Basketball Dax

Daxton did the First/Second grade Junior Jazz "Instructional League" at the rec center before Christmas. This league was pretty much high school kids trying to teach a herd of 6 and 7 year olds  how to shoot, dribble and pass.  Sometimes they got to play a scrimmage game at the end of the practice (I don't know why I didn't take any pictures, but I didn't.  Booo me.) Dax liked these practice games best.  

When the session was over, Dax didn't want to sign up again for the January/February session.  I didn't blame him. Been there, done that.  A friend's son had played in a basketball league for 1st/2nd graders where they got to play actual games the year before and really liked it.  So, Dax decided he would give it a try.

They started out just having big practices with all the kids who had signed up.  Dax had a great time at these practices and met some new friends.  After a couple of weeks, they divided the kids up into teams and started having games instead of practices.  It would have been nice to have some practices mixed in with the games, but it is hard to get gym time apparently.  Dax was pretty nervous before the first game.  He told me that some of the kids "were really really good" and he was worried they might laugh at him since he felt like he wasn't "really really good."  I reassured him that he would be with kids his own age, and that everyone was still learning and to just do his best.  All that good stuff.

Everything turned out fine.  Dax did turn out to have one "really really good" player on his team, who I am pretty sure can dribble better than I ever could, even in high school.  This kid wore jersey #1, and it fit.  Mr. #1 scored most of the points for Dax's team, but he was pretty unselfish and was more than willing to pass the ball to his friends.  This really helped the other kids all got in on the action, which was so fun.  

One of the best parts of the league was that they played on hoops that were about a foot lower and a little bigger around than a standard hoop.  So, instead of the score of the games being 4 to 6, it was more like 34 to 36.   Here is Dax practicing with his team before the game:  

The games were pretty fun to watch.  Those boys sure got their exercise, running back and forth and back and forth.  Here is Dax (#9) shooting a basket during the game (notice the lowered hoops).  I think he actually made this one.  

Dax is a pretty good shooter!

Daxton kind of "forgot" to play defense sometimes, but he was improving every game during the season. In this league, the boys all wore a colored wrist band, and they had to guard the person on the other team who was wearing the same color.  During the first game, Dax mostly stood around under the basket waiting for rebound so he could try out his dribbling skills.

 His dribbling skills...ah, they were a sight to behold.  Dax would bounce that ball on the ground pretty hard when he got excited, and occasionally he was dribbling so high he had to reach up above his head.  Also, Dax would often forget that whole "only dribble with ONE hand" rule, especially when he was on a fast break.  Behold:

Um...hey, oh well.  Sometimes he remembered:

And let's just say....Dax interpreted the "travelling" rules a little loosely as well.  How many steps are okay?  Two, three, four?  How about five?  Close enough, right?  Luckily the referees let all but the most blatant infractions slide.  (Let's face it..if they called every double dribble and travel in this league, each game would have lasted approximately 7.2 hours).

Here is Dax, taking another shot:

Go, Dax!  Dax's team had so much fun, and only lost one game.  I know this because who was winning was very important to Cora.  I think it had something to do with the fact that they used the big electric scoreboard on the wall to keep score.  Cora was constantly checking the score and telling whoever cared to listen what it was and who was winning.  (The game that Dax's team lost, they lost BIG.  It could have had something to do with the fact that a certain player with #1 missed the game, or it may have had to do with the fact that the team they played against played defense like they actually knew what they were doing.  It wasn't as fun to hear the score every 24 seconds when your boy's team is getting blown out.  Oh well, you can't win 'em all.)

Overall it was a really fun season!  Dax had a great time and can't wait for basketball season to roll around again.  I guess we might have to figure out a way to set up a hoop in our yard so he can work on his dribbling skills and try to figure out how to shoot on a standard hoop for next year.  Hmmmm....I am NOT looking forward to chasing wayward basketballs down the hill!