Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Brie was stunned for a moment. After she came back to her senses she laughed "Haha real funny Jason. Just go ahead and start the drill whenever you're ready."

Jason shook his head "I wasn't kidding Brie. I want to go over to the 16 and up group and try out the drill that they're working on right now."

Brie paused for a second "Jason that's not how things work. The groups are separated by age for a reason.

The camp's training was specifically designed to take into account your age and your current stage as a player.

For the thirteen and under group what we want to work on the most is helping you build up your body to the point where you can play elite defense.

We only go over technique and fundamentals so that you can be be exposed to them and get a feel for them. But they're not our focus.

Once you get to the later groups is where we start working more on your skills and fundamentals. You can't build a nice house without a solid foundation right?"

Jason took a second to process what Brie had to say. He then thought of the nicest way for him to say what he wanted to say.

After a few seconds with nothing coming up in his head Jason became a little annoyed 'Fuck! I can't think of a way to say this nicely. I guess my only option is saying it straight up.'

"I don't want to sound rude or mean Brie. But I think that I'm already pretty solid when it comes to defense.

I don't need to teach my body how to move properly. The drills you're having us do is mostly to develop muscle memory but I don't need that.

What I need is to develop my defensive skills and my knowledge of the game. And I don't think that I can do that in this group."

Brie was stunned again. She had never expected a little twelve year old kid to talk back to her. Especially not with such a eloquent and logical response.

Brie was stumped as she didn't know what to say. Jason added "Can I go talk to the trainer for that group? I just want to ask him."

Seeing as she didn't have any better ideas for how to handle the current situation she nodded her head 'Hopefully Ben can convince the kid.'

Jason walked up to the 16 and up group and tapped the trainer on the shoulder "Hi my name is Jason."

The trainer turned around and smiled as he shook hands with Jason "Nice to meet you buddy. My name is Ben. Did you need something?"

Ben was just average in terms of height as he stood at 5'9 (1.75m) but he had broad shoulders and biceps that you couldn't fit your hands around.

He had a short brown buzz cut and had a friendly and easygoing demeanor.

Jason nodded his head "I came over to ask you if I could join your group. I saw you guys running this drill and I really want to try it out."

Ben was surprised by Jason's request. Before he could give Jason an answer Brie had walked over from her group.

"Sorry Ben, I don't want to bother you in the middle of your drill but I have a bit of a situation on my hands.

This little guy over here saw you guys doing the drill and thought that it looked fun. I tried to tell him that training schedule designed by the camp was made to take into consideration the athlete's age and physique.

But he insisted on coming over here to ask you if he could join. To be fair Jason here is a little advanced for his age group."

Ben put his hand on his chin as he began to contemplate. After a few seconds he spoke "Why don't we just let him try it out?"

Brie was surprised by Ben's suggestion but he then leaned in and whispered to her "That way the kid can see how hard it is and realize how far he still has to go."

Brie couldn't come up with an argument to Ben's suggestion so she just nodded her head. With the permission of the two trainers Jason got ready.

The entire gym was focused on Jason. He had never intended to make himself stand out but It ended up becoming a bit of a show as Ben told his group that Jason was about to try out the drill.

Jason got into a low defensive stance as he spread his arms out and focused on Ben in front of him.

Jason took a deep breath as he began to focus 'Just relax Jason. Let your body do the work. Don't overthink this.'

Ben blew his whistle and yelled "Start!" The first light to turn on was the one on the far right. Jason immediately sidestepped to it.

Just as quickly as it had turned on Jason had pierced his hand toward the light and turned it off. The next light turned on and it was the one right next to him.

Jason didn't even have to take a step as he just leaned a bit further out to the side and slapped the light off.

Jason saw the light on the far left turn on and was about to shuffle towards it when he saw Ben throw a tennis ball to his right.

Without missing a beat Jason caught the ball in his right hand as he then made his way to the light to turn it off.

Brie along with the rest of the kids in the gym watched on in amazement as Jason continued his impressive display during the drill.

Most of the high school players were able to keep the drill going for two or three minutes. The better ones could get up to five minutes.

Everyone held their breaths in anticipation as Jason continued the drill. Brie was shocked as she looked at the time on her phone "He's been going for three minutes already."

Sweat rolled down Jason's face as he shifted from side to side catching the tennis balls and reaching down to turn off the lights.

The mental energy used to focus and make split second decisions was draining on Jason. Even more so than the physical fatigue.

Just as Jason was reaching over to the left side to slap the light off he saw a ball heading to his right side.

The mental fatigue must have caught up to him as a split second delay in his decision making caused him to miss the ball.

Jason stood back up regularly from his defensive stance and wiped the sweat off of his face with the bottom section of his shirt.

"Damn that was hard. But it was so much fun! This is a great drill. I haven't had a workout like that since before the season ended."

Brie walked up to Jason "Watch your language young man." Jason awkwardly smiled before apologizing.

Brie then smiled at Jason "But that was an incredible performance Jason. I honestly didn't think you would be prepared to run the drill but you did fantastic."

Ben walked up to Jason and patted him on the back "Yeah, that was a great run. You managed to run the drill for three minutes and forty seconds.

You did just as well as some of our high school athletes. That was a job well done bud."

Jason smiled "Thanks. That was so much fun to do. Whoever made this drill is amazing. Like borderline genius amazing.

All the different aspects of defense that it makes you use. How easy it is to control the intensity of the drill to match the person's skill level. Everything about this drill is top notch."

Jason then looked at Brie and Ben "So since I was able to do so well on the drill that means that I can join the 16 and up group right?"

The smile on Brie's face dimmed down as her peppy attitude dampened. Ben went silent as well as he had a complicated expression on his face.

Brie walked closer to Jason and whispered "I know that you're way ahead of your age group Jason. And you would probably do alright doing the high school level workouts.

But think about how the other kids will feel. Some of them have been going here since they were 13. They might not be too happy to see someone skip over them."

Jason took a look around the gym and noticed that everyone was staring at him. Some of the kids were clearly mean-mugging him.

Some of the other kids were hiding how they were feeling or didn't care at all. While a part of them actually looked at Jason with a smile or were giving him a thumbs up.

Jason was confused 'I get what Brie is saying. It never feels good to have someone cut you in line. 

I understand why some people would be glaring at me and why they would be pissed. But why do some of them look like they're cheering me on?'

While Jason was scanning the crowd of kids he heard a familiar voice "Dang man. Look at all these big ol dudes mean-muggin a little kid.

Y'all think you tough for that? Must take some real cojones to try and punk a middle schooler."