Coach Hakim
Well, I've begun coaching basketball for the first time in my life. Admittedly, I have some idea of what I'm doing, as I played organized basketball for seven years (up through eighth grade and then again in 12th), but I still find it confusing to know exactly what to do. Today was our first day, so we ran a lot, then practiced footwork, bounce passing, chest passing, defensive posture, the triple-threat position, layups, dribbling, and foul shots. Yeah, a lot of stuff. I want to get into playing and teaching defenses, but how can I do that if my kids don't know how to dribble or throw a pass? And won't they get bored (they will) if we keep stressing only fundamentals?
I am extremely excited for the season to start, and for the opportunity to completely blunder my strategies at no risk since they're mostly 5th and 6th graders. Sometimes today I felt like too nice of a coach, but then again, they're 10 and 11. I'm not going to yell at them to run. Plus, I ran with them the entire practice! Every sprint! Every lap! Ugh... I hope it all works out well.
We're gonna play the Princeton offense and the Temple defense, with a smattering of the Arkansas transition game. Well, we'll at least try. At least I have one of those neat clipboards that's also a whiteboard with a basketball court printed on it. I love it! Give me your vote of confidence!
In other news, there was a contest on Weekend Edition the other week from Will Shortz. Compose a sentence in which the last two letters of a word become the first two letters of the following word each time. So I submitted:
Another erudite teacher eradicates essential alternative venture; reason: one neo-conservative vendetta.
Which I thought was pretty clever, and semantically fluent, if not stunning. But he didn't even read it on the air! So much for NPR's liberal bias. The winner was:
Emma made delectable lemonade despite terrible lemons.
Which I thought was cute, but not nearly as creative, and not much better than my second entry:
Wanted: edible lentils.
Oh well, maybe a victory on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me is all I'm destined for. And it would be good enough.
~GM
I am extremely excited for the season to start, and for the opportunity to completely blunder my strategies at no risk since they're mostly 5th and 6th graders. Sometimes today I felt like too nice of a coach, but then again, they're 10 and 11. I'm not going to yell at them to run. Plus, I ran with them the entire practice! Every sprint! Every lap! Ugh... I hope it all works out well.
We're gonna play the Princeton offense and the Temple defense, with a smattering of the Arkansas transition game. Well, we'll at least try. At least I have one of those neat clipboards that's also a whiteboard with a basketball court printed on it. I love it! Give me your vote of confidence!
In other news, there was a contest on Weekend Edition the other week from Will Shortz. Compose a sentence in which the last two letters of a word become the first two letters of the following word each time. So I submitted:
Another erudite teacher eradicates essential alternative venture; reason: one neo-conservative vendetta.
Which I thought was pretty clever, and semantically fluent, if not stunning. But he didn't even read it on the air! So much for NPR's liberal bias. The winner was:
Emma made delectable lemonade despite terrible lemons.
Which I thought was cute, but not nearly as creative, and not much better than my second entry:
Wanted: edible lentils.
Oh well, maybe a victory on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me is all I'm destined for. And it would be good enough.
~GM
posted by GM | 21:54
3 Comments:
i think the lemon sentence, though not particularly stunning in terms of content, has a nice sound, while the erudite teacher doesn't flow as easily, and seems a bit more conscious of itself doing something clever. not that i necesssarily agree with NPR, but i can see why they liked the lemon sentence. though it is distinctly lacking in commas and adverbs.
Yes yes, I agree with your "conscious" line. It is quite clear that the lemonade one flows better off the tongue. But it doesn't comment on anything. It's just a statement. Mine is a (somewhat choppy) socio/political commentary. There's something to be said for depth, isn't there?
Yes, lentils are completely edible! Did you grow up hearing that they are not?
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