Monday’s Pen to Paper: Food for Thought…
WRITING PROMPT: Take a look at the photo above and then write for 10 minutes! Go.
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: How to Get Your Shot Back
When I worry about making my shot during a game, when I start thinking too much, it affects my shot in a bad way. So I have learned a trick that works for me on the basketball court come game time, and that is to simply forget about my shot. If my shot is off at the start of a game, the first thing I do is focus on other parts of my game; defense, rebounding, passing and of course making sure I hustle.
It may seem odd for a coach to say forget about the one thing that you are trying to do better, but it’s worked for me as a player and when I was coaching it was one of my first recommendations for a struggling shooter. I would tell them to forget about their shot and just get out there and play. Practice is when you become a better shooter, the game is where the work pays off if you don’t play all stressed out.
A great thing about basketball, is that you can hustle to relieve stress. This isn’t the case for all sports. For example, no part of golf calls for hustle, so there is no way, at least for me, to distract the mind. On the basketball court my hustle, helps make positive contributions to the team, as well as releases any frustration I might have, which in the end helps keep my mind calm.
Having a good mindset when playing basketball is important, very important, but you can get there differently when playing basketball. On those days when things aren’t going well and you’re shot’s off, hustle on defense, bump the cutters, crash the boards, run the break and help your teammates score by getting them the ball. […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: What Helps You Increase Your Daily Word Count
I went away to write for a couple of days and it’s amazing how much work I can get done when I don’t have laundry to do, dishes to wash and errands to run. When all I have to do is focus on my writing (And pet the cats and the chickens that were at my B-n-B). This, however, is not my every day life, so though I’m thrilled I got to bang out several chapters in my time away, I’m always striving to find ways to better forward my daily word count and “get away” on my normal schedule.
So far, going to the “office” (a coffee shop), for a few hours every day seems to be my most productive choice. What works best to keep you moving forward with you writing?
WRITING PROMPT: The black cat…
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Are Women Coaches Bullied?
photo credit: Paul Moseley
I’ve spent over half of my life coaching and every minute was worth it. Not for the money of course, I volunteered for eighteen of the years that I coached and the others I was paid next to nothing (As you know high school coaches don’t coach for the money). But it was worth it because of the opportunity to work with the players (mostly girls) and teach them about basketball, a sport dear to my heart, and through basketball help them learn about life. How to set goals, work hard, work as a team, win and lose with grace and also how to have some fun in the process.
Over the years, my players inspired me, entertained me, and taught me to be a better coach and a better person. But coaching high school was not easy, and though I am always up for a challenge, and loved having the opportunity to grow a high school program my last few years as a head coach, the part that is difficult about being a coach, is being treated differently or mistreated because I’m a woman.
I know the game. I played Division 1 college basketball and started on a team that played in the NCAA tournament and was a coach for a high school program that won several state championships before I became a head coach, so I have experience on and off the court. I also know and respect that not all coaches are the same. I ran flexible motion offenses where other successful coaches might run set plays, I don’t like 1-3-1 zones much, but have seen them run with perfection by other teams. What I’m saying is, coaches can do things their […]
Meet Sonya
Meet Sonya
Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy after she and her fiancé were hit by a train. She blogs about writing, basketball, and life and is currently working on a Young Adult Novel and a Non-Fiction Coaching book. Stories of her career as a fashion model are woven through her memoir, as both the Soloflex and Easy Spirit Shoes commercials were filmed during that time period, and this unique and intriguing business continues to be a part of her life.
Sonya played basketball at Eastern Washington University and was a starter for the Big Sky Champion team that went to the 1987 NCAA tournament. She coached for almost 25 years and was voted Seattle Times Coach of the Year, Seattle Officials Women’s Basketball Association Coach of the Year, and twice voted Metro League Coach of the Year. She loves the game of basketball and is thankful, not only for her husband and kids but for her ability to continue to get back on the court.
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Monday’s Pen to Paper: Finding Fuel
What fuels you to write? For me it’s open space, quiet and stillness.
Unfortunately, that is not the life I live so it is a constant challenge to keep up with my writing so I go in search of other ways to stay on task, such as meeting my friend, and writing partner, Jenny once a week, another is making dates with myself, writing them down on paper and sticking to them, another is taking long drives. Every time I go for a long drive, I spend some time with the radio off and this is when my mind goes to work, and fires up about thoughts and ideas and writing projects that sometimes loose momentum in my busy life.
I can find inspiration with a good hike or walk. Recently, I started working toward a new way to clear my mind, one that I […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Sun or Moon?
Do you wake early with arms stretched open wide to the sun, or are you like a barn owl, a bat, a bush rat, or a possum perhaps, who prefers the light of the moon?
Before I was married I used to binge clean and work on projects into the early morning hours. Rearrange my living room, organize a closet, work on a photo album, read a book, paint the kitchen. When I first started writing my book I had young kids so I would carve out minutes throughout the day to write, but when my husband would go play basketball at night with his men’s team, as much as it would bug me that I couldn’t play with them I relished the night alone to stay up late and write. His team would go for drinks after the game so he would be out […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Because You Can
I drained my first three ten foot jumpers in my first game back on the court last week. Sometimes I have beginner’s luck when I’ve been away from the game for a while, but it had been months since I last played, so I was anxious, not to mention a bit out of shape. I ended the game (a last second comeback win) with ten points, a sore left arch, a tender Achilles tendon, an achy back and a smile.
I went to bed nervous that when I woke up my shoulder might be frozen again, back to what had become an ongoing cycle of pain over the last nine months. Night being the worst with both a bad shoulder and bad wrist, rolling over had been nearly impossible and sleep was always in question. But when I woke the next morning, my shoulder […]
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