During spec basketball we covered 4 main things. We started looking at offensive concepts for a few weeks then we went into defensive concepts for the majority of term 1, we also covered nutrition and lastly we went over recovery methods. We had 4 classes a week in spec basketball, in our doubles on a Wednesday morning we would head to down to Willeton Stadium and play games and train their. On our single period on Monday we would us that as a theory session where we would go over nutrition and other concepts such a recovery. Our Friday session would be our skills sessions where we would put into practice and tweak the things we learnt on Wednesday with guidance from Mr Haxby.
West Coast Eagles AFL Woman’s Presenters
We learned a lot about diet, goal planning, and what it takes to train at a high level during the two weeks that the players from AFLW were here. The athletes looked through these three issues and discussed how they relate to being a healthy person and a better athlete in general.
Dieting was the first issue discussed. These were the topics on which the players talked with us about . As a pro athlete, my diet needs consist of a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables, wholemeal or whole-grain items, lean meats, and eggs. The distinction between complex and simple carbs was the last item we learnt as part of the diet. complex take longer to break down in the gut, gradually releasing glucose into the bloodstream, and are often less processed, including more wholegrain or high in fibre, implying that there will be a slower release of glucose into the bloodstream, where as it is the opposite for simple carbs.
Player Profile
A Player profile is a document which includes key details about a players self and his/her game style including strengths weaknesses and experience.
Offensive Concepts`
For our offensive concepts during the term the main things we looked at where creating space off the ball, like cutting to the basket and dragging your defender away to create space. We also looked at using the pick and roll. The pick and roll is a very common play in the all basketball leagues where a player mostly a centre of a forward sets a screen on the ball handlers defender and then rolls to the basket for the ball hander to give them an easy dump pass for a free layup. We didn’t just cover the one variation of this we also looked at the jump shots as you come off the screen at the elbow. These are all very useful concepts to use in game.
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defensive Concepts
We mainly focused on something called a ‘Shell Drill’ in our defensive principles. Defence is played by 4-5 players in a zone-like arrangement. When the players are playing 5 out offence, with all players out on the 3-point line, the defence may be run. We practiced and trained this defence for a few weeks before using it. This defence is particularly essential since it is used by high-level professional teams. On the defensive side, the player protecting the ball must be arms-width apart from the play on the ball, while the rest of the team plays in the gap to prevent ball entrance and intercept passes in mid-air. When a player drives from the corner or wing, the defender hedges to the baseline when the defender from the farthest distance comes in and double teams the before keyway, blocking entry. We also looked at how to defend someone off a screen, as well as how to sneak or pop up on one. Basic defence tactics and tips were also taught.
Where to from here?
For the rest of my basketball playing career i would love to take what i have learnt in this course to a further level like a WABL team to improve my playing skills and learn more things about the sport, whilst also staying involved in domestic leagues with friends such as Willeton. With all the new knowledge Mr. Haxby has given us i would love to help other people and pass this knowledge onto them, whether that be my other peers, players in my other teams or younger kids looking to get better at basketball.
To conclude I learned so much from this class enabling me to enhance my basketball skills and knowledge of them game. I would love to do this again and Thank you to Mr Haxby for the great teachings.
