Specialist Basketball Semester 1 Review
WCE AFLW Reflection
In the two weeks that the players out at AFLW came, we prominently learnt about three major topics, diet, goal setting & what it takes to train at an elite level. The players went through and talked about these three topics which interlink into being a healthy person and a better performing athlete in general.
The first topic was dieting. “How should my diet look if I have a game today, practice at 3 o’clock” These were the types of things that the players talked to us about. Diet as a professional athlete included a bundled bunch of colourful fruit and vegetables, wholemeal or whole-grain foods, and lean meats and eggs. (A substitute for this can be legumes as they are also a source of protein). The last thing we learned as part of the diet was the difference between low and high GI carbohydrates. Low GI carbohydrates take time to break down in the gut, gradually releasing glucose into the blood and are generally less processed with more wholegrain or high in fibre which means there will be a higher nutrient level, since Low GI takes longer to break down, it was recommended to be eaten generally in the morning. High GI, on the other hand, is generally more processed and is rapidly digested and absorbed quickly into the bloodstream causing a rapid rise in blood glucose levels. Therefore, High GI foods can be beneficial directly before, during or after exercise rapidly replacing carbohydrates used.
My Interpretation of Skill Training & Personal Physicality
During this Specialist Basketball course, my mindset has had a big shift in what my expectations are for my skill training and personal physicality. Mr Haxby put us through multiple intense drills that required my body to work hard and exceed my normal rates. This clearly meant that I was “out of shape” or wasn’t used to working that hard. Overall my personal physicality improved drastically over the semester, this can be shown through the week 3 games and the week 8 games. I had struggled to keep up full court pressing the whole game, I often got tired out which eventually led me to be a liability on defence. This improved in week 9 in which I was able to run down and up the court all game and was able to stay in front of my defender whether I picked him up from full-court or half-court. Contrastingly, skills were definitely my strong point as Mr Haxby firmly explained precise details to improve certain areas of my game. Applying these skills to 5 on 5 games was my weak point though, I always felt uncomfortable trying new things on the court and always felt the need to stick to what I know on defence, just in case my other teammates weren’t up to speed. My Haxby emphasises that working on my skills every day would eventually make me more confident to experiment with new moves and use them on the court.
Offensive Concepts
In semester 1 there was an emphasis on ‘swinging the ball to the weak side’. Mr Haxby states “As the ball moves, the defence moves, move the ball faster, defence makes more mistakes” This explains the concept that no player should be playing 1 on 1 every position as there will always be help defence, passing the ball or attack as soon as you catch the ball often keeps the defence on their toes and forces them to scramble which leads to an opening. Spacing was the number one concept that Mr Haxby talked about every single lesson, especially on a 2 on 1, running wide forces the one defender to make a tough decision whether to stay middle or go to either player, sacrificing the other. The last main thing was how to run a pick and roll the correct way. The pick and roll in basketball is an offensive play in which a player sets a screen for a teammate handling the ball and then moves towards the basket to receive a pass. Mr Haxby taught us on how to utilise the screen correctly as the ball handler, bumping into the pick, maximising the effectiveness of the screen. As the screen setter, make sure you are setting the pick at a certain angle, and the positioning of your feet must be behind the defender to make the screen effective.
Defensive Concepts
Some of our skill and theory lessons working on defensive concepts were about how to properly defend a pick and roll, forcing a turnover. But, ‘Shell Drill’ was the main focus of our lessons based on defence. This drill focuses on three basic concepts of defence, ‘On the ball’, ‘denying the pass’, and ‘help side’. These three concepts can be shown in the video below.
The three main concepts of shell drill are perfectly shown in this video:
“On-Ball” defence was played excellently by Danny Joe, as instructed, he forced his player to the baseline to where he was met at the keyway by Jack Byrne, “Help Side”, Jack quickly realised that since he was defending the weak side, he should drop down to the base to play help-side defence, in this instance, he reacted quick enough to force Zaid Muhammad to make a bad pass in which Adam Charlton and Simba Gundani “denied the pass” and intercepted the ball. Although Shell Drill may seem simple, it required a lot of practice, communication and teamwork, and most importantly responsibility to be in the right place at all times.
Where to from here?
By far, and I say that with 100% confidence, this was the most fun subject I have ever done during my time at All Saints’ College, basketball takes up a big part of my life, even though I have only been playing for 2 years. Basketball allows me to have fun with mates and overall clear my mind. It allows me to learn skills on the court offensively and defensively, but in my opinion, the most important skills such as teamwork and leadership. My diet is slowly changing which has led to me being a healthier person and in general a happier person. From this point on I want to incorporate everything that I have learnt in this fun-packed semester on and off the court, my aspiration for basketball in the future is for me to become a complete player that my friends willingly want to play with.
Thank You Mr Haxby for this precious opportunity, I couldn’t have asked for a better coach.
Elliot Sarmidi