Soccer Football Futsal Basketball Baseball Tennis Training Log Page Fourteen

DATE/

LOCA-

TION

RESULT/

ACTIVITY

COMMENTS

BALL USED/PSI

SHOES

USED

Wednesday

September 24 2008

810-950 PM

Waltham Y

100 minutes various non-skipping variants of air-dribble featuring ball touched with alternating left and right feet, left foot only, left thigh only

Ate burger king hamburger and fries 45 minutes before start practice. Had coffee approx 1.5 hours before practice started.

Woke up aprox 7 hours before practice started.

Drank 14 oz Glaceau brand 'energy' Vitaminwater during practice. .

Had approx 60 ml vodka evening before practice.

Experimented with Air-Dribble Patterns: touch ball every other pace with left foot only, no skipping; touch ball every pace with alternating left and right foot no skipping; touch ball with left thigh every other pace no skipping

Runs today done without restrictions on use of eyes in following ball.

Today I started 10 yards from the wall.

Started practice at 810 PM.

Key: T= touches on ball during course of run

From 810-845 PM, I practiced the air-dribble pattern involving: ball touched every other pace with left foot; no skipping; ball kept off the ground as I move forwards.

With this pattern at first there were seven minutes of incompetence. The results were as follows (runs that successfully adhered to pattern with ball kept off ground for at least 9 yards listed):

817 PM: first good run covering 10 yards in accordance with pattern.

823: 5T, fifth touch at 10 yds

826: 6T, 6th T at 10 yds

833: 5T, 5th T at 9.5 yds

836: 5T, 5th T at 10 yds

838: 5T, 5th T at 10 yds

845: 4T, 4th T at 9.5 yds 7/35

Thus with this pattern I travel on average 2.5 yds per touch on the ball. I found that this pattern is tighter than the skipping versions of the same; but it is slower, less reliable, and less consistent.

850-925 PM:

Ran the pattern in which I touch the ball on every pace, touching the ball with alternating left and right feet, without skipping, while keeping the ball off the ground but close to the body, while moving forwards. At first there were 4 minutes of incompetence (runs that successfully adhered to pattern with ball kept off ground for at least 9 yards listed):

858 PM: 6T, 6th T at 10 yds

902: 6T, 9 yds, little spin

906: 6T, 10 yds little spin

912: 6T, 10 yds

914: 6T 10 yds

919: 8T 10 yds last T at 10 yds, ball getting lower, tighter, still little spin

921: 7T, 9.5 yds, last T at 9.5 yds, lower and tighter again, still little spin, ball kicked with area of shoe above toes

924: 8T, 9.5 yds, lst T at 9.5 yds, lower tighter again, still little spin, area of shoe above toes used again. 1/4.4 mins

The general characteristics of this non-skip pattern: slow, ball at apex of arc relatively high compared to skip patterns, little spin, area above toes use to kick ball. the ball usually reached an apex somewhere between mid-thigh in height and groin height. This pattern is naturally irregular in terms of distance forwards per kick and direction. Last time I ran this pattern, a very long time ago, at least two years ago I guess, I was much worse at it. Just goes to show how drills have lateral effects, improving skills not exactly focused on in the given drill.

With this pattern I travel on average 1.7 yds per touch. It was about equal to the pattern done in the first segment in terms of reliability and consistency, but tighter and slower. I was much worse at this the last time tried it a couple of years ago, even though this is the first time since a couple of years ago that I have tried this drill.

925-950 PM:

I practiced the air-dribble pattern involving: ball touched every other pace with left thigh; no skipping; ball kept off the ground as I move forwards. The first touch of every run was with the foot. With this pattern at first there were seven minutes of incompetence. The results were as follows (runs that successfully adhered to pattern with ball kept off ground for at least 9 yards listed):

929 PM: 5T last T at 9 yds, maybe 6T counting first touch with foot?

931: 6T 9.5 yds (counting first touch with foot); last T 9.5 yds

937: 3T 9 yds (counting first touch with foot), last T at 9 yds

940: 7T, last T at 9 yds; first kick with foot not counted as a T;

942: 5T, last T at 10 yds; first kick with foot not counted as a T;

947: 5T, last T at 10 yds; first kick with foot not counted as a T;

949: 7T, last T at 9.5 yds; first kick with foot not counted as a T;

With this pattern on average each touch advanced the ball 1.8 yards.

Strange as it seems, though skipping between touches seems better, with such patterns it is easier and more natural to do the nonskip version first.

The air-dribble with the thigh is the first air-dribble I learned (head air dribble was the second). It is the air-dribble that has not been practiced for the longest time.

Disadvantages to the use of the thigh: preparing to thigh the ball, limits the last minute changes to what is actually done; not that much can be done on a touch with the thigh; this kind of thigh air dribble requires alot of energy; the thigh air dribble sends the ball high in the air which allows for intercept by the defenders; it is slow; it exposes the knee to injury due to a kick by a defender.

Notes on the Practice:

The three patterns done today were all inferior to the touch ball every two paces with left foot while skipping between touches, and the touch ball every pace with alternating left and right foot pattern while skipping between paces pattern.

Notes from Dreamland:

A couple of nights ago I had a dream related to soccer. I visited this sports camp type of thing named 'Petra'. The Italian national soccer team (won world cup in 2006) was practicing there. I was talking to some guy connected with the Italian soccer team, maybe he was a member of it; he was sort of like a grade-school boy compared to me. I was shouting at him about how I should not have to play minor league soccer before being put on the Italian national team, because minor league type soccer simply tires a person out. I was winning the argument I could tell; the guy was completely overwhelmed. There was a short red-headed woman Italian woman who had red hair on her unshaved legs.

This dream makes it seem like the Italian national team which won the world cup in 2006, is nothing but a grade school child compared to me...which indicates all this careful recording of practices combined with practices is far from foolish.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Thursday

November 12, 2009

730-945 PM

Waltham Y

135 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern.

After being away from soccer for 59 weeks, got back to soccer today.

The layoff from the soccer drills was because I realized that my ability to run long distances at a good speed without stopping, an ability that is necessary if one is to be able to play soccer without getting winded, had somehow degenerated to an abysmal level. So, I spent the last year or so, working myself up from being like a cripple to being like an old man, to being like someone reasonably fit. For the past year the run I did featured six miles, the first third and fifth run, and the second fourth and sixth walked (see http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/, http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm).

The extreme degeneration in terms of middle distance running ability did reflect genetic lack of ability. In seventh grade I ran the mile in 6:44.

Today the drill of choice was the E3, in which the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet. This is undoubtedly the best drill for recovering from rustiness produced by a lack of practice.

Today during the 135 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body, 11 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet. I succeeded 13 times adhering to pattern exactly. I estimate that for about 20 minutes I had to refrain from doing anything because I was sharing the gym with the Mass Wildcats Girls Basketball team, and spent some time talking with Patrick Ferdinand. Thus the success rate today was 24 in 115 minutes, one success every 4.8 minutes.

There was a civilized thin gray-haired tallish looking white man with a long narrow clean shaven face at the workout wearing a Natick, jacket, I think the jacket also said field hockey on it (a few of the Mass Wildcats girls also had Natick jackets). He watched me and told me that I was 'very fast'.

So there you have it--my first day back to the air-dribble runs, and I am already 'very fast'. I suppose what he meant was that althought on any givren run some of the steps I take are taken slowly, plenty of the steps are taken long and quick to produce high speed despite an absence of preliminary acceleration.

Interesting that I would on my first day look 'very fast'. I noted during the summer while running and walking the six mile routine a few times per week, that all of this going long distances at a slow speed, had eroded an ability I had built up when I was doing the air-dribble sprints but not the long distance run stuff; the eroded ability was the ability to suddenly cover thirteen feet with just one step or pace, with a preliminary of just a couple of short moderate speed steps. I noticed during the summer, that after about six months of just the long slow runs, the best I could do after a couple of short moderate speed steps was about seven feet.

I felt tired after today's workout. Just as doing just the air-dribble sprints day after day did not result in endurance for long slow middle-distance type runs, so also the long slow middle-distance type runs day after day does not seem to have produced much endurance for these sprints in which I run 15 yards while juggling the ball.

Still I expect that combining the long slow runs with the air-dribble sprints, will produce a faster rate of progress in the long slow runs, compared to just the long slow runs by themselves.

I told Patrick Ferdinand that it seemed that something fundamental had changed with him. He told me that in between now and the last time I saw him, he had gotten married.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.1 psi

Saturday

November 14, 2009

610-745 PM

Waltham Y

95 minutes minus 16 minutes

breaks = 79 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern.

Today again the drill was the E3, in which the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet, while I sprint forwards with the ball.

Today during the 79 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 17 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 15 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 32 in 79 minutes, one success every 2.5 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 17 in 79 minutes one success every 4.6 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 15 in 79 minutes one success every 5.3 minutes.

By way of comparison, the success rate day before yesterday was: 24 in 115 minutes, one success every 4.8 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 11 in 115 minutes one such success every 10.5 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 13 in 115 minutes, one such success every 8.8 minutes.

Seems as if a couple of nights sleep allowed the drill activity to soak into my subconscious or unconscious resulting in very signficant improvement today compared to two days ago. Relatedly, there are recent reports that it has been discovered that 'sleeping on' a problem really can improve the mind's ability to deal with the problem.

Today I changed the ball psi to 7.5 because that was what the psi was my last day before I took the 59 week break from soccer.

Probably there have been times in the past when at this stage of progress in skill, I simply gave up on a run as soon as I failed to achieve perfect footwork adherence to pattern. However what I have been doing these days is continuing the run even if the footwork pattern adherence is slightly off, which I think is the superior alternative now. Realistically speaking in a game, perfect adherence to pattern will not be maintained. Continuing runs despite imperfect adherence to pattern helps me to develop and recognize natural deviations from pattern that could be of use during an actual game.

Today on one run I navigated around a boy and continued the run for the entire 14 yards, with only minor deviation from the E3 pattern.

I shared the gym today with Waltham high school boys who were playing full court basketball. About 70 percent of the boys were black, 20% white, and 10% East Asian.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Wednesday

Nov 18

545-700 PM

Waltham Y

75 minutes minus 10 minutes

breaks = 65 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern.

