Basketball Cartoons - Month of July 2012

I was suddenly assigned to be the teacher-in-charge of the Basketball Girls Team for this semester onwards. Yes... suddenly. An email was all to inform me of the change and hoped I didn't mind that decision made by the school. Well, as it turned out my new assignment gave me more opportunities to do what I loved during my free time... draw cartoons for my students.

Following are cartoons I drew for the team as I conveyed different message to them during my debrief after every training session. My objectives are simple. I hope the students will be a better team and become more committed basketball players.

This is the first cartoon I drew for the girls just minutes before they board the bus for their second last zonal competition. The girls team had never won any games for the past three years. This cartoon serve to remind them to have fun in the game and it doesn't matter if they win or loose. If they should loose, then get back up and continue to work harder.

I observed that they girls needed more commitment to train and practice to be better basketball players than they are right now. They cannot continue to play ball like recreational players forever. This cartoon was made into bookmarks complete with lamination and given at the end of the training session. The message is to encourage the girls to take initiatives on their own to study and practice so that their ball handling skills would improve. I got inspired by Pistol Pete's training videos which I watched from YouTube. He was a legend in the NBA and was definitely very inspirational in his video on ball handling. 

This one too turned into a book mark complete with lamination. Quote taken from a soccer coach to remind the girls that success requires lots of work in the background. Training doesn't just take place in the official training sessions. There are many things a sportsman would do outside training sessions to improve themselves. They think about their sports. They read up. They talk about it. They train extras on their own. A true champion works in-season and off-season with passion and commitment even when nobody sees them, or knows about what they do on their off-days.

This cartoon above did not turn out to a bookmark this time. It was simply reduced (in physical size), printed on paper and every one had a little cut-out of the cartoon. This cartoon was inspired by the fact that girls team did not have the crucial experience in terms of years of playing basketball compared to the better teams in other schools where good players from the primary schools gained direct admission to the secondary schools. Nevertheless, I thought the girls cannot give the same excuse year after year that they have less experience in playing because they can always play catch up. That requires more real training. It requires the team to taking practices seriously plus lots of self-intiatives to work skills out and practice on their own. Successful athletes are not produced in a day.