Jacob has loved basketball since he could recognize a basketball. We got him a Little Tikes hoop the Christmas right after he turned 2 and after a little practice, that kid never missed a shot.
In September we noticed that the YMCA where I workout has sports leagues for children as young as 3 and that the winter sport was basketball so we decided to sign him up and give it a try. Luckily, Jacob was still 3 when the season started so the team he was on didn't have practices. They would meet the day of the game and have about 20 minutes of instruction and then about 20 minutes of game time.
The first couple weeks were really frustrating. The first week Jacob had a lot of issues with the noise level in the gym. The full size court had a large blue curtain from the ceiling to the floor dividing it into 2 smaller basketball courts which means there were 4 teams, lots of spectators talking and cheering, referees blowing whistles, the buzzer going off. It was really loud and Jacob ran around for a little while with his ears covered, but about halfway through he decided to just sit down on the side covering his ears.
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| Way too loud!!! |
The next week he wasn't as bothered by the loudness, but he was all over the place which included running to the other side of the blue curtain and onto the other court where some older kids were playing. He also realized there was a water fountain right outside of the gym and kept deciding how great it was to run out and get water rather than drink from the cup we had brought for him.
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| Walking in a very straight line with arms to his side - we assume he does this when he walks through the hallways at school |
Jacob was the only kid who just ran all over the place doing his own thing, but he wasn't the only kid having issues at the games. A couple other boys on his team would sometimes play, but would sometimes just go sit in the stands. Another little boy wouldn't let go of his dad at all and his dad would be out on the court with him. It was interesting to see half of the kids on our team having issues, usually the other teams seemed older and more together. Good thing no one ever kept score!
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| Even with the lower basket, it was too high for Jacob |
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| Getting some help from Daddy |
By the end of the season Jacob would occasionally run up and down the court with the other players and would try to take shots every now and then.
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| Wow - he looks like he's playing! |
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| Getting his trophy |
And when they gave him his trophy, he tried to give it right back!
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| And putting it back |
2 comments:
That is wonderful, takes a lot of patience, doesn't it? It's noteworthy that even among kids with 'no issues' they still have issues!
Our first experience with sports was when Nathan and his cousins were 3. We put them in soccer and I spent the whole season holding his hand, so he would stay on the field and follow the ball. After that, we decided the kids had to be in kindergarten before we did sports.
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