Today during the 65 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 15 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 23 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 38 in 65 minutes, one success every 1.7 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 15 in 65 minutes one success every 4.3 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 23 in 65 minutes one success every 2.8 minutes.

By way of comparison, the success rate four days ago was: the success rate today was: 32 in 79 minutes, one success every 2.5 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 17 in 79 minutes one success every 4.6 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 15 in 79 minutes one success every 5.3 minutes.

Today the first 16 minutes were very clumsy, I think because I had fallen asleep and woken up just 105 minutes before starting the practice. I now estimate that waking up 300 minutes before practice produces the best results. As luck would have it, about thirty of these aerobic exercise done to music types, mostly adult females, were sitting in the bleachers watching during these clumsy 16 minutes during which I merely succeeded in two perfect adherence to pattern successes covering the 14 yards with ball kept off ground but close to body, and one imperfect adherence to pattern success.

That means that during the first 16 minutes my rate was: total one success every 5.3 minutes; 1 perfect adherence to pattern success every 8 minutes, and one imperfect adherence to pattern success every 16 minutes. But after the first 16 minutes in the next 49 minutes, the rate was: total one success every1.4 minutes; perfect to pattern successes one every 2.3 minutes; imperfect one every 3.5 minutes.

Today I changed the ball psi to 7.5 because that was what the psi was my last day before I took the 59 week break from soccer.

Today on one run I navigated around a boy and continued the run for the entire 14 yards, with only minor deviation from the E3 pattern.

I shared the gym today with Waltham high school boys who were playing full court basketball. About 70 percent of the boys were black, 20% white, and 10% East Asian.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Thursday

Nov 19

843-945 PM

Waltham Y

62 minutes minus 2 minutes

breaks = 60 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern.

Today during the 60 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 5 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 25 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 30 in 60 minutes, one success every 2.0 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 5 in 60 minutes one success every 12 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 25 in 60 minutes one success every 2.4 minutes.

Today similarl to yesterday, the first 15 minutes were clumsy; I estimate this was because of a few hours of aggravation prior to the soccer workout, consisting of almost fruitless interactions with customer service re a computer monitor, and, also that this was the second day in a row of this.

During the first 15 minutes my rate was: total one success every 3.75 minutes; 1 perfect adherence to pattern success every 5 minutes, and one imperfect adherence to pattern success every 15 minutes. But after the first 15 minutes in the next 45 minutes, the rate was: total one success every 1.7 minutes; perfect to pattern successes one every 2.0 minutes; imperfect one every 11.2 minutes.

The gym was completely empty tonight, I feel guilty for not spending more time in it tonight. The emptiness of the gym did not improve my performance compared to yesterday when the gym had lots of people in it while I was practicing. Just goes to show, yet again, I've noticed this a few times before, that people being around to watch me does not impair my performance.

I feel as if I have been significantly disadvantaged due to the running long distances in weights which has produced a kind of clumsiness; yet I feel that I have done a good job of recovering my skills and I think the running slowly in weights has improved not only my endurance but also my speed. I think that I will be back to the skill level I was at before the running long distances in weights after not too many more days.

The problem with the computer stuff was that I bought this computer monitor; the CD that came with the computer monitor would not run on one of my computers; incredibly nobody at the store where I bought the monitor, or at the manufacturer, knew anything about the problem and they all gave me conflicting advice; this despite the fact that I was able to give them the exact error message produced by my computer when I tried to play the problem CD: "only part of a readprocessmemory or writeprocessmemory request was completed". I consider this to be yet another example of the incompetence in customer service and users manuals with regards to various goods and services. When it comes to something as fundamental as a computer puking up a CD containing stuff like driver, manual, and softwares, there should be no confusion whatsoever, especially when the customer can give the exact text of an error message produced by a computer. Seems that the users manuals and the customer help: give you ten different ways of doing some rarely done thing; have tons of info re complicated rare technical problems; but are fools when it comes to fundamental basic common relatively simple problems they should not be fools about.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Monday

Nov 23

808 AM-950 AM

Waltham Y

102 minutes minus 12 minutes

breaks = 90 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/16 lbs body-wts.

Nov 21 I ran the six miles in weights at the 10.5 lbs wrists/legs, 16 lbs torso level.

Description of the Nov 21 track workout, together with some reasoning re why the soccer sprint while juggling should also be done while wearing various levels of weights, can be found in the Nov 21 entry at:

http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.75 lbs on each wrist, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 3 lbs on each thigh, total 10.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 16 lbs on weight-vest. Total 26.5 lbs.

Today during the 90 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 5 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 12 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 17 in 90 minutes, one success every 5.3 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 5 in 90 minutes one success every 18 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 12 in 90 minutes one success every 7.5 minutes.

During the first 60 minutes (not counting breaks) my rate was: total one success every 8.6 minutes; these all exactly adhered to pattern. But after the first 60 minutes in the next 30 minutes (not counting breaks), the rate was: total one success every 3.0 minutes; perfect to pattern successes one every 6.0 minutes; imperfect one every 6.0 minutes.

There were several runs in which the last touch of the ball was just short of 14 yards, at say the 12 yard point. These did not count as successes.

I found these 90 minutes to be another example of an exercise that is not that tiring while you are doing it, but after you are finished, you feel exhausted enough to lie in bed just resting for hours.

There was more of a problem with the thigh-weights slipping off with this exercise, compared to the jogging long distances. I subtracted a one minute break every time I had to readjust or tighten a thighweight. The thighweights were also more abrasive for the skin during the soccer workout compared to the track workout.

People using up parts of the gym during the practice; some thoughts re 'the little ones':

This white woman wearing granny-glasses type spectacles, who had short straight dark brown hair, was setting up all the props for a session featuring moms and little kids; and an East Asian man and woman were playing badminton.

At one point my shiny new soccer ball rolled over to the moms and kids side of the gym despite the big blue curtain dividing the gym in two. A little toddler, I could tell she was a girl, chased down the ball. I recovered it from her. She started crying. Her mom picked her up. I took the ball over to her as her mom held her and let her touch it, and shook her hand. She quited down. The bespectacled lady conducting the moms and kids thing smiled at me. Then I took the ball back and walked away and she started crying again.

As I watched the moms and kids thing, I was thinking, moms and kids playing in a nice big gym using all the nice padded toys, must be very good for both the moms and the kids, considering how high-tech, high-pressure, high-speed, snobby, mean, and socially isolated our society can be.

The huge deficits run up by federal and state governments illustrate how our society is especially snobby and mean to its little toddlers, who are expected to, when they grow up, pay for things consumed by a previous generation.

This I find to be a serious sin that according to scripture puts the perpetrators in serious danger of being damned to hell; but nobody seems terrified of the sin like I am, even though they all tell the pollsters that they are 'Christians'.

Scripture says that it would be better for a person to be bound to weights and cast into the sea, compared to the effect of offending the little ones. Scripture says that we shall be rewarded even for giving a glass of cold water to one of the 'little ones'.

I figure living my life with an ethical quotation on my resume, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, results in me being inoffensive to the 'little ones'. But for some reason the quotation seems to have offended a significant fraction of the employers.

At one point the East Asian woman looked at me, and then looked at the tall East Asian man she was playing badmintion with, and said to the man, "you're just mean looking". What she meant was that compared to me he was 'just mean looking'.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Thursday

Nov 26

958 AM-1059 AM

Waltham Y

61 minutes minus 1 minute

break = 60 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 0/0 lbs body-wts.

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0 lbs on each wrist, 0 lbs on each ankle, 0 lbs on each thigh, total 0 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 0 lbs.

Today during the 60 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 15 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 17 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 32 in 60 minutes, one success every 1.9 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 15 in 60 minutes one success every 4.0 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 17 in 60 minutes one success every 3.5 minutes.

During the first 15 minutes my rate was: total one success every 1.7 minutes (5 almost to pattern, 4 exactly to pattern). Thus today for the first time we see the jinx of poor performance in the first 15 minutes overcome.

The six mile run in 26.5 lbs of weights on Sunday, and the 90 minutes of soccer sprint while juggling the ball drill in 26.5 lbs of weights on Monday, together were surprisingly tiring. The juggling the ball while wearing the weights, results in alot of quick unusual movements while wearing heavy weights. So I ended up tired for three days.

People using up parts of the gym during the practice:

A couple of tall East Indian men on one side of the gym. They looked like young men who are gifted in terms of personality and intelligence.

On the other side of the gym: the macho young Philipino ex-marine was leading a group of young adult white men and women, in some kind of routine that featured: runs while carrying dumbbells; runs without dumbells; kicking and hitting padding on the wall; using these big soft ball-like things of about three feet in diameter.

Today I was remembering how a few days ago the 'Spanish' high school age boy with the mustache, who had previously teased me re my calves not being big enough, looked like an ashamed mocker who had been shut up. My calves definitely are bigger and more muscular compared to the way they used to be due to the six mile runs in weights.

Looking in the mirror in the locker room at the Y, brought back memories of previously having looked in the same mirror about a year ago before skipping going to the Y for about a year and doing the six mile runs in weights.

I noticed how even compared to the way I looked when I was the most intensely into doing weightlifting, looking at my body's profile in the mirror, that is the side view, I now look significantly more robust in terms of distances such as front of thigh to rear of buttock, front of chest to rear of back, and front of bicep to rear of bicep. Such is what one would expect given the forwards and backwards movements of the limbs in walking and jogging, and taking into account how arm exercises are well known (bench-press) to effect the pectoral muscles. Also due to the six miles in weights, I look like in general the muscle/fat ratio has improved.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Friday

Nov 27

603 AM-731 AM

Waltham Y

88 minutes minus 6 minute

break = 82 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 3.5/6 lbs body-wts.

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.25 lbs on each wrist, 0.5 lbs on each ankle, 1 lbs on each thigh, total 3.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 6 lbs on weight-vest. Total 9.5 lbs.

Today during the 82 minutes I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 6 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 30 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: 36 in 82 minutes, one success every 2.3 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 6 in 82 minutes one success every 13.7 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 30 in 82 minutes one success every 2.7 minutes.

