Basketball practice results for my first basketball practice in years

This evening from 828-944 PM (76 minutes), I returned to practicing basketball, something I had not done for a couple of years. There were no uncounted warmup shots. I practiced four different shots:

The 21L: starting from a point in the middle of the court 32 feet from the basket, I used one dribble to slant left to a point 21 feet from the basket, and shot a quick-release 21' jumper. From 828-842 (first 14 minutes), I was 0/4 (0%) on this shot; from 842-944 PM (62 minutes), I was 2/19 (11%) on this shot.

The 21R: starting from a point in the middle of the court 32 feet from the basket, I faked a slant left and used one behind-the-back dribble to slant right to a point 21 feet from the basket, and shot a quick-release 21' jumper (in total only 1 dribble used for entire move). From 828-842 (first 14 minutes), I was 0/4 (0%) on this shot; from 842-944 PM (62 minutes), I was 2/19 (11%) on this shot.

The 11L: starting from a point in the middle of the court 32 feet from the basket, I used one dribble to slant left to a point 11 feet from the basket, and shot a 11' distance 'teardrop' shot on the run while moving towards the basket. From 828-842 (first 14 minutes), I was 1/4 (25%) on this shot; from 842-944 PM (62 minutes), I was 9/19 (47%) on this shot.

The 12R: starting from a point in the middle of the court 32 feet from the basket, I faked a slant left and used one behind-the-back dribble to slant right to a point 11 feet from the basket, and shot a 11' distance 'teardrop' shot on the run while moving towards the basket (in total only 1 dribble used for entire move). From 828-842 (first 14 minutes), I was 1/4 (25%) on this shot; from 842-944 PM (62 minutes), I was 12/19 (63%) on this shot.

The shots were taken in the following order: 21L, 21R, 11L, 12R, repeat cycle. All the shots were taken with my favored hand, the left hand.

Thus during the first 16 shots in the first 14 minutes, which was the scored warmup, I was 0/8 (0%) on 21' 3-point quick-release shots, & 2/8 (25%) on 11-12' driving running shots.

During the 76 shots in the subsequent 62 minutes, I was 4/38 (11%) on 21' 3-point jump shots, & 21/38 (55%) on driving running 11-12' shots.

Prior to today's basketball practice I had not practiced the 11L & 12R type shots for about 2.5 years, and I had not practiced the 21' shots for about 20 years. Over the past 20 years the only long distance shots I practiced, except for a few exceptions, were shots from at least 24' from the basket.

On the 3-point shots that went in this evening, I managed to, as intended, put high arc on the ball and keep my non-shooting hand off the ball. Large numbers of missed shots were shot well except for being just a little bit short, as if I was overcompensating for the reduction in shooting distance from 24' to 21'.

I was surprised at how well the on-the-run penetration shots were shot, and at how badly the 21 foot shots were shot. About 2.5 years ago I was shooting quick release off-the-slanted-dribble 24' shots at about 35%.

I wanted to establish a baseline for comparison to see how quickly I can progress if I follow the simple yet diversified shooting practice routine I did this evening, just once or twice a week.

The results taught me that I could be significantly above average in a YMCA basketball league (there was lots of participation in such leagues this winter) in terms of shooting 11-12' running penetration-type shots, despite not having practiced basketball for so long.

Practice stats May 25 2012 onwards for such practices:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21834192/Basketball%20stats%202012.htm

Soccer game with Irish Village Soccer Club, May 24

Thursday May 24, from 803 - 945 PM (102 minutes), I played in in an indoor soccer game at the Waltham Y (Irish Village Soccer Club). I was on court for approx 82 minutes (80% of the time), and off-court on the sideline for 14 minutes (20% of the time). The timeline today was (on-court= +, off court= -): +25, -2, +17, -3, +5, -2, +6, -4, +3, -3, +4, -1, +2, -5, +25.

The majority of the time I was playing defense or no-hands goalie.

I scored 3 goals (one-touch, 5-15 yard shots) and achieved approx 3 assists. One hard accurate 15 yard shot that went in did not count because time had expired or had not started yet.

One of the assists was a long one-touch chip pass, the other was a short outside of the right foot wall pass. More than half of the shots I took resulted in a goal.

I dribbled by a defender about 5 times (usually started with a fake pass which the defender thought they were intercepting).

