Basketball shooting at pro-level without warmup, after 6-month layoff

February 22 - June 7 2014, I practiced basketball at least once a week.

Then from June 7 - December 3 2014 (almost exactly 6 months) I did not take even one basketball shot.

Then Thursday December 4, I returned to basketball: I shot pro-distance 3-pointers (three-pointers) 3-point or three-point shots. Everything was scored from the beginning there was no unscored warmup.

Out of 10 attempts from 24', center of court, left-handed, without preceding running dribble, 4 were goals. Out of 10 attempts on the left-handed 24' shot preceded by a one-dribble 11 foot 45-degrees slant-left dribble, 2 were goals & 2 were almost goals (meaning, in & out, around-the-rim etc. Of 30 right-handed attempts, 1 was a goal, 1 was almost a goal, & 16 hit the rim.

See:

December 2014 Sports Calendar for David Virgil Hobbs 

which links to:

December 2014 F14 Basketball Drills 
(December 4, 2014 onwards)

Also:

online Basketball Shot Drill F14, February 2014 Results
(February 22 - June 7, 2014)

The results indicate that the method of training I followed during the first months of the year, produced a resilience whereby I was able to shoot 40% on the pro-distance 3-pointers without warmup, after 6 months of not shooting the ball (running 3-pointers off the slant & weak-handed 3-pointers are of course ultra-difficult).

The results with the right-hand indicate that the training during the first 6 months of the year produced lasting results whereby I would have been able to pass well with right-hand without warmup, after not having practiced or played basketball for 6 months.

My All-Sports Calendar With Links to Personal Sports Logs

I became confused regarding which sport I practiced on which day. Reading through scribblings in spiral notebooks, & looking at seven different personal sports logs (running, swimming, weightlifting, basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis) and then integrating them mentally, have been inadequate methods. I needed a better record of which sport I practiced on which day in order to better plan my practices. 

So I produced:

May 2014 Sports Calendar for David Virgil Hobbs

In the future I will post links to such monthly calendars here. 

This calendar should be useful for anyone following along.

The CSS & the HTML in this calendar are notable for the result produced, which allows for highly-controlled sophisticated record-keeping involving a minimal amount of work & technological sophistication.

Sports Participation Rates Estimates

Given the amount of time and energy I've been putting into sports, I felt I needed a clear idea regarding what percent of the various age/gender groups in the US population, have a serious interest in the various sports. I wanted to know, what percent of the age/gender group had an interest in at least one of seven sports I've recently been participating in.

I realized, that I had to process the stats which give how many people participate in a sport, to account for the fact that the total of this stat for all the sports, is 4.1 times larger than the population of active-athletes. This because many people participate in more than one sport. The 4.1 figure indicates that on average the physically active participate in 4 different sports. I wanted to process out, if the participant figures for seven different sports add up to 165 million, then what percent of the population is involved in at least one of those sports?

The number of persons at the gym had begun to seem small to me, the people at the gym, had begun to seem suspiciously un-typical. I was wondering: am I being deceived by all the media hoopla about sports?; could it be, that the actual truth, is that there is a small minority of individuals who each engage in lots of sports, thereby making it seem as if sports is more popular than it actually is?; could it be, that most of the people involved in sports are children and that the normal adult ignores sports?

I started out building a table that (as of now) gives the Participation rates in absolute and percent terms, for seven different sports, for several different age/gender groups. This required combining incomplete information available from the National Sporting Goods Association (the leading source of such info), with Census Data and the art of math:

Sports Participation & Fandom Rates for Various age/gender Groups

The next problem, was figuring out what percent of the 'active' persons, are what I would call 'seriously' active in their sport, active enough to take an interest in literature and coaching in the sport.

In the 2013 PAC Overview Report, I noted on page 8, the  '2012 level of activity':

Active to a Healthy Level and Beyond (151+ times/yr) High Calorie Activity: 32.9%.

Active (51~150 times) High Calorie Activity: 11.2%.

Casual (1~50 times) High Calorie Activity 9.3%.

Low to Medium calorie activities: 18.6%.

None 28.0%.

According to the NSGA's definition, someone is active in a sport if he participates in it more than once a year. Based on these above PAC stats, I concluded that 80% of those who the NSGA rates as active in a sport, have a serious interest in the sport.

The next problem, was, how can I estimate the participation rate for an age-group, if the only stats available are the participation rate in the population at large?

