Full Court Basketball Clinics

Yesterday was a complete success.  Yesterday I participated in coaching our first game.  The team I worked with consisted of 5 players including my older sister.  We played one 30 minute game.  The game was much different than any other competitive sport I have been apart of.  Both teams were very supportive of each other.  Any time someone scored both teams would cheer.  No one was focused on the score of the game, and even now writing this I could not tell you the score. I do not know the score because it did not matter to anyone.  all the players and their families were just happy to be out playing and having a good time.  Many of the kids who struggled to move or focus had their parents or a friend with them helping them to play.  This was a real eye opening experience that changed how I look at what sports can mean to people.  Throughout the entire game the players from each team were giving out high fives, fist bumps, and chee...

Over the past few weeks I have been struggling to find the type of facilities and clientele that I need in order to have success with my project.  Thankfully a new organization has started which is trying to organize teams of kids who have special needs to play in basketball games together.  I have talked with the organization and I am planning to help coach one of these teams.  Thanks this organization I have been able to find players, find a gym, and I have been able to help the kids be apart of a much bigger and more competitive environment than what I could have offered when working on my own.  I have learned how often times especially when entering a new field it is better to work together with other people who might have more experience in order create a better product than what you would be limited to when working alone.  From here I am will be working on plans for practice.  Thank you!

This week I met with a close family friend who has done some extensive work in the field of adapted sports.  My friend worked at the U.S. Paralympics facility where she learned the different ways people with limited abilities are able to compete in athletics.  She taught me how her and her colleagues come up with activities for people with physical disabilities.  The most important thing I learned from my friend is that with limited mobility people cannot compete the same as others, so instead of trying to push through the problems that might arise you can try to find new ways to go around them. I think that this will help me in the future by allowing me to understand the difficulties the children are facing and allow me to help them create a new way to overcome them.  In the future I think that this experience will help me understand how to confidently face problems and find different creative solutions to problems.  Thank you for reading!

My reason for starting this project is create an opportunity for people to have fun who do not always get many opportunities.  I will do this by making a program which welcomes kids with special needs, along with creating a fun and interactive environment for the kids.  My goal for the program i am making is to have a well working basketball clinic where kids with special needs can have a good time and feel welcomed, and have a good time.  My hope for the future is that my camp will inspire other people to do similar things, and make the world a more welcoming place.  I hope that I will learn from my project how to better handle facilitating situations where I am in a leadership role.  Hopefully I will be able to build connections with people who are apart of major organizations who can help me to learn more from this experience.