Once you become a parent you realize how much your parents did for you. I played sports almost my entire life and I now fully appreciate how much running and driving around my parents did for me to get me to games, tournaments and practices.
I also appreciate the amount of time they spent watching sports games and practices no matter what age I was or how bad my team was.
I don’t know why it took until seeing Chase’s first basketball game this weekend but I realized how bad we are when we first start playing and how it takes awhile to become good at sports (as well as most things in life). While early sports can be cute and funny at times, it’s also painfully bad too.
I sat watching constant traveling, double dribbles, air balls, and just really bad basketball. There were players on both teams who were “gunners” and would fire up a lot of shots. I watched players stand in one spot which is something I did my first year of rec basketball. Basketball has a lot of skills to learn (dribbling, shooting, passing, catching) and I think is one of the harder sports to learn.
But I realized we all start somewhere. I started playing the same age as Chase now and was pretty terrible in my first year. It took awhile for me to become a good player. I went on to have a pretty good playing career and scored 1,000 points in high school. And I got my foundation for the sport in a rec league just like Chase. My parents sat through and in my case my dad coached a lot of bad basketball. Because we all have to start somewhere.
Even though it’s just one game I could tell Chase was frustrated he didn’t get the ball much. And it’s hard at a young age to be patient and deal with teammates who don’t pass much. But learning this patience early on will help you so much later. It also helps you in life. You learn to wait your turn and make the most of that turn when you finally do get the ball or chance.
Another hard part of basketball this age is the focus on points. Even as we got older we want to be the one that scores. But points aren’t everything in basketball. You need to pass well, rebound, play good defense. And that’s why I was proud that Chase got two offensive rebounds yesterday. These are the things that make a difference in the game even if not as glamorous as points are. These are the things I loved to do as a player and prided myself on being scrappy and playing hard on both ends of the floor.
While somewhat painful and chaotic to watch, I still enjoyed going to Chase’s game. Quarters are only 6 minutes longer so games are pretty quick. And I now appreciate how many games and practices my parents sat through, some really bad games and practices which helped me become a successful player even if that took many years and games and practice to happen.
#basketball #baller #recsports #youthsports #parentperspective #momoffive #onetoughmother
