|
DATE
|
RESULT
number successful flights*/
minutes spent on flight attempts |
COMMENTS
|
BALL USED
Sunoco
Black and white chessboard
pattern unless noted |
INFLATION OF BALL
Hard unless otherwise noted |
DEFINITIONS ( * **
etc) |
||||||||||||||
| 10/29/05 |
19/50
extrapolates
to 22/60
|
Felt tired at start. After first 5 minutes went
without success, felt as if this was going to be humiliating day featuring
zero successes. The flights were generally well formed fast runs,
with ball flying above six feet between kicks. They were not very
fast, because of fatigue for some reason I felt tired, maybe because it
was Saturday. There were a good number of flights that almost reached 15
yards but fell a little short.
They closed the gym before I was able to attempt
flights for 60 minutes.
The extrapolations is based on the following
reasoning: I estimate it takes 24 minutes to warm up, after the first 24
minutes I achieved a successful flight every 2.6 minutes. |
* A successful flight, means that the ball was kept
in the air without touching the ground for 15 yards while I ran
forward with it, always attempting to kick the ball with alternating left
and right feet, always attempting to kick it every three paces, although
if necessary I would kick the ball with a given foot twice or more in a
row, and if necessary I would head the ball or hit it with some other
legal part of my body such as the shoulder or the chest or the thigh, and
if necessary I would run less than three steps or more than three steps
before kicking the ball. If the ball and a part of my body other
than my hands or arms united with the ball beyond the 15 yard marker
(black line running parallel to long side of Waltham YMCA basketball
court/gymnasium), and over the entire 15 yards the ball was kept off the
ground, the flight was counted as a successful flight. The flights were
started with the ball on the ground and me flipping the ball up with the
left foot with the right foot no more than a foot in front of
the start line (red line running parallel to long side of
YMCA basketball court/gymnasium) and then kicking it with the left
foot. If the wall of the Waltham YMCA gym interfered with me getting to a
ball that I would have gotten to were the wall not there, the flight was
counted as a successful flight. It keeps my morale up to note that many of
these flights traveled 20 yards as I was able to get that far before
kicking the ball without the ball having touched the ground for 20 yards,
despite the presence of the wall of the gym; and several of them would
have gone on for 25 or 30 yards without the ball touching the ground, with
me getting 25 or 30 yards from the start and then touching the ball
without the ball having touched the ground.
Regarding the scorekeeping, the score is given in
terms of number of succesful flights per minute. These are counted from
the first attempted flight there is no time set aside for warmup.
What we are talking about here, what I have
been talking about in all the entries, is running fast
while air dribbling the ball, running at a pace that varies somewhere
between a jog and an all out sprint. |
| |||||||||||||||
| 11/01/05 |
19/60 |
As expected for today, the flights tended to be very
fast "soaring" flights, meaning the ball soared above ten feet above the
ground in between being kicked--often on these fast soaring flights I
would run more than 3 paces in between kicks, yet nevertheless of these a
few were perfect, very fast runs in the sense that the ball moved
perfectly in between kicks, in terms of what perfection is when there are
four or more paces between kicks. There was a very fast flight that was
mostly right kicks, with the ball being kicked every 4 paces instead of
every 3 paces, that was textbook-picture perfect in terms of how the ball
moved between kicks (note that there is more than one type of
perfection...there is the soaring perfection, the mid-height perfection
wherein the ball nevery goes more than 7 feet above the ground, and the
low ground-hugging perfection wherein the ball rarely rises above chest
high). Several of the flights, featured the end after 15 yards but before
wall at 20 yards type of perfection wherein my body and the ball both
slowed down as the I approached the wall as a result of which I juggled
the ball right up to the wall. In addition to the perfect right footed (I
am left footed) flight, there was a very fast perfectly formed very fast
flight with both feet being used, and the ball never going higher than six
feet off the ground; and there was another very fsat perfectly formed
ambidextrous flight with the ball traveling between 8 and 12 feet above
the ground. By perfectly formed, I mean basically that I ran at a very
fast speed while juggling the ball above the ground while at the same time
keeping the ball under tight control. Several of the flights that
"crashed", in the sense that I and the ball did not meet beyond the 15
yard marker, were noteworthy for their positive aspects today. For example
there were a couple of well formed flights that went off at an
angle instead of directly forward; there was a fast well formed flight
that almost made it to the 15 yd line, with the ball still under good
control after it bounced off the ground; there was a perfectly formed very
fast run with the ball reaching 6 feet in height between kicks that didnt
quite make 15 yds; there was a fast run with the ball close to the ground
that almost got to 15. Most of the failures were on kick number 2 with the
right, meaning when the ball was kicked after being flipped off the ground
and kicked with the left in kick number one. Still kicks 1 and 2 were much
better today than they every have been, seems as if the hours I put into
concentrating on this beginning paid off, but paid off after I had RESTED
from this kind of concentrated work for a few days. Today I felt fatigued
having consumed insufficient antixodant vitamins naturally through fruits
and vegetables; I did not make as many flight attempts as I usually do;
but once I warmed up a very high percentage of the flight attempts were
successful. I clicked, made successful flights, quickly on the warmup:
starting at 354 pm, I executed fast well formed successful flights at 355
and 356 pm.
Today the flights were in one half of the Y gym from
354 to 459 pm an extra 3 minutes were allowed due to having to deal with
interference with toddlers. There was a toddler karate class in the other
side of the gym. The toddlers kept straying over to my side to watch me,
although they were supposed to be paying attention to the yellow haired
white robed female white karate teacher they had been brought there to
learn from. An "oriental" toddler kept "straying to my side to build
towers with little cone shaped objects, and to prance around the gym in
imitation of my movements in flight. A solemn white brown haired young boy
in a black robe, solemnly departed his class to sit in a chair directly
behind me, intently watching each flight for 20 minutes, like one of the
judges in a tennis match...this boy had the face, and the facial
expression, of one of the future great jurists of the USA.
Today I was well rested; I had not exercised in at
least a couple of days; I do not think I used the Sauna and shower before
practicing; I wore a long sleeved gym shirt and the shorts made out of
sweat pant material.
|
|||||||||||||||||
| 11/3/05 |
23/60 |
Three days ago I was a boy trying to be a man in
terms of soccer air-dribble flight. After the practice of day before
yesterday Nov 1 I was suddenly a God. Then today I was a
boy struggling to make myself a man again, though many female brown-haired
grade school cheerleaders good naturedly screamed in terror every time I
ran towards them while at the same time juggling the ball in the air. They
even put their heads under the blue curtain dividing the gym, to watch me
do the drill, so they could scream in terror as I ran at them--it reminded
me of some upbeat British comedy movie about the beatles or the Arabian
Knights or something. Today I made 23 successful flights more than I
have ever made in one hour, but the quality of the
flights was much lower than on the great day Nov 1. It is easy to keep
track of how many flights are successfully executed in an hour but it
takes a little discernment or a little experience to note the difference
in the quality of the flights. The flights were of
medium not fast speed; the ball tended to stay below a chest high level
and under tight control, although the ball movement was fairly
unpredictable, often not staying low and tight as expected. The first two
steps were not nearly as competent as on the great day Nov 1. the first 24
minutes which I consider warm up time were not so hot today. There were at
least a couple of fast runs with the ball going no higher than waste
height and under tight control that almost made it to the 15 with me able
to get off a hard low shot the last time the ball was touched. I had gone
swimming the day before, and I used the Sauna and shower before
practicing. Using the sauna made me feel as if I had caught a cold it
seemed. Today I wore long sleeved shirt and new lightweight gray colored
shorts.
Overall the flights today were of medium speed,
slower than the very fast speeds of Nov 1, with the ball moving
in an out of control and unpredictable way compared to the great Nov
1 day. |
|||||||||||||||||
| 12/6/05 |
Half the gym was supposed to be open according to
the schedule, but the defacto schedule, said they behind the front desk at
the Waltham Y, was that now the entire gym would be for the kids; the
karate lady and the horde of little kids would be on one side, and some
other kiddy games would be on the other side, hence I would not be able to
practice even though the schedule said the gym was open.
