Fundamentals
Where can you practice them? End of day
I went to my school’s basketball game last week. (I coached high school basketball (girls and boys) for 14 years.)
As I watched, I realized that almost everyone of our players had 1 goal: get this ball out of my hands as fast as possible.
As an old-coach, I always think, “Where would I start if I had this team?”
The answer last week was,
“I’d teach them to be strong with the ball”.
Strong with the ball means that no matter what the defense is doing (including being physical and bumping up into you), you as the ballhandler,
have your eyes up and
your protecting the ball.
Protecting the ball means
dribbling with an arm-bar up (keeping the defender from stealing the ball) or
ripping through (strongly sweeping the ball through their hands/arms).
As teachers it’s damn near impossible to protect your day. Students come in all sorts of packages (tired, sick, hating math, just had a fight with their romantic partner in the hallway, etc. etc.) - they get a vote on our day. No matter what.
Add in admin and all their “amazing” ideas/interruptions and your planned day can get toasted pretty quick.
What doesn’t have to get toasted is the end of your day. How you shutdown, what ritual you use - that’s completely up to you.
And it’s important because how you leave school largely determines if you leave school at school.
If guided practice would help you create your own shutdown ritual, join my 10 (school) day shutdown sprint.
Reply with “SPRINT” and I’ll send you the day 1 email.
See you in class and remember, protect the end of your day.
J
I love basketball but I'd never heard of the "arm-bar" before. Thanks for that! And, along with "end of your day" and "leaving school at school", it sounds like you're talking about stetting boundaries (another relatively new term for me). I appreciate the reminder!