I Joined A Basketball Club

I joined a basketball club and experienced for the first time what Japanese basketball clubs are doing.

1st... stretching. Everybody formed lines with both arms extended horizontally to check your distance against each other. We were 30 people and so there were 4 lines formed. There is a leader with a whistle who will take charge of the stretching. It felt like I was back in elementary school doing the flag ceremony haha!

2nd...warming up. We formed 4 groups, with each group taking one edge of the court to form a line. One will bounce the ball to the next person in the next line, then run towards the direction of the line across. The person who received the ball, will then pass it on back the next person in the next line, and then that person will pass it on back to you. This is all happening while everybody is running towards their destinations. Confusing at first but I finally got it.

3rd...More wariming up. 2 teams are formed, one for each hoop. Everybody falls in a single file and then one person in front of the basket will pass the ball to the first person in line, then that person will pass back to the person in front while he/she runs. The person in front will bounce it back again, just enough for the person running to make a lay out. I never really liked layouts. But it was good practice. After 15 minutes, everybody goes to the opposite side of the basket and do the same drill, only this time, a left hand layout. This is more challenging.

4th..Form a team. 　Girls and guys with almost the same height formed a group of 5, then each group will do the rock paper scissor thing in order to determine their sequence. Then all of the people assigned the same sequence # becomes the team. Very thorough huh?! This to me actually was the most amazing part so far. Why? Because they teamed up based on mixed gender and skillset. In the Philippines, this would never have happened. The guys will never play against the girls.

5th.... Play the game. Each team plays 4 games in a single round robin format. Each game will last for 5 minutes. Like soccer, a substitution can happen anytime so you exchange jerseys with a substitute while the game is running. To keep it simple, only foul, double dribble and traveling were called. Of course there's a referee, a time keeper and a scorer. This was really fun! For the first time in my life I played basketball (full court, a real basketball) with men. And they didn't hesitate to hustle.

6th...Awarding ceremony. After all the games are completed, each team will form a line and the chairman will announce the 3rd, 2nd and champions. So much fun!

We finished the morning session at around 1:30 and we got about an hour to have lunch, do other stuffs - badminton, dodge ball and practice shooting or whatever we want to do. Then at 2:30 pm we did the 2nd tournament (ie repeat steps 4-6!).

The afternoon session was intense. When I realized that my team is a strong candidate for the championship, I played it seriously in the last game. We scored first, 2-0 and then half-way the other team scored too 2-2. I defended and I ran as fast as I can. Towards the last minute, I was under the hoop and they were trippling on me. I dribbled the ball with confidence, telling myself that I will never let these people steal the ball. I looked up and saw that two of my team mates were moving down freely, so I passed the ball to the one I thought was a better shooter. I helled shoot! Then he did it! 4-2. Still there were 40 seconds and the other team was making a fastbreak. I ran the fastest I ever had to prevent them from laying out. With the two other guy teammates we defended successfully the ball, and got the rebound with about 15 more seconds. We knew that the if we hold on to the ball we will win, and so we did. That made us the afternoon champs.

One thing I realized in yesterday's basketball games is that I play to have fun, but I also play to win. The difference between then and now, is that now, I don't panic that much anymore. I have more composure. I knew that I havent played basketball in years and that I had stronger (men) opponents but I also knew that basketball is a science, and is strategic, so I consciously made the decision to make sure that I do a very good assist in order to win. Geez I'm a hardball competitive soul.