Mini Me Training Arc

*A/N: This is my wall of text, the only story important part is until you see a three-dash line ("---Training" and "---(Rules)"). This big wall of text is just me trying to explain basketball from what my brain can remember, if I can't remember I just google the FIBA rulings.

After Hideki's birthday that very next Saturday Ryoma fetched Hideki to teach him about basketball as soon as Ryoma called Kanai about this arrangement, Hideki sprang up from bed with a kip-up and head straight to the bathroom, even if he hadn't heard Kanai's go signal, he's just that excited. 

He took a bath, he put on his basketball attire and shoes, of course, those squeaky little shoes and he readied his things such as his sleeves and water bottle. Kanai was so happy to see Hideki so happy too, his smile was so infectious and it made Kanai a proud mother and thought to herself "Well, if he's like his dad and wants basketball, I'll let him, as long as he's happy" 

Kanai served breakfast for both of them, and Hideki's excitement made him eat breakfast while in full gear, with shoes and gear. Ryoma entered the apartment and upon seeing Hideki he was laughing so hard seeing Hideki eating breakfast in full basketball gear.

Kanai told him "Actually dad after hearing you'll teach him basketball, he did a kip-up and rushed to take a bath" Ryoma looked at Kanai and asked, "He did a kip-up?" Kanai looked him dead serious in the eye and said "He did a kip-up Dad" Ryoma's eyes blinked and asked "Where did he learn how to do that?" Kanai shrugged and nonchalantly said "Dunno, maybe WWF Shawn Michaels, he was watching that thing one time" 

Ryoma was then looking at Kanai and asked, "Why WWF?" Kanai shrugged and said, "Why not?" 

Hideki was giggling but was lowkey nervous his mom saw him did a kip-up, well what Kanai said was true, but the deeper meaning of it was he really wanted to copy it since his first life.

After breakfast, Ryoma and Hideki got into the car and Ryoma told Hideki "Hideki-kun, if you will play basketball and be good at it, please promise me one thing" Hideki looked at his grandpa and asked, "What is it Grandpa?" Ryoma then said to Hideki "If you become a basketball superstar, don't break a girl's heart okay?" Hideki was looking at Ryoma if he was serious, which he is. So Hideki assured Ryoma he wouldn't break a girl's heart.

After an awkward car ride, they arrived at Ryoma's Training Center, specifically at the basketball training area, which has a full basketball court, the FIBA standard court one, but there was a short basketball ring set up, it may be short but it still is tall for a 4 year old boy, the ring stood up at around 7 feet, most likely for little kids like Hideki. 

Hideki saw the little ring and Ryoma said, "Actually young Hideki, that's just for you only, for your training here." Ryoma had his arms wide open as if flexing like Tony Stark, and saying "This whole place is for you" Hideki raised an eyebrow at Ryoma who coughed and said "We will use this facility while I teach you all about basketball"

Hideki had a disappointed face and thought to himself "I wanna stop and grow up a bit"

---(Training)

Ryoma told Hideki, "Okay get your ball and we'll start training on your dribbling first, the most basic thing to know about basketball. Remember Hideki-kun, good dribbling can save you and your team's life" As Hideki got his ball Ryoma then told the next exercise "Okay Hideki-kun, first stand straight with feet wide open not reaching a meter and dribble the ball on the side of your dominant hand, watch me" Ryoma stood straight and feet wide open and began dribbling the ball. Hideki tried to follow but was unable to do it for the first few tries, but he began to do it slowly, and once he got the hang of the ball bouncing back to his hand he was able to perfectly dribble the ball without looking for a few seconds. Ryoma saw this and said "Perfect, we'll practice on that every day and make sure you can get good on dribbling fundamentals, now try it with your non-dominant hand" Hideki did the same with his left hand and it was harder as he is a righty but with determination he was able to dribble it without looking for 5 seconds.