From about 7:03 AM on, coinciding with the phase during which my performance was best, the white adult basketball players were in the gym getting ready for their basketball game. The gym was empty before that. One of them, asked me to play basketball with them; I said I was too tired due to the soccer practice.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Saturday

November 28

Here is a poem dedicated to all the basketball players who have been or will be in the gym with me while I do my spectacular soccer tricks:

Sacred Rule of Voodoo Basketball

Sacred rule uh voodoo basketball,
Neva' praise some socca' puh'fo'mance
Praise and hono' is reserved fo'
nobody but da basketball Lo'ds
Fo' Saints Lebron James and Kobe Bryant
Saints Magic Johnson and Michael Jo'dan

     Saint Docto' Funkenstein gots made it known
     Sinners who praise punky soccer stunts
     Shall suffa' a righteous punishment
     Losin' all deir testosterone ho'mone

De Lo'd not some socca' playa' a man
De Lo'd big and tall, de Lo'd be grand
de Lo'd vanquisheth de Ku Klux Klan

Sunday

Nov 29

730 AM-837 AM; 108 PM-315 PM

Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 19 minutes

breaks = 71 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/0 lbs body-wts.

90 minutes minus 13 minutes

breaks = 77 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 7/10 lbs body-wts.

90 minutes of E3 at 10.5/0 lbs, and 90 minutes of E3 at 7/10 lbs

90 minutes E3 at 10.5/0 lbs

Today the first drill while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.75 lbs on each wrist, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 3 lbs on each thigh, total 10.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 10.5 lbs.

Today the first drill was the E3, in which the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet, while I sprint forwards with the ball.

During 71 minutes not counting break minutes running the E3 at 10.5/0 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 9 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 19 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate today was: E3 at 10.5/0, 28 in 71 minutes, one success every 2.5 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 9 in 71 minutes one success every 7.9 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 19 in 71 minutes one success every 3.7 minutes.

From the beginning at 730 AM to 750 AM, Jim Morelli, who until a few months ago was a WCVB-TV news announcer, was in the gym shooting baskets. He was the only other person in the gym. I talked to him prior to the start, found out that he was indeed Morelli, chatted a bit.

730 to 750 AM while Morelli was in the gym: I took 3 minutes of breaks to re-tighten the thigh-weights which kept coming loose at 3 lbs the max on each thigh; practiced for 17 minutes; succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 7 times in total in 17 minutes, one success every 2.4 minutes (first four successes imperfectly adhered to pattern; last three perfectly adhered to pattern).

Thus apparently my performance was approximately equal when the famous TV announcer was in the gym compared to when I was in the gym alone.

Some impressions of Morelli: clean-shaven, black haired, sleeveless white t-shirt like me, slightly on the short side, slightly heavy on the weight/height ratio; at first looked like very much like the typical white adult YMCA basketballer, except for his especially cunning and lively looking eyes; hard to believe he could look so much like a typical white adult Y basketballer; later in the locker room I noticed his face looked somewhat aristocratic; TV stations think they have that special face when they see him, but his face does not translate as perfectly into video as other faces (perfect translation meaning the face on TV looks just like the face in real life), so that specialness they see in him gets lost; polite and friendly; proud of his Atlanta Georgia origin; shoots basketball shots using a style similar to that of an untrained child, right foot moving forwards as right arm sort of throws the ball, but proud of his shooting skill; nice polite and humble with people like me; says "have a great day" in a loud voice alot.

The basketballers took over the entire gym for their full court basketball around 840 AM. My policy has become to spend 90 minutes on a given body-weights combo doing the E3 air dribble, this 90 minutes includes breaks. Thus I did another 23 minutes, including breaks, of the E3 at bodywts 10.5/0 from 108 PM to 131 PM. During this 23 minutes which included 4 mins of breaks, there were 8 successes, a rate of one success every 2.4 minutes.

In order to figure out how to best deal with the slipping thigh-weights problem, which caused most of the break minutes, I should: keep track of which thighweight is retightened to which height on the thigh at which time; keep track of where the thighweights are on the thigh at the time of each success; wash the thigh-weights in soap and water.

Fatigue and clumsiness due to lack of warmup time vary depending upon how many minutes into the practice I am and put together effect performance.

90 minutes E3 at 7/10 lbs

Today the second drill while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.50 lbs on each wrist, 1 lbs on each ankle, 2 lbs on each thigh, total 7 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 10 lbs on weight-vest. Total 17 lbs.

Again the drill was the E3, in which the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet, while I sprint forwards with the ball.

During the 77 minutes doing the E3 at 7/10 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 10 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 33 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 7/10 today was: 43 in 77 minutes, one success every 1.8 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 10 in 77 minutes one success every 7.7 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 33 in 77 minutes one success every 2.3 minutes.

First 15 minutes of the E3 at 7/10, the success rate was: 8 in 14 minutes, one every 1.75 minutes.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Tuesday

Dec 1

1145 AM-115 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 11 minutes

breaks = 79 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 0/6 lbs body-wts.

90 minutes E3 at 0/6 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0 lbs on each wrist, 0 lbs on each ankle, 0 lbs on each thigh, total 0 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 6 lbs on weight-vest. Total 6 lbs.

Again the drill was the E3, in which the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet, while I sprint or run forwards with the ball.

During the 79 minutes doing the E3 at 0/6 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 20 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 36 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 0/6 today was: 56 in 79 minutes, one success every 1.4 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 20 in 79 minutes one success every 3.95 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 36 in 79 minutes one success every 2.2 minutes.

The 1.4 minutes per success is a personal record (amongst practices since return to soccer November 12), breaking my old personal record of Nov 18 of 1.7 minutes per success, which was done not wearing any weights.

First 15 minutes of the E3 at 0/6, the success rate was: 6 in 15 minutes, one every 2.5 minutes. Possible reasons for frustratingly clumsy start: the past three practices have been with weights on the legs today there were no weights on the legs; yesterday I did the six mile jog-walk not wearing weights.

Past two or three workouts, and especially today, the number of runs that I classified as especially fast, especially tightly controlled, especially straight, or especially long has dramatically increased:

L= especially long

F= especially fast

T= especially tightly controlled

S= especially straight

1204 PM: LFST

1209: F

1210: FS

1218: LFS

1229: TS

1239: LFS

1240: LTS

1243: LFTS

1253: LTS

1254: LTS

100: LFTS

102: LT

103: LFTS

104: LFS

105: LTS

109: LTS

111: LTF

112: LST

115: LST

By way of comparison, November 18 when I set my personal record (amongst practices November 2009 and onwards) which I broke today for lowest number of minutes per success, I did not consider any of the succcesses to be especially fast, long, tightly controlled, or straight.

Today I went on a streak from 1233 to 1240 in which there were eight successes, about one per minute. This indicates that 38 minutes after the start of practice, may be the time at which for about ten minutes my skills are at their best. This knowledge could be taken advantage of for attempting especially difficult things.

I was considering doing another soccer workout today, but I decided to save my energy for a six mile run-walk; the idea being to alternate between a six mile run-walk and the soccer juggling (http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm). Last night, after doing the six mile jog walk during the day (not wearing any weights), for the first time in a long time I had pleasant and enjoyable dreams. I begin to feel lost without such dreams. I value dreams in which I feel an attraction for a woman that is different from and transcends sexual attraction.

The dream was about a real life woman I'll call Knightflower. In the dream:

I saw a woman in dim light who I thought was Knightflower, but who was shorter than Knightflower. Then I saw this woman in another kind of light, and realized that she was a light-skinnned black, not Knightflower, who is white. Then I saw Knightflower with her body parallel to the ground about ten yards away. She was smiling and radiated a white light. Her legs were a dark brown, even darker than I get after being out in the sun. Her legs looked as if they had been built up through doing the exercises I have been doing. Her calves were disproportionately huge. I felt something spirited, above and beyond the sexual for her.

Recently heard a tall black at the Y, Black Buddha, sort of scoffing at Knightflower and Waltham. Tall blacks in my neighborhood seem to think I am too good for Waltham women. As for me I do not enjoy being snobs with them simply because they are from Waltham not from some richer town like Weston.

Last five minutes of the practice today, three young adult type males and an older guy came into the gym. They saw me do some great runs and said nothing, which annoyed me. One of them was a young white adult wearing glasses, a slight mustache/beard, a winter coat, and long pants, even though the temp in the gym was about 75 degrees. Another was a black teenager, wearing a short sleeve shirt over a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants. Another was a short white male of approx teenage age, wearing a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt and sweatpants. The adult with them was an older white man wearing glasses, gray hair in a pony-tail, who was sitting on the bleachers.

I was thinking, they are wearing all these warm clothes in a warm gym, they say nothing regarding the great things I do right in front of them.

I walked past the gray haired man to the water fountain and back. I wanted to get a better look at the gray haired man who had'nt praised me. As I passed in front of him the gray haired man stood up, and said to me, "that's pretty good what you are doing", and shook my hand. His name was Mike. I told him I was David Hobbs. He said the young men he was with were "mildly disabled" and that he worked with them. He said he was from the 'Beaverbrook Step' organization in Watertown.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Thursday

Dec 3

828 PM-950 PM; Waltham Y

82 minutes minus 9 minutes

breaks = 73 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 0/10 lbs body-wts.

82 minutes E3 at 0/10 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0 lbs on each wrist, 0 lbs on each ankle, 0 lbs on each thigh, total 0 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 10 lbs on weight-vest. Total 10 lbs.

During the 73 minutes doing the E3 at 0/10 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 17 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 35 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 0/10 today was: 52 in 73 minutes, one success every 1.4 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 17 in 73 minutes one success every 4.3 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 35 in 73 minutes one success every 2.1 minutes.

The 1.4 minutes per success equals my personal record (amongst practices since return to soccer November 12), set day before yesterday, Dec 1, despite the fact that I wore 10 lbs today, and only 6 lbs day before yesterday.

The first three attempts were all successes. First 15 minutes of the E3 at 0/6, the success rate was: 10 in 15 minutes, one every 1.5 minutes, the best first 15 minutes ever.

Runs that were especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled were much less common compared to Dec 1 however.

The best streak of the day today was from 936 PM to 941 PM, during this time there were six successes. This streak started 58 minutes after the start of the practice.

During the practice today there were a few white men and boys and an Asian Indian young man shooting baskets in the gym, all apparently oblivious to what I was doing; except the boys were helpful in terms of retrieving balls for me to a point that exceeded the call of duty.

It should be noted that during these practices: it is all me alone with one ball, I retrieve the ball at the end of the attempt and walk back to the start line; I have to pause to record and note the score and the events.

