Jamir Harris and Tyus Battle (Both 9 Years Old)Monday my dad dropped me off at the gym after school to workout. I didn’t really feel like working out at first because I was tired and needed to get some rest, but after taking a few shots I started to wake up. It was a good workout overall. I got a lot done in only an hour. In that time I was able to lift, work on my pull up, make moves to the basket, and work on my ball handling.
After school I had a lot of homework so I wasn’t able to go to the gym. When it was around 10 and I was getting ready to go to bed my dad surprised me by telling me to put some sweat pants on because we are going jogging. The part that surprised me was that he wanted to go jogging, which he hasn’t done in a year so I thought he wasn’t going to keep up. We only ran about 3 or 4 miles but I was surprised that my dad kept up throughout the jog.
Wednesday I went to workout at Gill Saint Bernard, which is a Prep school in North Jersey. Their basketball team is one of the best in the country. The school is one of the biggest and nicest high schools I have ever seen. At the practice we did a little skill work in the beginning and then played games for the rest of the practice. I was surprised that the Coach practically let his teammates run the workout, which teaches them to work hard all the time - even when no one is watching. While we were playing the games these kids would not miss a jump shot even with a hand in their face. After that workout I realized how much harder I have to work on my jump shot.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and I didn’t have any school so instead of going to the gym, my mom picked me up to go eat at my grandmother’s AKA Nana Battle’s house around 3. I had a good time especially because I haven’t seen my aunt, cousin, and uncle in a while. After the meal at my grandmother’s house I went to go eat at my mom’s house. I mostly ate smoked turkey and backed macaroni, which has always been my favorite. I was disappointed that my mom didn’t make collard greens, because it is my favorite vegetable. For the rest of the night I played Modern Warfare 3 while my mom and brother were watching a movie.
Over the weekend I had a tournament in Pottstown, PA. Our first 2 games the teams were not even in the game with us. We beat the first team by about 40 points and we beat the second team by about 28, but unfortunately Buddah (our 14 year old 6’ 5” Forward) got a concussion during the game and couldn’t finish the tournament. Even though we won the 2 games by a lot, our coaches told us that we need to cut down on turnovers and pick up our defense. I know the coaches are right but I also know that this will come with practice and our team has not had much practice. My dad and coach Vaughn put us in the tournament to see how well we would do against our own age group and to uncover what we have to work on.
The next day the semi final game was much closer. We only won by 5. The team we played was very poised, played good defense, and executed plays well. We played a team named the YAACES (from Toronto, Canada) in the championship. Even though we lost by 7, we still played hard and kept it close the whole game. No excuses, but I feel that if we had Buddah and had more practices we would have definitely put ourselves in a better position to win the game. We also missed about 15 foul shots, which could have changed the outcome of the game. I didn’t think I played very well in the final game of the tournament although I had 23 points. I missed a few shots I would usually make on the perimeter. I could have worked harder on the boards, and run the floor harder. I am so mad I missed foul shots. My dad got on me a lot about my body language. He said it stunk and he also said a few things I cannot put in print. LOL! He also said I got caught up in missing shots instead of doing all the other things to help the team. He was right so I apologized a few hours later.
Next week I should have a better ending, although I did learn a lot about myself and my team, but I hate to lose. Tomorrow is back to school for a few tests. Also a lot of time will be spent on the foul line this week. This is Tyus Battle signing off.
Peace
