I started playing basketball in grade 6, it initially started as just another sport but by time I got serious about it, going to tournaments, playing in school. I had not learnt a team game before this so it provided itself as an opportunity to learn a lot of new things. This helped me achieve a lot of skills and was good for my well-being.

LO1: For me to improve at my game it was important for me to recognize my strengths and my weaknesses. My strength was I was good at team activities and I was good at offense. This helped me gain insight of my position and importance in the game. One of my weakness was my stamina was low and basketball is requires endurance. Daily training was required for me to overcome this however I could see very little change. I think if I tried harder and committed I could have overcome this issue.

LO2: There were some problems because sometimes girls in our grade didn’t get along very well on court as we brought our personal issues inside court. There used to be arguments on court sometimes. Sir made us do team building drills and also explained to us several times and in the later stage we could see the difference. Undertaking this challenge brought us all closer together as a team. We learned to communicate better and keep an open mind.

LO5: As already mentioned earlier in LO2 that we had some difficulties to play together but with time and effort we understood the benefits we would have if we understood each other and communicated better. I have always been good in working with groups so this was a great experience for me to grow with my whole team. As basketball is a team sport this was very important for us to improve our game along with other skills. This made us better communicators and more open-minded.

LO6: Taking care of health and wellbeing is a important thing and with IBDP it was hard to take time out for myself and physical activities. Basketball was an escape from all the stress and a great way of being physically active. This issue affects me personally, I know it is important to take care of your mental, physical & emotional health and they are all interconnected so when I was working on my physical health it was good for my mental health too.

LO7: When playing a team game ethics are necessary we need to be honest to ourselves and others and play with a certain code. My efforts will, directly and indirectly, have an effect on others so I had to be wise with my decisions. Playing by the rules and making sure everyone else also follows them whether they are in your team or not is important. I can’t be biased towards someone and ignore when they do a foul play. Being principled is very important and as we started respected the game more and more our ethics also built up.

To sum it up basketball has had a great impact on my character and has made me develop skills and learner profiles. I have become more fond of this sport and there is still a long way to go for me and I may develop more skills in the future.