May 6th, 2008

Today was the second day of camp and I feel it was even better than the first day. I started the day off by picking some of the kids up from school because some of them were stuck without a ride. I got to the school at 2:00 when it got out and picked up 3 kids that needed rides. We headed over to the park and got there at about 2:15-2:30. Again, I waited until about 2:45 to start camp to again give the kids a chance to get there. After everyone got there I rounded up the kids and sat them down at half court again and explained to them what the focus of today was. Todays focus was ball handling for the guards and post moves for the big men. For the guards, I had them in a line at half court and had them do different moves advancing towards the basket into a layup from the left and right side. You can not advance to the next move until you make the shot. After they finished all of the moves from the both sides, I gave them a water break because it was hot out and again they were working hard so I rewarded them. When they were finished with the one-on-one moves, we worked on form shooting to improve their shooting. This was kind of rough because shooting on outside baskets is hard but the form was the most important part. We started in close to the basket and gradually moved away.

The big men were working on a series of post moves that will give them and advantage against a taller and stronger opponent. These moves are well known in the basketball world for being effective because of the timing and the footwork. These moves are tough to learn and didn't come easy to them but they were determined to learn them. No matter how many times they failed, they kept trying. After attempting to perfect these moves over and over again, they still didn't have them down. This is normal and I explained that to them. I promised them that we would continue to work on them and by doing this they will see a major improvement in their game. One of the kids asked me work with him extra on the moves over the weekend. This showed me that we were making tremendous progress because it showed that he trusted me and that he was willing to work. So I scheduled a one hour session on Saturday from 12-1. 

At the end of the older groups session, I decided to have a skills competition running from 7-7:30 because I felt like they worked really hard and made great progress. This consisted of a dunk competition and a 3-point competition. This was a good time to really relate and talk to the kids. This was a lot of fun and I was glad to see that every kid was enjoying themselves. I must say that I, too, am continuing to have a great time as well.