Jacob McKinnon

CR3: Halfway There

 

EQ: What steps can I take to perfect my craft, so that I can become a better player and pursue my passion of playing basketball at the professional level? Or rather how can I perfect my craft?

 

So far I have learned that my essential question is not answerable in itself and is more so about my limits. There is no general answer because the process of becoming better relies on tailored training experiences and the strengthening of one’s own weaknesses. In the journey of strengthening weaknesses, one stumbles upon the realization that they truly don’t know how much better they can get. No training or calculations will tell the player this and in, itself this is a good thing; not knowing your limits kind of pushes a person to just keep experimenting, trying, and progressing without having the hindrance of fear. Hence, this has now become a deeper question that I have about myself; what is my limit?

The exploration of my essential question is much like I expected. I knew that I would be training a lot, creating my own workouts, and pushing myself to get better. The only thing I didn’t realize was the amount of daily hours I’d truly be putting in. Putting in 4-7 hours a day of just raw basketball is a lot but it’s teaching me to be dedicated to the process. My character is improving along with my basketball skills. I am gaining some necessary lifelong traits like the abilities to persevere and commit myself. 

I am not surprised by the challenges I have met so far because like I expected, they are things that are completely out of my control. For example, the weather and everything being closed because of Covid-19. I cannot control whether or not it’s going to be a good or bad day outside but I know that I can control what type of workouts I can do to compensate for the weather. I also know that I had absolutely no control over this Covid-19 catastrophe but luckily I still had the means to continue my project. I can’t really do anything about these obstacles, but I can just try to continue doing what I’m doing and living life.