Ryoma told Hideki to stop and said, "Okay, we got your standing dribbling fundamentals now we get to your walking dribbling skill, it's just the same but as you dribble try to direct your force to make the ball go to the direction you want to" Ryoma then dribbled his ball to the front, back, left and, right then he said, "Like that but more slowly as you have to acclimate it with your walking." Ryoma then dribbled the ball while walking forward and backward with the ball at his side at all times. He then looked at Hideki and said "Okay for our next exercise, you will have to dribble the ball while walking and make sure the ball is at your side not at the front." This exercise was harder as Hideki needed to make sure the ball was 'perfectly in place' while walking, but he got it after a good 30 minutes.

Ryoma then told Hideki to follow him and said "Okay Hideki-kun, now we know how to dribble, we need to score the points, so I will teach you how to shoot. So I will explain this first on my basket so listen carefully" Ryoma then positioned himself in front of his basket and said "Square my hips and foot facing the basket and have the ball in front of you and your dominant hand in front of your face, while the non-dominant hand is used to 'guide' the ball. To shoot it, push the ball with your dominant hand only and try to throw it in an arc or parabola into the basket." Ryoma did this and the ball swished through the net. Hideki followed Ryoma's instructions and was able to throw the ball at first but with not enough force, so Ryoma corrected Hideki's mistakes and eventually, Hideki shot his first shot.

Ryoma then coughed and said "Okay, now we do the jump shot, we do the same but this is better as it is harder to block as we are higher as we jump. First, bend your knees, and when you're ready jump up straight and make sure your force is on the lower body not upper body. As you reach the apex of your jump, then shoot the ball. You can do it before not do it after." Ryoma did it and was able to swish the shot, then he let Hideki try it, unlike the standing shot, Hideki was able to do it on the first try.

It was 3 hours after the training so Hideki was tired so Ryoma said "Okay Hideki-kun, we'll physically train for 2 to 3 hours a day and we'll work on your fundamentals and rules when we rest is that okay?" Hideki was catching his breath and said "*huff* okay Grandpa, let's do that"

---(Rules)

Ryoma brought a chair and gave Hideki a small chair, as they sat down Ryoma told Hideki, "Hideki-kun, as of now you like basketball, but I want you to to still also go out, play and have fun with your friends, as the exercises you will be doing will be monotonous and you may have a higher chance of injury if we only focus on one sport. I had friends who had sons trained at a young age and when they got to their prime they get injured mostly tears or more painful injuries like MCL and ACL injuries" 

TL;DR is monotonous exercise can lead to a higher chance of injury according to Ryoma, and Hideki should still go out and have fun with friends. 

Finally, Ryoma said, "As you grow older, if you want we can train for another sport. But we will push that out as we will focus first on your basketball skills"

Ryoma, pulled his whiteboard and pulled his marker, and wrote "BASKETBALL 101" on the board. Ryoma then began teaching basketball to Hideki.

"Basketball is a team sport with two teams having 5 members each. The primary goal to win a basketball game is that a team has a higher score than the other team. And since it is a two-team sport, there are two sides of this sport the Defense and Offense. Following me so far Hideki-Kun?" Hideki nodded in understanding.

"Basketball's primary goal on offense is to provide POINTS, while the defense should prevent the other team getting those POINTS. But leagues like our local tournaments track Assists and Rebounds, while the NBA tracks more advanced stats like Player Efficiency and such"

"Fow now let's focus on Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks and Fouls as this is the most common stats on the local tournaments here."

"As mentioned earlier, points is the driving force to win a basketball game, but to get it you have to shoot the basketball to the basket, or ring or hoop or whatever you want to call it. Basketball only has 1, 2, and 3 points. Firstly, 2 points are earned when you shoot the ball while inside that big semi circle line, if you shoot it outside that line it is considered three points." 

Hideki raised his hand for a question, and asked "Grandpa, how do I get that 1 point, do I have to be anywhere to get it?" Ryoma was glad his student *ahem* grandson was active and he said "No, Hideki-kun, the 1 points are achieved via the free throw. If a defensive player broke the rule while trying to defend, he will get a foul, I will explain foul later, for the offensive player they will be awarded a free throw with no one defending them and they shoot it at the small circle inside that semi-circle" 

"Okay let's proceed to Fouls first, if points are the good in basketball, the fouls is the bad one in basketball. Basically, we have a ruleset in basketball and if we break them we are given a foul. In games we are only allowed up to 4 fouls, if you break the rule for the fifth time, you are out of the game. However, there are rules where you are not granted a foul like out-of-bounds and the 8 and 5-second rule (5-second throw-in)."