Often times out there, in my soccer shoes, on the wood basketball court, I feel like I am on ice, the way I slip and slide over the wood floor in my soccer shoes. Yet I still succeed in doing something very difficult, even while wearing weights on my body.

During the practice today I was trying to prevent anger inside me re the events of the day from impairing my performance.

Before the practice started, I felt so tired that I was sure that the practice would be sub-par, but it turned out to be a good one. Often the feeling that I am too tired to perform well, or too tired too exercise without becoming extremely fatigued, turns out to be illusory.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Friday

December 4

Night and Day Amongst the Witches Dream

I had a dream with soccer content last night; I guess I have forgotten some of the details and the exact order of events or scenes in the dream. The soccer content in the dream is in boldface:

Scene 1

I was in a big dark hall with a high ceiling, on a long balcony on the second or third floor, from which we could see the floor of the first floor. The hall was sort of like a big convention hall or a parking garage. With me were about 30-40 of the best soccer players in the United States. I was one of them. The players with me were all dressed in slick looking dark-colored but shiny Nike Adidas type sweat-pants and sweatshirts. By way of contrast, I was dressed more like your typical gym-rat; I wore a red t-shirt, my sweatshirt was not shiny. Looked like we were lined up in three or four rows for some photo, with me in the middle of the rear highest row. Everbody was sort of freaked out over the fact that someone like me, who was not in organized soccer, would be put into this group of the best players in the country. The others were all from high school soccer, college soccer, and pro soccer. I explained to them that in such situations there is always that two percent from an unusual background.

Scene 2

I was in another big dark hall with a high ceiling. There were half a dozen female witches, seemed they were American white females and American black females, their average height was about five feet seven inches. They were liberal democrats. Their gums, the area of the mouth holding the teeth, were inhumanly large and dark and their teeth were weird looking. These witches never said anything but always laughed a loud mean evil sounding laugh; their laugh always sounded like it was echoing through a large and empty hall; this is what all the witches I encountered in the dream were like. They were very scary. Near them were some tall white republican college-jock type white males who were not witches, who were afraid of the witches. A couple of the white college-jock types were giving me a hard time. One of them walked near me, almost like a bully, saying condescending sarcastic type stuff about me. Seemed to me foolish that he would behave like that.

Scene 3

I was in another big dark hall with a high ceiling. Inside on the ground floor, there was a parking space in a parking lot that was covered in water. A white SUV drove up to the parking space, and then into the parking space. The SUV sank into the water, and about three white college-jock type guys in the SUV drowned. I walked to the edge of the water and recited some passages from the Bible, and the guys who had drowned came back to life.

Scene 4

I was so scared of the witches that I was unable to speak normally; when I would address the witches, it would sound like some disabled or retarded person who can barely speak. But I more than any of the other non-witch guys, had been having success in putting down the witches; I was the boldest one with the witches. I spoke in a retarded sounding but loud strong, commanding voice to the witches, addressing them one by one, quoting passages from the Bible relevant to witchcraft; this would prevent the witches from getting closer than a couple of yards away from me and bring them to a halt.

Scene 5

Me and a couple of white college-jock type guys were outdoors in the daylight, outside a walled off area that looked like a university or corporate campus. The witches were outside also, gradually moving in our direction, we gradually retreated before them. I said to the white college-jock types I was with, that instead of gradually retreating, we should run away from them, run until noon of the next day, and then stop and rest. They agreed. We ran for a while, then the two white college jock type guys I was with decided to make a u-turn, back in the direction of the witches but at an angle such that they would miss them, slightly up the low green hill the university or corporation was located on. I was trying to decide whether to follow the two white college-jock type guys, or continue in the direction we had been going which was away from the witches. I decided to follow them.

Scene 6

I was on an outdoors sidewalk, seemed it was daylight on a cloudy day. The witches were getting up close to me, and I was getting close to them. There was a black female witch just a couple of yards away from me. I repeated to her the scripture, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", in a commanding but retarded sounding voice or way of talking. Gradually in a few seconds right before my eyes, her face changed from witch-face with huge dark gums and weird teeth, almost back into a normal face.

Scene 7

I was in a room in yet another big dark hall with a high ceiling, on the second or third floor. There were several floors in the hall but from all of them, from a balcony, you could see the ground on the first floor in the interior space. I was speaking with a very tall white brown haired young adult female friend who was not a witch. I thought, now I am safe, the witches will not bother us. But through a doorway near us, a witch who looked like the non-witch friend I was talking to, came at us. I turned to the witch. This time instead of quoting scriptures, I just repeated statements like, "Woman, go away. Woman, go back". The witch began to retreat and dematerialized into a mist-like substance.

Sunday

Dec 6

210 PM-340 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 23 minutes

breaks = 67 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 7/0 lbs body-wts.

67 minutes E3 at 7/0 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.5 lbs on each wrist, 1 lbs on each ankle, 2 lbs on each thigh, total 7 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 7 lbs.

During the 67 minutes doing the E3 at 7/0 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 23 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 31 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 7/0 today was: 54 in 67 minutes, one success every 1.2 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 23 in 67 minutes one success every 2.9 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 31 in 67 minutes one success every 2.2 minutes.

The 1.2 minutes per success is a new personal record (amongst practices since return to soccer November 12), despite the 3.5 pounds in weights on each leg.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 7/0, the success rate was: 10 in 11 minutes, one every 1.1 minutes, the best first 15 minutes ever since Nov 12.

I've taken to recording it when a run is especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled.

If you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recordeded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 56 points in terms of runs being especially long, fast, tightly controled, or straight. My second best day since Nov 12 along this line.

The best streak of the day today was from 251 PM to 256 PM, during this time there were 7 successes. This streak started 41 minutes after the start of the practice.

During the practice today there were a few white men and boys shooting baskets in the gym, again all apparently oblivious to what I was doing. There was a tallish bespectacled clean shaven dark haired white man and his bespectacled son. The dad was wearing wrist-weights while shooting baskets.

There was alot of thighweights slipping off today. Maybe the outside as well as the inside of the thigh-weights should be washed.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Friday

Dec 11

515 PM-630 PM; Waltham Y

74 minutes minus 10 minutes

breaks = 64 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 0/16 lbs body-wts.

64 minutes E3 at 0/16 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0 lbs on each wrist, 0 lbs on each ankle, 0 lbs on each thigh, total 0 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 16 lbs on weight-vest. Total 16 lbs.

During the 64 minutes doing the E3 at 0/16 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 32 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 20 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 0/16 today was: 52 in 64 minutes, one success every 1.2 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 32 in 64 minutes one success every 2.0 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 20 in 64 minutes one success every 3.2 minutes.

The 1.2 minutes per success is equal to my personal record (amongst practices since return to soccer November 12), despite the 16 pounds in weights in the weight-vest.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 0/16, the success rate was: 11 in 14 minutes, one every 1.3 minutes.

As I said previously, I've taken to recording it when a run is especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled. If you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recordeded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 49 points in terms of runs being especially long, fast, tightly controlled, or straight. This despite the 16 lbs in the weightvest.

The best streak of the day today was from 602 PM to 607 PM, during this time there were 7 successes. This streak started 47 minutes after the start of the practice.

Note: my current scoring method rates 7 successes in 5 minutes above 6 in 4 minutes.

Towards the end of the practice today a few white and black teenagers entered the gym for teen night; again they were all apparently oblivious to what I was doing.

Before the practice I explored, using my car, the athletic facilities open to alumni such as myself at Harvard University.

First, I found that at the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center, you cannot use the place for $10 per day (as had been told me by the Harvard office dealing with such stuff), you have to have the semester long pass. Also contrary to what had been told me previously by the Harvard office that is supposed to be in charge of such stuff, you have to have some ID card proving that you are an alumni to use the place. The basketball court at this place is mostly gray in terms of floor and walls, and it was totally empty. In the weight room there was just one person.

Second, I visited the Harvard Law School's Hemenway Gym. At this place also, to use the gym, you have to have, (contrary to what the Harvard office in charge of such stuff told me), an ID proving you are an alumni. There were about three people, a woman and two young men, behind the front desk at this place. There was plenty of parking near the place. The exercise equipment room was filled with lots of people. The white young men behind the desk, with their trimmed beards and mustaches, I found to be likable; they seemed compatible with one such as myself. The place seemed to be filled with people who relatively speaking have enormous amounts of energy; at the same time I found this explosive energy to be somewhat overbearing and scary. There was plenty of parking near Hemenway at $2 for two hours.

Next I visited the Malkin Athletic facility on Holyoke street. This place seemed more gloomy than Hemenway. Yet again, contrary to what the Harvard office in charge of such stuff had told me, I found out that I have to have some kind of Harvard ID to use the place. There was parking near Malkin but it was for one hour at $1 per hour only.

When I left Malkin to go back to my car, there was this shortish, white guy with a reddish beard, a Harvard parking-meter-checker type guy, looking at my car. I told him that: I had been in the parking space for only a couple of minutes; I had been trying to get change for a dollar in Malkin. For some inexplicable reason he told me that I had been rude to him although this was all that I had said. Seems any time you get any emotion in your voice, the townies freak out and think you are rude. He seemed somewhat feminine to me. In a serious way, he told me that the Dallas Cowboys winter coat that I was wearing was inappropriate for the Boston area (he was serious about this, not joking). I was amazed that he had accused me of being rude. But he did not give me a ticket.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Sunday

Dec 13

201 PM-331 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 17 minutes

breaks = 73 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 3.5/0 lbs body-wts.

73 minutes E3 at 3.5/0 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.25 lbs on each wrist, 0.50 lbs on each ankle, 1 lb on each thigh, total 3.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 3.5 lbs.

During the 73 minutes doing the E3 at 3.5/0 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 23 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 34 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 3.5/0 today was: 57 in 73 minutes, one success every 1.3 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 23 in 73 minutes one success every 3.2 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 34 in 73 minutes one success every 2.1 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 3.5/0, the success rate was: 5 in 8 minutes, one every 1.6 minutes.

The best streak of the day today was from 254 PM to 301 PM, during this time there were 8 successes. This streak started 53 minutes after the start of the practice.

Towards the end of the practice today a few white and black teenagers entered the gym for teen night; again they were all apparently oblivious to what I was doing.

Today after practice as I was leaving the gym passing by the front desk, the young adult white female behind the desk said, "he looks like a saint". I know she was talking about me.

