Soccer Chip Pass Difficult Indoors

This morning indoors on the Y basketball court, I practiced chipping the ball at the wall. I counted a chip a success if it went in the intended direction & hit the wall, 33' away at a point 8' above the floor.


I did not warm up before keeping score. Using the left-foot, at first I succeeded on 4 of 11 attempts (36%). Using the right-foot, at first I succeeded on 2/9 attempts (22%). After this initial incompetence, I succeeded on 22/28 (79%) attempts with my left-foot, and 11/18 (61%) attempts with my right foot.

I knew I had fallen behind in terms of practicing chips; I was shocked at how bad I was at first without warmup. Recently in a game I attempted a right-footed chip off a ball sitting on the floor--the pass was too low and intercepted. Previous to that, in games I had made some excellent chip-passes up to 70 feet long, passes taht were perfectly timed & led the receiver perfectly.

I had been able to do left-footed chip passes well indoors in games without intensively practicing them. Most of the indoor players do not or cannot chip-pass a ball resting on the ground.

I am somewhat mystified as to why the left-footed chip-passes failed this morning at the beginning. Seems I can execute left-footed chip-passes well if I practice them a little & have gotten warmed up simply by way of playing in a game for 20 minutes or so.

My mistake with regards to the intercepted right footed chip attempt was that I had assumed that practicing low-apex right-footed passes, & practicing right-footed aerial dribbles, & achieving competence in these two tasks, had prepared me to execute right-footed chip-passes. I now realize how especially indoors, chipping a ball resting on the ground is technically distinct from a low-apex one-touch pass made off an incoming ball.

I have always from high school on been a good left-footed chip passer, able to execute left-footed chip passes on outdoor grass fields well without working on them in practice.

Today I realized that chipping a soft 3-PSI soccer ball (they use soft balls) that is resting on a wooden floor (they use basketball court floors), is much more difficult, compared to chipping a hard 10 PSI soccer ball resting on grass. The softness of the ball they use indoors, & the absence of grass to hold the ball up above the ground a little, make it difficult to get the foot under the ball during the chip.

At the end of the practice a black basketball playing man, ran across the gym and had me pass the soccer ball to him. I sent him a perfectly timed & placed right-footed chip, distance 20' apex 6'. Next I was thinking, that practicing the long approx 60' distance, 8' apex chip passes with my right-foot, had quickly produced a surprising level of competence with regards to 20' distance 6' chips.

My technical conclusions after the practice this morning, re indoor chips: ball is struck with the inside of the toe area; flip of the foot during kick optional; unusual level of mental attention to gaining altitude necessary; looking at the target first and then at the ball during the kick is an effective approach.

Soccer fitness conditioning endurance work returned to

Six months ago, 40 days featuring conditioning work done most days, had improved my fitness level by at least 100% (April 2012 Conditioning Drill Stats). But, observing my experience during the recent indoor soccer games at the Oak Sq Y, I've come to realize that I've been simply assuming that my fitness level has not declined much compared to what it was six months ago after about 40 days during which conditioning work was done most days.


During the 2012 Oak Sq Y Indoor Soccer League games earlier this year (Jan 10 to Feb 28), I realized I had to work on my fitness/conditioning/endurance. And so, over the course of 40 days, from February 9, after the 5th game of the 2012 Oak Sq Y Indoor Soccer League, to February 28, 2012 (19 days), &, after I had played a couple of games with the Irish Village soccer club, from April 6 to April 27 2012 (21 days), I worked on my conditioning/endurance/fitness for soccer.

The fitness routine I currently utilize to get in shape for indoor soccer, the one I followed today, consists of five drills: SW (10 reps), R (3 reps), 180 (10 reps), C (8 reps), & D (8 reps). The exercises done and the number of reps done for each exercise, were first consistently done as they now are done, on April 7, 2012, my 22nd day of conditioning work. April 7, the number of reps for each exercise was the same as today, October 19, 2012. April 7, the routine was finished in 48 minutes; today, the same routine was finished in 45.3 minutes.

