How to Shoot a Lay-Up

When I finished my senior year of high school my basketball coach asked me to help him out at a summer basketball camp. I figured, ‘sure, I love basketball, but I don’t know if I will be very good at teaching it to kids.’ Well little did I know that something would happen as a result of this basketball camp that would have a lasting impression on me.

The camp was for elementary aged children. I showed up ready to have some fun and do what I loved most, play basketball. From the first day one of the young girls was connected to me. The girl had a developmental disability and was full of excitement about life. For the rest of the week I was dubbed ‘basketball helper’. We had a grand time together dribbling, shooting, and practicing lay-ups.

When the week ended I did not have a profound life-changing event. I did enjoy my time with all of the children at the camp, but I was still going to go about my daily life as usual. It wasn’t until I saw the same young girl later that summer at the lake that she made such a marvelous impact on my life. As she saw me she came up to me running and yelling, ‘basketball helper, basketball helper, can we practice lay-ups?!’ And so we did. And she remembered all of the things I had told her a month ago at basketball camp.

I felt empowered that I had taught someone something and that the person was excited about what they had learned. From then on I had this feeling inside me of wanting to go out and teach more and more.

I believe that the smallest teaching moment can change the life of the teacher or the student. We all hold special and priceless knowledge, and by keeping it to ourselves we are hording life lessons. When you say the word ‘teach’ or the phrase ‘teach me something’ many people get scared. We think of math, science, reading, or history and say, ‘I can’t teach you!’ But it is the simple lessons and things in life that are important to share with one another. Spread the wealth of knowledge with others. Show someone how to shoot a lay-up, how to frost a cake, or how to do a card trick.

It is like spreading little seeds when you teach your lessons to someone else. And these little lessons may not be remembered for a lifetime, but for a short amount of time it was a lesson to someone else. You just never know when a teaching moment is going to make you feel like a million bucks, this I believe.