And the practice before this, as I entered the gym, this asian Indian looking guy in the front hallway said, "I think he's smarter than us" (again, he was talking about me).

Then after the practice, when I was at Whole Foods picking up some fruit juices, I heard a loud strong voice aimed in my direction say "this is all betraying the face of God" (the exact words may have been slightly different but such was the meaning). The voice was talking about me. I know when these comments are about me and when they are not. I can read people's lips and facial expression when they are talking about me, but not when they are talking about something else.

Funny, after the practice before I went to Whole Foods, I was looking at the mirror. I notice stuff about myself when I look in the mirror after looking at other faces more than I do when I see myself in the mirror without having recently seen other people's faces. I noticed that my face is: unusually large; unusually smart looking; and unusually nice looking.

Also a few years ago, when I was half asleep and half awake, while I was in a kind of trance, I said to these people "It is easier for camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. There's something wrong with you! You should be rolling out the red carpet for me!". After I said this, my soul spiritually entered into an exalted graced spirited heavenly state, which felt like a pleasing combination of stress and relaxation, and the people I scolded started chasing me but could not catch me.

After the practice, I did the six mile run in the gym (http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm), only about 15 minutes after ending the soccer workout.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Monday

Dec 14

540 PM-635 PM; Waltham Y

55 minutes minus 20 minutes

breaks = 35 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/16 lbs body-wts.

35 minutes E3 at 10.5/16 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.75 lbs on each wrist, 1.50 lbs on each ankle, 3 lb on each thigh, total 10.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 16 lbs on weight-vest. Total 26.5 lbs. This is the heaviest weight combination nowadays for me.

During the 35 minutes doing the E3 at 10.5/16 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 5 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 11 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 10.5/16 today was: 16 in 35 minutes, one success every 2.2 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 5 in 35 minutes one success every 7.0 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 11 in 35 minutes one success every 3.2 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 10.5/16, the success rate was: 3 in 10 minutes, one every 3.3 minutes.

By way of contrast, Nov 23, last time I did the E3 drill in this level of weights, there was only one success every 5.3 minutes.

The best streaks of the day today were two successes in two minutes starting at 545, 603, and 608.

Thinking about the adults at the gym today, yet again it seemed to me that to a significant extent, the white adult males in this area, remind me of amateur actors portraying hale and hearty goodfellows in an amateur soap opera production (as opposed to persons just naturally being themselves).

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Tuesday

Dec 15

208 PM-243 PM; Waltham Y

35 minutes minus 14 minutes

breaks = 21 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/16 lbs body-wts.

21 minutes E3 at 10.5/16 lbs

The tradition that I have developed has been to spend 90 minutes including breaks doing the E3 at each weight level. Yesterday I was only able to do 55 minutes including breaks at 10.5/16. So today I did another 35 minutes including breaks at 10.5/16.

Thus again today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.75 lbs on each wrist, 1.50 lbs on each ankle, 3 lb on each thigh, total 10.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 16 lbs on weight-vest. Total 26.5 lbs, which is the heaviest weight combination nowadays for me.

In the E3, the ball, while being kept off the ground but close to the body, is touched every three paces with alternating left and right feet, while I sprint or run forwards with the ball.

During the 21 minutes doing the E3 at 10.5/16 lbs bodyweights, today I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 6 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 5 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 10.5/16 today was: 11 in 21 minutes, one success every 1.9 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 6 in 21 minutes one success every 3.5 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 5 in 21 minutes one success every 4.2 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 10.5/16, the success rate today was: 2 in 9 minutes, one every 4.5 minutes.

The best streaks of the day today were two successes in two minutes starting at 222, 226, 236, and 241.

Summary of the two days doing the E3 at 10.5/16

90 minutes minus 34 minutes breaks = 56 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/16 lbs body-wts.

This means that the time taken for breaks, mostly to retighten or re-attach thighweights that have come loose, is at 3 lbs on each thigh-weight, now up to 38% of the total practice time (I simply assume that retightening or reattaching thighweights takes 1 minute for one thighweight and 2 minutes for 2 thighweights). By way of contrast, Nov 23, doing the E3 at 10.5/16, only 12% of the total practice time was used for breaks. The increase in percent of time used for breaks could be due to: wear and tear on thighweights; skin oils etc getting on the thighweights; faster movements of the legs during the workout.

So after the practice I bought a couple of things I hope will reduce the amount of time spent taking a break to fiddle around with loose thigh-weights: CVS Maximum Support Self-grip Athletic Tape/Bandage 3" roll; and, from Walgreens, Singer size 3 Quilting and Craft Safety Pins.

Comparing Walgreens athletic bandage to CVS: I found the Walgreens to be more expensive per square inch of bandage (even though usually CVS seems to be more expensive); the text on the CVS packaging seemed to be more intelligent; the CVS package said the bandage provided maximum support, even more than the normal CVS bandage, whereas Walgreens did not have two types, one normal and the other max support. Neither CVS nor Walgreens had clips or pins designed especially for such bandages that could be purchased independently without also buying a bandage.

The idea is to wrap the bandage around the thighweight to reduce the amount of time spent fiddling with loose thigh-weights. The safety pins are for extra tightness even though the bandage is supposed to be a self adhering type that does not require clips or pins.

Another possibility would be to purchase another set of thighweights, preferably a different model. The manufacturer of the thighweights I am now using, seems to have, inexplicably, attempted to save money by minimizing the amount of velcro used in the sections where the thighweight fabric attaches to itself, which to me makes about as much sense as a protein-drink manufacturer minimizing the amount of protein in the drink. The strip of cloth that the velcro section attaches to in order to fasten the thighweights in place, becomes narrow due to being pulled tightly, the result being that the amount of space available for the velcro to attach to is reduced.

Over the two days, during the 56 minutes doing the E3 at 10.5/16 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 11 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 16 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus simplistically speaking, the success rate on the E3 at 10.5/16 over the two days combined was: 27 in 56 minutes, one success every 2.1 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 11 in 56 minutes one success every 5.1 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 16 in 56 minutes one success every 3.5 minutes.

Problem with the simplistic approach is that since the practice was split into two days, there existed the unusual case of having to warm up twice (during the warming up time, which is counted, the success rate is lower). Therefore, a more refined count would exclude the first 15 minutes of the second day.

Excluding the first 15 minutes of the second day: The success rate on the E3 at 10.5/16 over the two days combined was: 25 in 47 minutes, one success every 1.9 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 9 in 47 minutes one success every 5.2 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 16 in 47 minutes one success every 2.9 minutes.

By way of contrast, Nov 23, last time I did the E3 drill in this level of weights, there was in total, only one success every 5.3 minutes.

Over the two days doing the E3 at 10.5/16-- runs recorded as especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled: if you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recorded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 58 points in terms of runs being especially long, fast, tightly controlled, or straight.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Friday

Dec 18

Version 1 1:56 AM 12/18/2009

Dream about an impressively spiritual and musical soccer-playing group of Asian Indians in Michigan

I had this dream about three days ago. In the dream I was able to fly. I flew around the area where I went to summer camp as a boy, in Michigan. In this area there was a gathering of Asian Indians on some green grass by a river. It was very picturesque. There were about eleven Indian young men or teenagers, in crimson colored soccer uniforms there, standing together as if for a photo. Sitar and tabla music created by people in the gathering were playing beautiful peaceful, relaxing music. And they were singing. The instruments and the vocals together sounded wonderful. Best I can remember, the words they were singing were:

Ya ke sangha

Sangha dev sichan

I may not have remembered the words perfectly, my memory might be a little off. Having studied the matter on the internet, my best estimate as to the meaning of the words as of now is:

Union of souls

God irrigates the union of souls

I had a lot of trouble with the word 'ke'. There were alot of confusing statements on the internet re the meaning of ke. Then my memory of the Hindi language, which I spoke fluently as a child, somehow revived, and I realized that the best translation of 'ke', pronounced kay, is apostrophe s, or 's; as in, David's, or the soul's. This correct translation was not supplied by any of the internet wiseguys.

Note: if I come up with a better translation of the words I heard sung, I will update this entry.

Thursday

Dec 17

736 PM-906 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 21 minutes

breaks = 69 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 0/0 lbs body-wts.

69 minutes E3 at 0/0 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0 lbs on each wrist, 0 lbs on each ankle, 0 lb on each thigh, total 0 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 0 lbs.

During the 69 minutes doing the E3 at 0/0 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 33 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 44 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 0/0 today was: 77 in 69 minutes, one success every 0.90 minutes, a new personal record; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 34 in 69 minutes one success every 2.1 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 44 in 69 minutes one success every 1.6 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 0/0 today, the success rate was: 15 in 14 minutes, one every 0.93 minutes, a new personal record. The first three attempts of the day were all successes.

By way of contrast, Nov 26, last time I did the E3 drill in this 0/0 level of weights, there was one success every 1.9 minutes.

The best streak of the day today started at 836 PM, 60 minutes after the start of the practice, and continued for 30 minutes until 906 PM the end of the practice. During this 30 minutes, 24 minutes not counting breaks, there were 30 successes, one success every 0.80 minutes, a new personal record for such streaks.

During the first thirty minutes or so of the practice there were three adult white males and one adult East Asian male playing basketball right next to me. Since I wear earplugs with a noise reduction rating of 30 decibels plugged tightly into my ear, I could barely hear what they were saying. One of them, an overweight white guy wearing glasses said, 'he's a star'. Another said, 'it's getting automatic', meaning that I was getting near 100% in terms of the percentage of attempts that resulted in me successfully running across the width of the gym while juggling the ball. I knew the comments were regarding my performance.

Important note re training tactics: in contradiction of the claims of 'experts', my skill level has not been impaired by the use of the body-weights

In my Nov 9 entry of my six-mile runs conditioning log at http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm, I noted how me introducing the innovation of changing the bodyweight levels and bodyweight combinations on a daily basis, had resulted in quick dramatic improvement in terms of my length of stride.

I then proceeded to introduce into my soccer training, the innovation of changing the body-weight levels and wieght combinations on a daily basis with regards to drills such as the E3 soccer drill described in this entry. I can feel how this has improved and will improve my speed, quickness, endurance and strength. What might surprise some, is that it has not impaired my skills with the ball.