I was thinking, last time the karate lady and the
kids were on one side of the gym and I was on the other, I transmuted into
a soccer god, and the kids came over to my side to watch instead of being
the karate lady's dutiful students...and this is my reward, that now the
entire gym will be taken up by the little kids so I will not be there to
cause a distraction...
I expressed to the Y front desk people my
dissatisfaction, how if I was working 9-5 PM, which is something I could
do, there would be no time for me to practice soccer, because activities
especially "adult basketball" were constantly scheduled to take up the
entire gym; and if I were to not work 9-5, there would still be too little
time slots available in the gym for practicing the soccer drill. The
nice young black man who wears glasses and is built like a football
lineman said he would get on the matter, and to my utter surprise the very
next day the schedule had changed. I kept looking at the two schedules,
the one that existed the day I complained, and the one that was in the bin
the next day, I could not believe my eyes, the schedule had changed
overnight! I still think somehow my eyes are playing tricks on
me.
I was frustrated not being able to practice. I had
come to realize the importance of eating a few substantial meals as a
factor in producing motivation to get out to the gym and practice. I was
filled with food and I finally felt like practicing.
For a month I had sort of gone into shock over the
fact that on November 1 2005 I had skipped from being a boy trying to
become a man, and gone from boy to soccer God. Seemed like henceforth
there was nowhere to go but down for me ("what can the man do who comes
after the king?...only that which has already been done...").
A 20 yard run is not that long a way, looking
at the distance from the point where the run starts, looking at where the
run ends. But I looked at those 20 yards from a point midway between the
beginning and the end, from a point to the side of the line between the
start and the end of the run, and those 20 yards seemed like such a long
way, and making it those 20 yds with the ball in the air seemed such a
tiring task, especially if done 20 times in an hour...looking at the 20
yds I was thinking like this because I wanted to impress myself with what
I had done...but the effect was that I sort of hypnotized myself into the
idea that doing the 20 yds air ball drill is very difficult and tiring.
Actually it can look tiring depending on the vantage point but covering
the 20 does not feel that tiring and 20 yds does not even look a long
distance when you are at the beginning point looking at the end.
I have been trying to come up with all
kinds of reasons or excuses for why for so long I did not practice.
I ran out of nicotine gum and began using chewing tobacco maybe that
tired me though it seemed to give me more endurance in the swimming pool.
I guess I got preoccupied with the mental aspect, and simply did not eat
enough to get to the point where I physically felt like going to the Y and
working out. I guess things got to the point where the psychologist types
had me brainwashed into the idea, that I lacked the mental skill to get
myself motivated to do something like going to the Y and enjoying doing
the difficult soccer drills.
You know: "hey you are all mentally sickos
who need help and unaccountably have suddenly lost the psychological skill
that enable you to get motivated to do things and enjoy doing them,
this despite the fact that you are so mentally talented and
skilled in other ways, and so, we give the jobs to these
less talented and skilled townie people who are supposed to be saner than
you..you guys should spend big bucks meeting with us shrinks so we can
cure you".
I got so frustrated from the schedule conflict in
the gym, and from encountering these women who suddenly want to get
married, that, infected by the culture of rude gruff radio announcers, I
muttered at a low volume, "we do'nt want to have babies with you" to the
pretty tanned caucasian black haired young woman who notified me of the
hidden gym schedule conflict.
Since the day I said this seems there have been long
faces at the Y or that may be just my hyper-egotistical take on things. I
supposed I could apologize for muttering like that but the worldly wisdom
in this culture seems to be "don't apologize just change
direction".
I think the white haired guy with glasses working
behind the desk looked at me and muttered "you're a king", and I
think he and another guy also muttered something to the effect that a
humdrum 9-5 job is a waste of time for a king...and I was thinking, how it
seemed these people who think of me as something special but do not
act as if I am something special, are lukewarm like the "lukewarm" fans of
Christ who Christ was disgusted with.
I was thinking, now that I have paid some attention
to AA and D2 and D3 college football, not just the top ranked Div
A college football, people seem more respectful, there are less
outbursts of aggressive atheism and anti-Christianity on the
internet, and even aggressive internet atheists have suddenly become
respectful of religion.
Sort of like, a cartoon, showing the
Division A baby with his baby bottle, and the Division AA D2 and
D3 babies without baby bottles, noisily pouting at the Div A baby,
and proclaiming that the milk in the bottle the Div A baby
was drinking from was useless trash.
|
||||||||||||||||||
| 12/7/05 |
16/52
extrapolates to 18.5/60 |
Used the Sunoco checkered ball inflated to hard
level, wore lightweight shorts, sleeveless T-shirt, heavy silver Panama
Jack watch, chewed nicotine gum instead of chewing tobacco, although
chewing tobacco had been what I had been using for a few weeks prior to
this practice. Seems the heavy watch helps me keep my balance and produce
momentum.
The runs today were noteable for fast high soaring
runs, meaning I ran fast while air-dribbling the ball, and the ball went
high and far in the air in between kicks.
I was pleasantly suprised at the success rate after
such a long layoff, however after about 40 minutes I began to feel
surprisingly tired. I was thinking, the switch from nicotine gum to the
cheaper chewing tobacco seemed to give me more endurance in the swimming
pool but less doing the soccer drills.
Every little kid in the gym tried to grab my soccer
ball and walk away with it; I politely requisitioned it from them each
time. Today the kids and even the adults obstinately got in the way of the
little strip of the gym running the gym's width that I use to do the
sprinting while air dribbling the soccer ball trick. I kept politely
asking the kids not to go into that strip of the gym and they kept going
into it anyway. Then an adult began throwing a basketball at the gym wall
right in the middle of the strip of the gym I was running down with the
soccer ball. I had to politely get him out of the way. Then some guy did
wind sprints the length of the gym repeatedly intersecting with my little
airport runway like strip.
Hard to believe (but this kind of thing is good to
know about) that a month's layoff caused a noticeable decline in the
quality of the runs but not much of a decline in the number of
succesful runs...this has to do with not just the long layoff but
differences in methodologies implemented.
Today I just got out there and took each flight
attempt one at a time, tried to enjoy each attempt, tried to concentrate
on doing each one well, had the attitude "que sera sera" (what will be
will be), enjoyed myself and did OK.
|
|||||||||||||||||
| 12/8/05 |
20/60 |
Wore light shorts, sleeveless shirt, used
sunoco checkered medhard ball little softer than previous sessions, wore
heavy panama jack watch.
I was not able to do the kind of drill I wanted to
due to circumstance. We had half the gym to use, big blue plastic curtain
dividing us from the other half of the gym. Thus on our half I was
sprinting the 15 yards running paralell to the curtain; there was about 15
yards from the curtain to the wall that would be to my left as I would
make the sprint; some kids and an adult were playing basketball, and the
kids and the adults kept wandering into the "runway" I would run down when
I would sprint while juggling the ball in the air. the defacto of it was
that I was left with this little strip about 4 yards wide and 20 yards
long to do the drill in. For over an hour I never I asked the people who
were playing basketball to not get in my way. Everyone knew it was open
gym not basketball time. They all could see that I was using the little
strip next to the big blue curtain to do the drill. They all could see how
there could be a problem if they strayed into the little strip of space I
was using, but they kept wandering into the space anyway, time after time,
for no reason. I did not feel like asking them to stay out of the strip
because I thought such was obvious. there was a bald guy with a brown
mustache who was a little shorter than average, he had what looked like
his son with him, a kid about 8 years old, dark haired and pink skinned.
The father and son both repeatedly strayed into my space for no reason.
