Category: Sport

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.

What were the biggest things you learnt while completing this task?

I learnt a lot whilst researching this topic. Being a teenager myself and always on my phone, I didn’t realise just how much of a distraction they are. I understood to a certain extent what impact mobile phones have on you when driving and the distraction that they can become. But some of the biggest things I learnt when completing this task was that between 2016-2020 there were a reported 524 deaths from inattentive driving. In hindsight this doesn’t seem like a lot but when you think about it, fatal car crashes are rarer than they seem and are less common to come across, 524 is more than a whole year group at some schools. Another thing I learnt is that a 2 second look at your phone while driving at the average speed on built up areas, relates to 33 metres of distance where you aren’t look at your phone. This statistic really stuck out to me, so I related my whole project on it. Most people argue that “just a quick look wont hurt” when in fact it can be the difference between life or death in some cases.

What one piece of advice would you pass on to young drivers above all else? Why?

One piece of advice that I would give to young drivers about this topic is to please think before you act, think before you look at your phone, think before you do anything on the road that could potentially end badly. It doesn’t matter how good of a driver you think you are, by looking at your phone whilst driving, you are not only putting yourself in danger, but everyone else on the road and any passengers that are with you. So, think before you act, just a quick look isn’t an excuse. I say this because I don’t want anyone to get hurt or potentially die if it can be avoided, looking at your phone whilst driving can be avoided, other distraction can be avoided, and no one wants a family member, a friend, a peer to get hurt or loose their life on the road if it can be avoided.

Write down a pledge that you will commit to when you start driving. Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to these commitments?

I pledge to always be always alert and aware of my surroundings and other cars on the road. I pledge to always remove my distraction (phones, loud music, noisy and disturbing passengers) and keep my focus always to he roads. I pledge to always get myself and other passenger safely from point a to point b and if it happens to be at night and I get fatigued, to never drive under those conditions. I pledge to never drive under the influence and never assume that I am ok to drive when under the influence of alcohol. And lastly, I pledge to always be a safe driver, never loose focus and to always be patient. I will commit to these things for the benefit of myself and others because by me being a safe driving, I know that I am doing my job on the road and keeping myself and others around me safe. I will remove/minimise distraction eg my phone, and I will make an effort to always be patient with others whilst on the road.

In term 1 we did a snorkelling course in Muir outdoor ed. in this course we learnt the basic skills of snorkeling and got the chance to go and practice these skills in places like Coogee beach at the Omeo shipwreck and a day trip to Rottnest.

SKILLS

Some skills that we learnt on the first couple lessons of snorkelling were things like duck dives, clearing out masks underwater, clearing our snorkel. these skills were very beneficial for our snorkelling trips as it made snorkeling a lot easier and quicker. When first learning these skills we were in a controlled environment (the pool). This ensure that we could practice these skills in a comfortable environment where we could make mistakes and it would be ok. As we got more comfortable with our skills we moved out into a less controlled environment – Coogee beach- where we could practice these skills in a less comfortable environment but still feel safe. As we moved to Rottnest for our final snorkelling day, we were in an uncontrolled environment-meaning that we couldn’t control anything about the space, e.g temperature, animals- This allowed us to show our skills in an uncomfortable situation but we could still feel safe as we knew what we were doing and had everyone around us.

CAPABILITIES

I worked on a lot of capabilities during this course. some of these capabilities are, collaborative, organisation. I worked on and used collaboration a lot during this course. it was a skill that was heavily needed and was also used for safety. collaboration is a skill that requires you to work with others. I used this skill when at school and in the pool practicing our skills, at Coogee when we had to buddy up and work together in the ocean, and at Rotto when we had to stick together to make sure that we were all safe. Organisation to me was one of the most important skills that we needed in this course. It ensured that we all could participate in the snorkelling activities, it gave us a sense of safety, it allowed us to enjoy the beautiful ocean and the surroundings. I improved majorly on this skill during this course as it tough me to always be ready the day before we had a snorkelling day and to know where all of my equipment was. Being organised the day before and having all my stuff ready, allowed me to enjoy the snorkelling more, knowing that I had everything I needed and didn’t need to worry about it. One skill that that I feel that I need to improve on and that has been brought to my attention during this course is leadership. I felt that I did hold back a little when it came to student lead briefs as i was scared that I would get something wrong. Now looking back at it, its ok to get some things wrong as it shows that i’m thinking and striving to learn about it. In the future I wish for me to take on any leadership roles that arise in these subjects as it is a vital part of outdoor ED.

SUSTAINABLILITY AND LEAVE NO TRACE.

Rottnest and coogee are very beautiful places. They are very big and popular tourist attractions as well. One very notable aspect of there places is the cleanly less of the beaches/whole island. In this course, whenever we went out on our snorkelling trips, we always made sure to LEAVE NO TRACE, meaning to leave the environment the way we found it or even cleaner- e.g picking up rubbish, keeping out belongings all in one place- this ensures that we preserve the beautiful environment and the animals and plants that live there so that generations after us can also enjoy the beautiful serenity of places like Rotto and coogee beach.

EXCURSIONS- ROTTO AND COOGEE

As I previously said we got to practice out skills in uncontrolled environment. These places being Coogee beach at the Omeo shipwreck and Rottnest island at the Basin. We went to Coogee a total of 3 times, but I only went twice. The first trip out was a bit nerve racking at first but after a little while it was pretty fun. I was nervous about being out in the open water and having to practice some of the skills, but after a little while, I settled into my surroundings and found it quite peaceful out in the water. The 2nd session at Coogee was a lot more fun. our boundaries were widened and we got to explore further out into the water and saw a lot more fish and sculptors. When the day arrive of the Rottnest excursion, i was very excited. I made sure that i was organised the night before and that i had everything i needed for the trip. I found that being out at Rotto was quite a lot different to being out at Coogee, as the space we were in was a lot bigger and had a lot more ocean life and coral to see and be aware of. But nevertheless it was a lot more fun. We saw so much more sea life- including a seal and stingray- and overall was just a lot more satisfying see how far I had come from the first sessions in the pool at school.

CONCLUSION

Overall I found this unit a lot of fun and would definitely recommend. this unit allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone, branch out and work with new people, use some new capabilities and work on some, to be aware of our surroundings and hep to preserve the beauty of it for generations to come and the importance of preserving it. and finally this unit taught me how beautiful our world really is, how such small things like fishes and coral can really make me smile and think about how lucky we are to even have an opportunity to go out and do stuff like snorkelling.