This is Travis Upchurch back again to let you guys know how my week went.
On Sunday we played Team Takeover and lost to them but still put up a good fight. There was some things we could of done better including hitting the boards. The key in that game was rebounding and they beat us on the glass. Then we headed back home with an eight-hour drive. We got back home around 9:00 pm.
On Monday my dad decided to give me the day off so I hung out with my brother all day. We went outside and dribbled while making a bunch of different moves and taking the ball from each other. I came back inside and played against each other in Call of Duty and basketball on the mini hoop. We walked to the store to get some ice so I cloud take an ice bath. I sat in the bath for 15 minutes so my legs could be fresh and it helps with swelling in the legs.
On Tuesday only a few people were allowed in the gym so there was only four of us. My cousin and I got there early and played 1 on 1 for thirty minutes straight going at each other. When the other two arrived to the gym we were dripping with sweat. First, we worked out on ball handling and then we just did catch and shoot. After that we had a three-point contest and then played king of the court up to 21. The losers had to run to ten sprints. We played until the gym closed. After our workout my cousin joined in, we played four on four against grown men for an extra hour and it was great runs.
On Wednesday the gym was open for everyone to come in and play 4 on 4. There was a lot of good players and taller so I worked on getting past my defender and take a floater or a pull-up at the midrange. I also worked on dribbling around screen and making a play happen which is scoring or hitting the wide-open man. The best and easy way to score was getting to the rim and hitting the floater or pulling up.
On Thursday when we first got to the gym, we played 21 and it was tough because people were double and triple teaming the whole time. I got out of it be making a million moves and getting creative. I was picking one side trying to go at a defender and if the others come, I was going to have to counter to them. Next, we played a 4 on 4. Throughout the entire 4 on 4 I worked on when the ball was swung my way it was a catch and go or a catch and shoot. I tried not to hesitate and if I catch and go, I worked on taking the wide angle to beat my man or if he cut that off had to hit them with a counter move.
On Friday practice was early therefore my teammates and I weren’t going to make it. We headed off to Rhode Island for a workout at my coach’s house. We worked on soft touch layups at the rim. We couldn’t spin the ball but instead get it up there and put it in. After that we did catch and shoot from all five spots, both the corners, both the wings and the top of the key. Then we worked on ballhandling for 15 minutes. Next, we sprinted half of the street and then started making moves from car to car and then did more ball handling in place. Finally, we did Ja Morants it’s a workout for your caves and they make you jump Higher.
On Saturday we had three games locally so they were all easy. We just worked on running all our sets and executing them. I worked on not just scoring the ball but being a point guard and running all out plays while getting my team involved. We also worked on defense as a team and individually picked up full court the entire game. We were instructed in all three games to talk on defense come out the game. We concentrated on yelling out screens and hedging hard.
Stay tuned next week for my final entry.