Back in April, I progressed very fast. My times doing the same routine done today (same in terms of number of reps of each running exercise) progressed as follows: April 7, 48 minutes; April 8, 47 minutes; April 10, est. 41 minutes; April 11, est. 35.6 minutes; April 12, R & SW variants alone; April 12, 36.2 minutes; April 13, 34.5 minutes; April 14, 36.9 minutes; April 15, 31.6 minutes; April 17, 31.9 minutes; April 18, 29.35 minutes; April 19, 28.3 minutes; April 20, 27.3 minutes; April 21, 26.9 minutes; April 23, 26.0 minutes; April 24, 23.55 minutes; April 25, 24.8 minutes; April 26, 23.53 minutes; April 27, 23.8 minutes (during this fast phase of development, I did not rest on Sundays; however after about 3 weeks I simply quit).

Hence I estimate that although I have neglected soccer fitness workouts since April 27 approx 173 days ago, my fitness is as good as it was on April 8, the 22nd day of the 40 days featuring attention to fitness work, which began on February 9, after the 5th game of the Oak Sq Y soccer season.

I estimate that: after 3 more workouts that are the same as the 45-minute workout done today, my fitness-level will have improved by 52% compared to what it was today; next my fitness will stabilize over the course of another 3 workouts; next (after 7 workouts from now) my fitness will be improved by 68% compared to what it was today; next (after 14 workouts from now), my fitness level will be 102% better than it is today; next my fitness level will stabilize for at least another 3 workouts ( I should be on guard during this stabilization phase lest I simply quit the conditioning exercises).

In retrospect I can see how quickly I am capable of building up my endurance for indoor soccer, by following the routine that crystallized in its present form on April 7, earlier this year. I attribute the rapidity with which overall times improve on this workout to the advantage of diversification (I do 5 different types of runs during the course of the workout).

My theory of diversification: since with the passage of time the rate of improvement for a given activity declines, increases in the number of activities engaged in, tend to enhance the overall rate of improvement.

Compared to April 27 2012, the most recent day for which I have the same data as recorded today, the speeds today as a percent of the April 27 speeds were: R, 90%; SW, 75%; D & C, 54%; 180, 31% (but it should be noted, that the overall time of a workout includes breaks between different drills). During the recess from the conditioning work the greatest amount of degeneration was in the 180, & the least degeneration was in the R.

Soccer @ Oak Sq Y October 16 2012

Note: I myself dreamed up the names given the teams. Colors in names were based on color of jerseys the team started out wearing.

Oak Sq Y Soccer Tuesday October 16 2012 contains a table showing the soccer games played evening of Tuesday October 16. One can see looking at the table, that Tommy & the Greens, one of 4 teams that participated, played in 6 of the 11 games I watched (I arrived 15 minutes late). Overall the number of games played in by each team was reasonably evening this time.

Today October 16, the first game (game #3) in which the dominant Greens faced me on defense (I played defense the entire 5 minutes) , they scored 0 goals; I blocked 3 shots & 1 pass. Similarly, last week I noted that in the first game that the evening's dominant team faced me on defense they scored 0 goals:

Overall the Andre Blacks dominated the tourney, winning five, losing none, and tying one. The game they were tied, was their game against my team the Blues. My positioning, dribble-disruption, & shot-blocking on defense kept them at just 0 goals scored, despite completely crazy defensive positioning perpetrated by my team-mates. I played mostly defense, a little offense, and a little goalie during the three games I played in; my team allowed only 1 goal per game on average.

2nd game I played in, game #6, the E. Asian boy started in goalie; after about 2.5 minutes, they had scored 2 goals, both of which I had nothing to do with in terms of defensive fault (I saw little action as defender this game, they avoided me). Seemed the goalie could stop nothing so I switched to goalie until the end of the 5 min game.