The father and son both did alot of their playing just four yards away
from the curtain. And also there were these three fat white kids with a
shorter thin black kid, they spent unaccountably alot of their time just
four yards from the curtain. Once one of these fat white kids apologized
for straying into my space that was their only verbal communication with
me. And earlier I had apologized for the ball straying into their
space. Generally it seemed these basketball folks on my side of the
gym acted as if I was not even there, as if I did not exist, as if I was a
ghost...then again maybe they just got a kick out of being near the
"runway" and on it. I was thinking, that any time you have
basketball and something else both on the court during open gym, the
basketball folks seem to act as if they have the god given natural right
ala the Monroe Doctrine, to act as if you are not even there, and to
expect you to be a polite sepoy who dutifully keeps out of the
way.
Thus I was stuck with a four yard wide 20 yard long
strip to do the drill in, all the while terrified of running into a
basketball kid, having to take off and start a flight not when I felt like
it but when there was the least chance of colliding with a basketball
kid/adult. So though I planned to be studying and testing another aspect
of flight what I was forced to focus on was concentrating on direction,
not veering off course, because if I veered off course, there would be a
disastrous collision with a basketball kid on one side and on the other
side there was the curtain to interfere with the flight. I had a streak
where 3 flights in a row and 4 out of 5 were aborted by the curtain, those
were the only curtain aborts of the day.
Having to focus closely on going in a straight line
straight at a four yard wide target 20 yards away, though it was not what
I planned, was at least somewhat valuable. The flight/runs ended up being
tightly controlled, the ball kicked alot on exactly every third step, and
fast, with the ball staying low. There were some good runs that fell a
little short of the 15 yard line but that featured speed and tight ball
control with the ball being kicked with alternating feet every three steps
which is the ideal I strive for in this drill. I am actually sort of
surprised that I was able to make it 20 times in such a narrow space.
Starting in the middle of the four yard wide strip, if I veered more than
2 yards to the left or right I would either be bumping into basketball
kids or the big blue curtain that divided the gym in half. I had good
enough control that I did not once veer with my body into basketball-kid
territory, though once or twice the ball glanced off into their territory.
After the workout I showered, and left my impressive
looking silver Panama Jack watch with the big blue dial on a ledge in the
shower, because though the watch is waterproof I didnt want to risk
it...thus I forgot the watch there but picked it up 2.5 hours later at the
lost and found...it must be admitted there is certain amount of ethicalism
at the Waltham YMCA. I was thinking of how yesterday I was watching this basketball player, this tall white guy, doing basketball endurance developing little sprints, sprinting a quarter of the length of the gym and back, then half of the length and back, then three quarters of the way and back...he kept running across my "runway" but I kept quiet...he was just sort of listlessly going through the motions--and I was thinking, compared to him, on every flight attempt I run spiritedly, with the fanaticism of a juggler who does not want the ball to touch the ground, though I do not make the 180 degree turns the basketball player was making I make lots of sharp cuts, I do alot of intense accelerating, I do alot of sudden slow downs, and it is all alot quicker and faster and sharper and more spirited than the drill without the ball. |
|||||||||||||||||
| 12/10 |
12/43
extraps to
16/60 |
Clothes same as usual
Tried method alpha, a way of doing it, the first way
of doing the flights that I developed. Then there is method Beta. Today
used method Alpha...and at the same time tried to keep the ball low on the
runs...there were some fast low runs that made it at least 15 yds.
Time: 710-756 PM in Y Gym. |
Ball med hard, slightly softer than hard now on
unless noted. |
||||||||||||||||
| 12/11 |
13/39
extraps to
20/60 |
Usual clothes Method Beta implemented. Method Beta,
is the method I used on my best day so far Nov 1. Runs tended to be fast
tightly controlled, with ball at medium height reaching approx 8 feet high
at apex, or lower. Not as good as Nov 1 best day so far, on Nov 1 Beta was
used.
Time 545-628 PM
Place Y gym unless noted |
|||||||||||||||||
| 12/13 |
15/44
extraps to
20/60 |
Usual clothes
Method Beta implemented. Several tightly controlled
fast runs with ball going no more than ten feet above ground. Good
recovery on miskicks. Runs not as good as on Nov 1. The disruption caused
by kids playing basketball was such, that I came up with an idea, how
about a time when it is Open Gym but basketball is not
allowed?
Time: 640-728 PM at Y |
|||||||||||||||||
| 12/14 1st workout of day |
20/60 |
Usual clothes
Beta used. The number of times a success was
achieved in terms of the ball and myself re-uniting being the line 15
yards from the start point without the ball touching the ground between
the start point and the end line marker, only tells part of the story
again the runs were not as good as on Nov 1. Possible Reasons for not
equalling Nov 1: Method Beta requires more pep and energy than
method Alpha. Also quality of runs is better when there has been
more rest, but I have been stepping up the time spent on workouts. Thus I
must focus on getting enough food into my body, and I now see how simple
conditioning can impact anaerobic skills such as juggling the ball while
sprinting forward with it. I think I get the best runs when the day before
I did not exercise. Plus I now am more recognizant than previously, how
the time interval between when one wakes up or gets out of bed and the
time one does the drill is significant for a highly skilled drill such as
the sprint/juggle. The drill this hour was with shoes not tightly laced
which might be a problem.
The interference and distraction caused by kids was
a real problem this time, got to the point where I would lose confidence
on kicks which I am usually able to execute with ease. The 'runway' space,
the strip 15 yards long I use, was continually filled if not with a
basketball a kid, then basketballs. I counted 4 kids playing basketball in
the gym, but 18 basketballs, 4.5 basketballs per kid. The
basketballs were constantly rolling into the runway strip. Thy gym was
definitely overpopulated with basketballs...one of the kids even found a
way to torment me, be it intentional or not, by throwing basketball after
basketball at the blue curtain I was running parallel to, with the result
that basketballs kept rolling on to the runway strip. There should be
tighter controls on the number of basketballs rolling everywhere, there
should be less basketballs in use, kids continually kick a ball here throw
a ball there creating a kind of mayhem. There should never be more
than one ball in use per basketball player on the court.
Time 643-756 PM at Y |
|||||||||||||||||
|
12/14
2nd workout of day |
23/60 |
Usual clothes Beta used. Thinking of how combining
Beta and Alpha in the same run, makes it harder to concentrate on Beta,
and is discouraging compared to doing Beta alone. 23/60 ties my
personal best in this drill, but the quality of the flight/runs
was not as good as on Nov 1. This was second hour of the day, the fatigue
showed. The more hours you put into workouts, the more tired you will be
during the workouts, and the less skilled you will be, due to the fatigue,
however, the idea is that in the long run you will be better skilled due
to the time investment. Today for the first time I felt that with Beta,
you can get tight low runs, though prior to yesterday I was thinking of
Beta as a method for fast soaring flights and Alpha as a method for low
tightly controlled flights.
Time 835-938 PM at Y
Time doesnt equal 60 always due to breaks
|
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| 12/15 |
19/55
extraps to
21/60
|
Usual clothes
Used Beta method.
The first half of the 55 minutes consisted of only
about 6 successful flights meaning I was in for a humiliating licking
score-wise this session. So I made a deliberate attempt to slow down the
speed at the beginning, keeping the ball closer to the body when first
kicking the ball with my foot after flipping it up. This resulted in
a success rate of about 13/27 minutes in the second half of the
session.
I now realize that one effect of
fatigue in me, is that I slow down the pace of
the run/flights, which has the effect of increasing the
number of flights that are from the scoring point of view for this drill
successes. Today in the first half of the session, I was ambitiously
kicking the ball so that it would bounce 5 or 6 yards away if left
untouched, when I first kicked it with my foot after flipping the ball in
the air with my foot. These kinds of long leads on the first kick, have
the effect of producing "godly" ideal ultra-fast flights, but they also
often in the narrow sense of this drill "fail", because the ball hits the
ground before I can reach it hence there cannot be in the scoring
sense for this drill a success recorded in the stats.
It is good despite the effect on the recorded number
of successful flights in the session in this drill, to love
quality, to love quality in a flight and not just
quantity of flights that can be recorded statistically as
successes.
