Encouraging your kids on the sports isn’t always easy. Especially when they are new to the game. 

My boys played soccer while in Nigeria and maybe a little track but never basketball. They have grown to love basketball and we try to encourage them. But truthfully, i didn’t know it was going to be a struggle.

They didn’t have any formal training and just got a flare of the game during our suburb league- here different ages are grouped together and play competitively against each other, with an aim to winning. 

Of course, i get how it works with a makeshift team. It isnt really a team, its a group of kids learning and playing a game they love and wanting to win. The disadvantage is, learners never really have a chance to learn the actual rules and flow of the game. 

Firstly, they only get a short time to practice and the aim is to get their best in and get on the court to play.

Secondly, they coaches aren’t real coaches. They are volunteer parents of one of the kids on the team and with the limited training and short time and strong will to win, its hard to put an effort on a learner.

No one’s fault but mine, i wouldn’t have ushered them into a game that way.

But on the other hand, i also believe in tough love. They get to see how things can get when you are lost or rough and you make it work out. It was a whole lot of emotional days after practice and games and thoughts of ‘ I’m never going back again. No one ever passes to me.

Here’s what i always told them:

‘ Suck at your learning days so good that when you finally improve, you’ll look back and say, i actually sucked real bad and here i am now.

We don’t give up, we push forward.

Finally made it to our second season with the Recs leagues but they now have a side coach who is training them on the basics of the game. I’m proud they are learning ball handling and he right way to ‘ball’

Are they anywhere close to being good, definitely No

But i can see they have made progress in their game. They are also gradually building some confidence to ‘Suck so bad and play their hearts out on every game they go to’

One of them even made it as an MVP on one of the games