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February 20, 2006

Baloncesto Espanol (Spanish Basketball)

In light of the recent NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston, now seems like a good time to recount my practice today.

On Mondays school ends at 5:15 in the afternoon (well by the definition of afternoon by Spaniards) and practice starts at about 6-6:15. After about 1/2 hours of sitting around in school, checking my email and such, I headed over to the court which is only about 2 minutes away walking. I got there, and as usual, I am the only one there.

After about 5-10 minutes the smallest player on the team shows up. This little gentleman is nicknamed "Speedy Gonzalez" because, well, that's who he is, short, small and fast. Anyway we had a short game of one on one on one of the little baskets (about 6 feet high). We worked up a sweat with him a few times making me look silly on a couple of behind the back and through the legs dribbling moves, but in the end it was a pretty equal game.

Eventually the rest of the team showed up and we started the real practice. We started with a fast break drill, followed by a 3 point shooting drill where we were split up into 2 teams and asked to make 9 three pointers (as a team), then sprint to the other court and make 8, than back and 7, etc. until we reached 1. Finally, once we finished those drills, the fun part of practice started. The coach split the teams up into two teams of 5 and we played a real game of 5 versus 5. This team is quite good. They run at will, sometimes dunking the ball, scoring points at will.

For me however the sport of basketball is not quite as effortless as they make it seem, and after about 15 minutes I was fatigued. I was slowly jogging up the court as the rest of the team flew past me on the way to scoring a hoop. Sadly this was not my best day at practice, but I'm hoping to soon arrive on the scene.

Jersey of the team I play with. The school is named Compañia de Maria (Company of Maria). Photo courtesy of http://www.ad-ciamaria.com/

Posted by Jesse Mills at 11:31 AM | Permalink

Comments

love the blog, Jesse - I wish I was there!!

Posted by: sr. flaxman at March 25, 2006 07:01 PM

February 20, 2006

Baloncesto Espanol (Spanish Basketball)

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