Where there is energy and ambition,
as there existed in me in the first half of this session, there is
high speed and there is also plenty of
failure from the scorekeepers point of view in that the ball hits
the ground before it can be touched.
There are alot of misses on fast starts, my
habits are getting faster, riskier. How slow a pace the first
kick establishes is key in determining the final score of successes.
Generally the slower a pace established at the beginning of the runs the
more runs are recorded as successes.
It is good to be conscious of quality not just
whether or not a run can be marked statistically in the score as a
success. It is mature when doing this drill to be able to see beyond
the score, to take risks such as attempting very high speed runs tightly
controlled runs using only the feet.
In this drill I always consciously attempt
to alternate between left and right feet when kicking the ball
and attempt to kick the ball every three paces, and attempt to avoid using
parts of the body other than the feet--but still often I end up using
parts of the body other than the feet or the arms/hands. Yet statistically
a success is still recorded when I and the ball together pass fifteen
yards, whether or not the head or thigh or chest was
used. As I get closer to the alternating feet ideal I strive for as I get
better and more accurate, I use my feet more and my feet are not
as trustworthy as my head or my thighs when it comes to advancing
the ball towards the 15 yd line. It would be wise and mature for me to
realize that today there were (I accomplished) alot of respectable
almost max-speed runs that were tightly controlled with alternating left
and right feet, that featured fast starts, that did not quite make it the
full 15 yards.
Today there were plenty of high speed tightly
controlled runs that did not quite reach the past the 15 yd marker, that
fell a little short of 15 yds.
Today there was a "mongoloid" young man playing a
white europeanoid young man in basketball while I did my drill. The
Mongoloid youth wore sweatpants that had a British flag in the left ankle
area of the pant. As the euro-white was leaving I think I he said
"impressive" as he looked in my direction. But I felt at that particular
stressed out time as if I was lucky just two guys were there to watch
my worst day in a long time, because all I was thinking about was
the statistical score in terms of how many flights were being
recorded as successes for the session. And it was the first time anyone
had complimented me since the waist-high white Basketball kid complimented
me a few weeks ago.
Hey the gym is 9 yards high, and that looks very
high off the ground, yet 9 is just a fraction of 15 yds, so undoubtedly
there can be impressive flights of less than 15 yds.
Drill time
850-950 PM
Waltham Y
|
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| 12/17/05 |
21/37
extraps to
34/60
rate
new personal
best
|
Usual clothes
Beta method
Today I shattered my previous personal
record in terms of successful runs per hour rate; yet while I was
doing this I did not realize that I was shattering a personal record,
because I had gotten confused re how many minutes I was spending on the
drill. While I was doing the drill I felt that I still was not a God
as I had been on November 1 when quantitatively statistically
speaking I only scored 19 successful runs per hour, and I still feel
aside from the statistical score I was better on Nov 1.
The 34/60 rate is 31% better than
my previous all-time best.
It was surprising to me, that I would accomplish as
many as 21 successful flights in what I first thought was 47
minutes, but later found out was 37 minutes, using the Beta method,
seeing that I slept until about at least 3 PM and did not get out of bed
until 5 PM, and then started the drill at the gym at 710 PM. This was a
surprise to me when I thought I was doing the the 21 runs in 47 minutes
and it still surprises me now that I realize it was done in 37 minutes.
In the past it has seemed that there is a sluggishness that results
in poor performance when I have not been awake for more than 7 hours
before doing the drill.
But today I slugged it out, in a sluggish
unemotional mindless frame of mind, and scored alot of successes, though
these successes were not especially fast or well formed. Alot of the
successes today involved the accidental resort to the use of the
trusty head or thigh, whereas the intent of the drill is that the ideal is
always attempted which is to avoid use ot the head and the thigh, but to
use the left right alternating feet instead, even though there are more
mistakes with the feet.
Today a couple of the runs were high speed well
formed with the ball rising between kicks no farther than 7 or 8 feet
above the ground. In this I see the beginning of the return of the God I
suddenly became on Nov 1...then again, to some extent it could be that I
in terms of grading myself, I am subjecting myself to a kind of
grade deflation, wherein with each passing day I grow
tougher on myself, more demanding with myself, more sparing in praise with
myself.
For the past three or four sessions I have been
scoring successful flights right from the start, from the first attempt, I
have not been experiencing the clumsy phase I used to
experience in the first 10-24 minutes of the practice session. A couple of
days ago, on my very first run, a very tall white lady with wavy brown
hair and what appeared to be her toddler were playing soccer right on the
end portion of my "runway", the space I run down while juggling the ball
while doing the drill, I went ahead and did the drill anway running
between her and the toddler, did it fast successfully and accurately
with tight ball control without warmup, all the while taking
care not bump into the lady or her kid.
I sent Oct 7 2005 an email to Greg Chappel the
Coach of the Indian cricket team because I once played Cricket in India.
Today I was thinking of how in cricket, so much depends on the way the
ball spins when it hits the ground prior to reaching the wicket the
batsman guards. Cricket is a slow game that can last all day and a batsman
being bowled can occur about as frequently as a goal in soccer, and often
the key cause of the batsman being bowled, or striking out as the baseball
world would call it, is the way the ball is spinning when it hits the
ground as it reaches the batsman.
Often the cause of the great achievement of the
batsman being out is due to some effect of the spinning of the ball when
it hits the ground, some effect that in terms of exactly what happened
when the ball bounced such was not anticipated
by the bowler who bowled the spinning ball.
Similarly, in soccer, the way the ball is spinning
when it hits the ground, can cause effects that are decisive, even if the
exact manner in which the effect exerts its impact is not
anticipated by the player who causes the effect.
In soccer the way I play it as evinced in the drill
this log records, I race along while juggling the ball in the air, and
often when I kick the ball I put a large amount of backspin on the ball.
Thus often when the ball bounces on the ground in front of me while I am
doing this drill, the bounce of the ball is dramatically effected by the
backspin that is on the ball. The backspin causes the ball to bounce
in a way that will be totally unfamiliar to the
defenders, but in a way that I will be completely used to.
If I were to kick or throw the ball 15 yards in
front of me with backspin, the effect of the backspin on the bounce
would be different compared to this effect when I am
running along with the ball in the air and my body close to it, and then
kick the ball that is already traveling forward in an up and down motion
as I kick it, into a backspinning lob-like trajectory with its apex in
front of and above the spot at which it was kicked. This
difference enhances the effect of the backspin, makes it
even more dramatic than it would be otherwise.
It is if you think about it amazing, how a
ball following an up and down path as it moves forward (as
opposed to a curve or line type trajectory), can when it hits the ground,
due to its backspin, bounce straight up or backwards, even though it
had been traveling forward at such a high speed.
It would be interesting to learn from a specialist
what the formulas are that show how effect of backspin is effected by
trajectory of ball prior to the hitting the ground.
Funny while doing the drill and for a couple of
hours after I was not too impressed by my performance, because of the
quality of the successful runs, and because I mistakenly was thinking that
the time span spent doing the drill from 710 PM to 750 PM was
50 minutes, not 40 minutes. So I did not realize that from the point of
view of successful runs per hour rate I was shattering my previous
all-time best. All the while I really believed that all I was doing or had
done, was in a mediocre way in terms of quality of runs equal my personal
past best in terms of number of statistically speaking successful runs per
hour.
Moral of the story: You do not need
to realize that you are excelling (as I was in terms of number of
successful runs per hour) to excel.
Moral of the story: You do not need
to feel especially awake or capable or lively or happy or energetic
to establish a personal all-time best.
Today in the gym with me there were a couple
of white teen age females playing with a brown teenaged female, and
there was a white brown haired dad with his yellow haired toddler
boy. Both groups for no reason kept wandering on to my runway space, the
space I run down while juggling the ball. I had to politely explain to
them why they should not go into that space. I am convinced that they
wandered on to the space because they were curious as to what I sounded
like when I talked.