I was never beaten on the dribble; I was almost beaten once. The perp dribbled horizontally to my right, then made a 180 degree turn and dribbled to my left, and then shot and hit the goal-post, but a goal was not scored. I fault myself for not having blocked his shot, but my presence was enough to force his shot off to the side.

I made many good one-touch (no preliminary dribble) passes, involving me getting a pass and then immediately passing off, or me getting a chance ball and immediately passing off. I felt my passing was much improved because I was remembering to scan the field to see where everyone was, so that when I got the ball, I would no where my team-mates and the defenders were.

On defense, there were some goals scored while I was dropping back to cover the goal, which was often. These were primarily a result of me having decided that I was not going to over-exert myself as defensive peon.

Having not played in a few weeks, I had forgotten how no-hands-goalie is different compared to hands-allowed goalie, and slipped back into the hands-allowed-goalie mentality I became accustomed to when I was playing goalie in the Oak Sq Y games before I started playing in the Irish Village Soccer Club games.

At least half the time during the games this evening I forgot that as a no-use-of-hands-allowed goalie, I needed to come out and charge the attacker who had the ball.

On defense-- I blocked some shots; I forced a player to pass the ball to a team-mate by frightening him by rushing him; I forced players into making bad shots; I disrupted dribbles without gaining control of the ball; I stole the ball from a female player.

During the first game which lasted for about 25 minutes, a six on six game, I felt happy because I was getting to touch the ball fairly often. After this I was assigned to a new team, featuring myself, Jose, and 3 energetic, at least average-size 'gringos'.

Plaing on the second team I felt unhappy because I did not get to touch the ball much. Jose showed himself inclined to play some defense (unusual that anyone would show any voluntary interest in defense in such games); I touch the ball more when I am the only player inclined to play defense.

The players on this second team passed the ball to me much less than the players on the first team did.

I started off giving myself the job of being the person on my team who has the most responsibility for preventing goals. During this time my team's record was 7-0-2 (7 wins, 0 losses, 2 ties).

Then later for various reasons I spent about half the time playing midfield and up on offense. During this time my team's record was 2-4-1.

The problem was that my 4 team-mates (especially the 3 'gringos'), did not do a good job of playing defense (Jose played defense competently when he was playing defense, but when he got interested in playing offense, his defensive competence declined).

This lack of defense competence amongst my team-mates was due to(?): laziness, lack of willpower, lack of interest, lack of understanding regarding wise defensive field position, lack of quickness, lack of skill.

During the games this evening the winning team stayed on-court. I was put into a position of choosing between my team losing as a result of me going up to play midfield and offense on the one hand, and staying back on defense the result being my team winning or tying on the other. I don't like to have to choose between playing offense result being having to go off-court and sit on the sidelines because my team loses, and playing defense, result being my team wins and we stay on court.

I felt angry during the games after the first game, because I felt as if my team-mates were brattishly throwing the game to the other team when they played defense, so as to force us to let them play offense all the time.

For about a month I had been experiencing some kind of psychological blockage as a result of which I avoided these indoor games and instead simply worked on conditioning and skills.

Then last week I watched the games for a couple of hours without playing, in part because I thought such would decrease the psychological association between playing in games and stress that had developed within my mind.

Before the game I commanded or ordered myself to: relax, rest, enjoy myself. I succeeded in carrying out this command; I made good passes, I did not torture myself with hustle, I played good defense; when I had the ball I did not panic and get rid of it prematurely; I experimented with ways of beating the defender in relaxed fashion, which is what I want to do in such practice games.

But after the first six on six game it became difficult to enjoy and relax because the compositiion of my team changed after the first six on six game into a team featuring mostly guys who were into dribbling and shooting, and who repeatedly failed in the sense that instead of making a pass which would be the optimal choice, they dribbled or shot.

To me it seemed that usually my teammates on this second team, were not aware of where their team-mates were on the court, when they chose their inferior options of shooting or dribbling instead of passing, and which resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball.

My Team-mates on this second team, repeatedly choosing to dribble or shoot when they should pass, resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball in advantageous circumstances and positions, which in turn put pressure on the defense. This pressure resulted in the defense having less opportunities to go up and play offense.

I estimate that all except one or two of my passing errors (such as slightly inaccurate passes) today, were due to the fact that we were using a green fuzzy soccer ball which was very soft, at about 2.5 PSI (these days the ball I practice with is at 8.0 PSI). Still it was hard to get over this depressed irrational feeling that the errors were my fault & due to a lack of skill, even though I knew better.

