Basketball
is a big part of my life, it always has been. I was introduced to the game
before I can remember and have been in love with it ever since. Only recently,
for whatever reasons, have I found it to be more than just a game. I’ve come to
find out that basketball has taught me more than I realized, and the knowledge
that I gain from it, whether it concerns myself or my surroundings, is something that I can carry for the rest of
my life.
One
meaningful achievement, probably the most important, basketball helped me with
was understanding courage. Courage is a hard thing to figure. Courage can be defined
differently by different people, and basketball helped me find my definition.
One
of the biggest parts of my game that I can improve is attacking the basket. It
is not so much that I am athletically incapable, and it is not a matter of
being aggressive. I believe it is simply that I don’t have the courage to. It
takes courage to come down on the very next possession and shoot the ball after
you’ve just air balled. It takes courage to take the last shot with the clock
winding down. Believing in yourself, that is what I believe defines courage.
Believing that you are just as important, just as talented as anyone else can
take you far both in the game of basketball, and in life.
For me personally, I’ve realized that I’m not
intimidated by my opponent but actually by my teammates. What makes me so
special that I get to take the shot, when I know my teammate next to me is just
as capable of doing so. However, how am I supposed to get playing time with
that mindset; how am I going to succeed with that mindset. It takes courage to push through the boundaries
that people, including yourself, set you to. It takes courage to tell yourself something
and sincerely believe it, especially when others tell you different. It is
extremely easier to remain stagnant and not push yourself to do better. It is
easier to be content with sitting on the bench and claiming there’s nothing you
can do. I’ve learned taking the other path and pushing to do better, or
believing in myself, takes the most courage any act can require. Basketball has
taught me growth begins at the end of my comfort zone, and finally taking that
first step out of my comfort zone is the most courageous act I can ever do.
Kendall, I thought the overall theme and concept of your post was inscriptional. I can greatly relate to your internal struggle in relation to the competition between teammates and one's own desire to succeed. You accurately describe the feelings and emotions felt during this conflict. However, I am not sure what you are arguing or what point you are trying to explain. The post seemed as if you were telling a story or describing courage as opposed to arguing a point. If you were telling a story or highlighting a moral such as courage this post would have been more fitting. I also noticed a couple punctuation errors where I was confused as to weather or not you were asking a question or making a statement.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kendall, for this honest post. You write fairly well, although there are some basic issues with punctuation and sentence structure. In addition, this post is very engaging to read because you so honestly share your personal experience with basketball. My only real complaint is that the personal narrative can come across as lacking substance. I wish you would have done more to elaborate your interpretation of courage, or how you can learn courage from basketball. Ultimately, you just write a well-written personal reflection. I was hoping that you would take a position and defend it.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I can relate. I too struggled with attacking the basket, and as a result, I road the bench for most games during my junior year - after being a starter during my sophomore year! I was a half-decent hoops player, but I was always too afraid to drive to the hoop, and I probably could have done so pretty easily. I was just afraid I would fail. I grew up in the era just after Marcus Camby graduated from UMass. John Calipari used to have Camby bring the ball up the floor to beat the full court press. He had this unique idea that a ball-handling center was the best offense against a man-to-man full court defense, because centers cannot defend in the open court. My varsity coach wanted me to do the same thing in high school, because as a big man, I had pretty good ball-handling skills. Unfortunately, I was always too afraid to be responsible for handling the ball. I played a lot of minutes my sophomore and senior years, but I can only remember dribbling the ball once. No courage to handle! To this day, I always think that if I ever coach a team, I will design drills that are meant to expose players to failure so that they can get over that fear.