Drill place time
Waltham Y
710-750 PM
3 mins not counted due to interference from others
in the gym...
|
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| 12/17/05-3/02/06 |
For various reasons, did not
practice soccer during this time period. |
Seems having to spend too much time around my father, stepmother and brother, crashed the computer that is my mind, resulting in the soccer not being practiced during this time period. |
|||||||||||||||||
| 03/02/06 |
14/60 |
Used method Alpha. Normal level of concentration not
intense. I immediately noticed the difference between the ball I had been
using, a Sunoco black and white chess board pattern ball, and the new
Adidas Replique ball. The Replique compared to the Sunoco is smooth, fast,
light, spins well despite being smooth, the hair people have shed on the
floor of the gym clings to it as if there was a static electricity charge.
I get fast runs with this ball because it is lighter than the Sunoco ball.
But it is hard to head when it is spinning, because because it is so
smooth, almost slick on the surface. |
Adidas
Replique, from here on unless otherwise noted. Adidas
Replique is a $25 replica of the $130 match ball which will be used
in the 2006 World Cup. |
medium hard from here on unless otherwise noted, what is beyond belief is that the "Sports Authority" where I bought the ball and the Y both lack a gage for precise inflation. |
Same a succesful flight is at a run at least, 15 yds
while air dribbling the ball, the ball and the body reunite beyond the 15
yard line without ball having touched the ground. |
||||||||||||||
| 03/03/06 |
21/60 |
Used method Alpha again. Beta seems to require a
certain level of fitness which I dont have yet. Beta also is difficult
when first coming back after not having practiced for a long time. Used
intense high level concentration method
Scored 9 successful flights in 12 minutes, in last
12 minutes of the 60. Seems that when coming back after a layoff you need
a longer warmup to get to a given point.
Wore red headband, shorts, short sleeved T shirt
with sleeves, of course Panama jack silver watch I am superstitiously
attached to,
|
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| 03/04/06 |
14/52
extrapolates to 16/60 |
Alpha high level concentration.
Lots of them were almost there, the flights. The use
of the head and thigh was less. I aim to use just alternating left and
right feet, but when I do not exactly get this the head and the thighs get
brought in...the head and the thighs are more trustworthy than feet in
terms of getting the 15 yds with the ball not touching the ground, but as
you get better they are used less.
Started eight hours after I woke up, after stressful
driving all the way to reggie lewis center boston to watch track meet. and
driving back. Felt tired, stressed, my right foot was a total klutz. But
it is wrong when an event like a track meet is tiring and stressful
for someone, for that someone to blame the event. But driving in the
Boston area is tough. |
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| 03/05/06 |
34/60 |
Alpha high level concentration. Suddenly
jumped up 34/60. This equals my previous personal best. Yet I admit it was
merely the Alpha method, the more tiring and difficult Beta method gets
faster, more controlled results. To tell you the truth I felt as if I had
mastered the general mental attitude aspects of this drill resulting in
the high score, even though the runs were of mediocre qualities my skills
are not back yet. In terms of general mental attitude, I did not think
much about anything, did not rest too much between attempts, and simply
concentrated on each kick one kick at a time, forgetting about the score,
the past, and the future. Yet my right foot did not get competent until
the last ten or fifteen minutes. Approx 624 noted I had sprained my right
thigh, it became stiff, a dull pain, it became difficult to accelerate
quickly to catch a ball with the foot, missed about four due to the
strained thigh. 624-645 8 succesful runs, a 23/60 rate, a significant drop
off in performance. The ball was not tightly controlled, the skills were
not back, but due to the general attitudinal mental aspects, perhaps due
to the improved ball, the numbers in terms of number of successful flights
were there.
The teen age and adult white caucasian guys kept
wandering into my flight path, the little strip of gym 20 yds long and 5
yds wide I run down, seemed they wandered in to the flight path and
loitered there on purpose so as to impede my flight. To be charitable
maybe they wanted to hear me ask them to move aside. None of them
complimented me or showed that they noticed me.
But there was a little prepubescent pretty oriental
girl, who was watching me, she blushed as she watched me, she looked
perplexed, as if she was thinking, why are'nt all these people honoring
and admiring this man? She kneeled down as if reverencing royalty or
divinity, facing my direction exactly to the outside of a line on
the court that marked off the left edge of the space I needed and was
asking for, and watched me do the drill. Seemed she was unpretentious,
less pretentious than others.
|
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| 03/06/06 |
16/46
extrapolates to 21/60 |
Alpha method with intense level of
concentration used
I had a small window of opportunity to do the drill
at the gym, because most of the hours are reserved for basketball of some
type. So I started 542 PM ended 628 PM, although such was not a time when
I wanted to practice. My right thigh was strained the entire time.
Meaning, it was stiff, and also, it was sore. Thus balls that I would have
usually gotten to I did not get to because I did not want to aggravate the
condition. Noted with my right foot a common error, is that the
ball gets kicked very low and very far to the left compared to where it is
supposed to be kicked. Noted, that when I am speeding along right behind
the ball and I want to slow down along with the ball, I kick the ball with
the shoe lace part of the foot, on the underside of the ball, with the toe
pointing up at about a 70 degree angle; but when I want to speed along
without slowing down, I hit the underside of the ball with the upper side
of the toe with the toe pointing upwards at about a 45 degree angle.
I wonder whether it will improve my performance, to
keep track of facts such as those mentioned in the above paragraph.
You might say keeping track of failures could result in psychological
distraction and lack of confidence resulting in poor performance. Or you
could say otherwise. You might say, that the distraction of keeping track
of how a ball is kicked to get a given effect, will impair performance. Or
you might say otherwise.
The gym was crowded today, not that there were so
many people but that they were getting in the way more. This was an added
distraction.
|
|
. |
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| 03/07/06 |
21/60 | 633 PM-734 PM, Waltham Y Gym. The right thigh was
strained throughout mildly. Alpha method with intense level of
concentration used. Several flights so to speak "crashed" because due to the strained thigh I did not feel like accelerating fast enough to catch the ball to keep it up in the air. I noted that a typical error is to hit the ball too low and too far off to the left side with the right foot when attempting to move the ball from right to left due to alternating structure of this routine. I wonder if concentrating on hitting the ball upwards to a central point, would improve this error. I noted that on one succesful flight, on the run, I caught up to a ball that was 20 feet above me at its apex with my right foot, while I was about nine feet away from the wall. The ball and me were both moving in the same direction, at the pace of a sprint. I wanted to catch the ball with my foot and simultaneously propel it forward about a yard so I could maintain control of the ball while slowing down so that the presence of the wall would not produce a graceless ending to the flight, and that is exactly what I succeeded in doing (not that I am being feminine but I figure controlling the ball while it is off the ground while slowing down and coming to a halt is a worthwhile skill because lets face it in real life on the actual playing field there are obstacles that resemble walls, such as out of bounds lines, and opposing players and opposing players with special privileges such as goalies)...I moved my right foot first up and then down with the downwards direction of the ball as it came towards my foot. As usual I carefully watched the ball until it came below head height. After the ball sank below head height I did not watch it further. (This may be a good habit I have developed that enables me to keep my head and eyes up and about prepared for the next event which will be where the ball goes after I kick it, it is a habit that keeps in my mind how when I kick the ball in this drill it is intuitive to a significant extent because although it is a precise kick, on the run encountering and moving a ball that is in the air to fly along with oneself, my eyes do not actually watch my foot hit the ball). To get back from the digression though I am left footed I caught the ball with the upper part of the right toe, on the underside of the ball, on the side of the ball furthest away from me. This propelled the ball forward a yard, then I kicked it again with the right foot in similar fashion and it went forward another yard, a perfect landing for a flight confronted by the final obstruction of a wall. After I did this, I was wondering, if it would pay to take note of how I accomplished this spectacular maneuver. I had accomplished it by learned instinct, there was no pre planned strategy, to use the top of the toe in this manner with the foot descending with the ball when I wanted to do catch the ball with my foot. Taking note of how I accomplished the maneuver might be helpful, but knowing consciously how such maneuvers are accomplished could interfere with the development of new and different maneuvers used in such situations, seeing how in the first place I developed the maneuvers or methods without paying strict scientific attention to what would logically be the best way to kick the ball in a given situation, or exactly how I was kicking the ball to deal with certain ball-foot type situations. I noted that one reason my "flights" were "crashing" was that although prior to quitting soccer for a few weeks I had gotten to the point where much of the force used to propel the ball came from the ankle moving the foot, or flicking it with the foot, since after the break from soccer, almost all the force propelling the ball was coming from the knee, the hip, and the general forward movement of the body. What I am wondering is, does the Alpha method I am now using support involvement of the ankle/flipping-of-the-foot, or, is it the case that the ankle only comes into play when the Beta method is used ( I after my break from soccer am not yet fit or skilled enough to use Beta). |
|||||||||||||||||
| 03/09/06 |
28/60 |
847 - 951 PM
Alpha high concentration
Right thigh slightly strained
Today I realized that contrary to what was said in
the previous post, I do watch the ball as it hits my foot on the low
balls, because with a low ball it is not possible to get a sense of its
direction and then stop watching it for a fraction of a second as it nears
the foot. With a low ball you tend to need to watch it as it hits the foot
because you have to track the ball for a certain time as you get a sense
of its direction. But with high balls coming in from overhead, sometimes I
watch as it hits the foot and sometimes I cease watching as it dips below
eye level. With balls in a situation where it is naturally easy to see it
as it hits the foot, I watch as it hits the foot.