3rd game I played in, game #8, I played all 5 mins on defense, blocked shots and passes, stole ball from dribbler, they scored 0 goals.

4th game I played in, game #10, I played defense the whole 5-minute game, they scored 1 goal.

5th game I played in, the evening's dominators, the Greens, scored 1 goal in the first 4 minutes with me on defense. Then with me in goalie they scored 1 goal in 1 minute. The goal they scored was produced by the disorder created due to them getting to take about 4 shots in a row, all of which bounced off us and back to them.

Other personal highlights I could remember (could not remember them all):

1) I took a shot off a still ball, that sailed about 80 feet like a line drive & hit the opposite wall hard about 12 feet above the ground; the ball despite being soft, then rebounded out about 30 feet before finally hitting the ground. But my team-mate Andre, did not seem alert to the opportunity I was trying to present him with.

2) I stole the ball from a dribbler, then dribbled by an opponent, then lost the ball to an opponent, all in a couple of seconds.

3) I pounced on a loose ball, dribble forwards in between a couple of defenders, & then faced yet another defender. I moved my body as if I was about to cut to my right. The defender lunged to my right and I cut to my left, he was completely beaten. This got a hoot out of one team-mate. I don't remember what happened next. This was like a replay of last week, in that I did deliberately feint but simply changed my mind re direction at the last minute, & the defender was completely fooled and I had the defender beat.

4) The opponent forward was behind me. The ball bounced off his head. I was facing towards my own goal. I cleared the ball with my foot before it hit the ground, at a 150 degree angle backwards and to my right.

Generally the problem was: Oak Sq Y indoor basketball court for indoor soccer involves a large court for 5-player teams (one player is goalie); on this large court nobody can play both defense & offense; on this large court a midfielder is not a defender; I felt that if I did not play defense the other teams would score lots of goals and win; we were playing on a winner stays on court basis so I was concerned to prevent the other team from winning; I ended up playing defense all the time.

At one point this white young adult male who seems like a joe-high-school or joe-college type player, had a comment for me after I simply cleared a bouncer. He said that soccer is a possession game and that I should not worry about 'them' (the defenders). He meant I should control the ball and dribble. I suspect that the reason I clear instead of dribble is that I've gotten used to disorder created by absence of colored jerseys, and, even when colored jerseys are worn, the different colored shirts & shorts & socks still continue to produce confusion of not knowing who is on my team. And I feel tense about dribbling because I never get to play offense and because over the recent years the amount of scrimmage time I've experienced has been so low.

The goalie who was playing behind me sometimes, told me he liked the way I play defense. Then later he told me that I was blinding him by standing in front of him, and that I should move up and away from him. I told him that I was blocking lots of shots. He responded that the shots I was blocking, he could make saves on. I told him that I was used to playing in front of goalies who allowed shots to go in. Afterwards what I was thinking was: most of the time my team was playing with 3 forwards, and me as the only defender, whereas usually teams play with two forwards and two defenders. Under the circumstances, as the only defender, it was dangerous for me to move out too far in front of the goalie.

(At first, when I was first criticized & when I wrote this blog the clever thoughts in the following paragraph did not occur to me):


The goalie, in saying that he could have blocked the shots that I the defender in front of him blocked, fails to understand, that were I not present to block the shot, the goalie would face a shot that would be different from the shot that I block by my presence. Were I not present, the man with the ball would dribble in closer, would have more time to set up his shot, would have an onbstructed view of the goal, & would not have to concern himself with insuring that the ball avoided me the defender.

Often the shots that are taken by those I am guarding against, are taken simply to save face, avoid embarrasment. The man with the ball knows that I am closing in on him and pose the danger of humiliating him by stealing the ball, so instead he fires off a firecracker of a shot that at least makes a fairly loud noise when it bounces off me. Such shots would not be taken were I not there to intimidate them.