On the internet you can find many 'experts', who claim that practicing skilled precise movements used in sports, such as throwing a ball, while wearing weights, or while using a heavier than usual ball, will impair performance, because the weights change the style that is used when performing the skilled precise body movement. The 'experts' have even come up with a pedantic sounding name for the practice of wearing weights or using an unusually heavy ball while performing such precise difficult skilled movements. However, as you can see looking at the records on this page, my use of weights while performing the skilled precise soccer ball juggling while running E3 trick, has not impaired my performance or my rate of improvement.

Why the contradiction between my experience and the claims of the 'experts'?

The foremost explanation in my mind is, that I have not been using just one level of weights, or just one combination of weight levels. I have been using varied weights and combinations as described in the following table:

Weighted Runs Schedule


Day	total weight on limbs lbs	total weight on torso lbs	heaviness rating (HR)
1	10.5	16	9
2	0	0	0
3	3.5	6	5
4	10.5	0	4
5	7	10	8
6	0	6	1
7	0	10	6
8	7	0	3
9	0	16	7
10	3.5	0	2

Using the same weight distribution every day, would result in me becoming accustomed to that weight distribution. I estimate that the daily variation in the weights, has prevented me from becoming accustomed to any given weight level, and that this has protected me from performance impairment caused by the weights changing the style I use to do things.

Thus this daily variation in weights has improved my speed, quickness, endurance, and strength, without impairing my skill level.

Another explanation could be that I am simply so talented and skilled that training practices that impair skills of others do not impair my skills.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Saturday

12/19

A couple of Dreams with Soccer Content that I had Thursday night after the Thursday 12/17 Workout; being called 'the world's best player'

The first dream:

Scene 1

I was in some kind of chariot type thing, which was being pulled by animal connected to the chariot by white colored reins. The animal that was pulling the chariot was my annoying brother. The reins connected to the animal got loose and I got tangled up in them, a dangerous thing.

Scene 2

I was at some kind of outdoors gathering either early in the morning or late in the evening, the light was dim. The gathering was a kind of financial exchange, where people would bring mud they had dug up to this black haired white woman; the black haired white woman would test the mud for valuable mineral content and pay for the mud based on the mineral content. My mud was worth little.

Scene 3

The coach of the British national soccer team said regarding me, 'he's a good player'. But I could not see this coach with my eyes.

Scene 4

I was being chased down this road by this black wild boar ( a wild pig), that was about 1.5 feet long and about 1 foot high, and that had horns on its head. The wild boar was catching up to me, so I just woke up, and realized with relief that it was just a dream.

The second dream

I was a player on the US national soccer team. We played a game against Sweden. We tied Sweden; as a result we were unable to advance to the next round in Mexico City. During the game I outmuscled the Swedes for loose balls, the Swedish players were lighter than me (last I checked I weighed 190 lbs at 5'10.5" height). But I did not have much success during this particular game for some reason, perhaps because I was double-teamed by the Swedes. Nevertheless, this Swedish player, who was white, short, and had black hair and a black beard, said to me, 'You're the best full-time player in the world'. I guess even the best players have days on which they are not spectacularly impressive and mature people understand this. After the game I was hanging out in Sweden. I saw these little groups of Swedish young adult white females. They seemed fairly happy but maybe a little melancholy, they seemed to all have a good number of friends. I was in a long hall filled with people with a Swedish friend, a young white man who was about six feet two inches tall and who had brown hair and a brown beard. There was a stabbing somewhere near the front of the hall. Nobody could intervene because nobody had a gun. My Swedish friend and I decided not to be heroes; w raced for an exit at the back of the hall. It all sort of reminds me of the Swedish rock group named 'Abba' which had a few hits back in the seventies (http://www.rhapsody.com/abba).

General Notes

USA is now ranked #14 in the world; Sweden is ranked #42; England is ranked #9 (http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html).

I find it interesting how the dreams with soccer content change as my performance during the practices improves. First (Dec 4 entry), there was the dream about being on the US team; then (this entry Dec 19) night there were dreams about the coach of the British team saying I was a good player and the Swedish player saying I was the best player in the world.

Yesterday looking in the car mirror, I noticed that my physical appearance has changed in that my eyes have become shiny looking.

Saturday

Dec 19

608 PM- 738 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 18 minutes

breaks = 72 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 3.5/6 lbs body-wts.

72 minutes E3 at 3.5/6 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.25 lbs on each wrist, 0.5 lbs on each ankle, 1 lb on each thigh, total 3.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 6 lbs on weight-vest. Total 9.5 lbs.

During the 72 minutes doing the E3 at 3.5/6 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 15 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 40 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 3.5/6 today was: 55 in 72 minutes, one success every 1.3 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 15 in 72 minutes one success every 4.8 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 40 in 72 minutes one success every 1.8 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 3.5/6 today, the success rate was: 10 in 14 minutes, one every 1.4 minutes.

By way of contrast, Nov 27, the last time I did the E3 drill in this 3.5/6 level of weights, which was also the first time I did the E3 at 3.5/6, there was in total, one success every 2.3 minutes.

Runs recorded as especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled: if you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recorded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 97 points. A run is recorded as especially fast etc if it is especially fast compared to what has usually been the case at the given weights level. This is a very approximate measure.

The best streak of the day today started at 656 PM, 48 minutes after the start of the practice, and continued for 5 minutes until 701 PM the end of the practice. During these 5 minutes, there were 7 successes, one success every 0.7 minutes.

After the workout, I weighed myself on the scale, I was at 194 lbs without clothes (at height of 5' 10.5"). My stomach at its farthest point forward, stuck out about one inch in front of my chest at its farthest point forwards. This I think, was due to the way that my torso curves, as opposed to the presence of fat. When I stand the fat layer on my stomach seems to be at about a quarter of an inch thick.

Sunday November 1, 7 weeks ago, I weighed 194 lbs in shoes shorts shirts and sweatshirt, which I estimated to be the equivalent of 189 lbs naked. Thus I now estimate that I am gaining weight at the rate of 0.7 lbs per week. This despite the following facts: over the past seven weeks, I have been working out doing the six miles run-walk and the soccer workouts; my diet has consisted basically of snacks like trailmix and mixed nuts, plus one high-protein meal after the workouts, plus coffee with half and half and sucanat, plus plenty of fruit juices; the one 'big' meal has been I think lower in calories compared to your average American dinner.

Gaining weight at 0.7 lbs per week like would put me at 230 lbs without being fat, in one year. 230 lbs would be (best I can recall from my study of bodybuilding) just about right if I was into being a competitive Schwarzenegger type body-builder, showing off my muscles on stage. But 230 lbs would be too heavy for soccer, too heavy even for football for someone my height.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

Wednesday

Dec 23

515 PM- 645 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 23 minutes

breaks = 67 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 10.5/0 lbs body-wts.

67 minutes E3 at 10.5/0 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.75 lbs on each wrist, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 3 lbs on each thigh, total 10.5 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 0 lbs on weight-vest. Total 10.5 lbs.

During the 67 minutes doing the E3 at 10.5/0 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 13 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 43 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 10.5/0 today was: 56 in 67 minutes, one success every 1.2 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 13 in 67 minutes one success every 5.2 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 43 in 67 minutes one success every 1.6 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 10.5/0 today, the success rate was: 9 in 13 minutes, one every 1.4 minutes.

By way of contrast, Nov 29, the last time I did the E3 drill in this 10.5/0 level of weights, which was also the first time I did the E3 at 10.5/0, there was in total, one success every 2.5 minutes.

Runs recorded as especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled: if you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recorded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 118 points. A run is recorded as especially fast etc if it is especially fast compared to what has usually been the case at the given weights level. This is a very approximate measure. Today there were 12 runs recorded as having all four of the following characteristics: long, fast, tightly controlled and straight.

The best streak of the day today started at 603 PM, 48 minutes after the start of the practice (previous practice the best streak of the day started 48 minutes after the start of the practice also), and continued for 41 minutes until 644 PM the end of the practice. During these 33 minutes (not counting breaks), there were 34 successes, one success every 1.0 minutes.

During the practice I felt some pain in the arches of my feet and in the outside front area of the calves/ankles, this probably due to the heavy weights worn while running on the treadmill the previous day (http://coolname001.angelfire.com/6mileruninbodywts.htm); however, I was still able to produce a performance that was excellent given the heavy weights I was wearing on my thighs and ankles. Perhaps the fact that the previous day while running on the treadmill, the weights on my limbs were the same as today, helped the performance.

Here is a coincidence that I figure must mean something: For the first time in several years, on December 21, I looked for a list of the top eleven players in the world. As it turns out, on the exact same day I did this, Monday December 21 2009, the FIFA World XI was announced by FIFA! ( http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/17445/four-spaniards-in-fifas-world-eleven-2009). The players I must excel if I am to be the top player in the world then are, according to FIFA:

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas (ESP/Real Madrid).
Defenders: Dani Alvés (BRA/Barcelona), John Terry (ENG/Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (SER/Manchester United), Patrice Evra (FRA/Manchester United).
Midfielders:

Xavi Hernández (ESP/Barcelona),

Andrés Iniesta (ESP/Barcelona),

Steven Gerrard (ENG/Liverpool).
Forwards:

Lionel Messi (ARG/Barcelona),

Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid),

Fernando Torres (ESP/Liverpool).

I'm not really sure if I would fit in at midfield or forward. Sometimes I think that these aerial runs, sprints of about 15 yards with the ball kept off the ground, would be best accomplished from midfield. I read that Cristiano Ronaldo this year has been having success as an offensive minded midfielder. Conceivably success could even be obtained via aerial raids from a defender position, so long as there was someone to drop back and cover the hole created by the defender going on the offensive.

Before practice, I was muttering to myself in the locker room. A short overweight white guy who spoke in an accent or way of talking that seemed girlish and Italian-sounding, asked me what I was saying. I told him that I was thinking about how this young man had looked at the people behind the front desk at the Y and said, "but your hiring practices!'. He disputed that the young man was being critical of the Y hiring practices although it had been obvious to me that this is what he had been doing.

I explained to him, that I felt that there was a problem with the hiring practices in the Boston area; I said something like: "to a significant extent, the Boston personnel officer attitude is: the less intelligent the applicant is, the better; the less beautiful the applicant is, the better; the less Christian the applicant is, the better; the more female the applicant is, the better; the more black the applicant is, the better; the more gay the applicant is, the better".