So I think a good experiment might be, how well I do
when I watch high balls as they hit the foot, how well I do when I watch
both high and low balls as they hit the foot, compared to how well I do
when I do not watch high and or low balls as they hit the foot, compared
to how well I do when I just naturally watch what I feel like watching.
Such a test could be a distraction but what makes for the best
performance, is when you have by experimentation removed doubts regarding
what is the best approach, so that you know for sure, that the way you are
approaching things is the best way to approach them.
I have noticed that sometimes I kick the ball well
without watching it as it strikes the foot, though you might not expect
this. And sometimes I kick it well watching it as it strikes the
foot.
Today I realized that when I start to watch the
black line that marks me as having gotten beyond the 15 yd line, this is a
distraction that causes me to fail.
|
|||||||||||||||||
| 03/16/06 |
8:47-950 PM
16/55
extrapolates to 17/60
because of breaks time is 55 only though 63 min from
beginning to end
|
Alpha Concentrate BLIND
Waltham YMCA gym
For 6 days I could not practice because at the times
I had free, the gym was infested with volleyball and basketball (the gym
was scheduled for volleyball and basketball).
Thursday 830-10 PM and saturday 7-8 PM are the
only evenings all week when the gym is scheduled for open gym, as opposed
to basketball, volleyball, teens, or family. Yet even during these
supposedly open gym periods, you are overwhelmed with the encroachment of
a diaspora of imperialistic nationalist basketballers. Again I experienced
how though obviously I was using a little strip of the court 5 yards wide
and 20 yards long in between the lfet three and the right three basketball
baskets, the baskinsects kept straying into the little strip; they
unnecessarily loitered for long times in the little strip so as to get in
my way; a sub-genera of them even had the imagination to dream up a
shooting game, wherein they would take turns shooting the ball from a spot
right in the middle of my little strip, and on the extreme left edge of
their basketball court; one of them just stood in the strip watching the
game, even though there were a million places where he could have watched
the game from.
Today I flew blind again, with the right thigh
somewhat strained throughout, and I could feel how I was gradually
improving in terms of blind flight skills, even though the numbers were no
better than six days ago March 10. What was happening is that there was a
general rustiness due to six days off, offset by improvement in blind
flight skills; even when flying blind, the specifically blind flight
skills are only part of the total picture.
Today the entire hour I was having trouble
believing I could actually make it across the width of the gym, about
15-20 yards, 16 times in an hour flying blind. I kept experiencing
an inner sense of unbelief that I had this level of competence in the past
and would manifest it again in the future. I kept feeling that I would
never be able to make it 16 times in an hour which was the pace the
last time out. Yet I could feel the improvement in the blind flight
skills, I was succesfully doing things flying blind I had never done
before flying blind, I was successfully doing things flying blind that I
had done in the past yet again and with more confidence, I could feel how
I was improving in terms of what you have to do with your body prior to
the time when the ball actually nears the foot.
Today there were about six very fast soaring runs
featuring the ball getting say 20 feet above the ground and 20 feet ahead
of me yet with the ball being caught and the flight continued; the blind
flight method once or twice today produced god-like spectacular success on
such runs, the ball being kept in control but off the ground close to the
body, with the body, as I came to a halt as I neared the wall about
20 yds from the start point. The blind flight method seemed to
sometimes produce spectacular success on runs in which the ball would be
far above and far away yet caught with the foot and the flight continued;
the blind flight method produces alot of perfect kicks on such flights and
in general, kicks in which the ball is caught with the foot pointing
upwards at about a 60 degree angle, with the ball hitting the top of the
toe on the shoe, meaning the part of the shoe directly above the toes. One
thing you learn in soccer from the beginning, is to not toe the ball the
way the old fashioned tackle football placekickers used to toe it, hitting
the ball with the part of the foot directly in front of the toes. But what
I am referring to that works well with blind flight is hitting the ball
with the part of the foot above the toes not in front of the toes. Yet it
seems sometimes during flight you can get a good shot off using the shoe
section that is in front of the toes--you have to remember this is flight
with the ball being hit in the air not while it is on the ground. Today a
good number of flights almost reached the 15 yd line before crashing, a
good sign.
So yet again a bunch of basketball players watch as
my numerical success rate in terms of number of succesful flights is low
for me. Funny thing is, I might be hearing my own mind, but I
thought I heard some of them talking about how I was flying blind and not
watching the ball as I kicked it. Surprising that they would have that
level of perception.
I've recently sent emails to a few ex-military
congressional democratic candidates outside of New England, the YMCA I
work out at is in a democratic middle class type town, Waltham, I got the
feeling that the emails sent to these candidates were having the effect of
reducing some of the abnormalities you find in democrat middle class
places in Massachusetts that you do not find in democrat middle class
places outside of Massachusetts, abnormalities such as cynicism, rudeness,
hard-heartedness.
Today I noticed a slight softness in the soccer
ball. Dont know if that hurts or helps.
|
slightly soft |
||||||||||||||||
|
4/10/06
230-330 pm
waltham ymca
gym |
16/60 |
Yet again I lost time not working out
for some reason, this time it has been about three weeks lost. Tragic. I
was struggling to switch my schedule from awake at night to awake during
the day. I went 100 hours with six hours sleep. Trying to switch schedules
without exercise did not work. I was too tired to get to the gym due to
lack of sleep. The after getting the schedule right I did not feel like
working out for a while. Lessons learned: when you try to shift circadian
rhythm, toss in some exercise; no matter how screwy the circadian rhythm
gets, lie in bed at the proper time and be out of bed at the proper time;
do not exercise too late at night you might get too revved up to sleep,
throwing the circadian rhythm off course.
Today I used the Alpha blind method, I
was surprised to achieve 60 successes, I thought maybe when flying blind,
you need to work out a few days flying with sight first. But I managed 16
successful flights. Several of these involved the ball flying close to ten
yards between kicks. Thus they did not involve a lot of kicks, but were
fast long range. On the failures the direction the ball was kicked in was
correct but it was usually kicked too far ahead.
My first success occurred 2 minutes after I
started, I made it 17 yds at least, kicking the ball only with my right
foot though I am left footed, the ball was going about 15 feet high
between kicks, it was high speed, with the ball not getting too far out of
control. Allelujia.