As a defender I have an advantage compared to the goalie, in that by being closer to the man taking the shot I 'cut down the angle'.

I can see that it will take a while before my performance as goalie gets up to the level people were enthused about last year. Today I punted the ball into the curtain on the ceiling twice. Today I was beaten twice while goalie, the same way I was beaten once as goalie last week: an opponent had the ball to my right; I blocked off the side of the goal to my right; the opponent shot the ball into the corner to my left. I suspect that I have to come out of the goal further to cut down the angle, and/or not stick so close to the post that is closer to the shooter.

Harvard's Hemenway gym, a soccer practice there

Monday October 15, 2012: I entered Harvard's Hemenway Gym (in the law school area), feeling tired out from having had to spend 8 minuted walking, lugging two heavy gym bags all the way from where I had parked my car; the campus was filled with empty parking spots that were permit only, requiring a permit I did not have. I glared at the woman behind the desk, somewhat attempting to instill in her a sense of shame regarding the way my alma-mater, Harvard has in the past treated me; I felt frustrated that my attempt to instill such shame, was impaired due to: the fact that in rushing off to the gym, I had not had a chance to attend to shave or pay close attention to clothes and bags; the humiliating facts revealed by the printout of a page from the Alumni Directory, that I had to use to access the gym.

I was thinking, if I was Harvard staff, this all would have been so much easier: I could have parked 40 yards from the gym, I could have used QRAC, I could have parked just 40 yards from QRAC, I could have stuffed myself in the dining hall. I have recurring dreams featuring me being glad to have a Harvard dining hall pass, but feeling upset because I have lost or misplaced that pass.

From 920 PM to 1045 PM my practice consisted mostly of 30-45' ambidextrous aerial zig-zag runs across the width of the gym (ball propelled mostly by feet, kept close to body and off ground) followed by 15' - 30' shots. The runs at close to full sprint speed, utilized usually four touches on the ball (left & right footed), with the ball kicked around 30 feet at the opposite wall on the 4th touch of the run.

I wanted the ball to really blast the opposite wall in a really impressive manner. I felt angry about how Harvard has treated me in the past. I felt like there exists a disconnect between how the people on the Harvard campus are compatible with me & all I've done for Harvard on the one hand, and how the Harvard administration and personnel office has treated me in the past oh the other.

Yet I restrained myself and inflated the ball to only 8 PSI. I realize that if I had inflated the ball to 12 PSI, the ball would have travelled even faster when I shot it and made an even louder noise when it hit the opposite wall, but my sense of civilized decency won out, my concern for the safety of others and for not offending other users of the gym.

As soon as the basketball action began to leave my half of the gym I 'flew' across the width of it, and so never got in the way of the young men playing basketball.

The combination of the lighting and the color used in the basketball court floor produced a pleasant subdued-sunshine like color. The gym was cool and the air clean and breathable.

Yet I experienced difficulty adjusting to the pleasant Hemenway gym circumstances. My skill level was off I suppose due to: the unfamiliarity of the place; the stress of being watched by important Harvard types; the having had to put unusual amounts of energy into driving and parking. Before the practice I had to first walk for several minutes, carrying my bags from the faraway place I parked to the Quadrangle Athletic Club where I was informed contrary to what they told me a few minutes earlier on the phone, that they do not allow alumni to use the gym for a day for $10; then I had to drive to a spot in the Hemenway gym area. I felt frustrated from seeing so many open parking spots I could not use because they were reserved for Cambridge residents only. The $15 I as an alumni had to pay Harvard to use the gym seemed expensive.

There were about ten young adult males playing full-court basketball while I practiced the soccer. As is usual in American gyms, the 'open gym time' was dominated by a full court basketball game. I looked at the basketball backboards and hoops, with an eye to the wonderful possibility that they could disappear, & imagined what a blessing it would if some gymnasiums devoid of basketball hoops and backboards were to come into existence.

