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Deon Foster 9/20/14
Basketball Language
When I was in sixth grade I was introduced to the basketball world. I wasn’t very
good and didn’t know any of the language that came with it. It wasn’t always my favorite
sport, but throughout my learning process it became my favorite and I benefited from it.
One of the first things you learn in basketball is that communication is key and you won’t
win games without communicating with your team. My coach would make us do drill
after drill with no ball until the team was comfortable talking to each other.
When on the basketball court you have to talk very loud so that your teammates
can hear you over the crowd. You also have to be able to speak fast so you send your
message to teammates quickly to perform well. There are also a lot of words that come
with basketball language that might mean different things in “standard English”.
The first time I learned a word from the basketball language was my first day in
practice at a local YMCA. My coach told me to point to my elbows and so I raised my
left arm and pointed at my elbow. He just looked at me and laughed, he then told me no
that’s not what he was talking about, after he finished laughing he walked over to each
corner of the foul line and told me those are my elbows when I’m playing basketball. My
friend tried to be funny after and did the same thing so coach then told us “get on the
line” this means prepare to run suicides. Suicides is a running drill that you start at the
baseline and you run to each line and back one by one till the coach tells you to stop. I
also learned that phrase that day and it immediately became one of the worst things in
basketball.
There are words and phrases that you need to know to be able to play in a game.
Baselines, for example, are the two shortest boundaries under each basket. Another term
is the free throw line; you go to the line when you’re fouled in the act of shooting. A foul
is basically contact that is against the rules. There is also a half court line. This line is in
the middle of the court and once you pass it you can’t cross back over the line during that
play or else it will cause in a turnover.
One day in practice my teammate yelled “Deon there’s someone backdoor” I
didn’t know what he meant so then I was yelled at by my coach for letting the person
