Defence Is The Key To Success In All Forms Of Basketball Says Warriors Latest International Peter Ashton.

Our U15 Boys captain Peter Ashton was recently selected to represent England U15 Boys in the Copenhagen Invitation Tournament, which took place from Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th June, and which England won for the first time.

This was Peter’s first experience of the demands of International Basketball and Club Secretary Tom Sunley asked Peter to do a piece for the website about his time in Copenhagen.

In the very interesting article below Peter reflects on that experience and explains what he gained and learned.

 

Reflections On My First Experience Of International Basketball

“The four days I spent in Denmark with the England Under 15 Boys Team in June was without doubt the best experience of my Basketball life to date.

After three training sessions in Bristol the squad assembled at Heathrow for the trip to Copenhagen. It was easy to find other members of the team, especially Derby centre Kingsley Okoro, who at 6 feet 11 inches was easy to spot in departures!

While the highlight of the four days for me was of course winning the entire tournament, the way in which we won gold has taught me so much about the game; and how it needs to be played at international level.

I can safely say the most important aspect of basketball for an England team is defense. Our Head Coach; Andreas Kapoulas; has one saying that he always speaks about - “defensive pride” and that it is the only way to win basketball games. He was absolutely right.

It does seem blindingly obvious, but if a team cannot score then you, as their opponent, are guaranteed to win. So if I could take only one thing away from this experience it is that defensive effort and discipline is the most vital aspect of basketball.

But apart from just winning, another moment I will never forget it when I scored my first basket in the tournament. We where playing against Norway. It was on a transition situation, and the ball was being pushed down the floor by one of our many athletic guards. I was standing near enough under the basket when I caught the ball, and out of the corner of my eye I saw this 6'8 of of a guy running at me, so I just threw the ball against the backboard as quickly as possible; it rolled round the ring, dropped in, and from that moment on all the nerves went away and I enjoyed every moment of being there.

So the one big thing I would take away from this experience and try to bring back to Shropshire is the knowledge of just how important defense is. Up until now I thought it was all about offense and how effective a team was at shooting the ball, breaking in transition and things like that; but even though these are still vital, I saw first-hand how defense alone can win games.

A perfect example of this was in the semi finals against Scotland, when in the first half our offensive execution was very poor, we weren't looking after the ball, and by half time we had 17 turn-overs! However our defense was still excellent and even though they were scoring a very high percentage from the 3 point line it didn't matter, and at half time the score was level despite our ridiculous amount of turn-overs and their good shooting.

It really was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. I enjoyed myself immensely and I would do it all again happily if I could. I think it’s a great goal for anyone to work towards, and its very achievable if you put in enough work.

I loved my time with the team and it has given me a massive confidence boost, as well as a huge amount of motivation to work hard in training and on my own, to make sure I get a place again next year with the under 16 squad.”

Peter Ashton (July 2010)