Jacob McKinnon
CR6
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?
Looking back on my essential question I feel as though I answered it. I designed it so that I knew the answer but of course would still have to go through experience to gain a more comprehensive understanding. My question was a good frame for my project because it helped me to develop other focusing questions along the way. For example, if it wasn’t for the experiences I went through in the beginning of the project, I would have never developed the question about my limits as a basketball player. However, I did have to adjust my expectations for this follow up question because I didn’t initially get the answer that I thought I would. I expected to find my limits but instead gained a better understanding of myself and learned that although I can’t find my limit at this point in time, that is actually a good thing. I’m still young and developing so there is so much more room for me to grow and forcing myself to find a limit would only make me force a limit on myself. That of course is something I would never want to do. Regardless, I feel that I still met my goals for senior project. I wanted to isolate basketball from school and work on my skills for a while as well as get better at things like dunking and shooting. I know that I have gotten better at these things because I can see it in the video and I also just feel more confident in myself when it comes to performing these tasks. The only challenge I really faced during my senior project was Covid-19 and finding a way to still continue my project without being able to go to the park or the gym. Luckily, I had a hoop that I built as well as access to weights and the space to workout at home.
The understanding that I gained through senior project about my limits has only helped to push me even further. I am no longer afraid of getting hurt while experimenting and overall I have more confidence in my abilities. I was pretty surprised by how high I can really jump. I never noticed until I started trying more during senior project experience. I also didn’t realize how much successfully dunking relied more on willpower as opposed to how much energy one has. No matter how tired I was, if I pushed myself I found that I could dunk just as I expected, I just had to really want it and not hesitate or think that I was too fatigued to try. Senior project hasn’t really raised any questions for me but has motivated me to keep pushing forward and I’m just excited to see how far I can go.
Reflecting on the entire process I’m most proud of my development. I can proudly say that I’ve come quite a ways and I’m better than when I started. My shot is more consistent and I’ve become better at scoring after doing combination moves. If I could do senior project again I wouldn’t do anything different, I just wish that the parks were open and Covid-19 hadn’t impacted anything. If I could’ve gone to the park I would’ve had more opportunities to play against other people and that would’ve helped me gain actual game experience. The hardest part of senior project experience was finding a way to film me playing in the space in my backyard. Normally I would’ve had a friend do it but because of Covid-19 I was by myself more and had to prop up the camera somewhere and make sure it was at a good angle. The most rewarding moment was actually looking back at the footage and seeing my growth. This of course is the main thing I want my audience to see. I want them to see my experience as well as everything I’ve been working on. A compilation video would be the best medium for this simply because the video itself would speak for this experience better than I could.