Blaise has had a jump shot since he was 18 months old. We bought him a little kids hoop for his 2nd Christmas and were amazed at how he could instantly jump and shoot. He would slide down our little slide and shoot when he got to the bottom. He did all sorts of things with it. Over the years to come Blaise continued to practice on that hoop, then on a hoop we had on our trampoline net, then on a little hoop stuck behind a door in the house and then for his birthday this year we got him a full size fancy hoop (well all the grandparents pitched in with us).
For the past two years Blaise has gone to a skills session once a week at our local basketball stadium. He has been dying to play on a team but the minimum age is 7. Now he is 7 we signed up for him to join a team. He got assigned a team who we met today at Blaise’s first game. He was excited about this game all week. We got there early to do some warm ups and make sure we were ready. He is on a team of seven players – three girls and four boys. Three of them have played together before and the rest are new to the team. We were very impressed with his coach and team manager. They were very welcoming and friendly.
For the first 5 mins of the game Blaise played exactly how we expected him to. He ran all over the court, touched the ball a few times and had fun. He was doing really well and seemed to fit in perfectly. Then it was if he figured out exactly what was going on and had an amazing game. He surprised me with his understanding of what was going on on the whole court as he started anticipating things better. He also surprised me with how fast he was running up and down the court. Multiple times he caught up to the opposition who were dribbling down the court and managed to steal the ball. He was the high scorer scoring 8 points. His team won the game and they were all thrilled and excited. It was a great start for the season. I did feel bad for the other team though – they had amazing ball skills and played better as a team, they just kept missing their shots and didn’t get the rebounds.
What impressed me the most was that he was a good team player – he passed the ball lots, didn’t take shots when he was under pressure and fit in really well with the team as a whole. We had talks about making sure he passed to others and gave everyone a turn. In fact we have had many talks about this over the past year or so. Being competitive is in his DNA. Both Luke and I are competitive! However if you ask my children what the most important thing in the game is both Ethan and Blaise will tell you (in a yes mum sort of way) that it’s being a good sportsman and team player. Vienna would probably tell you winning but that’s a whole new story.
If you happen to see Blaise this week be prepared to listen to an animated run down on the entire game!
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