First Basketball Practice and Game

Finally, the day my husband has been waiting for since Luke was born: Luke's first ever basketball practice and game! They have practice and games on the same day, which is fine with me, since things are a little hectic right now. It's also only a 5 week program, since we didn't know if he'd like it.



We were afraid he would be the only gigantically huge child out there and debated asking for him to be moved into the 9-11 league, but figured we'd try it for today and then decide. Out of 30-ish kids, there were actually 4 kids taller, and 2-3 others very near his height, so not as bad as we feared. (I guess basketball naturally draws a taller crowd than, say, soccer.) We got to see the tail end of the 9-11 league game when we arrived, and he would have been about middle of the pack, height wise, but those kids were obviously more coordinated and had been playing longer, which would have frustrated him, so we'll leave him where he is.  Here is a shot of him under a regulation height basket (10 feet/3m to the rim).



Few things in this world make him seem small, but that did. They did most of their practicing and their games on the side goals, which were slightly shorter (I'd guess 8 feet/2.4m), which helped tremendously.

I will apologize in advance for the blurriness of these shots. I will try to figure out how to adjust the shutter speed before next week so I can get some less blurry pictures (not enough light inside the gym for it to work with my regular settings). Here is some dribbling:



And some shooting:



And some passing (easier to get clear shots of his face; less motion!):



Good grief, he looks so grown up in that last shot! Gee, I wonder who taught him to do this? (below) ::cough::husband::cough::



They also ran some drills where they would run a certain distance while dribbling, sometimes while circling some cones, to teach ball control. Luke isn't the best, but he isn't the worst, which is about all you can ask for his first time.




Luke said his favorite part was the running drills, which surprised me, since he wasn't great at it (though not bad). Usually, if he's not immediately great at something, he's sort-of down on it, but he really seemed to enjoy himself. Maybe we've finally hit on the right thing for him? Nothing would thrill my husband more! I guess time will tell.

Currently feeling: ready for more basketball