JJ "Gym Rat" Sullivan

Oh, our sweet JJ. He’s turning out to be just like his Daddy….gym rat blood to the core. He. Just. Loves. The. Gym. His basketball is in his hand almost every moment of the day…..and if he doesn’t happen to have it with him then you’ll catch him pretending to shoot in the air, or practicing his footwork (even through the mall), or working on his vertical. He watches channel 216 (NBA TV) instead of cartoons. Every night he looks through his basketball card collection. He can read almost any NBA player’s name when it comes on TV. He knows who plays for what team, what their jersey number is, and who is good and who isn’t. If you are in our family, you can’t help but learn about the game of basketball because that is what our family does. Basketball. But JJ doesn’t just know basketball. He LOVES everything about it. He would rather be at the stinky, humid gym doing drills with the big boys than going swimming in the oh-so-wonderful summer sun. He would rather me put him through a workout at the hoop in our driveway than play a game of hide and seek. He would rather play a make believe game in his bedroom with the hoop on his door wearing his throwback jerseys and NBA socks than get dressed up in superhero capes. He would rather be hanging out with Daddy in the 16 passenger van trekking across the Midwest with the high school boys’ teams than be anywhere else.
And, I think that is the best part. I LOVE watching JJ’s love for the game unfold…..just like his Daddy thought it would. We haven’t pushed basketball on him. Jake will tell you that his kids can do whatever they want to do……it doesn’t have to be basketball…...as long as they do it well and with passion and enthusiasm. Well, Jake and JJ decided that at the ripe old age of 4, JJ was ready to join in the Kingdom Hoops basketball camps this year. Jake told me, “I wouldn’t do it if he couldn’t focus. But his ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand is so mature. I think he can be in camp without being a distraction to the other players.” He’s been doing camp with the 3rd graders for the past few weeks, but his camp time was during Justice’s swimming lessons so I hadn’t been able to capture any pictures or videos! Jake sent me this quick video of his first week in camp:

Jake said he was trying so hard and was so excited, practically smiling the whole time! Swimming lessons just got over last week for Justice, so I was able to get to the gym yesterday and get some camera time during camp:

Videos of drills:

There's that lefty follow-through!!!!!!!!!!!

Basketball. What's not to love??????????????????????????