Today though I was aiming to use the
feet, I used the thighs and used them well, and also used my head well,
heading balls.I suspect, that: when I fly blind, this relaxes me, there is
less exhaustion, because I am not following the ball all the way to the
foot with my eyes; flying blind fine tunes the parts of the body and the
mind that come into play when the ball is hit with the head or the thigh,
because with the head and the thigh last microsecond calculations and
readjustments do not come into play; flying blind, the body is more
naturally positioned, there is less of the craning of the neck/head here
and there to watch the ball right up to the point when it hits the foot,
and so the body is better situated for heading or thighing the ball.
|
medium hard |
||||||||||||||||
|
4/11/06
625-728 PM
Waltham Y
gym |
32/60 |
Alpha Blind
The kicks were natural, kicking the
ball interfered with the natural process of running less than flying with
eyes. Kicks were more graceful and decisive than when flying with eyes.
The ball was rarely followed with the eye once it got below chest
high.
Basically the number of successful
flights at 32, is phenomenal, especially considering that the flights were
blind or more romantically put, night flights.
The success was due to the fact, that
there was general improvement in every aspect of blind flight. But I would
not call the performance a classic, because on lots of the runs or
flights, I ran maybe seven or eight yards in between times I kicked the
ball. My idea of classic flight, is kicking the ball every 4
yards.
But one can say this on the positive
side regarding covering many yards in between kicks, that you end up with
plenty of long fast flights, there were a few this evening which I counted
as succesful flights because I would have easily gotten to the ball if
there was no gym wall in the way to hit the ball, these flights would have
been at least twenty yards in length, and fast.
I did notice, that perhaps as a result
of the fact that I count flights in which I would have gotten to the ball
if there was no gtmnasium wall in the way as successes, I am developing
the ability to go far fast, flights 20 yards plus. Now if I were to count
flights in which the wall obstructs success by hitting the ball before I
get to it as failures, I might prematurely develop the ability to be
cautious and slow down and get the ball under tight control as I neared
the wall, but I probably would not develop the ability to go far, 20 plus
yards fast as well. In my book, first you nail down flying 20 plus yards
fast, and then you deal with refinements such as getting the ball under
tight control slowing down, stopping as you near an
obstacle.
Today first there were about five boys
in the gym with me, they were playing basketball, then a couple of adults
showed up, then in the last minutes the volleyballers showed up, nobody
complimented me despite the great day I was having. But one of the boys
said, "OK...we'll share with ya".
The practice occurred 6.5 hours approx
after I woke up.
ng |
|||||||||||||||||
|
4/13/06
835-929 pm |
29/60 |
Alpha Blind
Before the practice I had this dread
feeling, that I would be lucky to make it across the gym even six times.
15 yards looks like the distance from the moon, from a certain angle. I
was convinced I would not be able to do as well as the previous
practice.
I started off well, feeling a new confidence in
this new form of flight, kicking decisively and naturally without second
guessing or thinking too much about how to kick the ball. Which reminds me
that by way of contrast earlier experimentation showed it was good to
concentrate hard, as opposed to being blythe. Maybe the Hegelian synthesis
is to concentrate hard but not second guess. It was fun, like being
a God. The kind of balls that I used to flub while flying blind, I managed
well.
Today fatigue and stiffness got to the point where
balls that could have been caught were not chased, the foot was not as
strenuously placed on some kicks, such might
be aspects of lack of concentration.
Then after the strong
confident relaxed decisive natural start, there were a few
streaks of up to seven minutes, during which the entire time I did not
make a successful flight. This shook my confidence and I began to second
guess the kicks, meaning I would be about to kick the ball in a certain
way, and then I would at the last second make a readjustment. The
performance level declined.
A general problem was getting the body
too close to the ball when kicking it.
Perhaps the score was high while performance felt low
because of the trusty head and thigh were brought into play less as I got
more accurate, so that I ended up using the feet instead as I aim
to.
On the positive side I noted that a
good aspect of night flight less romantically called blind flight, is
uniformity; meaning that a certain type of kick is done a certain type of
way, every time that certain type of kick is done.
In the end I could not believe that I
made only three less in the hour than the time before. The entire time I
felt second rate compared to how I was the time
before.
The day before today I swam 1300 yds in 40
minutes.
There was what looked like a father and
his young adult son playing basketball, in the gym while I was practicing,
they basically ignored me the whole time.
|
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4/15/06
705-853 pm
Waltham Y
gym |
28/45 extrapolates
to
37/60 |
Alpha Blind concentrated without second
guessing
This 37/60 rate is the highest rate ever for
me.
Before I started I felt lacking in energy, I felt
stiffness and soreness in my ankles and knees, I expected to make it about
20 times, I expected to do worse than the last couple of days.
The first 16 minutes I had 11
successful flights. That is a rate of 41 per hour. This is without
even one minute for warmup, every time I count, I count from the first
minute I start the drill. Such is significant, because in games, a
high flyer like me has to start flying the first time he touches the ball.
I could be in a game for a long time before getting a chance to fly with
the ball; and generally in soccer you do not see substitutes on the
sideline, juggling the ball while waiting to be sent in to the game.
I decided that this time, the attitude
I would adopt, would be the attitude of concentrating hard, combined with
not second guessing, at the last fraction of a second, how I am going to
kick the ball.
I got to thinking, maybe, if I just
adopt the attitude I have when things are going well for me, then things
will go well for me. And I figured, that when things are going well for me
I concentrate, but at the same time I do not in the last fraction of a
second, second guess the kind of kick I am planning to deliver to the ball
and attempt to make last second re-adjustments.
Seems like this last fraction of a
second re-adjustment thing is timorous, like an old lady. Seems like when
I am not doing well, I am second guessing myself at the last fraction of a
second regarding how to kick the ball.
I got to thinking, you cannot simply
assume, that the second guessing at the last microsecond, is going to make
things better and not worse. But that is what I and people tend to do when
things begin to go bad. We simply assume that the last micro-second second
guessing will make things better and not worse.
No matter how we kick the ball, be it
without second guessing, or be it with second guessing, we are almost
always going to be a little off, a little imperfect. We fail to realize,
that the last microsecond second guessing could make things even more
imperfect than they would be if we had not bothered with the last
microsecond second guessing. We indulge in the last microsecond type of
second guessing ourselves, on kicks in which at the beginning of the kick
we feel that things are not quite right. We fail to realize that things
are never quite right, and that the last micro-second re-adjustments could
simply make things even worse. We fail to realize that we can succeed, we
can fly far and fast, we can fly over the opposing players, even if we
do'nt kick the ball perfectly every time.
As a matter of fact there was a lot of
slightly imperfect success today. I like the attitude I put into effect today, the
concentrated but without second guessing attitude. it is fun to play with
such an attitude. You can enjoy a workout with such an attitude, you can
enjoy things the way you enjoy things when you are playing like a God,
even if you are not playing like a God. Concentrated, natural decisive,
without last microsecond worrying and readjustment and second guessing
regarding how the ball is to be kicked.
I felt the way I played the first 16 minutes is evidence
the concentrated without second guessing attitude is a good attitude to
have. I think the reason after the first 16 minutes the success rate came
down, was simple fatigue. This is what happened the practice before this.
Even if your attitude while playing is the divine wisdom itself,
eventually fatigue trumps attitude, and your rate of success will come
down.
Today at the beginning there was a grade school boy, he
announced to me that he played soccer. There was also at the beginning a
bald black guy wearing glasses there. They were both playing basketball.
Neither of them complimented me on my red hot streak that went on while
they were there. they were there for about the first 15 minutes.
ng |
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|
4/20/06
834-932 PM
Waltham Y Gym
|
23/55 min extraps to
25/60 |
Alpha concentrated blind taking it
easy
concentrated but decisive
Today I decided to just enjoy myself,
relax, not strain, forget about the score, how many flights I had made. On
the paper I note dpwm the time of every successful flight/run. Thus I can
keep going the whole time without knowing how many flights I have made
successfully.
There was this white haired white man shooting baskets
in the gym the first 12 minutes he ignored me. I made 5 successful runs
these first 12 minutes, a 25 per hour rate.
