This semesters I got the chance to do Spec basketball as one of my electives. In this elective, my aim was to improve my skills and confidence is preparation for my up coming WABL season and to understand how I work as a player and techniques to improve and alter my warm up, warm downs, diet and game play.

PLAYER PROFILE

At the start of this elective, I complete a self reflection as part of an out of school basketball program I’m in. I had 5 different areas of my game that I had to rate myself out of 10 how, say a strength of that area and say an improvement I wanted to work on. below is what I completed at the start of the year:

If I had to re assess myself, I feel as though I have improved but not so much as to change my scores. I feel that my improvements might change but as I now have different goals and focuses for my season. for example, I would change one of my focusses to be working on my left handed finishes to the basket.

DEFENSIVE CONCEPTS

SHELL DRILL: This semester, the defensive drill we got taught was the shell drill as one of our Defensive concepts.

Defence 1 : has 2 feet in the paint, on the split line. prepared to help on defence if the person with the ball drives base line.

Defence 2 : 1 foot in the paint and between is player and defence 1 player. guards both so D1 can can stay under the basket.

Defence 3 : 1 foot in the paint. guards his player and D2 player if 2 guards 1s player.

Defence 4 : no feet in the paint. slightly between their player and the ball. D4s job is to be ready to steal the ball if it gets passed to their player. Also provides pressure for their player as D4 is taking away the passing option to their player.

Defence 5 : no feet in the paint, pressure on their player as they have the ball. 1 foot above their players foot, forcing them baseline and into the double team with D1.

This drill/play allows players to learn rotation on the court when playing defence. I had previously learnt this before but going through it step by step really helped me to understand how to cover all the players on the court, whilst still applying pressure and help to your teammates.

OFFENSIVE CONCEPTS

PICK AND ROLL: we got taught the pick and roll for our offensive drill. the pick and roll allows for a player to get rid of their player, and have an option at the basket. the pick and roll involves 2 players and their defence. player 1, has the ball and player 2 sets a screen for them. as the name suggests, the person who sets the screen picks, and as player 1 comes off the screen, player 2 rolls to the basket.

Offence 1 : O1 is the player with the ball. O1 waits for the screen to be set by O2. Once screen is set, O1 dribbles towards the key, bumping shoulders with the O2, so that their defence cant get above the screen and has to either switch or go below the screen. Once O1 comes off the screen, they look for O2 or they takes the ball to the basket.

Offence 2 : O2 is the screener and sets the screen for the person with the ball (O1). The screener must get 1 foot above the defence and be parallel to the side line. as O1 comes off the screen, O2 rolls/turns their body towards the O1, and closes their defence and rolls towards the basket as an option to score.

This offence is very useful is most situations. it allows for the ball to move around the court and supplies many options for a score, whether that be shooting, passing to the roller, kicking the ball out to the perimeter or just create some movement and space. the pick and roll is very simply but very effective.

WAFL Presentations

In this elective, we were fortunate enough to have some of the WAFL west coast player come out to talk to us about a few things regarding being an elite athlete. in total we had about 3 session, 1 with boys and girls, and 2 with just girls.

We had the presentation with the boys and girls about how important our diet is when being an athlete. what to eat to get energy pre game and post game and training. we learnt about simple and complex carbs and when to have them. we learnt about how important it is to have a balanced diet. I found this presentation very useful because I had no clue about how important a good and proper diet is and how it can effect your game if you don’t eat properly.

The next 2 presentations were just with the girls. These were about injury prevention with women, and hormones n\and periods whilst playing. we learnt about how women’s bodies and all very different and therefore our physique makes us more prone to injuries like tarring our ACL. We learnt about how we have 4 stages during our period and monthly cycles, which yet again, effect how we play.

These presentations had a major effect on me. I learnt a lot from them and have taking many things into consideration after hearing about the different topics and how important it is to fuel you body right, warm up correctly, and how our periods can effect how we play.

OVERVIEW

Overall, I really enjoyed this elective. it has taught me many things and has provided me with more information about elite athletes that I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t choose this elective. I would definitely recommend this elective for anyone who has any interest in basketball what so ever, and provides many great opportunities to improve as a player.