In middle school, I considered myself to be a pretty average height. It wasn’t until we came back on campus from COVID-19 during my sophomore year that I fully realized how vertically challenged I was standing at 5’3”. Knowing the typical height of basketball players is well beyond mine, Sydney Heyn (12), who plays as a power forward on the girls basketball team and stands tall at 6’0”, still encouraged me, saying that height is definitely an added plus, but it isn’t a requirement to be able to successfully play basketball. I have a feeling she was just trying to lift my spirit because the first skill she taught me was how to do a layup. 

I think the last time I ever attempted a layup was back in middle school P.E., so walking up to the net, I wasn’t sure how well this would go. After Heyn demonstrated it, I thought “This looks simple enough,” and when she broke it down for me, I felt confident. She told me “dribble, left foot, right foot, jump, and aim for the top corner of the box on the backboard.” This became a mantra in my head when I tried doing a layup myself. My first couple of tries felt awkward and uncomfortable. As a leftie, it was slightly confusing why I felt more comfortable dribbling with my right hand. My body always wanted to take the first step with my right foot. However, with Heyn’s encouragement and a fifth try, I was able to successfully make two layups in a row, but the foreign feel of the ball never went away. No matter how many times I was able to get the ball through the net, I still couldn’t get past how strange I felt every time I dribbled the ball.  

After my triumph of doing a layup, I asked Heyn how she developed the skill of dribbling the ball across the court and maintaining control over it without having to look down at the ball. She told me about the different drills that the team does during practice when they want to work on polishing that skill. So, we ran through one of them where I’d dribble the ball back and forth between my hands, while Heyn would hold up a number with her hands and I’d have to say the number aloud while still dribbling. 

With my first attempt, I lost control of the ball after the first number Heyn held up. Just from that, I knew this was more difficult than doing a layup. Heyn then told me to make sure that I squatted, kept the ball in close proximity to me, and put enough power into the ball. After that, my highest count was six dribbles without losing the ball. 

After my lesson with Heyn, I tried on my own to dribble the ball while running, and let’s just say the ball got away from me more than once. 

“I think a lot of it definitely comes with practice and developing a habit of doing the skill, so it comes naturally when you’re at practice or in a game,” Heyn said. “A lot of the game is your mindset, so even if you don’t score a lot of points, you can make up for it on the court as defense or offense.”