This week I took the test that I studied for relentlessly over eleven weeks. In this case, studying meant spending multiple hours every week working on specific parts of my game, working out in the gym, and analyzing film and data to improve future performances. I split the test up into multiple days.
Monday was the first day that I decided to start the test. I attemped fifty free throws, worked on the ball-handling drills, ran some 4-on-4 pick-up games, and did a plyometric workout. I made forty-three of the fifty free throws and only messed up 3 times during the 5 minute span of ball-handling drills. The next day was also spent at Rise playing 3-on-3 pick-up games and testing my mid-range pull-ups. I made eighteen out of twenty-five attempts and played amazing in the 3-on-3 games. Wednesday was different from Monday and Tuesday. I didn’t do any drills that applied to the test and played full court pick-up games for the majority of the time I was at the YMCA. The last hour was used in the gym to hit a leg workout. Luckily, I was able to get back on track Thursday. I tested my vertical jump and floaters on an outdoor court. I shot twenty for twenty-five on the floaters and my jump was measured around 33 inches. The next day was also a productive one since I tested another two parts of my game. I attempted 3-pointers and catch and shoot mid-ranges to finish the test. I connected on seventy percent of my three’s (thirty-five) out of fifty and thirty-seven out of fifty catch and shoot mid-ranges. After finishing my test and clearly noticing improvement in almost every piece of my game, I went into the weekend with the most confidence I’ve had in a while. This clearly translated to my performances in pick-up games because I scored a ton of points on Saturday and Sunday. The teams on Saturday included multiple juniors from Davie that play basketball and the teams on Sunday were composed of former and current college basketball players. I played great in the games on Saturday but it was nothing compared to my performance on Sunday. I made countless three’s and was scoring at will from multiple different spots on the court.
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After having tournaments for three weekends in a row, my Saturday and Sunday were freed up. This is why I focused on having the most fun possible while playing basketball this week instead of elaborately preparing for the weekend. I also practiced some drills to prepare me for the final test that’s supposed to show me if I improved or not.
I started Monday off with some king of the court and 5-on-5 games at the YMCA. My performances were mediocre. Although the players in the king of the court games were much older than me, I should’ve scored more points on them and played better defense. I played substandard in the 5-on-5 games also. I wasn’t a big factor in any of the games and only made a few shots in each game. Due to the tiredness I was feeling on Monday and the performance that resulted from it, I decided to rest Tuesday. I was back to practicing the next day at Rise. I played in 5-on-5 games and practiced some drills after. My performances in the 5-on-5 games were incredible. I scored the most points out of all players on both teams and scored them efficiently. The games were also competitive and eighty percent of the players were varsity or junior varsity players at Davie. The things that I worked on after the games were my mid-ranges and floaters. Thursday was spent running plays at practice for my AAU team as usual. I played at Rise the next day and scrimmaged against a group of players that looked like they were in their twenty’s. I was amazing in the scrimmage hitting at least 4 3’s and still involving my teammates in the game. I practiced multiple different moves and ball-handling after this. Even though most of the week was spent playing pick-up games, I managed to get in some really productive practice sessions over the weekend. I had a 2 hour session with a trainer that I’ve known since the sixth grade on Saturday and practiced 3-pointers, mid-range shots, and free throws at my favorite park on Sunday. After the tournament in week 9, I desired a bigger role on a team. I played on a team with all of my friends in a Winston-salem tournament because of this instead of playing with CVE, my AAU team. This meant that I had to be in amazing shape by the time Saturday rolled around since I would probably be playing the whole game multiple times. Conditioning and performance in pick-up games were the main things I decided to work on due to this.
As planned, I started my Monday out on the treadmill at the YMCA. After running for about 20 minutes, I played 4-on-4 games and king of the court. My performances were amazing in the games. I stopped a senior on the West Forsyth basketball team from scoring on me six times in a row and won almost every game I played. Tuesday was a productive practice session as well. I practiced some ball-handling workouts as soon as I stepped on the court and worked on my isolation game by playing in some 1-on-1 and king of the court games. I finished my day with 100 push-ups before getting in bed. I practiced at the YMCA again on Wednesday. I planned on running on the treadmill for a while before playing in games but the temptation of putting my basketball shoes on and calling for next got to me when I saw a full-court game going on. My performances throughout the games were remarkable. I was scoring with ease and efficiency almost every game even if someone much older or more physically developed than me guarded me. I slightly redeemed myself with a back and shoulder workout before the YMCA closed. I wasn’t able to do anything on Thursday since I could barely breath and found out that I had strep throat. Luckily, I was prescribed some drugs that quickly lessened the intense cough and difficulty of breathing that I had. I was able to go to Rise the next day because of this. I ran on the treadmill for about 25 minutes when I got there and did some plyometrics after. I attempted at least 250 3-pointers and 100 mid-range shots on the shooting machine after these workouts. Finally, Saturday arrived. I played decently in the three games and scored a total of 33 points. I knew I could’ve scored at least 45 points with the amount of shots that I took but I was satisfied with the fact that I even had a chance to attempt as many as I did. We also won the tournament and had a great time together in between the games. We ate at Panera, McDonald’s, and I hung out with two of my teammates after the games. The experience was awesome and won’t be forgotten. What I needed to work on this week was crystal clear after analyzing my