growth). From this game, I really understood the problems with not knowing how to be a team player and it really made me think about how I should play in further games and even in classroom groups on how to include everyone and thinking about all the options set out in front of me, without rushing through them.
Here’s a gallery of photos from the game, however there are no photos of me cause I couldnt find any.
AIS – 17th of november (at our school) – We won by about 10 points
This game was a little better, not only did we win by 10 points, we worked and “thought” as a team, winning the rebounds for the whole game and we tried to look up more and made sure we didn’t make as many rash decisions as we did the day before. I think it helped that we knew that we could win the game, since we had beat them before. Though we don’t need to have the mindset that we already know we can beat a team, but I think I at least need to not have such a negative mind about the game. Think more positively and think “maybe we can beat them” or “we can keep the points as close as possible” because what I’ve learnt is that the mindset at the start dictates how well we play individually for the whole game. Through this mindset I think I can think more about the different options that I have, not make nervous rash decisions (when I am in possession of the ball), and as team a team we can work together to make good plays to score some points (working collaboratively as a team & developed new skills).
St. Joseph’s – 23rd of November (at our school) – We lost by about 30 points points
This was another “not so great” game. I think our whole team went back to the nervous feeling we had when we played gateway. I certainly did because right before the game started I found out that most of the girls on the St Joseph’s team were on the national team and then my mind set changed from “let’s try our best” to “it’s already over”. Though I feel like I did try not to make rash passes and I looked around more, a lot of the team our point guard didn’t call the plays, so we had no idea what strategy we were going with. We also lost the rebounds because we didn’t box-out properly. So we went back to the same problems that we had with our gateway game, except we had more problems with moving around. Because this team was tougher, they were constantly on us and it was hard for us to pass around the ball, so what we needed to work on was moving around to help each other out (undertaking a new challenge). So in order to do this we had to work on our v-cuts. I did attempt the v-cuts and other “cuts” in order to get to the ball, but every time I tried and I called for the ball nobody realized I was open, so in the end I was covered yet again by my defender. What I feel I should work on is constantly moving around to spaces and calling out to my teammates more, because they may not always look around (increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth). But not just “dancing-around” as our coaches say, but making clear, strong v-cuts so we can really have a moment where we have no defender on us. I still need to work on not thinking so negatively about the result of the game, cause though I do try my best during the game, I feel that if I have a negative mind set I won’t try AS hard as I can (not just for basketball games, but for anything that I do).
CIS-24TH OF NOVEMBER (at our school) – We lost by about 20 points
In the beginning I tried my best not to have that “negative mind set” even though we knew that this was one of the best teams, or maybe even the best, but I tried my best and so did the rest of the team. But as we noticed that the other team was trying very hard in the game and was just not bothering (walking during the game, kneeling down to tie their shoelaces while the game was still going on, doing these “fun” tricks in the game), the mood, without us realizing, transferred to us and suddenly we weren’t trying very hard and so we lost the rebounds, we kept losing the ball and they just kept on scoring on us. And during half time our “assistant” coach told us about what was happening and scolded us a bit, how even if the other team isn’t trying we shouldn’t be the same. We should take advantage of it, otherwise they will never try either. After this talk, we all started to play the game like we do for the other good games we’ve had and we started winning the rebounds and making better plays and our team started to score (collaborating as a team). When we started trying and we continued scoring, suddenly the other team started trying as well, actually trying to defend their basket unlike before. Though the first half of the game wasn’t good, the last half went really well and we started to play the game better, even if we did lose in the end. Our “assistant” coach told us that if we reset the scoreboard at half time, we would have won the game because we played so much better and we were scoring a lot.
From playing a really tough team though, I realized the skills that I needed to work on. I needed to go to the ball when someone’s passing to me, because there were a few times when a teammate was passing to me and I knew, but so did one of the players on the other team because my teammate was looking right at me, so the ball was stolen off of me. I need to make sure that I go to the ball, I can’t expect it to come to me always, and I also need to look up for the pass, so that my teammates know where they can pass to. (developing new skills, undertaking new challenges, increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth).
From next week we have our British School basketball tournament, after school. This is the time where me and my teammates can really “show case” everything that we’ve learnt through this season and try to improve and watch out for things we shouldn’t do. The things that I needed to constantly remind myself before a game is to (increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth):
- keep a positive mind set
- look up for the pass
- go to the ball when someone’s passing to me
- look up (when in possession of the ball), looking at all my options
- move around and make v-cuts to “get rid” of my defender
- never give up
- fight for the ball
- “box-out”
- help our teammates out when they’re stuck
And I think these things, apply to everything I do in a different sense thought. (Except not 2, 3, 5 and 8)
“We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere” 