3 Life Observations from Basketball Camp

Today we are finishing our four-day Darris Nichols Basketball Camp at Radford University, where we have kids between the ages of 6-15. The enthusiasm the participants have shown has been infectious - there have been times I was sure they would get tired, but they didn’t let up.

As I got ready for our last day, I was reflecting on the event and thinking about life lessons I’m able to draw from it.

Followers Don’t Equate to Success

At camp this week we had our counselors play a competitive free throw shooting game. We asked campers to stand behind the counselors they thought would win the game. The most “popular” and outgoing counselors ended up with the most kids behind them, but the counselor who ended up winning did not have the most followers. The 2nd and 3rd place counselors were also not the ones with the most followers.

Participants shooting free throws at the Darris Nichols Basketball Camp.

I took the opportunity to share with the kids that it was reflective of social media where we can get caught up in followers instead of production. If we only perform to please others, we won’t be true to ourselves and we will inevitably fall short.

It’s Important to Appreciate the Moment

When we are young, we are in a rush to be older … until we get older.

At camp we have the hoops at different heights based on age group. I noticed that when we gave the campers time to free shoot, I could find age groups based on which goals they were playing on. The younger campers that were designated to play on the 8-foot hoops during camp were now playing 1-on-1 and 3-on-3 games on the 10-foot hoops. The older campers chose to play on the 8-foot hoops. It seems we are in a rush to get old and then we would love to be young again!

Be A “Learn it All”

I worked with a guy many years ago at Florida and his youngest son used to ask us a ton of questions! Fast forward a year or two and he suddenly stopped. I asked my co-worker why his son no longer asked questions. He laughed and said, “He has all the answers now.”

It doesn’t matter how old we get or how much we know, we never know it all.

At the beginning of camp, I made sure to tell the campers to ask a lot of questions! The counselors were many of my former players that had just graduated, so the participants could learn a lot from their experiences. It was noticeable that the younger campers asked way more questions than the older campers.

We must never stop asking questions, or we stop learning!

My Opportunity to Learn

I am always looking for these small moments to learn and grow. Watching camp participants soak up information and apply it is a learning experience for me!

To learn more about the camps we will be offering this summer, visit the Darris Nichols Basketball Camps website.