SAISA Basketball

So the end of our season is soon approaching and in a about a week we are going to be on our way to Dhaka. Training is getting more and more complicated as we are trying to introduce a motion offence. It takes a unbelievable amount of cooperation between our starting five, reserves and coach to reach the level of coordination and flow that we require to do any damage during the tournament. Throughout training we are trying to find out everyones weaknesses and find a way to use each others strengths to balance those weaknesses. I've been told that i travel before i start my dribble and i never changed it, later in one of our games against gateway the referee called me for traveling on 4 occasions and then i knew that i had to do something. So far i've been spending around 2 hours a day on my movement and even when i'm just walking around school i imagine that i have a ball in my hand and dribble before i lift my pivot foot. Coach said that he saw an improvement in my movement but i still have the tendency to travel. Guess it's hard to shake a habit you've had for 2 years. I need to show perseverance and commitment to this and i hope to shake this habit by next year, thats the goal.  One of the key outcomes of this SAISA is developing new skills and i've been trying to do that every time i play. I tend to do this by taking tips on different things from different team mates. Like i mentioned before.... we all have our own strengths :)

Secondary Production: Stage manager

I've taken the job of stage manager for the secondary production since i was low on creativity. My job will basically be sourcing materials and props for the play and also being in charge of having the each scene organised and set.
Just yesterday I was running through a marketplace trying to find rattan baskets and hand scrubs. Pretty interesting, i got to use my mediocre Sinhalese skills.  
I will also be running any errands that Mrs. Jackson needs. Currently the rehearsal times collide with my basketball practices, therefore I will not be attending any rehearsals until the SAISA season is over. Rehearsals will be on tuesday and friday.

Gecko Inc.

We've started going to this local school thats right next to OSC. The first time we went we played cricket and recently we went there and played a game of football. The learning outcomes expressed in these activities would be Planned and initiated activities and Working collaboratively with others. These activities were planned by our CAS Leaders and they initially had to request permission from the school principle for us to come and play with the kids. The discipline level at these schools are really high and the level of respect we need to show when visiting is a level that we are not used to. For example we were all asked to were long pants and play in such heat. this was a daunting task. The kids are really nice and they LOVE to play. You can see the how passionate they are about just having fun. It makes you think about how we are always over thinking things and being stressed about work and what not, where if we just concentrate on "having fun" we might be much happier. 

We are meeting them again today afternoon but this time they are coming here. We have planned a game of volleyball. When we asked them last time what they would prefer to play they immediately said volleyball. I guess since it's the national sport of Sri Lanka these kids might be able to annihilate us on the volleyball court. Lets hope we can teach then a few things though. 

Photography: Shanthi Haaze

Me standing in shade during the visit 

Photography: Shanthi Haaze

Group Shot of OSC Gecko Inc. with the local kids after a tiring game of football

Week Without Walls

WWW is coming up and i've selected to do the dry zones trip. The trip consists of about 8 of us going and exploring the ancient city of Ritigala. Activities include climbing the mountain NEXT to the famous Sigiriya, snorkelling, night walks and pigeon island.

There are ethics involved in tourism, especially when visiting an ancient city. We need to treat the area with respect and not be "drawing our names on the floor" as Mr. Lockwood says. Besides the city we need to also show respect to the hotel/rest house we are staying in and to the people running it.

Another important thing is to get to know the people in our group. Learn their strengths and weaknesses, learn now to use that knowledge to complete activities at prime efficiency. More importantly however, learn about my own strengths and weaknesses. I've been on a lot of school trips and learnt a lot about myself, but for some reason i tend to always learn something new about myself on every trip. I guess when i'm put in different situations i tend to adapt.

Anyway, i'm really excited about the upcoming trip and i think i need to go shop for some new stuff :)



Mr Lockwood's blog

The place we are staying :)

Saisa Boys Basketball

So this is season 3 and i'm doing basketball. It was pretty unsure whether or not i would be able to do this season because of my ankle fracture. Now after an 8 week out of action period and 3 weeks of physiotherapy i'm almost back to a 100%. Since i wasn't in school for the last 2 weeks of the last semester I was unable to register for a TSSL card. So I wont be able to play in the first tournament that our teams in. This actually might be a good thing so i don't rush my ankle into full contact play.

So practice is starting tomorrow and will be on Tuesdays, Wednesday mornings, fridays and Saturday mornings. I'm not planning on doing full practice tomorrow but ease into full practice over the next two weeks with clearance from my physiotherapist. I think this relates to undertaking new challenges and showing perseverance and commitment in my activities. The new challenge being to keep myself healthy for the next 3 months. The perseverance and commitment being the constant icing and taking care of my ankle after practices because it's going to be sore and not giving up on any practices and not letting the team down in any way. There is a chance that we will lose one of our star players and the rest of us need to step up. 

Coaching SAISA Girls Basketball

Recently I have been going to the SAISA girls practice as the development team coach. The possibility of a development team is pretty slim at the moment so i'm not sure if this will hold. I've been to the last 3 practices and have helped Justin and Tharindu in coaching all the 20 girls (before the actual team has been chosen). 

Coaching the girls really helped me evaluate and reflect on my own game. I realized all the little mistakes i do and i remember hypocritically telling the girls to not to make those mistakes. I also got some creativity points by coming up with some drills and running some basic weaving plays. I did take the time to talk to some of the girls individually to work on some fundamental lacks.

In this activity i will be developing new skills such as learning how to teach and cater my knowledge to a skill set that is not as advanced as i'm used to. Like i mentioned before i'm also learning new things about my own game and leaning to not make the same mistakes that i always do. Another leaning outcome would be planning activities, in this case it would be planning and executing drills that help further the skills of others. I also think that working collaboratively with the other coaches in also key. Especially when Justin and me were asked for our opinion on the team selection. Overall I've had a really fun time helping out with the coaching and i really hope that the development team comes through and i get to continue.

Fashion Show

Gecko Inc.

We have decided to organize a fashion show to raise the funds for out trip to kilinochchi. Right now we are trying to collaborate with the school as well as other outside sponsors to make this event happen. The key thing here is time. Before we can organize such a big event there are so many things that we need to get in place. We need to get permission from school and apparently need to include the community that we are helping. This in itself is another thing we need to plan because that requires more permission from the foundation along with school. I guess the only way to make this happen is to show perseverance and push through until the event is complete.