The players are now gathered in the gymnasium, facing the coach and Sherla, who is always by his side with a myriad of programmes to be implemented during her time as assistant coach. Today the coach had decided on the exercises they were to undergo.
It was simple, warm-up, shooting and dribble variation exercises. Then it was closed with a 5 on 5 game which was carried out alternately. The basketball division has 40 players who have different abilities and talents. Each of them will be picked randomly depending on how far they have developed to take part in a national competition to be held next month.
The competition is fierce to get a seat to defend their academy. Several dormitories and schools had already registered for the national competition, including New Ares Academy who had been the Runner-Up in the previous season's national basketball competition. But they had already forgotten that defeat and were rising up and trying to surpass the limitations that were holding them back from reaching the top.
As of right now, Kein has almost completed his daily mission while he still has quite a lot of time until the end of the day.
[Dribble for 30 minutes: 5 minutes left]
[Make 100 layup shots to the hoop: 100 left]
He almost completed one of his missions but was delayed by the arrival of the coach and his assistant. Kein wasn't worried because his training this time would be using techniques to complete the mission. His face was quite excited today and he was ready to get back to playing 5 on 5 after a long time.
Starting the training session, they warmed up together. This was followed by a dribbling exercise that had several cones set up in front of them. There were several variations of obstacles that Coach Marlon and Sherla had discussed. With that, they could train their dribble level skills which kept increasing without neglecting the basic techniques.
Kein receives the ball with both hands when his partner passes to him. Bouncing the ball to start with before starting the action. When he was ready, Kein started darting while dribbling the ball. The bounce of the ball has a fast tempo, he deliberately lowers his hands to produce a low bounce to improve his ability.
This technique is useful because the dribble is easier to trick enemies who are taller. Two steps in front of the cone, Kein switches the ball from his right hand to his left. The move is commonly called a crossover. Kein has a high enough ball possession score that he had no problem releasing the move and successfully passed 5 cones that were 1.5 metres apart.
Then he flips over with another crossover variation. He bounced the ball between his legs twice. The first bounce his body was still facing forwards, but as soon as he passed the ball on the next bounce, Kein turned his body quickly so that the ball would not slip out of his hands.
But Kein's effort was a little too much and the ball took a higher bounce and slipped out of his hands. But he knew what he had to do. Catching up with the ball took less than two seconds and came back through the same 5 cones and the same motion.
"Kein! Use feeling when bouncing the ball!" Coach Marlon shouted from the sidelines. All of them including Kein could hear his clear and loud voice. He simply nodded and returned to the back row.
Even Kein himself was confused as to why he almost lost the ball. He didn't expect that losing one point would have such a big impact. But Kein tried not to get too hung up on the point. He attributed everything that happened to his carelessness, not his declining skills.
Almost 20 minutes of dribbling and now Coach Marlon blew his whistle and let them rest for 5 minutes, before entering the shooting session. Kein and the others pulled over to the sidelines for a moment to rest their bodies. Even so, his brain was still imagining and thinking how to create a dribble move that could make it easier for him to pass 1-2 players every time he carried the ball.
But Kein realised that even professional players need extra effort to pass two players with a dribble. So the professional game scene now relies more on passing and precise positioning to get points. And it was a trademark of Coach Marlon that he was able to take his team to the final with unmentionable flaws.
"Are you injured? It looks like you've almost lost your ability." Damian came from behind him, a bit of a surprise.
"I don't know. I think my hand still hurts a little when I move it. That weightlifting exercise back then was a real killer." Kein made an excuse.
"Don't lie. I know you've had a bit of a slump. But it's okay, all players go through that."
Kein nodded slowly and looked at Damian who had gone to get a bottle of water. During the break, Kein opened the 'system' screen and went to the daily mission.
[Dribble for 30 minutes: Completed!]
[Make 100 layup shots to the hoop: 100 left]
As expected, Kein had deliberately sped up the bounce of the ball at the start of practice to show off his skills. But in the middle of the line, he had already decided to reduce the fast tempo to a slow one just to complete his daily mission.
After a well-earned rest, the whistle blew again and they entered shooting practice. This time they agreed to use two-point shooting and three-point shooting techniques. When he heard that, he clapped his hands hard enough to stop the coach's explanation.
'Damn it. I thought we were going to practice layups.' Kein almost let go of shouting and regretting.
'It's not a big deal. But if it can't be solved during practice, I'll have to increase the duration of my training.' He decided to take extra time in order to complete the mission. It had happened to him many times especially lately when he had daily missions that had to be completed in the morning.
Although Kein had good passing and dribbling skills, the fact was that he had trouble shooting the ball into the ring. It would be a good exercise to develop his shooting skills in a short period.