Overall I came away from the game feeling as if I had a message for certain types of team-mates:

Yea, you are of at least average height, yea you are fit energetic and athletic, but that does not give you the right to play offense all the time, that does not give you license to dribble or shoot when you should be passing, that does not give you the right to deliberately cause defeat when you play defense, so that we are forced to let you play offense all the time. Did'nt your parents spank you? Being competent on offense involves alot more than simply being very energetic, hustling, and scoring more goals than others. It's not how many goals you score that make you a respectable player, it's the percentage of shots that go in, and the percentage of dribbles that result in the defender being beaten. I realize that I myself previously in one game emphasized the solitary ball-hogging dribble as a way to develop my skill, however during that game I also ordered myself to not overdo the dribbling, and followed that order; I did not choose the dribble or the shot when a pass to a team-mate was clearly the superior alternative. You, by way of contrast, in the process of focusing on developing your dribbling game, greatly overdo the dribbling to the point of being ball-hogs and trigger-happy on the shots.

Adidas Top Sala X IN my choice for soccer shoes

Today I bought, for my new pair of soccer shoes, a pair of Adidas Top Sala X IN indoor soccer shoes. Since June 2010 I had been using Adidas Predator Absolado X IN indoor soccer shoes, which lasted for 23 months before beginning to fall apart in the right heel area (one reason for the problem in the right heel area, I suspect, was a shock absorbing layer I added to the inside of the shoe).

In June 2010, I explained my reasoning behind getting the Adidas Predator Absolado X indoor shoes, in a blog-post entitled, "Adidas Absolado X IN my choice for soccer shoes".

Since the previous post re choosing the Absolado, my reasoning regarding soccer shoes has changed as a result of experience.

Previously I felt that shoelaces running down the outside of the foot would be an advantage, because they would provide grip and spin for the ball, when I used the foot to kick an airborne ball outwards at a 90 degree angle. However with the passage of time I learned that this outwards aerial turn, is best accomplished by contacting the ball with the front top of the foot, not the side of the foot.

While using the Predator Absolados, which feature the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot, I came to realize that because of the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot, I was experiencing performance impairment doing one of my most impressive, important aerial tricks.

The impaired aerial trick involves: touching the ball on every step while keeping the ball in the air while moving forwards at a brisk pace; (optionally) skipping on every step; the ball being kept approx one foot above the ground the entire time; strong backspin being put on the ball. I came to realize that the shoelaces running down the outside of the shoe, resulted in impairment of the backspin that is a natural intrinsic element of this and other similar tricks.

In general I arrived at the conclusion that the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot (Predator Absolado) is an option that is in a sense inferior to the shoelaces running down the middle of the foot, because of the mental confusion and complexity created by the lack of symmetry.

Performing difficult aerial tricks like sprinting 15 meters touching the ball with alternating left and right feet every three paces while keeping the ball close to the body but off the ground, while zig-zagging, involves split-second calculations that are already complex enough, without the entire matter being complicated even further, due to the inside of the foot interacting with the ball differently than the outside of the foot does (because of the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot).

I found that the best technique for aerial turns to the outside, involved striking the ball with the front top of the foot. I could find on the internet only two "indoor" shoes which combined unusual surfacing on the front top of the foot (which might be expected to increase control when the ball is struck with the front top of the foot), with ALSO the shoelaces running down the middle.

The two were the Adidas Top Sala and the Adidas Adi5 Xite. The Top Sala features a "mesh" type surface on the top front, and the Adi5 features a "touch compound grid" type surface on the top front of the foot.

But as it turned out, at the store, I saw that the official Adidas sign under the Adi5 said that the shoe was designed for "artificial grass".

The sole of the Adi5 contains lots of little knobs, like miniature cleats. The man at the store told me such would leave markings on a basketball court floor and not be allowed by the court management.

I could not find any shoes designed for the basketball court with soles like the Adi5. But there were many basketball shoes with soles similar to those found on the Top Sala.

I am convinced people understimate the advantages of practicing soccer on an indoor basketball court. For example, on an indoor basketball court, one can execute corner drills, involving facing a corner, and alternating between kicking the ball at the left wall and the right wall. A couple of hours spent doing such corner drills, can improve one's skills more than ten hours spent booting the ball around outdoors.

Indoor shoes can be used on any surface. But outdoors shoes, cannot be used indoors.

@2012 David Virgil Hobbs