Hot Shots

Sadie had her first basketball practice last night! I still cannot believe that my 3 year old is old enough to play basketball :) It is a preschool league with the YMCA & her league is for 3 & 4 year olds. I know it won't be really competitive, but I'm hoping she learns the basics. Plus, she always asks to play sports:

 

 

When we first got there, they had a team meeting so they could meet all of their team mates & pick a team name:

 

The coach asked for suggestions, but no one gave any, so he decided to call them the Hot Shots! As you can see, there are 5 boys on her team & 1 other girl.

 

They started practice by warming up & stretching:

 

 

Then they ran a couple of sprints:

 

 

It cracks me up how fun she thinks it is to run. I played basketball all the way through high school. Believe me, I ran a lot of sprints & they get old after a while.

 

He taught them how to play defense. I don't think any of them had a clue what he was talking about, but he taught them the defense pose & in Sadie's case, it looked more like a dance move then a defensive move:

 

 

They also practiced a few drills with the basics like dribbling:

 

 

and passing:

 

 

As you can see, Bryan & Carl (Jordan's dad) got in on the action & were assistant coaches. Finally, they practiced dribbling to the cone, stopping & shooting a basket:

 

 

The only problem here is the basket. Technically, they are supposed to play with a 6 foot basket, but we couldn't get the basket to go down low enough, so it was much higher & none of the kids could shoot it that high. Even 6 foot is pretty high for Sadie - she is used to playing on her little plastic goal at home!

 

The practice was supposed to last an  hour but 45 minutes later, they decided to call it a night. There was another team practicing, lots of older siblings running around & these kids were getting tired. They did pretty good for their first time! Coach Coleman ended the night with one last huddle & shout out:

 

 

Sadie was a little shy at first, but then she really stepped up. She is definitely more disciplined than some of the other kids which I think she has learned from swimming lessons. She has been in a class setting with a swim coach since she was 6 months old. And soccer has probably helped also. Some of the other kids were just running around the gym & not paying attention to anyone. But like I said, she was a little shy & speaking softly at first. By the time we left, she was dunking with her dad & ready for the game:

 

 

Their first game is tomorrow morning so we'll see how these crazy group of hot shots do!