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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
I find myself a first time basketball coach this year. Yup, I'm the head coach of the 3rd/4th grade House League basketball C team this year. Actually we aren't called the C team anymore as that was a bit boring. We named ourselves the Cougars, because that starts with C and cougars are well, big and powerful, and make fun snarling noises. It has always seemed to me that a lot of cyclists aren't into team sports (or at least the normal team sports) very much. I can understand some of this because bicycling is for most of us an individual sport . Only those on a road team are part of a team effort, and even then they have to be pretty good or the whole team thing is pretty meaningless. Sometimes the normal (and by normal I mean baseball, basketball, football, and hockey) sports seem to get a lot of grief from non-fans. The athletes make too much money. Yet, I rarely hear a cyclist spouting off that Lance Armstrong makes too much for his endeavors. I find this interesting. In my own life, basketball and cycling have held an unusual relationship. Coming and going at different stages and for different reasons. As a kid growing up in Korea, I road around a lot with my friends. We patrolled several miles around our neighborhood and got into all kinds of adventures. I liked basketball then too, of course, but didn't really start playing basketball "seriously" until 9th grade. Then, basketball was what I lived for. I could shoot for hours. In the winter I'd shoot outside in slushy melting snow, then run inside to warm my pink frozen hands, then charge back out to keep shooting. During those years, cycling started taking a backseat. Korea's traffic had gotten out of control so the roads and alleys were more dangerous than when I was a young boy. I'd still mess around on bikes a bit, but not as much as when younger. When I went to college I blew up my knee repeatedly and after two surgeries the doctors said, "No more basketball (or any other sport that requires lateral movement)". They suggested that I swim or cycle. That's when bicycling started to make its way back into my life. After the second round of knee surgery I started taking a bike from my grandfathers house out onto the country roads in Wisconsin. It was some cheap 10-speed but that's what I had at the time. During my senior year in college though (1988), someone showed me a picture of... ...a mountain bike! Immediately, I knew I had to have one of those as soon as I graduated and could make some money. And that's what happened. The first Diamond Back lead to a super sweet Bridgestone MB-Zip (which was actually way too much bike for me at the time! Yikes!). From there the addiction continued, and continues to this day. Basketball disappeared from my life. At first when I was told to stop playing it was a painful thing to contemplate, but eventually I didn't really miss it at all. Bikes had replaced it as my favorite addiction. So now, basketball comes back into my life, as I coach my son's team. I'm enjoying the experience because for most of these kids this is their first team experience. We're working on 4 main goals: -Fun -Improving Skills -Understanding Being Part of a Team -Respect for Parents, Coaches, Teammates, Referees, and Our Oponents A lot of our practice seems like controlled chaos. Stuff that makes sense to an adult can be hard to impress upon a child. But we all do our best and I'm sure we'll enjoy our season win or lose. And my hope is that the kid's gain an idea of what being part of a team sport can and should be like. Prior to basketball starting we didn't have Jordan in a Fall sport this year. Some folks would say, "Oh you don't have him in a Fall sport?" and I'd say, "Actually, we do. We have him in cycling." That's the crux of the matter I guess. We need to teach both team sports and individual sports, because in all likelihood, the individual sports are the ones that they'll enjoy for most of their life. So what goes around comes around. Basketball and cycling, back together again in my life. A mix of team and individual sports that I'm finding very enjoyable. Shoot some hoops, and then go for a bike ride. Or go for a bike ride, and then shoot some hoops. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 1:37 PM 0 comments | permalink  |
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