performances in the last tournament I played in. I needed to take a step back from drills and play in games more often. My playstyle in the games last weekend seemed to have been rushed. I didn’t play at the pace I prefer to play at and I thought playing in more pick-up games would help me adjust better to that problem. I started my week off at Rise. I played in some pretty competitive games for the entire 2 and a half hours I spent there. The games started off as 3-on-3 games and led to 5-on-5 games after about 45 minutes. I played great in most of the games which should be impressive when considering the competition. The teams throughout the session consisted of multiple Davie junior varsity players, Davie varsity players, a varsity player that goes to Atkins, a Division 2 commit, and a trainer. Although I went to Rise the next day, the competition wasn’t nearly the same. I played 3-on-3 games and put up some shots while I was there. The people I played against in the pick-up games probably had the same skills of an average junior varsity player. Unlike the past 2 days, Wednesday and Thursday weren’t spent at Rise. I didn’t have access to a car after arriving home on Wednesday. This encouraged me to practice outside on my hoop. Thursday was spent at practice as usual. Luckily, I was able to return to Rise on Friday. I worked on a little bit of everything while practicing at game-speed to prepare me for the upcoming tournament. After this, I hit a bicep and shoulder workout to end the day. The tournament didn’t go how I expected it to. I played in 4 games and my team won 3 of them. Although that seems like something most people would be satisfied with, I wasn’t. The reason for this wasn’t because of the win to loss ratio, but because most of these games didn’t include me being used at the rate that I should've been. I only played about 10-12 minutes each game out of games that were 28 minutes long. Although I understood why my play time was diminished after playing poorly in the previous tournament, I didn’t think I would play the equivalent of a quarter and a half in the games. Despite this, I played amazing with the time I was given. I only took 8 shots out of 4 games and made 5 of them. This included a shooting percentage of seventy-five percent from 3-point range. I also turned the ball over just twice and played amazing defense. The takeaway from this week was to stay positive through difficult times and always give my best effort even if the situation isn’t favorable. The focus of this week was ball-handling. I’ve always been amazing at dribbling and shifting quickly while handling the ball to score or open up opportunities on the court which is why I was excited to practice more on this skill this week. I started my drills at the YMCA on Monday. The ball-handling drills that I practice usually take about 15 minutes. A few of the drills that are included in this time frame are between-the-leg, behind-the-back, figure eight, and in-and-out crossovers. After the ball-handling drills on Monday, I played some pick-up games and hit a plyometric workout. Although I still practiced my ball-handling skills on Tuesday, I did them at Rise. After the drills, I attempted some 3-pointers with some rebounding help from a friend. I didn’t workout either. Luckily, I was able to workout the next day. Unfortunately, I forgot to practice dribbling because of this. I played basketball for a few hours with some friends in pick-up games and then worked my chest and triceps out after. Thursday and Friday practices were similar to most others since they were spent at a team practice and included a light practice that aimed to prepare me for my upcoming tournaments. My practice session on Friday was spent at Rise. I practiced ball-handling once again and messed up less compared to when I practiced the drills on Monday. After the drills, I practiced game-like situations for about an hour and a half. Sadly, the drills that I practiced throughout the week didn’t seem to significantly impact my performances in the tournament. I played at the shooting guard position for most of the games and didn’t have the ball in my control as much as I would’ve liked to. Because of this, my main role was to be ready to shoot. My shot didn’t fall throughout all three games and I might’ve played the worst I’ve ever played. One of my favorite weeks throughout this project was most likely this one. This is because the main thing I worked on was 3-pointers. I have been the best 3-point shooter on almost every team I’ve ever been on and I take pride in my ability to efficiently make 3-pointers. I’ve always had high expectations of my ability to make 3’s which is why the start of this week didn’t put me in the greatest mood.
I started my week off at Rise like usual. I wasn’t very productive with my time at Rise since I was exhausted. The reason for this was because of my poor sleep schedule during Spring break. I was still able to record 75 3-point attempts and made 46 of them. Although this wasn’t a horrible shooting performance, I knew I could’ve easily made more than sixty-one percent of open 3-pointers. Luckily, Tuesday was much better. Although I didn’t track any data on my 3-point attempts, I still had a great time and felt like I improved at the YMCA. I ran 5-on-5 games, 2-on-2 games, and hit a leg workout. The 5-on-5 pick-up games were not too competitive, so I played pretty well, as expected. The 2-on-2 games were where I truly shined. I scored most of the points on my team even though I was playing with a starter on the state championship team for Private schools. The team that I beat included a West Forsyth senior on the basketball team and a junior collegiate player. After this, I hit a leg workout. This was probably my favorite basketball session of the week. The reason why I said probably, was because of Wednesday. I went to the YMCA again on Wednesday and went to the weight room, played in pick-up games, and attempted 75 3-pointers. I worked out my biceps and triceps in the weight room, played well in the games, and made 50 out of 75 3’s. My Thursday was spent at my team practice like it always is and I prepared for my weekend tournament on Friday by practicing game-speed moves and attempting 100 3-pointers. I was able to make 70 out of these 100 attempts. Both of these days were light intensity but I still felt like I made some progress. The tournament was held at the Greensboro Coliseum. I played a total of 3 games and we lost 2 of them. I scored 28 points throughout the tournament and had the best performance on the team overall. |
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May 2024
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