His response was, that in the mornings, a time when I am rarely at the Y, there are alot of good looking females to be seen working at the Y. He was of the opinion that this disproved my theory re Boston area personnel officers.

I responded to him, that it did not disprove my theory, because the large number of female employees was evidence that my theory re discrimination against males/masculinity existed.

I told him that in any case, my theory was a generalization, and that as a generalization it could be valid even if it was not backed by the evidence in every conceivable situation.

He responded that that is the problem with generalizations.

I was thinking, this guy is saying that generalizations are useless simply because every situation does not produce evidence validating the generalization, which seemed to me like saying that there is something wrong with saying you should not go out into freezing weather without warm clothing simply because there are some freaks who do not need warm clothing in freezing weather.

As he walked off, he mumbled in a barely audible voice, 'so you think you're good looking'. And I was thinking, his attitude is that if you say that they are reversing things and favoring the less good looking over the more good looking, that means that you are conceited about your looks, which leads to the idea that nobody has a right to say that they are favoring the less beautiful over the more beautiful. By way of contrast, scripture exhorts us to disapprove of the envy of envious persons.

Anyway, the point regarding the garbage hiring practices is basically not, how good looking I am, but rather, that undoubtedly, compared to the average man, alot of beautiful women have expressed a marital interest in me.

Which leads to the point that if you rate the beautiful and the less beautiful as equals aside from looks, the beautiful come out ahead. Beauty is something that is valued and enjoyed by human beings, such is human nature.

If things keep going at this rate, seems like in 20 years everyone in the Boston area will be ugly and gay.

Before the practice I was talking with the Guatemalan guy, they say his name is 'Byro'. 'Byro had a few days earlier told me that he works for Keltron as the head of the machine shop, that he had started there as a sweeper, and that Keltron had trained him at some German school in Connecticutt called 'Thrufp'. Maybe the proper spelling is Birro or Biros or something like that.

Anyway, Byro had previously been impressed by me, because he has a tattoo of the American and the Guatemalan flags on his back, and I was the only one who he had ever met, who knew that the non-American flag tattooed on his back is the flag of Guatemala.

I told Byro about how I had a dream about how I was the world's best soccer player (see 12/19 entry this page); I told him about how the 'Spanish boys' watching me practice put me in the same class as greats like Maradona and Pele (Jose the Brazilian janitor at the Y has instructed me that that the boys I used to call 'Hispanics', should be referred to as 'Spanish boys').

In response Byro laughed and laughed, and thanked me for giving him something to laugh about. Then later while I was on the treadmill, he looked at me and laughed, and said "Come on Pele! I am not feeling very happy this Christmas, but you have made me happy, by giving me something to laugh about!"

Then after my track workout, in the locker room, I confronted 'Byro' re his scorn ('they laughed him to scorn'). He had thought that I had compared myself to Pele, whereas actually I had said that the 'Spanish boys' had compared me to Pele. I told him that I had read the Proverbs in the Bible and that a man should not praise himself but that rather a man should let others praise him. I explained to him exactly what I do with the ball that is so impressive, I told him how fast I was. I told him how Pele was able to do the things I do but while running at a much slower speed. All this put an end to his almost hysterical laughter. He said that he wanted to see me do my soccer tricks.

Also after putting an end to Byro's almost hysterical laughter, I aborted what seemed like another fit of 'laughing him to scorn' when I pointed out to the white guy with a mustache, that the best soccer ball jugglers in the world can do fantastic things but they cannot run as fast with the ball while juggling as I can.

And the guys in the locker room were saying regarding me, that 'you're not aging'.

Night before the practice I was at the Bison county restaurant in Waltham. As it turned out it was after 10:00 PM so the grill was closed (yet it was before 10:30 PM). When I walked in, this white guy sitting at a table with some other white guys said "Our faces?...he's Kyle...this is all really rude to him". I knew he was talking about me.

I was surprised that he spoke of me as being a 'Kyle'; just a day or two previously I had studied the New England Patriots roster and noted that in terms of height and weight the New England Patriot closest to me (I'm 5 101/2", 194 lbs) was defensive back Kyle Arrington. What he meant when he said, 'Our faces...', was that the people in showing respect to their own faces, have been showing disrespect to my face.

And the bartender said to me, "OK, we'll go to your...(his voice trailed off, he did not end the sentence)".

And I was thinking: now that I wear a mustache, people are saying friendly things, whereas they did not say friendly things when I did not wear a mustache...these people are obsessed with typicalism (a mustache makes me look more typical). I remembered how someone said that I was too good looking without a mustache, and I felt irritated by all the typicalism, envy and jealousy.

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

12/24/09

Dream about being on the soccer team of a US military academy

I fell asleep this morning and had a dream.

I was on the soccer team of some US military service academy. The team I was on wore white uniforms, white socks, white shorts, white shirts. The players on my team looked like typical Americans, most of them were white, seemed the majority of them were a little taller than me.

We played a soccer team representing another military academy, in a soccer game on the field in Cambridge Common near Harvard square. The team we played was dressed in crimson, crimson socks, crimson shorts, crimson shirts; the players on this team looked like the players on my team. We played them around dawn or dusk, it was almost like night outside during the game.

My team won, 3-0. I scored two goals. First, as I was facing the goal, a ball rolled towards me from my left. I kicked the ball with the side of my left foot, utilizing the energy of the ball rolling towards me to produce a very hard straight shot from about 25 yards, that went into the upper corner of the goal that was to the goalie's right as he faced me. In executing the shot I utilized not advanced skills I have acquired after graduating from college, but rather skills I acquired while playing soccer as a boy in grade school and high school.

The second goal, the ball had somehow shrunk to the size of a tennis ball, and I had become barefoot. I picked the ball up with my foot to get around the defenders, got to about 2 yards from the goal line, and got the ball across the goal line but just barely.

After the game, somehow I had become separated from my team, and the service academy it was affiliated with; I had forgotten what service academy I was affiliated with; I had forgotten which service academy we had played. Yet I wanted to be in a photograph with my team-mates and I wanted a record of the game and what had transpired in the game.

After the game, I was inside a big dimly lit building with a high ceiling, with an interior courtyard in the middle, and balconies. I saw a group of US military men in white uniforms, about twenty of them, posing for a photograph. At least one of them was foreign looking, he wore a white turban and he had a black beard. I tried to talk to them, but they arrogantly ignored me, as if I was not there. This happened again a second time with another simlar group of military men posing for a photograph.

Then in another room in the same building, or in a similar looking building, there was a crowd of persons affiliated with the military milling about. A short stocky young black man, asked me for cigarettes. Though I have not smoked now for a long time, in the dream I had a pack of dark brown colored filter cigarettes that looked like cigars. I held out the pack of cigarettes to the young short stocky black man. He grabbed at about five cigarettes from the pack, not just one. Then about four of his friends, some of whom were white, also grabbed at the cigarettes in the pack; it looked like they were going to take every cigarette I had. This angered me and I took the pack of cigarettes back; they ended up with somewhere between zero and one or two cigarettes.

Then I ran into a Chinese-American affiliated with the US military who wore glasses; he was about five feet eight inches tall and a little overweight; he wore a white shirt. I tried to talk to him, but he was arrogant and did not answer.

Then I ran into a couple of Tibetan-Americans who wore glasses and were somehow affiliated with the US military. One of them was thin and taller than me. I tried to speak with them, they responded very laconically, they were difficult to talk to, they were arrogant and scornful, they were laughing at me.

Then in another room of the same building or in another similar building, there was again a crowd of persons affiliated with the US military milling about. A group of about half a dozen white men and women, some of whom wore glasses, who were all between six and a half feet and seven feet tall, walked towards me. Some of them were slightly smiling in an evil way. They were arrogant and menacing. I somehow avoided them and then encountered another group that was just like them and avoided this second group also.

Then I found myself wandering in a gigantic building, lots of very high ceilings, balconies, interior courtyards, all somewhat dimly lit with a yellowish light, lots of dark gray walls and floors. There were persons affiliated with the US military wandering about, or working at offices and desks. I tried to speak with them but they were arrogant, they would not answer. It was as if they hated me without a cause. I could not find my way out of the building or find the bathroom, and they would not even tell me where the bathroom was, or where the exit from the building was.

Then I found myself in a huge room, dimly lit with a yellowish light, with a high ceiling, and dark gray walls and floors. The huge room looked like the interior of a huge railway station like grand central station. The huge high walls of the huge room had murals painted on them depicting scenes from the Spanish Civil War of the 20th century. There was one scene in red and black that had something to do with torture. One of the murals showed a beautiful sexy busty statuesque naked white woman with long wavy hair who reminded me of a woman who has flirted with me in real life. This huge railway station like room, was in Madrid, Spain.

I saw the huge high doorway exit, lit by the daylight coming in from outside. I headed out of this doorway. As I got out of the doorway, about four Spanish military men in green uniforms and green hats shaped like policemen's hats, followed me out the interior doorway into the lobby. At least one of them wore dark sunglasses, which was weird given that the interior of this railway station like place was dimly lit. They began asking me questions, interrogating me. The interior of my mouth felt very dry, I felt as if I was almost choking on nicotine gum. At this point I got sick of the dream and chose to wake up.

12/25/09

Why I Estimate that I Should Reduce My Weight from 194 Pounds to 181 Pounds to Get to My Optimal Weight for Soccer

Building on the information presented in the December 23 entry further up this page, I attempted to determine what my optimal weight level should be for soccer.

The problem is complicated by the fact that athletes are of various heights, and weight should be interpreted in relation to height. My solution as of now, is as follows: divide my height by their height, cube this number, and multiply the number produced by the weight of the athlete in question, to get an idea of what the athlete would weigh if he was my height. I followed this method, because, for example, an athlete who is 5% taller than me, would have to shrink by 5% in height, 5% in width, and also 5% in terms of front to back thickness, if he were to shrink to my height without changing the proportions of his body. Expressed mathematically, this would be:

( (my height/athlete's height) x (my height/athlete's height) x (my height/athlete's height) ) x (weight of athlete) = (what athlete would weigh if he was my height).

The above formula was used to produce the numbers recorded in column E in table 1 below.

This solution ignores the point that the average human head weighs 8 lbs and that the weight of the head should be, to be exact, left out of the equation; however I do not believe that adjustments made to correct for such would produce significant improvement in accuracy for my purposes.

