Varsity Track

Location – ISK/ Nyayo Stadium

            I joined Varsity track for the first quarter of the school year. I started by training for the 1500 meter event. I used to run 5km once or twice every week, and I became fairly good at the 1500 meter event, so I decided to join the track team. However, this decision was a win and lose situation in the end. After training for this event for about 2 and half months, I started to grow bored of running in continuous ovals (around a track). For the final event, a track meet between multiple schools at the Kenyan National Stadium (Nyayo Stadium) I didn’t even run the 1500 meter. The week preceding the event (which was on a Saturday), I was informed I would be running in the 4x400 meter relay.

            The reason for this was that there were two runners (me and another) for the 1500 meter, and only 3 runners for the 4x400 meter relay team. Since the other 1500 meter runner was a bit faster than I, he ran that event and I ran the 4x400meter relay. The ‘win’ part of me being on the varsity track team for this quarter is that we came third in the event, and broke the ISK record time for 4x400meter relay. The ‘lose’ side is that I feel like I wasted that entire quarter. I had run the 1500meter event in a previous event, however that event was very unorganized and was only a friendly. However, they moved up the time of my race without informing me, I ran the event barefoot about a minute after drinking a full coke, I didn’t have time to warm up or stretch, and I didn’t do very well. I feel like I wasted the training I had put in because in one event I was unable to perform at the best of my ability, and at the second event I didn’t even run my event.

            However, all in all, for the time being my name is one of the names on the ISK track records board, so overall I guess it was a win. That name will be there, hopefully, for a long time.

Varsity Volleyball 2011

Location – ISK/ISL

The process of this was tryouts, then practice and games. Tryouts and practice were at ISK. Our team plays in the ISL, which is the Inter-Schools League. I was a substitute hitter this season. I say hitter because I was trained and played as both Power (hitting on the left) and Right Side (hitting from the right). My job as a hitter, from either position, was simple. Hit the ball, hard, into the opponents court in anyway so that we get the point. I could hit it right at the floor, or hit off someone’s chest if they were in the way of the ball. Honestly, my aim wasn’t so good so the majority of the time it just hit someone and flew away, but we still got the point so it worked out well enough. This was a completely new position for me. The reason I was trained and played here this season is because I am most likely going to be playing in one of these positions in the following season.

            As I talked about in my previous post for a different volleyball season “Volleyball is 100% a team sport. There is no possible way to play it alone. As a player can only touch the ball once before touching it again (can’t touch it twice consecutively), it is necessary to play collaboratively with your teammates. Another aspect of teamwork that is important in volleyball is practice. If only half the team shows up for practice it is almost useless. I was at all practices, unless I had a medical appointment (like dentist or such), which only occurred once or twice.”

            This season we came in second place. This is a disappointment. We had the ability and people to win, we just got into a bad mindset, failed to find our groove. I say ‘we’ because its ‘win as team, lose as a team.’ If we’re talking about individuality, which seemingly contradicts me saying volleyball is a 100% team sport but doesn’t because even in a team sport there are people who play better than others each game, I played a good game in the finals. I was bit nervous, however I played a solid defense and earned a few points on offense, I could have done better, but I am at least satisfied by the way I played. Also, as a team, we didn’t fall apart in our lose, we all knew it should have been ours. However, we congratulated the opposing team, had a final team huddle, then left to each process the lose in our own way, and that was the end of the season, can’t wait till the next one, maybe we’ll actually come in first (ISK volleyball has come in second in both ISL and volleyball for the past 2 seasons, that’s 4 second places, and each one should have been ours).

Coaching at Basketball Camp

Location – ISK

            For the first two weeks of this summer (summer 2011), I was one of four coaches at the basketball Future Stars Camp hosted at ISK. In this camp, it was possible for kids to either take part in basketball, soccer, or tennis. I was a basketball coach. Qualifications for this were fairly minimal; I’m good with kids, and I was on Varsity basketball.

            The camp lasted for two weeks (business days only). The sports were only in the mornings and there was a day camp for younger kids so they didn’t have to be at home all day while their parents were at work. The basketball sessions started at seven forty-five a.m., and ended at one p.m.. There were two weeks of the camp and each week was for a different age group. To make it possible for kids of both age groups to participate in both weeks the age groups differed between each sport available.

            The first week I was coaching kids ages 6-9. I found that this was both easy and difficult. After the first day and half we, the coaches, found that, with this age group, it was more about keeping them interested. To do that they just needed to keep having fun. So we played lots of un-basketball related games and activities such as dodgeball, and scooters. Also, most of the kids were 6 or 7 and therefore their muscles, and coordination was very undeveloped, so many of the attempts at basketball drills were considered, in my mind, a strong introductory learning experience for the kids. However, despite that week of camp not being very basketball oriented, all the parents gave positive feedback, and all the kids had fun, so I still consider it a success.

            The second week of camp was ages 10-13. This group of kids were much more developed in basketball, however, they still contained many very weak areas and a lack of the fundamental side of the game (as apposed to the physical side of the game). This was the week when I felt my coaching actually made an impact on the kids. We still played dodgeball a few times because it’s a fun game. However, at the end of the week, a clear improvement was very visible in the kids basketball skill. Whether it was an improvement on passing, or shooting form, or dribbling, each kid had improved in something and it was fairly easy to see and overall improvement in all the kids.

            In conclusion, this experience was a good eye-opener. Personally, I found that I don’t like to expend the amount of energy that little kids require on entertaining little kids, I would rather use that energy to work out or play a real basketball game, so I know not to coach little kids (unless its part of package coaching deal, meaning I would definitely like to be a coach at this camp next summer as well). However, I did enjoy coaching the slightly older kids because I actually got to focus on the game. Also, at the end of the week, when I actually saw everyone’s improvements it felt good to know that, the other coaches and, I helped these kids improve. It was hard to see their improvement over the week because we were never trying to look for it, but at the end of the week, when the time came to step back (mentally), and try to see if they’d improved, everyone had. And I felt accomplished to know that I had been a part of that improvement.