Riley's First Basketball Game

Riley had his first basketball game on Saturday.  He is playing basketball for the YMCA.  I have to admit that I don't know how much was Riley wanting to play basketball and how much was his mommy wanting him to play the sport that she & her daddy played in high school.  But I am also trying to remember that at age 5, I was pretty bad myself.

 The biggest struggle at this age is learning to dribble.  This was never my strong suit, though.

The other skill we definitely have to work on is learning that he can NOT do any good standing under the goal.  Maybe it was because we kept yelling, "Go to the Goal"  or maybe he knows that is where the action is, but Riley was under the goal on offense & defense.  Now we just have to teach him that you can not shoot under the goal, you can not stop a shot under the goal, and you cannot rebound anything, but a made shot from under the goal.

 But on a good note, he did hustle up and down the court and we only had to yell once or twice to pay attention and find the ball.  Plus we now know the skills we need to work on.  I also have to remember that he can not learn the whole game of basketball in one week. 

I will also say this, I have seen VAST improvements in his skills in the past 2 weeks.  It should be really impressive to see how far he comes by the end of the season.  His first season of soccer, he didn't score a single goal.  So I'm trying not to expect too much.  But with each game will come more confidence from Riley.  He is too much like his mommy and doesn't like to do things where he is not already good. But first we have to learn to survive the Thursday night practices from 7-8pm (8pm is his BED TIME!) and find someway to not be overly exhausted & wild on Fridays.  
  Oh and isn't it great, that his team color is finally maroon!  I can wear my Aggie stuff every Saturday in suppport of his team!  Go Thunder!