My sporting memories: A lifetime of enjoying the game

Greetings dear readers, in this opportunity I want to share with you some memories about my sport experiences in my different stages (youth and adult), with this publication I join the initiative of my friend @cryptoandcoffee, I take this opportunity to congratulate him for this type of activities that allow to socialize the sport experiences of the different users who are part of this great platform.

Since I can remember I have always had an affinity for sports, I could say that since I was 8 years old, I remember meeting with my friends to play rubber ball, that's how we call in my country Venezuela to a game that resembles baseball with the only difference that you use a rubber ball that you hit with your hand and you can play it with as many players as you want, In the same way you run around the three bases and score runs, generally you played on the street and had to stop the game when a vehicle approached, are unforgettable moments for me.

In the same way, we played baseball as everybody knows it is the king sport of Venezuela, we would go to the nearest stadium and play a caimanera (way of calling a game between friends) with children from other sectors close to ours, generally I played in the gardens, I must admit that I was very good at catching since, I had a lot of agility to reach the elevated balls, but at batting time I did not do it very well, in a few words the good I did at catching solved my deficiency as a batter.

When I reached my youth at the age of 11 or 12, I started to grow a little fast reaching an average height of 1.82 meters, when I entered high school, I observed that volleyball championships were being held, the coach told me that if I wanted to be part of the volleyball team, to which I answered a resounding yes, from then on, I started to attend practices and developed great skills, which allowed me to be part of my municipality's team for a short time. I consider that volleyball is a sport where technique prevails, it is there where the success of a player lies, apart from his athletic development of course and if you do not have an adequate height you must work on being able to acquire a great jump so the attacks and defense are more effective.

Likewise, I developed an affinity for basketball, a sport that has marked me to this day. I like the synergy that exists between the physical, tactical, collective, leadership and discipline aspects of this sport, which I speak of very appropriately with my experience as a player on my university team when I was a student and now as a professor.

When I started playing basketball, I remember recording the games, to see whose movements for me is the best basketball player of all time, I am sure you know who I am talking about, of course, Michael Jordan, as well as excellent players like Kevin Garnet, Kobe Bryant and then a little later the spectacular plays of Vince Carter and Jason Williams, at present I like the serenity and effectiveness with which Kevin Durant plays.

In college, I had the opportunity to play in the national youth games of universities, of course my height 1.84 meters did not favor me, but the effort was made to play right forward and at times as an escort. Today at my 38 years of age I still play basketball at my University for the teachers' team, a team that I had the opportunity to promote and was integrated by young and not so young teachers, we had the opportunity to go to the national teachers' games in Margarita Island for three consecutive years, the first two years were of learning and then in the third year thanks to a lot of discipline and dedication we managed to reach the semifinals which for us is significant, taking into account that other universities included students and some even played in the professional league, so you can imagine. Basketball is without a doubt my favorite sport.

My favorite team is not the Lakers which had a great season in this quarantine and became champions, in my youth was the Chicago Bulls, you can imagine with the presence of Michael Jordan was a phenomenon, but in reality I have always had an affinity for the Minnesota Timberwolves, is a team that is always loaded with young figures and since there was Kevin Garnet generate a great affinity for that team.