"Now let's get to the other stats quickly, ASSIST. As basketball is a team sport, it is important to have teamwork, so they track this with assists. If your teammate passed you the ball and you shoot it after getting it, you get the points and your teammate gets the assist" 

"Then next is the STEAL, stealing is bad in real life but in Basketball it is a good thing, so ask your religion teacher when you grow up. The important thing about steals is that as long as you get the ball from the enemy before they shoot it, they consider it as a steal."

"But if the enemy is trying to shoot it and you were able to touch it and not let it go to the basket, it is considered a BLOCK. But remember it is a block if you have a hand on the ball after it was shot."

"Lastly, is REBOUND, when the ball is shot and it missed the ring, the player that gets the ball and not lose it is awarded the rebound"

In the NBA these are the leaders in those stats:

Points: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for points scored in NBA history with 38,387 points.

Assists: John Stockton is the NBA's all-time leader in assists with 15,806 assists.

Rebounds: Wilt Chamberlain leads in rebounds with 23,924 rebounds.

Steals: John Stockton is also the all-time steals leader with 3,265 steals.

Blocks: Hakeem Olajuwon is the NBA's all-time leader in blocks with 3,830 blocks.

Fouls: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also leads in personal fouls committed with 4,657 fouls.

Additionally, like other team sports basketball has positions for the players, now there are the 5 positions we all know and there are other positions based on a combination of positions.

"Basketball has the 5 positions we all know, Center, Power Forward, Small Forward, Shooting Guard, and Point Guard"

"Ideally in basketball, the Centers are the tallest players while the Point Guards are the smaller ones, but some players break this norm, in the NBA there is Magic Johnson a Point Guard who's listed at 206 centimeters, and Wes Unseld a Center who is listed at 201 centimeters. So height does not factor in what their position would be but their function in the team"

Now we define the player positions and their jobs 

Centers: Defensively protect the place under the basket, and get the rebounds. Offensively, score the points under the basket if you have the strength or height advantage.

Power Forward: Defensively they help the Center secure the rebounds, and Offensively they help score points by cutting to the basket to get layups or dunks.

Small Forward: These players are all-around, so they have varied jobs. Defensively they match up against their counterparts or secure rebounds too. Offensively, they can score the ball in numerous ways, dunks, layup, jump-shoot, and three-points.

Shooting Guard: Ideally this player should get you all the points as they are the ones who should shoot the most, either jump shots or three-point shots.

Point Guard: They are the control tower and get the most assists on offenses, they will direct traffic and make plays for the team.

Famous players in each role are:

Center: Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson

Power Forward: Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone

Small Forward: Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird

Shooting Guard: Reggie Miller, Dale Ellis

Point Guard: Magic Johnson, John Stockton

Now we talk about the rules in basketball, there are numerous rules in basketball so let's tackle it one-by-one. Look at the court there are lines, the outermost lines are the ones you do not want to go to when you have the ball as it is outside of the playing field and the ball will be taken away from you by the referees, that is called the out-of-bounds rule. 

In the center court, there is also a line, so as basketball is a two-team sport, you have your own goals or baskets so you have to defend that, but if you are unable to defend it, you will get the ball after the shot and you have to dribble it beyond that line in the half with the big circle in it, if you were unable to cross it beyond 8 seconds it is the 8-second rule.

As a defense, your goal is to not let your opponent score, but of course you cannot just blatantly hurt him it is called an unsportsmanlike foul and it is a very very bad thing to do. But if what you did was a 'desperate' but not hurtful attempt, it is considered a foul, like swatting the hand of your opponent after a shot or hitting them unintentionally as they shot. 

Ryoma looked at the time and said"Okay so those are the rules at the top of my head, so let's continue this next time it's already 5 PM and let's buy your mom dinner."

---

If you reached this part of reading, then congratulations, but sorry I don't have a reward for you, but thank you for reading Volume One of my fan fiction, I won't hold you up here and reiterate what Hideki said: "I wanna stop and grow up a bit"