Category: Sporting Opportunities
Specialised Basketball 2022
This year my elective has been specialised basketball. In Specialised Basketball we have been learning skills and game play as well as making player profiles. We had some professional AFL women come in and talk to us about nutrition and health. They also just talked to the girls about how girls are more at risk with injury’s, and we learnt about injury prevention as well as setting up physicality tests to see if we have improved. We have also been learning offence and defensive concepts.
WEST COAST AFL WOMEN EXPERIENCE REFLECTION
One of the concepts we looked at was Diet, goal setting/elite training and (for just the girls) injury prevention and how your period effects sport. We had women from the West Coast ALFW talk to us. First they discussed Diet. They talked about how you should have a colourful diet meaning you should have all types of food in your diet. We also compared the West Coast AFLW diet to our diet and we learnt what foods to have at a certain time. Next topic we did was goal setting and we made some goals for Specialised basketball as well as our own sport goals. Then just the girls were taught about injury prevention since women have weaker bones and a different stance compared to boys. We learnt this by doing some warm up exercises. We also learnt about how to mange our periods during sport. Overall this experience really helped me to understand how to look after my body more and I also learnt a lot about goal setting.
How do I perceive skill training and /or personal physicality?
In the semester 1 we focused on improving our physicality as well as improving our skills. We did this by making a program to set out how much physical activity we would do each day. As well as including it in our class. We also got assigned these physical tests and we had to record the results. We then did it later on in the term and compared the results. We got to see if we improved or not and if so why? I perceived my skill training in the class by recording my results and by learning new skills. We also made a player profile to show what our strengths and weaknesses were. Overall this helped me to understand skill training and why it is so important as well as personal physicality.
PLAYER PROFILE
Offence Concept
In Specialised Basketball we learnt about being in the Offence position and we did some drills. One of the drills we did was to practice offence as well as practice defence, which was the shell drill. We also learnt some skills to get around the opposition defenders. This helped me to understand how to be better at offence. We also learnt some new drills which I can use in the future to practice my basketball. We also talked about dribbling and triple threat which helped the offence concept as well as looking at footwork.
Defence Concept
Another thing we looked at was the Defence concept. This involved looking at defensive stance and defensive technique. We did this by practising 1v1 drills and the shell drill. This helped us to understand more about the defence concept as well as looking at new ways to improve your defensive technique. We also watched some Shell drills done by adults to see how they did this, so we could learn from watching them. We also analysed these videos and saw how they defended was so we could correct them and learn from them. This helped me to improve my defensive stance.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
Hopefully next year I can do specialised basketball again and join a local basketball club so I can continue to play basketball. Overall I really enjoyed specialised basketball and I learnt a lot from it.
WAIS TALENT IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM
Part 1 (Description)
On the 25/8/2022 at All Saints College, I got an email about a sporting opportunity that was run by WAIS and it was a Talent identification program. This was for kids who wanted to do it. The program was set up to see if you had Olympic potential for certain sports that were less popular. The sports were rowing, kayaking, and cycling. I ended up volunteering for the program as well as lots of other kids. We had to go to the school gym to do the testing. They tested stuff like weight, height, vertical jump, stationary bike sprints and endurance. Afterwards I got an email saying that I got into the program for Track Cycling. Then I had to go to an information night where they talked about track cycling and road cycling. They explained how lots of kids enjoyed the program, and that the program only ran for 5 months and would finish after the WA state championships. Then I went to the velodrome and started my training.
Part 2 (Feeling)
Went I got the email about the program I was really excited because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was also a bit nervous because I really wanted to be selected, but I didn’t know what was involved. I think other people felt nervous and excited as well because when we did the testing everyone was concentrating because I think we all wanted to do well, and we wanted to get into the program. After the testing I was surprised when I got an email saying that I hit a benchmark score and I got into the program. I was really happy and when I told my parents they were really proud as well. I was also very eager to start the program. Then we went to the meeting, and I was excited and nervous. They talked about how this program would end in 5 months’ time, and then they gave us information about when it was going to start and so on. When I first went to track cycling, I was really nervous. The first day there were no girls and just boys, so I felt like I had no friends. Some girls joined later, and I ended up being friends with all of them in the end.
Part 3 (Evaluation and analysis)
When I started track the most positive thing was that I made friends and had good friends with me, and we all had a close connection because we were all in the same boat, and also the group became really close. The most negative bit was probably the self-doubt in my head. I thought that I wasn’t good enough because I had a slow start at the beginning, but I ended up enjoying it. What went well was that I could slowly see that I was improving. And after the progarm I ended up being the gold medalist for Western Australia for the U15 girls scratch race. I was really proud. People who helped me were my coach, parents, friends, competitors, and other people who just supported me along the way. And if I had to do it all over again, I would probably believe in myself more.
Part 4 (Conclusion)
I learnt about myself, that anything is possible. You just have to want it really badly. I also learnt that if I push myself a lot can happen like when I wanted to compete in the State Championships, and I tried my hardest and I ended up getting a good result. What I learnt about that particular situation was that being organized was a major thing because if your bike isn’t ready then you can’t do a proper warm up which can effect the race. It can also be really stressful if you’re disorganized. I learnt a lot about my coach’s and what techniques they use. For example one of my coach’s only likes practicing sprinting techniques. What I could have done differently was that I could have been more organized, and I should have stopped the self-doubt in my head when I started racing because I was always coming in that last group. I got really upset but I just needed to believe in myself a bit more. The skills/knowledge I would need to develop further is that I need to get into the habit of hydrating before a race, so I don’t get dehydrated. I also need to learn how to balance schoolwork and cycling and my other sports. The Advice I would use for 2022 is that I need to be properly prepared for races and I need to get better at studying because the homework only gets harder from here.
Part 5 (action)
This new learning can help me by being more organized and being more proactive and not relying on people for bike repairs and stuff like that. Also, I can get better at bike handling skills in the future. The goals I would like to make for the end of this term and next term is that I want to get better with handling both cycling and schoolwork at the same time because I don’t want to fail schoolwork. I am creating this goal because I think it would help me, and I need the goals or else I won’t succeed with schoolwork and cycling. Then I can’t do what I love the most which is cycling, if I don’t have balance. I think my goals align with my values. I will monitor my goals by getting myself a tutor to support me with schoolwork. I am also going to use my dairy more and I am going put my phone in another room so I don’t get distracted by it. I will see how that goes for a week or 2 and then I will improve the goal and I will keep it on track. The people who would be involved would be my parents, teachers, and my tutor. At the end of the term, I will see how I have improved through my test results at school.
Part 6 (my goal)
Is to get better at finding a balance with my studying so I will be able to manage my schoolwork and my cycling together, so I can keep progressing in the future.
Here are Some photos of me and the WA State Championships
A photo of me racing at the State champs in the 20 lap scratch race in the end I ended up coming first and winning a gold for best Under 15 girl in the state for that race. The girls were mixed with the boys. 
Here is all the kids that were picked for the WAIS talent identification program