At one point a black female and an East Asian female, young adults, trotted out on to the court to practice volleyball for a few minutes.

After my practice was mostly concluded, a white young adult male with curly black hair, was talking to his friend. I could tell he was talking about me. He said I was not crazy because when people were in the way I did not shoot the ball hard in their direction.

After most of the young men left, there were a couple of white young adult males left in the gym. They were both friendly and polite. One of them seemed to evince a bemused humility regarding how my aerial soccer pyrotechnics were outshining his fumbling around with a basketball. The other looked at me and waved and smiled and said hi.

After the workout I found myself again marvelling at how being on the Harvard campus was like being in another world, a world with a different atmosphere, a world filled with financially successful persons from financially upbeat families, who were not perturbed by all the frightening developments in the current-events world Even lowly Harvard staff know that when the economy crashes they will still have jobs with ultra-endowed Harvard.

Again, the Harvard 'atmosphere'(?) reminded me of a womb, and the people on the campus reminded me of (what I call) 'wombats', creatures admirably psychologically undisturbed by all the frightening developments in the American economy & government and foreign policy. I wondered whether the pleasant relaxing spiritual atmosphere was a result of emails I had sent out to Harvard and to other universities and colleges that interact with Harvard.

Soccer @ Oak Sq Y October 8 2012

Note: I myself dreamed up the names given the teams. Colors in names were based on color of jerseys the team started out wearing.

Oak Sq Y Soccer Tuesday October 8 2012 contains a table showing the soccer games played evening of Tuesday October 8. One can see looking at the table, that the Andre Blacks, one of 8 teams that participated, played in 6 of the 12 games played, which was twice as many games played as any of the other teams.

I now believe the number of games played per team can be made more just if: when a game is a tie, instead of both teams leaving the court, the team that was on the court in the game preceding the tied game, leaves the court.

Overall the Andre Blacks dominated the tourney, winning five, losing none, and tying one. The game they were tied, was their game against my team the Blues. My positioning, dribble-disruption, & shot-blocking on defense kept them at just 0 goals scored, despite completely crazy defensive positioning perpetrated by my team-mates. I played mostly defense, a little offense, and a little goalie during the three games I played in; my team allowed only 1 goal per game on average.

Today I was planning on doing 2.5 hours of soccer practice before the evening Oak Sq Y games, but I was too tired so the only practice was about 75 minutes at the Waltham Y after the Oak Sq Y games.

I was on a team designated the 'Blues'. But the only blue jersey was way too tight for me. I had not brought any blue shirt with me.

My first game with the Blues was the fourth five-minute game of the evening. We tied the Andre Blacks, 0-0, with me playing defense. I stole the ball from Andre, blocked an Andre shot. I deflected an incoming shot. A right-footed 45 foot chip pass I attempted was intercepted by Andre. A left-footed forward pass down the left-wing I attempted, was slightly deflected by a quick defender but made it to its target anyway. The 3 minutes or so I was out on defense seemed like an hour; it seemed as though I was accomplishing very little per minute. But actually in retrospect, I was deflecting about one shot per 1.5 minutes, & disrupting an opponent dribble (ball knocked away or stolen from opponent) about once per 1.5 minutes--a rate that computes to 60 shot deflections & 60 dribble disruptions per 90 minute game.