Table 1

Weights of Soccer Players and Sprinters if Their Body Proportions are Kept Constant & Their Heights are Projected to 70.5"

Athlete

Height

inches

Weight

lbs

Weight

at 5'10.5"

if proportions

retained

Sport

Dani

Alves

140

162

soccer

defender

John

Terry

165

155

soccer

defender

Nemanja

Vidic

185

160

soccer

defender

Patrice

Evra

167

178

soccer

defender

Xavi

Hernandez

145

169

soccer

mid-

fielder

Andres

Inesta

141

172

soccer

mid-

fielder

Steven

Gerrard

180

156

soccer

mid-

fielder

Lionel

Messi

147

171

soccer

striker

Cristiano

Ronaldo

165

155

soccer

striker

Fernando

Torres

172

155

soccer

striker

Donovan

Bailey

180

169

track

sprinter

Maurice

Green

165

176

track

sprinter

Leonard

Scott

165

162

track

sprinter

Deji

Aliu

165

149

track

sprinter

Jason

Gardener

154

164

track

sprinter

Freddy

Mayola

158

184

track

sprinter

Andre

Cason

150

175

track

sprinter

Eric

Nkansah

152

185

track

sprinter

Morne

Nagel

165

169

track

sprinter

Stanley

Floyd

163

166

track

sprinter

Overall

Average

167
range: 149-

185

Soccer

players

average

163

range: 155-

178

Track

sprinters

average

170

range:

149-185

Soccer

defenders

average

164

range: 155-

178

Soccer

midfielders

average

166

range: 156-

172

Soccer

strikers

average

160

155-171

Me,

David

Virgil

Hobbs

70.5

194

Looking at Table 1 above, my estimate regarding the weight level I at 70.5 inches in height should strive for, would be: 181 pounds. This is half-way between the average of column E, and my weight of 194 lbs at present.

Strange how most of my life I have felt frustrated by my inability to gain weight, which I thought would improve my appearance; but now, apparently I face the challenge of losing weight.

Data used to produce the above table:

FIFA 2009 World XI (http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/17445/four-spaniards-in-fifas-world-eleven-2009):

Goalkeeper:

Iker Casillas (ESP/Real Madrid).
Real Madrid Goalkeeper
Height: 1.85m, 6' 1"
Weight: 79.00kg, 174 lbs.
Nationality: Spain
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/iker-casillas.html

Defenders:

Dani Alvés (BRA/Barcelona),
Club:FC Barcelona
Nationality:Brazil
Age:26
Height:1.71 m / 5' 7"
Weight:64 kg / 140 lbs
-- http://www.imscouting.com/players/dani-alves/

John Terry (ENG/Chelsea),
Chelsea Defender
Height: 1.82m, 6' 0"
Weight: 75.00kg, 165 lbs
Nationality: England
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/john-terry.html

Nemanja Vidic (SER/Manchester United),
Manchester United Defender
Height: 1.88m, 6' 2"
Weight: 84.00kg, 185 lbs
Nationality: Serbia
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/nemanja-vidic.html

Patrice Evra (FRA/Manchester United).
Manchester United Defender
Height: 1.75m, 5'9"
Weight: 76.00kg, 167 lbs
Nationality: France
Born: 15/05/1981 in Dakar ( Senegal )
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/patrice-evra.html

Midfielders:

Xavi Hernández (ESP/Barcelona),
Club:FC Barcelona
Nationality:Spain
Age:29
Height:1.7 m / 5'7"
Weight:66 kg / 145 lbs
-- http://www.imscouting.com/players/xavi/

Andrés Iniesta (ESP/Barcelona),
(FC) Barcelone Midfielders
Height: 1.69m, 5'6"
Weight: 64.00kg, 141 lbs
Nationality: Spain
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/andres-iniesta.html

Steven Gerrard (ENG/Liverpool).
Liverpool FC Midfielder
Height: 1.88m, 6'2"
Weight: 82.00kg, 180 lbs
Nationality: England
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/steven-gerrard.html

Forwards:

Lionel Messi (ARG/Barcelona),
FC) Barcelone Striker
Height: 1.69m, 5' 7"
Weight: 67.00kg, 147 lbs
Nationality: Argentina
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/lionel-messi.html

Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid),
Real Madrid Striker
Height: 1.84m, 6'0"
Weight: 75.00kg, 165 lbs
Nationality: Portugal
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/cristianoronaldo.html

Fernando Torres (ESP/Liverpool).
Liverpool FC Striker
Height: 1.86m, 6' 1"
Weight: 78.00kg, 172 lbs
Nationality: Spain
-- http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/fernandotorres.html

50 Metre Dash All Time Rankings
Time in seconds; athlete; height (feet inches); weight (lbs)
5.56 Donovan Bailey 6' 0", 180
5.56 Maurice Greene 5' 9", 165
5.58 Leonard Scott 5'11", 165
5.61 Manfred Kokot
5.61 James Sanford
5.61 Michael Green
5.61 Deji Aliu      6' 1", 165
5.61 Jason Gardener 5' 9", 154
5.61 Freddy Mayola 5' 7", 158
5.62 Emmit King
5.62 Andre Cason    5' 7", 150
5.62 Eric Nkansah   5' 6", 152
5.62 Morne Nagel    5'10", 165
5.63 Stanley Floyd 5'10", 163
-- http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=i/age=n/season=0/sex=M/all=y/legal=A/disc=50/detail.html

Sunday

Dec 27

622 PM- 752 PM; Waltham Y

90 minutes minus 23 minutes

breaks = 67 minutes E3 air-dribble pattern at 7+10 lbs body-wts.

67 minutes E3 at 7+10 lbs

Today while doing the air-dribble juggling runs, I wore in weights: 0.50 lbs on each wrist, 1.0 lbs on each ankle, 2 lbs on each thigh, total 7 lbs on wrists/legs; and, 10 lbs on weight-vest. Total 17 lbs.

During the 67 minutes doing the E3 at 7+10 lbs bodyweights, I succeeded in running at least 14 yards while keeping the soccer ball off the ground but close to the body: 21 times in a way that approximately but not exactly adhered to the pattern of touching the ball every three paces with alternating left and right feet; 29 times adhering to pattern exactly.

Thus the success rate on the E3 at 7+10 lbs today was: 50 in 67 minutes, one success every 1.3 minutes; imperfect adherence to pattern successes: 21 in 67 minutes one success every 3.2 minutes; perfect adherence to pattern successes: 29 in 67 minutes one success every 2.3 minutes.

First 15 minutes (not counting breaks) of the E3 at 7+10 lbs today, the success rate was: 8 in 13 minutes, one every 1.6 minutes.

By way of contrast, Nov 29, the last time I did the E3 drill in this 7+10 lbs level of weights, which was also the first time I did the E3 at 7+10 lbs, there was in total, one success every 1.8 minutes.

Seems that possibly the reason the difference between the second day doing E3 and the first day doing the E3 at this weight level, is less of an improvement compared to the first and second days with other weights, is that the first day doing the E3 I did unusually well because on that day I did the E3 at another weight level first and then the E3 at this weight level so I was warmed up for the E3 at this weight level.

Runs recorded as especially long, fast, straight, or tightly controlled: if you count a run labeled as long and fast as 2 points, a run labeled as just especially straight as 1 points, a run recorded as especially tightly controlled, fast and long as 3 points, etc., today I scored 140 points. A run is recorded as especially fast etc if it is especially fast compared to what has usually been the case at the given weights level. This is a very approximate measure. Today there were 15 successful runs which covered the 14 yards, recorded as having all four of the following characteristics: long, fast, tightly controlled and straight.

Today it seemed to me that an unusually high number of the successful runs were unusually fast for the weight level in bodyweights being worn. Today I recorded 36 of the 50 successes, or 72%, as having been unusually fast. From 709 PM, 47 minutes after the start of the practice, to 752 PM (33 minutes not counting breaks) there were 30 successes and 26 of these, or 87% were recorded as fast. From 709 PM, 47 minutes after the start of the practice, to 721 PM, in 10 minutes not counting breaks, there were 10 successes, all of which were recorded as fast. From 726 PM, 64 minutes after the start of the practice, to 730 PM, there were 5 successes, of which 4 adhered to pattern exactly, all five of these were recorded as especially long, fast, tightly controlled, and straight. Strange that during the practice it did not occur to me that such a high percentage were especially fast. During the practice all I could think about was that my improvement at this weight level compared to the first day at this weight level was less compared to other weight levels.

The best streak of the day in general, today started at 707 PM, 45 minutes after the start of the practice and continued for 34 minutes until 741. During these 26 minutes (not counting breaks), there were 26 successes, one success every 1.0 minutes; and, 22 or 85% were recorded as fast. Strange that during this streak, I did not even realize that I was on a streak, and did not realize that such a high percentage were unusually fast.

At 737 PM, I recorded a success that approximately but not exactly adhered to pattern; this success was recorded as especially long, fast, and tightly controlled, but not especially straight. A man named Mahesh saw this and said, 'that was good!', and shook my hand.

When I first met Mahesh, I thought he was a Latin American from Latin America. He looks like a Latin American jockey, one of those smaller guys who rides the horses in the horse races. But he is from India. Mahesh is friendly, into tennis, but refuses to give me his email address.

I've read in a book, and also heard in person, that the natives of Americans who were here before the the Europeans, originated in India and then reached the Americas through the Bering straight. The Spaniards and the Portuguese are of the R1B Y-dna haplogroup; about a third of the Asian Indians are of the R1A Y-dna haplogroup. The dominant haplogroup amongst the pre-european natives of the Americas is Y-dna haplogroup Q which is closely related to both R1A and R1B Y-dna haplogroups. Nevertheless I'm somewhat sceptical re what can be determined from haplgroups because often two brothers look quite different from each other though they of course share the same Y-dna and Mt-dna haplogroups.

A somewhat humorous blog-post of mine re US Y-dna haplogroups, which was carefully based on actual data, and which contains a link to the actual data the post was based on, is at:

http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/06/riddle-decline-and-fall-of-emerico.html

Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1 layer Propel Gel Padding;

Adidas Replique ball inflated to 7.5 psi

The log now continues at:

http://coolname001.angelfire.com/soccairfifteen.htm