AO5

Basketball

In this sport I have made small improvement over time, when I started in Lithuania I was pressured to beat my family members that are amazing at it, but I struggled, because although I learnt well and remembered, I could not learn fast enough, I started with weak aim, rubbish dribbling, weak defence and over all a bad player, but I was encouraged.

My main flaw is my shots, for this I give myself a 6/10. It is not very good but has been developed, I used to miss 5 of 20 shots, they mainly missed completely, or bounced of the backboard, but when I started to train in a Gravesend team, I stared working on it, soon 14/20 shots were going in, not what I had hoped for (20/20) but it was still an improvement.

For defence I give myself a 8/10. I am decent at is due to my height, and my longer than average arms, I can make a good barrier for the ball, this means an attacker finds it hard to put a basket in, I think I got some of my info by watching some games of it on sky sports, NBA internationals was what I watched, and from this I gained some degree on insight, I saw they took a wide stance, and always kept on their toes, but a lot of the time they stayed close quarters, not allowing them to take a breather, so they got tired and gave up possetion of the ball. To improve I think I should play some more games where I am in defence, so I can hone my skills, but I think I should focus on keeping on my toes, keeping the attackers occupied, and not giving up to more than 3 attackers, but rather getting more stuck in I think that my improvements were decent, I will update this soon when I get the ball and trainers out!

Swimming

In this I have made large improvement over a very short time, I started one month, unable to swim completely, and the next a very good one. I went to my swimming club and it came very easily to me, I could make fewer splashes and do much faster.

For speed I give myself 9/10, I started of making lots of splash, this slowed me down, also my arm technique was wrong for all strokes, my time to get from one side of the swimming pool to the other (a full length) in about 1 minute, but now I can do it in about 15 seconds, what I think is an amazing improvement. To improve is think I need to be able to make fewer splashes when going fast, also I should use my lags more because my arms do most on the work.

For my technique I give myself a 8/10. When I started I swing my arms wildly for each stroke, it was so bad you could not tell what stroke it was at all, I focused on my front crawl, I soon became more efficient at it, and I got better, with my arms I made the perfect overhead stroke, then I focused on breaststroke, it was soon apparent that this stroke used the least energy, I started to train for it on my back with just my legs, to work on, and then rolled over and did it properly. To improve I think I should make fewer splashes, so they can easily know what I am doing and not being covered up by splashes.

For my breathing I give myself a 7/10. You may think it is not important but for me it really was, it was the difference between a almost flawless lap to a lap when I was mostly taking a breather on the side. I was told the way to breath in breast stroke, and It was easy, but for the front crawl it was hard, I wanted to keep going, but I knew I needed to breath, I soon got over the fact if I did not breath it would be painful. To improve I could take slightly more breaths in front crawl, to make it easier, and so I don’t lose energy as quickely.

Gymnastics

I began this in school, when I started I knew I was going to make no improvement, my body is not light and balanced enough to do anything right, it was awkward trying to do handsprings and so on.

For speed I give myself a 3/10. I think that when I started I was slightly slower, but I was still slow, I could not get the proper run up to make it and execute a good vault, I think that when I did it, I was almost a bit afraid I would make a fool of myself, which is never fun. To improve I think that I could get a faster run up, also I could maybe try harder.

For balance I give myself a 2/10.  My body is not made for it, I was wobbling all over the place and many times landed weirdly on the horse, its true I did sort of get the hang of it after time, so I actually managed to clear it. To improve I should get better balance, maybe I could balance on a Swiss ball, so I can get it better to get better balance in the vault.   

For technique I give myself a 4/10. It was pretty bad and I was finding it very hard, It seemed my brain could not control the body and it did some weird flop when I tried, I could not get what I wanted to do in my head, but when I did however, I did not know how to actually do it. But my gate vault I got better at and I could kind of do it. To improve it I could watch some video guides on Youtube, getting some tips on how to do the other vaults, or to improve the one I can do.