Being part of the basketball clique in high school helped me learn the intra personal and social communication skills I use today. As a child playing basketball was my favorite activity or hobby. It’s also the way I met a lot of my good friends that I have now. All my close friends I have met.
I have met them through playing basketball… Whether they were on my team, the opposing team or just fan’s in the crowd who admired my play. Not only has basketball helped me gain friends but basketball also taught me a lot about life. There are many aspects of life that coincide with basketball. For instance basketball is a team game and an individual game.
Like in life you have to work together with other people. The communication skills I learned from basketball helped me communicate with friends, girlfriends, parents and bosses at work. I started playing basketball in the fifth grade. In the fifth grade I was a quiet and shy little boy. I rarely talked to my teammates and kept to myself. As the years went by I learned how to communicate with my teammates and my coaches and began to break out of my shell so to speak.
I started making more and more friends that also went to my junior high. Basketball helped me meet a lot of new people. By the time I left junior high I had already a core group of friends I hung out with that I met from playing basketball. I remember my first day of high school like it was yesterday. A lot of my friends were nervous because they didn’t know any older students and were afraid they were going to get picked on. Me on the other hand, I had older friends that I had already made through basketball.
So when I got to high school even though I was nervous I had a clique that I fit and hung out with. As I hung out more with the basketball team I started to break out of my shell. Some of the great experiences I remember were the bus rides to games. We use to make up songs or just crack jokes on each other. My clique in high school was well know we were known as the “ball ers.” We got along with all the other people at school.
My basketball clique went everywhere together we even had a weekly senior ditch day to the beach. We went to all the dances in groups and had fun. By the end of my four years I gained about ten brothers that I knew I could rely on and call for anything at any time. From freshman year to the time I graduated I became a whole new person thanks to my teammates and all my experiences that I shared with them. I learned how to talk in both a one on one and group situation. Thanks to basketball I had developed the fundamental skills to communicate to friends and family.
Being the point guard on the team I had to relay the message from the coach to the other teammates. So I learned how to communicate and be heard in a big group. Like when I saw something that I thought someone was doing wrong I had to speak up and let them know what they need to day. I then took those skills to my everyday real life situations.
I no longer held my tongue about problem I had or things that bothered me. I used to be shy and not like conflict, but basketball taught me to tackle things head first. Thanks to my friends In high school I broke out of my shell and became the outgoing fun guy that I am today. If it wasn’t for them I would probably be the shy quiet soft spoken boy I once was. The communication I learned from my friends I use daily with who ever I come into contact with. I am a more confident and out going person because of high school..