U11 Beijing Reflection: Embrace the Challenge and Have Fun While Doing So

In our first game against Sports Beijing Red, the u11s came out flat.  It may have been the travel, it may have been over confidence, it may have been poor coaching… whatever it was we came out flat. No one seemed happy to be there. At halftime the kids came to the bench expecting to rest but they had not even begun to move yet so we ran a fun run instead. We woke up for a few minutes and were able to win on our basic abilities and the other team missing a lot of lay ups.  When we came together after the game it was clear that our team had not learned anything from that game. We were still asleep. It probably would have done us better to lose.

In our next game against Sport Beijing White, we came out with the same intensity as the first game, which was basically none. We let a less talented team get up on us early and we never recovered on the scoreboard but even worse we looked like we had quit on the bench.  After a less than stellar day, the guys had some homework: to reflect on the game and tell me two things they did poorly and how they would improve on them and one thing they did well.

Their answers were very telling. Most players wrote down a least 4 things they did bad, with at least one being boxing out and another being supporting their teammates on the bench.  These two problems are especially important because you do not need skill to box out or to cheer on your team, you need heart, focus, and energy.

The guys showed up the next day looking refocused and ready to play Select basketball.  Then a team of 13 year olds walked out onto the court towering over us. “Coach, we are playing those men?!?!?” We went on onto the court and gave it our all but they were just too big too fast. Before long we were down twenty and the players looked disheartened.  When halftime hit, we were at our low point for the weekend. We had lost our last game and we were down twenty in this one. There was nothing left to do but walk off the court and quit or go back on, have fun, and put up a fight. We had a team discussion where we agreed the guys were bigger, older, faster but not better and not bigger, older, faster than our coaches we play against at practice all the time. How do we beat our coaches? We spread out, pass the ball, use pump fakes, take open shots and most importantly EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE AND HAVE FUN DOING SO.

I’m not sure if Reagan listened to me or was just being his normal self but he came out and chucked up two deep 3s that clunked off the hoop, the difficult weekend continued… but on this day there would be no quit in him or our team. Next possession, another three from Reagan, but this time nothing but net. Finally, some claps and cheers from our bench. Next possession, another three from Reagan, again nothing but net. Our first back to back baskets of the game. Next possession, an intelligent pump fake from the 3 point line and a basket in the paint. Our bench erupted and our guys never slowed down. We rolled those big bad 13 year olds for the rest of quarter and into the fourth. We won the second half by at least 8 points with smiles on our face as we did it.

For the rest of the afternoon we played continuously against a mixture of players from Sports Beijing Red and White who we had already played. Our guys came out with energy and ran every combination they sent at us off the court. By the end we had to stop dribbling and place strict passing and screening rules into our offense. My favorite part of the whole experience was that the guys wanted to keep playing, just to get as much basketball in as possible. It was amazing how a change in attitude can affect your ability and your perception of the other team.  I was so proud of guys for not quitting, finding their love for the game, and letting this translate into some great basketball. They EMBRACED THE CHALLENGE AND HAD FUN DOING SO. Moreover, after they were done they carried their newly found positive energy to the sidelines and supported their older Select brothers as if it were the NBA Finals, great job u11!

-Coach Dave