Mentorship Completed

I have completed my mentorship this month. The basketball season at the YMCA where I was doing my mentorship has ended so I will no longer be going. Luckily, I completed more than the fifty hour minimum requirement. I just have to update my mentorship log to be completely finished.

Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

EQ: How can a basketball player best maximize their team's chances of winning the championship?

Best Answer: A basketball player can best maximize their team's chances of winning the championships by being a good, effective leader. This is my best answer because it takes a whole team to win the championships, not just one player. And leaders establish a clear end goal which  motivates their group, team, or partners to work their hardest to reach it. Relating this back to my essential question, the end goal would be to win the championships.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I actually asked a lot of coaches, players, and just people in general what they thought was the best answer to my essential question. This gave me a wide view of other individuals' point of view, possible answers and it allowed me to choose or slightly modify my favorite answer.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

When we were gathering statistics for the ESA, I had a very hard time finding any sort of statistics on my first answer, which was defense. Even after I checked Cal Poly's data base for studies, I still could not find anything useful. So I went to to the NBA's website and looked up the highest ranked defensive teams, and the highest ranked overall teams. As I analyzed the two charts, I found that there was a correlation between defensive rank and overall rank. So I created my own statistic using the information provided by the NBA.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

One of the most significant sources I used to find my answer to my essential question was my mentor. He is the one that actually brought up the topic of leadership and it's effects on a team. He had lot's of experience with team's that had leaders and teams that did not. So he was very helpful with providing examples and comparing teams with and without leaders. And the other significant source is the book, Leadership: Sixth Edition, by Peter G. Northouse. This book had everything that leaders have and do to make their followers succeed. It was essential for me because there weren't many helpful online article's that were out there. This book had everything I needed to support my answer with studies, charts and examples.

Independent Component 2

LITERAL
a.) I, Diego Delgado, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b.) I was the assistant coach of Coach Mike Martinez who generously allowed me to help out with his teams.

d.) When I was doing my first independent component, I only saw the player side of basketball. But with this component, I got to see and understand both the player part of basketball and the coaching part of basketball. I got to teach my players my knowledge and experiences with basketball to make them better players. Since I have played the sport before, it was very easy to explain and demonstrate how and what to do for each drill or play. I also got to observe the different types of characteristics of each player. This can either be beneficial or harmful for the team. I did my best to get rid of the negative characteristics kids had so they wouldn't spread to the rest of the team. Lastly, I helped the coach keep everyone one track when we played games. Two pairs of eyes are better then one.

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped

While I was helping coach during practice I noticed that when you isolate a player and speak and or work alone with them, they show better performance. For example, I got to work with the entire team as a whole, but sometimes I would work with players individually. I found that when I dedicate all my time and focus into one individual player, they would perform a lot better in the game. This was a potential answer to my essential question because an individual who seeks out help form someone who is more knowledgeable than them tend to progressively do better every game, which maximizes their team's chances of winning the championship. Unfortunately, my team did not win the championships. However, we did get second place.

INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

Here is a picture I took of the team I got to help coach for my second independent component. As an assistant coach, I got to experience what it was like having your team look for you for advice. I also got to help the three big players improve their game by giving them personal training, tips, and pointers.

In this picture, I was explaining to the two big players that the defense was leaving the post open during a time out. Coach Mike had me demonstrate how to post up an opponent shortly after. Once the game started, the they were not able to receive the ball from the point guards or the wings.

One important tactic I picked up while doing my independent component was recording games. I have never done this before for any of my games. But this was very helpful for the team. After practices, coach would show short clips of the game he liked and didn't like to the team. This helps the players know where they are doing good and where they need improvement.

Here is just a picture I took of the final score of one of our best games.