In the 2013 PAC Overview Report , I noted on page 7, the  'Inactivity Levels (by age-group)'. On this basis I estimated that:

Given that ps = the percent of the age 6+ population involved in sports, the percent that is involved in sports age 6-17 would be 1.12(ps); the percent age 18-54 involved in sports would be 1.02(ps), the percent age 55-64 involved in sports would be 0.9(ps), and the percent age 65+ involved in exercise/sports would be 0.85(ps).

I decided to apply these statistical adjustments to each sport on a uniform basis, in determining my estimate for the percent of an age/gender group involved in a given sport. So for example, given that the (extrapolated from NSGA data) reported rate of participation for males 6 years old and older in running was 15%, I estimated that the participation rate for males age 6-17 was 1.12(15%)= 16.8% (this aside from the separate issue of 80% of the active being 'seriously active'.

Combining the adjustment for seriousness of activity, the adjustment for age-groups, and the info I had for percent of population 6+ active in a sport, I came up with estimates for what percent of a gender/age-group is seriously active in a sport:

My Estimates (actual data lacking) of Percent of Persons with Serious Participatory Interest in Certain Sports, and in one of a Group of Sports, for Age/Gender Groups, 2012

The final problem of the evening, was: so I know how many people are involved in running, how many are involved in swimming, how many in weightlifting, how many in basketball, how many in soccer, how many in tennis. From this information, how can I estimate, how many are involved in at least one of the seven sports?

I had the following info: the total of the NSGA participation figures (age 7+) for the 7 sports came to 165 million; the total of the participation stats for all the 45 or so sports tabulated by the NSGA came to (age 7+) 823 million; the total of active persons (age 6+) according to the PAC was 199 million; 823/199 = 4.1; a sports participant by definition participates in at least one sport. I came up with the following formula and math:

165.3/823=0.20.

4.1-1.0=3.1.

0.20 x 3.1 = 0.62.

1+0.62 = 1.62.

Hence I concluded that the total of the various number of participants figures for the 7 sports I was focusing on, should be divided by 1.6, to get an estimate of how many different individual persons participated in at least one of the 7 sports (because some participate in more than one sport).

There are various advantages to making estimates: you have something to work with when data is nonexistent or unavailable; you learn how to make estimates in situations where data is nonexistent or unavailable; you have something to work with if you feel like checking the veracity of some statistic.

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

return to basketball

Starting August 28 I have been practicing basketball again. These basketball practices are described in my sports log at
http://coolname001.angelfire.com/soccaireighteen.htm. The log entries contain diagrams showing individual dribble and shoot basketball moves I have invented.

Poem re Duke beats WVU in basketball

David Virgil Hobbs

Poem re Euro-American Duke Downs African-American WVU
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Ostmay augustway Aesarcay, oneway ouldshay owknay atthay ethay Americanway egionslay adhay evernay ownknay efeatday iorpray otay ethay acialray integrationway ofway eirthay ilitarymay unitsway. Orfay enmay indfay itway easierway otay attainway otay ethay acticepray ofway ertaincay irtuesvay, amongstway erethay ownway aceray, omparedcay otay ethay ifficultyday ofway acticingpray uchsay irtuesvay amongstway osethay ofway otherway acesray. Orfay ostmay ofway en'smay irtuesvay enefitbay osethay ofway eirthay ownway aceray, ereaswhay ehay owhay etraysbay ishay aceray oesday otnay enefitbay utbay armshay ishay aceray.

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Argument

David Virgil, sent his psalms to the white players and coaches but not to the black players and coaches at Duke and WVU, prior to the game between Duke and WVU. Result of the game: unexpectedly one sided victory for the whiter Duke.

Part I

The narrative describes the basketball game played Saturday April 3 2010 between Duke and WVU, which was won by Duke

On saturday evening April fourth,
Third ranked Duke of North Carolina,
The highest ranked of the four college teams
Left in the NC double A tourney,
Took on sixth rank West Virginia
In Indiana in basketball.

Duke, seventy one percent of whose players
Are white Euro-Americans,
Was by just two points the team that was favored,
But Duke beat them by twenty one.

Fifty six percent of Duke's points were
scored by two slim German-Americans whites,
six five Scheyer of Chicagoland's Glenbrook high;
and, Oregon's six eight Kyle Singler.

These heights translate mathematically
to five nine and six foot amongst ladies.

Of Duke's total points three out of four
By Euro-americans were scored.

Duke conquered a West Virginia team
Of which african american were sixty percent
Of whose fifty seven points in defeat,
The African-Americans produced nine out of ten

@2010 David Virgil Hobbs