At 857 PM I touched the ball squeezed it, realized it
was quite soft, when dropped from a point at which its bottom is even with
the top of my head, to the wood basketball court, it bounced up to the
height of my navel, I am 5' 10".
Thus in the 21 minutes prior to realizing the ball was
soft (discounting a 2 min break), I had 10 successful flights a rate
of 29 per hour. In the remaining 34 minutes, I had
15 successful flights, a rate of 23 per hour.
Thus it seems simply knowing the ball is soft, reduces
performance as much as the ball itself being soft.
It took a long time to feel warmed up
today.
The kicked balls were too low, not too close as one
might expect with a soft ball. That is, a ball can hit the ground before
you kick it, because it is kicked too low, not just because it is kicked
too far. You could expect that with a soft ball, the ball gets kicked not
just too close but also too low.
If there is a ball I would have gotten to before it hit
the ground but the wall got in the way, I count such as a successful
flight. This has payback in terms of encouraging certain types of
performance and not discouraging desirable types of performance.
Not only that this method of keeping score can coexist
with what I noted I was doing today, which is that when I had the chance,
as I ran at the wall with the ball I was juggling in the air, I
brought the ball to a stationary forward movement, so that it was no
longer moving forward but slowing down and coming to a stop with me as I
neared the wall, while at the same time it was not touching the ground in
between times I kicked it. This as opposed to just kicking the ball into
the wall once I cross the 13 yard line marker.
Even though such slowing down and bringing to a halt the
forward movement of the ball along with my body did not increase my score,
I found myself doing it anyway, because doing such when I had the chance,
made me feel as if the flight was truly worthy of being scored as a
success and had been handled well, with a landing just like an airplane
landing, in the sense of the airplane slowing down and coming to a
halt as it nears an obstacle, as opposed to simply flying into the
obstacle.
Slowing down the ball with oneself as one nears the wall
is convenient, the ball does not have to be chased down after it ricochets
off the wall; and, it is convincing, it makes the flight more convincing
of a success. But if I were to only score the flights on which I slow down
and stop with the ball as I near the wall, I would discourage long fast
flights.
Not sure if the disadvantage of counting only flights in
which the ball and the man slow down and stop before the wall exceeds the
disadvantage of also counting the flights in which the ball is just kicked
into the wall. Probably has to do with stage of progression and
temperament.
ng |
soft from head high bounces to navel not sure how long the ball has been
soft. |
NOTE All this time I have not been counting flights that went
13 yards at a diagonal but did not reach the line 13 yds directly in front
of me at the start |
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|
4/22/06
Waltham Y gym
723-755 PM |
14/32 extrapolates to 26/60 |
Alpha blind concentrated but
decisive
Today I wanted to take it easy and
enjoy myself again.
The important thing today, was that I
woke up at 4 PM, got out of bed at 5 PM, and then started practice at 723
PM less than 2.5 hours after getting out of bed. I had stayed up all night
working on a programming problem that I solved that the world could not
solve, or solve properly.
I have long suspected that such
practice right after waking up results in a kind of
clumsiness.
Today the rate over the first 16
minutes was 6/16, which is 22.5/60 rate, the last 16 minutes was 8/16,
30/60 rate.
Today, I noticed that all the
things that I usually have no problem with, such as hitting the ball with
my thigh, or the kick that is the first kick of the flight, kicking the
ball with my left foot, I had problems with. But I did very well
kicking the ball with my right foot, which I usually
have problems with being left footed. As a matter of fact I was a god-like
virtuoso with the right foot today.
So it appears we may have an
interesting situation wherein I flub things I usually do well, and do well
on things I usually flub, when I practice right after getting up out of
bed.
Possible
hypotheses:
1 Right after you wake up, the balance between the
conscious and the unconscious tilts more towards the unconscious than it
does after you have been awake for several hours.
2 I rely on my conscious mind more for things I do
well, and rely on the unconscious mind more for things I do not do
well,
3 The conscious mind's activity contributes to the
flubbing up of things you do not do well (such as using the right foot if
you are left footed) and the unconscious mind's activity contributes to
the flubbing up of things you usually do well (such a using the left foot
if you are left footed).
4 Sometimes practicing right after you wake up, might
help you to insure that both the conscious mind and the unconscious mind
are developed skilled and effective.
|
Hard, inflated before practice. |
What we are talking about here, what I have
been talking about in all the entries, is running fast
while air dribbling the ball, running at a pace that varies somewhere
between a jog and an all out sprint. |
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|
4/25/06
900-950 PM |
26/48=
32.5/60 |
Alpha blind concentrated
decisive
The numbers look good today but I did
not feel especially good today. The flight/runs succeeded in crossing the
line without the ball touching the ground and me still touching the ball,
but there was nothing to be especially proud of in them. Then again with
every passing day my standards for myself get higher.
I started off the first 7 minutes of
today without one successful run. I thought maybe I have become disabled,
maybe I've stopped improving. But 13 minutes after starting I had four
successes in four minutes.
I came to realize that if you flip a
coin a hundred times in a row there will be streaks of tails only but
things even out after a while. Likewise in sports the difference between
success and failure can be inches, these inches can have to do with
lucky or unlucky streaks, so one should keep one's
composure.
Today there was only about four hours between getting
out of bed and the practice I was up all night working.
The evening before I went to cook dinner for my dad, he
was I felt rude and temperamental, I felt nauseated for several hours when
I came home to work on my computer, perhaps this had something to do with
my not feeling satisfied today. My dad said something to me while I was
cooking, I didnt hear him, he became rude and enraged. I asked him for
some clarification re the recipe, he became rude and enraged. I told him
the gas range started clicking when I turned the flame on he became rude
and enraged. I had the normal human reaction, mildly annoyed by his rude
rage but still polite, this normal human reaction provoked him to the
point where he was shaking with rage. See he and my mom have always been
sticklers for manners, demanding extreme politeness from me, but they have
always felt they have some God given natural right to be rude and
temperamental with me.
There was a black guy in the gym also, he wore a shirt
with number 121 on it, he was very helpful chasing down the soccer ball
when it went his way but he was quiet.
ng |
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|
4/27/06
859-949 PM
Waltham Y
Gym |
34/50
min
extrapolates to
41/60
Personal
best |
Alpha blind concentrated
decisive
Slept all day, up working all night,
this started about 2 hrs after I got out of bed.
Did not achieve a success until the 5th
minute, which panicked and demoralized me. But as it turned out the rate
was 16/25 the first 25 minutes, and 18/25 the second 25 minutes, almost
the same.
For the first time I felt a real sense
of confidence on kicks in which the ball was not in an unusual position,
felt like I was doing something as difficult as riding a
bike.
Said to myself today, I am going to
take it easy, run these run/fllights at a jog, not go too fast, 'cause I
dont feel like burning myself out, with the end result that I avoid
practice. Today for the first time, I felt that yes indeed I was able to
intentionally slow the speed of the runs down to a jog or miler type
speed. This is important because: even in games there is a time to slow
down; the difficult skills are best developed when they are done slowly at
first and then speeded up; being able to slow the speed of the runs down
has practical value for practice, because when you go fast you can get
burnt out and thus not be able to continue practicing for as long pr not
be able to get in as many runs as you would if you slowed down, the same
way if you sprint at the beginning of say a two mile run, you will end up
getting a
slower time or end up not even being
able to finish the race.
I did not feel there was anything
especially remarkable about the quality of the runs today, except for the
fact that some of the hard to get balls that had to be chased at top
speed, were handled perfectly confidently and with ease. Then again
with each passing day my standards for myself are getting higher and
higher.
Today the gym was empty at the
start, my rate was 9/14 (39/60) while it was empty. Then
this white guy with brown hair came in, he stood there leaning
against a wall the whole time, until the end, reading something. He
never said a word. Then this gray haired man with glasses, and his son
came in the gym and played basketball, my rate after they came in was,
22/30 which would be 44/60. Neither the man or his son said anything,
but when I noticed the man made a great shot I said something.
ng np |
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