My second game was the eighth 5-minute game of the evening. This time the Andre Blacks beat us 2-0. I blocked shots. My fast 60-foot dribble the length of the court up the west wing just sort of swept by the defenders unchallenged, only to end when a 'team-mate', in the far left corner, simply waited in the corner as I dribbled towards him, and then sort of insisted on taking the ball away from me in a kind of of tackle-football-type hand-off. On another occasion, I dribbled up the middle and took a 45-foot left-footed shot with the toe; the ball reached an apex of about 3 feet as it curved about two-feet towards my right as I faced the 12-foot-wide goal; the ball was moving towards the goalie's left, towards the lower corner, but the goalie made a diving save, it would have gone in were it not for his hustle. Also, on a bouncer that came towards me as I was on defense, I kicked the bouncer with my right-foot, attempting to bounce the ball off the far wall and back out for my team-mates on offense to make use of. The ball moved about 80 feet on the fly & hit the opposite wall about 20 feet high, and bounced back out as I had intended; however my team-mate who was marked by one defender, was unable to make use of the rebounded ball. This game, they scored their one-touch-shot goals despite my presence as a defender in their proximity, by way of me the defender being left to mark two or three opponents all by myself right in front of the goal, when the opponents received a centering pass.

My third game was the twelfth and final game of the evening. All I remember about this game, was that I took about a 25 foot low backspinning shot with my left-foot, shooting the ball through a crowd of team-mates & opponents. I aimed for the corner to the goalie's lower right. The goalie had this corner blocked off, in a crouch, but due to all the team-mates & opponents hanging around (?!) in front of the opponent goal, that was the only spot I could aim for. I was sort of hoping that the goalie would not be able to catch the ball and the rebound off the goalie's hands would create an opportunity. The ball moved like a backspinning low line drive that never rose more than a foot above the ground towards the goalie. The goalie stopped the shot, but as hoped the ball rebounded off his hands. However, before anything could happen the goalie moved forwards to grab the ball.

Overall the usual tricks employed by perpetrators to negate competitor skill advantages seemed to be in effect. The ball was only at approx 2 PSI, not the approx 4 PSI it was at last week. This week the ball had a thick soft skin last week it did not. After the first three or so games, the players stopped bothering with colored jerseys and there were not enough colored jerseys that fit, available for the circumstances. This resulted for me in confusion regarding who was on my team, and who was on the other team. This confusion was aggravated by the fact that games only lasted 5 minutes, so by the time I was beginning to differentiate between teammate and opponent, the game was over. The confusion was exacerbated by the fact that I was playing on a team that was composed of persons who did not know each other, whereas several of the other teams were composed of cliques of friends who arrived at the gym having pre-decided who the members of their team would be.

Technical note re change of goalie during game: During my first game, with about 2 minute to go, the man we had in goal, the Zidane-type North African who calls himself 'Red', & who also played on another team who joined our team because we were short of players, simply ran away from the goal to play goalie; this forced me to play the last 2 minutes of the game in goalie, but unable to use my hands. Andre who was in charge of the games and also participating, agreed with me that the current rule is, that the organizer-ref has to be notified if there is a change in terms of who the goalie is, and until that notice is given, only the previously officially designated goalie can use his hands. In one of the games Andre moved out of goalie and I moved into goal to take his place and the only person notified was Andre himself. According to the N. Africans Marty etc., Andre proclaims the rule of official notification of goalie change as necessary, but in practice does not himself follow the rule. However I note that since Andre was the official ref and organizer in charge as well as a participant, sometimes the participant is the one notified of the goalie change. We need a clarification re what rules re goalie change we actually are going to play by.

Poem about soccer

White knight moves looks like pros
Fun relaxed Apollo
Actually enjoying exercise
After the first hour of stiff lethargy
Body and mind finally now at peace
Now that the unfit projectiles
Have been put away,
And the fit retained
Feeling in himself a Muhammad Ali of the soccer world
Flying with the ball, as far as on high a flag is unfurled

soccer game at Oak Sq Y Oct 2

Today at the Waltham Y from 12:30 PM to 3:16 PM I did off-corner & off-wall drills. Then at 6:35 PM -7:20 PM I played in some 5:00 minute games at the Oak Sq YMCA.

I knew that generally pro athletes do not practice the day of an official contest, prior to the contest/game/match. Still, I decided to do 166 minutes of corner & off-wall drills, which ended just 3.3 hours before the start of the games.

