My First Day Of Basketball Practice example essay topic

Just to let you know i got a 97 on this paper. Hoops Galore Filled with tension as I walked into the run-down gym, I arrived early for my first day of basketball practice. My first line of business was to stretch my muscles so I could get loose and ready to play. As more of my teammates came in, we started to converse about old teams and coaches.

Our talk reminded me of my earlier years of life and made me grin. As we started to play, I began to focus on the game. After scoring a couple of baskets, I started relaxing and having fun. After my first day when I practiced for some time, I began to realize that participating in basketball was helpful socially, mentally, and most importantly, physically. My Participation in basketball was socially uplifting.

One way that it helped me socially, was to change my reaction to meeting new people. When I first started playing, I was always the shy guy in the corner. After years of playing, I have come out of my shell and now am one of the first players to introduce myself to everyone. More importantly, participating in basketball helped me develop better friendships with people that I already knew. The first day of practice I knew almost everyone on my team from school and have talked to them, but never really got to know them.

Playing with them helped me find the true personalities of these kids. The most important way that participating in basketball helped socially, was the fact that I met an abundance of new people. Every time that I started a new recreational basketball season there were always some new kids that I had never met. Getting to know these kids was a doorway to meeting their friends and expanding my horizons socially. Along with the social benefits of participating in basketball, I found it also helped mentally. Regular participation improved my mental reaction timing.

When I was playing and I saw an open lane to the basket, all those years of practice and play came in to focus so I could make the decision to drive to the hoop 'quicker' than I could if I had never played. More importantly, when I played, I got into the game mentally and it brought out the most competitive person inside me. The more frequent this competitive person came out, the more it carried over into everyday life making me strive to do my best at everything I do. The most important way that basketball helped me mentally, is that it cleared my head and made me focus on nothing but the game at hand. It didn't matter whether it was a game or scrimmage or a little bit of one on one, my mind was so focused on the game that I couldn't hear everyday sounds, the crowd, or my opponent (s) talking trash. Everything that happened during the day, week, month, or year all went away once I stepped onto the court.

This let me take out all my frustration on the opposing force. This is my favorite feeling, when all that is going on in my head is the game. The most important way that playing basketball had helped me was how it effected me physically. One way that basketball was beneficial, was the way it made me a little bit healthier by exercising regularly. Basketball is one of the most physically demanding sports today.

After good practice, I was usually worn out, which meant I had obtained a solid workout. A more important aspect of physical result was that I became quicker as the season progressed. My body became used to the idea of basketballs flying past me, so my senses had become sharpened so I could react faster stealing the ball. Also I had been sluggish in the beginning of the season and as the season advanced I was quicker to the ball and quicker off a steal. The most important result of playing basketball was that it helped make me stronger. It was impossible to play hard for fifteen minutes in a game and not have better endurance by the end.

Basketball also helped me get stronger by putting me up against guys twice my size. Banging against the brutes under the basket has toughened me significantly. Thanks to having tougher competition, I had also learned to jump higher to get my shot off, run faster to outrun my opponent, throw the ball harder to beat my teammate's defender, and grab the ball off a rebound with such force that an opposing player could not get it out of my hand. After doing this throughout the game, for 12 games a year (not to mention scrimmages), I defiantly came out of basketball a stronger person.

Pat Riley, the current coach of the Miami Heat, once said, 'When you " re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. ' This is the attitude that I like to bring to the basketball court day in and day out and I believe that whether I am meeting new people, focusing and clearing my head for the game, or getting stronger by going up against bigger people, basketball will be socially, mentally, and physically helpful.