Diary Of A Baller: Tyus "Kid Mamba" Battle (Edison, NJ) Diary #21

What’s up basketball world, I just got finished with mid-terms which mean I can get back in the gym and work really hard on my game.

Tuesday I went to the gym after school to get a few shots up. I really focused on my jump shot since I struggled with it in our most recent tournament. To improve this I worked on my pull up jump shot, my mid-range jump shot, and shots from outside the arc. I ended the workout off with ball handling and making moves to the basket.

Thursday was the last day of Mid Terms and I was glad it was finally over. I went back to the gym at around 7 to workout with Brice Impossible Training, which I haven’t done in 3 or 4 weeks. We started off the workout right away with two-ball dribbling drills. After about 10 minutes of that we went to drills to make my exchange quicker and sharper. I really liked the exchange drills and will be defiantly using them the next time I go to the gym. To finish off the workout we did a drill to improve my footwork on my jump shot. After the workout my arms were sore and I iced as soon as I got home.

Friday I had school practice. We didn’t really do anything except scrimmage each other. Idris and I barely played because coach wanted to see how the team would do without us. They were playing very sloppy, were forcing shots and were not playing hard enough, so coach made us run 16’s before we ended practice.

Saturday I woke up at 6:30 to head over to Burlington for the Nike Pre-Draft camp. I was scheduled to have a game but because of the snow the game was cancelled. Pre-draft was a good experience learning from players that played in the NBA and coaches who had many different backgrounds. I especially learned a lot about the pick and roll and now see why professional basketball players use it so often. I also learned about screens off the ball and how using them can create separation from your defender. After the camp I was interviewed by Alex Klein from the recruitscoop.com. It was my first interview about high school basketball. I will be taking a lot away from this event and will be using it in games. After the camp I went to watch some of my brother’s game which he won and then went with him to his friend house for a birthday party. I heard a few kids from my class were going, which was cool. While I was there I played a lot of ping pong, listened to music and watched a few college games that were on TV. When we finally left at 11. I went straight home and went to sleep because I had a game the next day.

Sunday I had a game at 1:45 in the Roselle Catholic tournament against Holy Trinity Academy. I was surprised how close the game was put we still pulled out the one point victory. I definitely didn’t play the best game but I think I contributed in other ways such as getting rebounds and put backs. My little brother played very well scoring about 16 points and had 4 threes. He really stepped up at the big moments and hopefully he keeps up his style of play. After the game my dad was angry at me about how I played and said I should have been more aggressive, forced my way to the basket, and to next time attack the double teams. I have to say that Holy Trinity was probably the second best team we played all year and hopefully we get competition like that more often.

It’s getting late, so I am going to sign out.
Peace