Basketball and Rober family

A few months back I asked Briggs if he wanted to play basketball this year. He said, "Sure!"

After I had agreed to sign him up, I realized I couldn't really think of a time when I saw Briggs with a basketball. Does he even know how to play? I know he knows who the Lakers are, but that's about it.

Oh, well! I guess he'll learn!

The first day of practice comes and the testosterone level in the room is through the roof...
for everybody else but the Rober family. I was not use to a sport for SIX YEAR OLDS being so intense.

Bad things I noticed at practice:

All the boys had professional looking basket ball shoes while Briggs was wearing his Chuck Taylors.

Briggs couldn't even hit the rim... which was two feet lower than normal.

Briggs could only dribble the ball with two hands and had a hard time going anywhere with it.

He was, hands down, the least skilled player on the team. (I feel like a traitor saying that, but it's true. But keep reading!!!)

Good things I noticed at practice:

Briggs had an awesome coach. He was good with the boys and actually taught them skills without being too intense.

Despite his lack of skillz, everybody still seemed to like Briggs and he seemed happy!

We're going with this...

He and I decided together that we would practice every day, just like Ashlynn does with her piano. I figured what he needed the most was experience handling the ball.The neighbor let us use his hoop, so we went out every day and just played. We dribbled balls to the corner and back, we practiced passes and we chatted alot.

By the next practice he could dribble with one hand and even hit the rim. His arms were getting stronger and he was listening to everything his coach was saying.

Their first games were a little painful, but I did notice that Briggs was playing smart. He would listen to whatever the coach or ref. said and DO IT! He quickly picked up on where he was suppose to be and what he was suppose to be doing. I figured this was a good place to be, because, as long as you are playing smart, ball handling is just a matter of experience and time.

Every week Briggs got better and better. The coach noticed it and we noticed it. He was sinking baskets with a fair amount of accuracy, he was being more aggresive, and his team mates were passing to him.

He scored his first basket during his fourth game of the season. We were very proud of him. But we were more proud of his increased confidence that came from working hard.

There are still a few more weeks to the season, and we expect to see even more improvement by then. Way to go, Briggs. We are proud of you!



(Briggs is also very good at "chatting" it up with the coach...)