Surprised me!

I like for my kids to try anything and everything they want to. I asked Ladybug if she wanted to play basketball and she said yes. So since they have a summer league in the neighborhood and they are pretty much non competitive, I thought it would be a great time for her to learn how to play.

So to set this up for you....

They didn't have enough 8 and 9 year olds to form teams so they moved the 7 year olds up.

Which meant that instead of playing with a shorter basket and only half court, she has to play with the 10 ft. basket and full court.

We only had three practices. She likes to dribble and likes to steal the ball.

She does not have enough power to get the ball up to the hoop to make a basket.

I was very skeptical going into our first game tonight.

Warming up. Isn't she so cute! I see a point guard in the future!
Getting ready to play. Once again, she had never played a game of basketball before and I am not sure she has ever seen how a game works.
But I will tell you what!

That girl got out there and dominated the court. She may have been small but she was fast and she was not afraid to take the ball away from the other team. She had her hands up and when the big girls that had 6-8 inches on her had the ball she ran right up to them and guarded them like no one else.

She was stealing the ball and dribbling it back down the court.

For the whole first half, I was like OH MY GOSH! Who is this girl. But boy if she wasn't doing it by the book. She knew she couldn't touch them. She didn't foul anyone. She just played her heart out. I was very impressed.
After the game. They didn't win. It was 12 to 4. But the whole team held their own against a team with a lot of bigger (taller) girls on it. In the end, the other team was able to get the rebounds .

So Ladybug came home and wanted to know how to beat them next time. We talked a lot about the game and things she could do and how to use her teammates and passing the ball and when to play defense and when to play offense. And she is like gung ho for her next game tomorrow!

And on a side note. Most of you know my kids are the energizer bunnies. I can't wear them out. I have tried. Yesterday they had four hours of gymnastics followed by four hours of non stop swimming and they still didn't fall asleep.

After her game tonight, she sat down in the car and asked for an ice cold glass of water and wanted to go to bed! She played all four quarters of the game today and she was exhausted!