I noted that I had been avoiding the evening games at the Oak Sq Y, because participation in the game would mean not practicing the day of the game if I followed the pro-athlete model.

So I decided to simply break the pro athlete model while exercising no more than 3 hours prior to the start of the games.

4:30 PM - 5:15 PM I took tried to nap, but simply lay in bed awake.

The drive in the rain, via Washington St. (runs next to & parallel to Mass-Pike/90) from Waltham at 5:46 PM - Oak sq Y 6:16 PM, took 32 minutes, much longer than the normal 24 or so minutes.

I wound up on a team wearing red shirts composed of persons left over after cliques of friends had formed the other team. We were up against a fearsome team wearing dark shirts, which included Marty (wearing Messi shirt) & Andre on offense. I played defense. Marty was playing 'pivot' for his offensive team, standing all the time right next to my team's goal. I had to stay back so as not to let him get too open; no offsides rule was being inforced.

At the end of the game, with time running out I chased down a ball rolling to my right, wheeled about & faced the enemy goal, crouched down as if to consider dribbling forwards (drills done earlier in the day involved dribbling forwards before kicking), & instead sent a perfect chip over the heads of 3 defenders to a team-mate 40 feet away (drills done earlier in the day involved left-footed chip passes). If this chip-pass had instead been a low-altitude pass at a velocity the team-mate would be able to handle, it would likely have been intercepted by the defense. If the pass had been a high velocity pass, it would likely have been mis-handled by the recipient. But despite the success of the chip-pass, time ran out before the pass-receiver could do anything.

We ended up losing this first game 4-3, which was a good score, given that we were players who had never met each other, whereas the other team was a clique of friends. Seems most shots that reached goal got in past our big white red-headed goalie. The fearsome combination of Andre & Marty ('Messi') would have been limited to just one goal and we would have one, except, time after time they got a shot off over my outstretched foot, with their foot only four inches or so ahead of my blocking foot. I expect this situation to improve as I get used to playing in games with people again after a few months of solitary drills.

In another game, our team wearing red, as in the first game, had to face a team of friends who knew each other and had formed a team, whereas we were just left-vers who were not in one of the cliques that had formed. We lost this game 2-1.

We won one game, 2-1, against this team composed of small brown black-haired europoid males & east-asian males. Every player on this team had a green colored jersey with a white number on it, every player on the team had his own number. They looked intimidating when they first walked into the gym.; they looked Mexican, & Mexico won the soccer gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

Once the little greens left-winger was trying to dribble slickly, & I kicked the ball 3 times in a row, the 3rd touch dislodging it from him, b. He screamed his complaint. Correctly, no foul was called. I told him, something to the effect of, 'you can't expect us to give you the world, just because you're little'. Another time I jumped forwards to knock the ball away from a dribbling green & to a team-mate.

In one game after the first game, I did some moves that got a loud hoot out of the crowd: the ball came to me from my right; I turned with it to face the defenders; as the first defender came at me I swerved to my right slightly, past him, & forwards at high speed; as the second defender came at me, my body moved again as if I was to swerve to my right, the defender took the feint completely & swerved to my right, & a third green defender guarding the team-mate on my left-wing, also swerved to my right, taking the feint completely. I could have dribbled the second defender cutting to my left, but instead I passed a lead pass off-the-board to my left-winger, perfect pass. This was the right decision because the man guarding him had also been deceived by the feint, which was actually not a feint but a last minute change-of-mind. Both of the green defenders swayed at least 5 feet to my right as a result of my 'feint' to the right. But in the end nothing came of it because the pass-recipient either did not want to get the ball back to me, or could not get the ball back to me. Sometimes great passes end up accomplishing nought, simply because the receiver cannot handle the pass.

Overall I often felt, that I was making a positive impact for my team by positioning myself, without even touching the ball; the ball when in the other team's possession seemed to simply avoid me; I did not feel I was playing badly, I simply was'nt accomplishing anything, because the ball was avoiding me.