PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Believe and Receive
I talked about believing and receiving at the Beyond Pink event last week, about how important it is to believe in ourselves, and in life, and how important it is to be willing to receive help from others. This second piece, receiving, has never been easy for me. Being independent, I have always felt like I didn’t need help, but after I was in a debilitating accident where I was hit by a train and left unable to care for myself and without my best friend and fiancé at the time by my side, I needed help.
From the doctors and the nurses who helped to save my life, to the friends and family who supported me when I didn’t want to go on living, I had help. And it was the seemingly little things that made a huge difference. The time my mom helped me shave my legs because I could no longer stand the stubbly mess that made me feel less human, the times when my brother would drop by and surprise me so we could just be together, the time I wheeled into my parents bedroom late at night crying and unable to sleep and they helped me climb between them and helped me to find some peace. There were letters from friends, and a crazy care package from Kirsten that was filled with random stuff to make me laugh like candies (and empty candy wrappers) and a Curious George Goes to the Hospital book. And there were the almost daily walks with my dad. I never wanted to go on them, to have someone put my shoes and sock on and roll me down the street in a wheel chair, but each time […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Defense wins the games
I was watching some young kids play pick-up basketball the other day and I was amazed at how often they played just one end of the court, the offensive end. Both teams were letting three-pointers fly and they made them a lot, but it was hard to watch the rest of the game. There was almost no defense being played. Players were just looking for the glory shots, the three-pointers.
Does it really matter if you can drain a three-point shot, if you can’t, or often won’t, play defense on the other end of the court? I don’t think so. In fact, the ability to hit three-pointers tends to make a lot of players lazy. They assume the ball is going in and don’t follow their shots.
Of course as a shooter, you should think that you’re going to make your shot, but you must crash the boards anyway. (You will miss at a few over your lifetime.) And each time you score, make sure you get down the court on defense to keep your player from scoring. Don’t forget to work on all aspects of your game, as the old saying goes, Offense sells the tickets. Defense wins the games.
PeaceLoveBasketball: Girls Not Tough Enough? Bring It On!
There was a time when girls played six on six basketball, three on offense, three on defense, because according to The Women’s Basketball Rule Committee the game was too rough for girls. Though this rule was put into action in 1899, it’s how I learned to play when I was in grade school, and when I was in college there were still three states that played this way. Oklahoma was the last state to change to five-on-five basketball in 1995; seven years after I graduated from college.
Girls not tough enough? Please.
Learn more about how Title IX changed things for women in this country and how it affected me throughout my lifetime of sports in Can I Play? Dreaming In the Wave of Title IX at AwesomeSportProject.com.
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Ten Short Lines and Go
My friend Jenny and I write every Thursday. Most days we write a quick letter to one another to catch up on our week. Last week we wrote ten short lines about our previous week. Mine started…
- Ping Pong Pandemonium
- Not-so-sweet 16
- Gone are many dog days & days & dogs. Peace.
- Title IX article
You get the idea. Just little snippets into what happened. Then we chose one of the lines and wrote for eight minutes. Now it’s your turn to give it at try.
WRITING PROMPT: Jot down 10 things that happened last week. Pick one of them and write some more.
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: Is Meddling With Your Work Worth it
I’ve been editing the first few chapters of my young adult novel. It’s amazing to me how many things that I can find to change and rearrange. But all that meddling is good (within reason). My first draft was just that, a draft.
I write my drafts with my head down, with little thought to how the sentences read, I give more thought to the ideas I want to get down on paper. Often I will use parenthesis surrounding a question mark or surrounding a word that encompasses my thought, without really finishing out the sentence, and then keep writing.
For example I might write, Sandy set her (?) on the bench before she pushed Cameron in the back. Or, it was (extremely hot, smoldering, show this somehow) inside the subway station. Ben scanned the kitchen then (get character to basement here). Often I’m in a hurry, I […]
PEACELOVEBASKETBALL: Life Rules
A friend asked me to help coach a 6th grade boys basketball team this fall. A couple of years ago I stepped down as Varsity Head Coach of the West Seattle High School girl’s program and I wasn’t sure I wanted to coach again, but when I stepped onto the court and saw the boys hustling across the floor at tryouts, I knew it was the right decision. When I got home, I went straight to my office, pulled open my coaching file and started planning. I scanned the first three documents in my coaching notebook, Westside Big 5, West Seattle Practice Rules and “10 to Win” Westside Rules of Defense, two of the three have nothing to do with basketball skills, a reminder to me of what coaching is truly about, teaching […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Writing is hard. I give up.
It’s hard to write. I have yet to get on an ongoing regular schedule. I have had times where I’m on task and I love it, then life gets in the way. Last year I cleaned up and sold one house and remodeled and sold another. That took up a lot of time and energy. In the spring we had extended family living with us, which bit into free time, and then during the summer my kids are both around, so I’m always busy. Simply put, finding time to write can be a struggle.
Sometimes I just want to give up.
I have written posts about how I’m working on finding time to write, and what I have realized is that if you have a busy life, and have not established yourself as a writer in your mind, or by receiving a […]
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