Until recently, I wasn’t interested in Basketball. While I was aware of its existence, I simply ignored it throughout most of my childhood. But with the increase in popularity of the NBA and the Basketball culture in India, I got a bit curious. I researched Basketball online and was surprised to learn about its rich legacy and current popularity both in India and overseas. This made me want to learn how to play Basketball as it is becoming more and more popular in school and it is also good for health, fitness and height growth. And so I have started learning Basketball from friends and several online resources like the YouTube channel ‘Get Handles Basketball’ from December.
Learning Outcomes:
LO1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth
After playing for some time, I started to realize my strengths and weaknesses. I got to know that I have good passing and shooting strength, but have terrible stamina. This allowed me to focus on my strengths and work on my weaknesses.
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Learning Basketball was very challenging for me as the types of sports I had played before, like Table Tennis and Lawn Tennis, didn’t involve jumping. That is why I had to do a lot of jump practice to make myself proficient enough. Basketball also includes a lot of dribbling, something which was completely new to me. So I had to work hard to better my skills so that others can’t snatch the ball from me when dribbling.
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
Due to the increase in load due to studies, I had to carefully plan out my schedule for practice so that I can extract the most time for it while not sacrificing time for anything else. I also made goals and targets to meet to keep me motivated and give a sense of achievement once I achieve it.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
After playing Basketball a couple of times, I started to enjoy playing it, and maintaining the routine wasn’t a problem initially. But after some time, my body started aching a lot and it started affecting my willingness to practice regularly. I still practiced and practiced and soon enough my body got used to it. I am thankful that my perseverance got me through it.
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Basketball is a team sport. In a team sport, it is very important to work collaboratively. Only if we work collaboratively then we can function well as a team. It is important to realise that collaboration is a crucial skill as a team wins matches not on individual effort but on the whole team’s contribution.
LO7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.
In a game like a basketball, where there is an inherent and deep-rooted team culture, rules matter a lot not only to ensure fair play but also because following them shows how serious you are about the game and whether you respect other players on the court or not. These unique ethics of Basketball is what made me interested in it in the first place.
In conclusion, learning Basketball has been a great experience for me as it gave me a new perspective on a sport that was completely alien to me and also taught me that different sports have different ethics. It also taught me not to give up and hang on.
Evidence:
