Weekly Report

This week was a great challenge of my organization skills, and my ability to compensate with adversity. Early in the week, this kids told me that they had a game at night. Being a former player, I know how hard it is to play during the day and then play at night. Knowing this, I gave the kids the day off and rescheduled for later in the week. By doing this, I feel like the kids respected that decision and realized that I wanted them to succeed in their summer league. Having that kind of trust and understanding is very important and is the type of relationship I read about in my research for this project.

Breaking down the kids into guards and post players helped my organize my activities for the week. With these two weeks under my belt, I feel extremely comfortable going into this last week. I have more confidence than I started with and I feel like I am ready for anything that the kids ask me. It feels like I know how to relate to them and explain situations to them on a level that they understand. This, of course, comes with experiences with them and being with them almost everyday. This is showing me that experience is a vital part of running something like this.

One thing that surprised me this week was the post players in the weight room. I thought that they were going to show some type of improvement but they didn't. These kids are all big; 6'6" and 6'7". They could be really good if they just get in the weight room and continue to work on the moves that I showed them. I know that they have been practicing the moves because I do them with them everyday, it's just the time they put in on their own that has been a surprise to me. I would have thought that they would work harder in their spare time.

From this week, I feel like I have gained a lot more confidence in dealing with the kids and I feel like I have gained a stronger sense of what gets the kids working hard. For the big men, I know that running got through to them that they have to work hard because it showed in the scrimmage. The guards worked hard all week so I felt like rewarding them for that would be incentive enough to continue to work hard. Hopefully, this last week will be a great wrap up to what has been a great experience these last two weeks.