DATE |
RESULT/ACTIVITY |
COMMENTS |
BALL USED-ball
inflation
SHOES USED |
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Saturday Oct 6 07
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Wrote Entry for second practice of Thursday October 4. Purchased new Adidas Teamgeist Replique ball.
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This Adidas Replique ball appears to be the same ball as the one I have been using up to today. The ball I have been using has taken such a beating that the seams containing the panels have stretched with the result that the ball has become slightly larger than it should be. |
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Sunday
Oct 7 07
Waltham YMCA
638-755 PM |
77 minutes researching first kick angle to
precede header at 3 yds
|
Researched How Angle of Kick on First
Kick of LHLH Drill Effects Outcomes
Focus on balls headed THREE
yards from kick-point
The LHLH Drill has been discussed
in previous entries. It's first segment usually involves me
flipping the ball up with my left foot, kicking the ball forward so as to
be able to after sprinting forwards 7 yds head the ball before it touches
the ground.
I decided that I needed information regarding
how the angle the ball is kicked at effects outcomes, when the kick
is such that the ball is headed THREE yards away from the point at
which it is first kicked.
Table Showing Angle of First
Kick on LH and Distance at which Ball Headed After Kick When Object is to
Head Ball THREE Yards Away From Kick
Point Notes on Table:
I flipped the ball up from the ground with my
left foot and kicked it forward with my left foot. My intention was to
after kicking the ball, sprint forward at full speed and then head the
ball at a point ONLY THREE yards in front of
the point at which I first kicked the ball with my left foot.
While I did this I kept track
of the angle the ball traveled at from the point it left my foot to the
point it reached its apex (1st column of table). The ball going
straight up towards the ceiling would be counted as 90 degrees. The ball
moving parallel to the ground would be counted as 0 degrees. The ball
going at a 45 degree angle moving a yard forward for every yard it rose
was counted as 45 degrees. And then there were the angles in between.
I also usually kept track of
how hard I kicked the ball: soft, medium-soft,
medium.
In the table below, in the 2nd column
you can find the time when the attempt was made, and what happened after
the ball was kicked, for each angle of ball after kick to apex of
trajectory.
How to read the shorthand in
the second column:
The second Column gives a brief step by step
description of what happened after I kicked the ball, which is basically
the notes taken in practice verbatim.
Numbers such as L67 L52 mean the ball was
kicked with the left foot at a 67 or 52 degree angle. Words such as
soft medium and hard after these figures tell how hard the ball was
kicked. Figures such as 90%, 40% etc. mean I
sprinted at 90% the speed I can sprint at when I sprint as fast as I
possibly can. If it says simply that I sprinted with no number given that
means the sprint was at approx maximum sprint speed. If no
mention is made of the ball bouncing between the time I kicked it on the
first touch and the time I headed/kicked it on the second touch, that
means the ball did not bounce between the first touch and the second
touch.
Med=medium; w/ or w = with; H=head; H
followed by a number = ball headed at angle given by number after letter
H; ht = height; hi = high; sp = speed; hite = height; w/o = without; spr =
sprint; obstr = obstruction such as a wall impeded continuance of run; B
followed by a negative number = the ball was falling to earth at this
angle, 90 equals straight down, 45 equals moving forward a foot for every
foot it falls; L = ball kicked with left foot; R = ball kicked with right
foot; COS/cos = caught on sprint at approx maximum speed unless otherwise
speficied; a number by itself = this many paces were run without touching
the ball prior to what happened next; AD = air dribble, running forward
while keeping the ball off the ground under some level of control; K =
ball kicked with foot; c = caught as in ball caught; if it is not
specified what part of the body the ball was touched with after the kick
it was touched with the head; WHB = would have been;
For example L56 c w H
at 5 yds at 85% sp means the ball was kicked at a 56 degree angle and then
caught with the head 5 yds from the point at which it was kicked while I
was running forwards at a speed that is 85% of my max sprint
speed.
General
Notes/Conclusion:
Looking at the data for now, my estimate is that the ball should be kicked forward at a
48 degree angle if the object is to sprint forward 3 yds at full speed and
head the ball.
Thus the pattern we have is: kick
ball at 48 degree angle to sprint forward 3 yds and head ball; kick ball
at 52 degree angle to sprint forward 5 yds and head ball; kick ball at 60
degree angle to sprint forward 7 yds and head ball.
I have my doubts re the wisdom/utility of
practicing kicking the ball forward,
sprinting forwards for 3 yds and heading the ball before it hits the
ground.
The ball during this move never or almost
never rises to a height where an opposing player cannot touch it.
Nevertheless, it is true that the upper parts of a player's body have less
horizontal reach than the lower parts of a player's body.
The kick followed by a header five yards
forwards is much easier to master than the 3 yds forwards
version.
It is much easier to kick the ball 5
yds forwards, sprint forwards 5 yds full speed to head it,
compared to kicking the ball 3 yds forwards and sprinting forwards 3 yds
to head it. With the the 3 yds version you usually end up with a jog
forward to head the ball. Nevertheless, tactics can take into account the
fact that the 3 yds forward movement is only at about 40% of max
speed.
Whatever the impracticality of the 3
yds version, doing the 3 yds practice gradually improves the ability to
minimize the distance one sprints forwards after kicking the ball to head
the ball.
I am excited and interested by
the idea that one can kick the ball forwards, sprint forwards for 3 yds at
70-75% sp and hit the ball with the chest.
The main problem with the new ball
which is smaller than the old one is that it has a slicker surface which
at first threw off the process of rolling the ball back and flipping it
up.
Faces in the Crowd
Before I started the practice, Sebastian and Herod the Second,
two of the Hispanic type boys who played in the game Friday were out
on the basketball court playing soccer using the miniature goals, and
tall strong Black Buddha was playing with them.
Black Buddha tried to dribble the ball past them, but he could
not. Herod the Second told me it was because they were "too
good" for him.
Herod the Second and Sebastian at this stage of their development as
players, are as of now when it comes to the game of soccer, excelled by
most of the other boys amongst the dozen or so Hispanic or
Brazilian boys I played with on Friday. This is not an insult to
Herod the Second or Sebastian--think of it as a compliment to the others
amongst the dozen boys such as Edgar and Julio etc etc.
Boys better at soccer than Herod the Second and Sebastian could
not stop me on the dribble and they were all stopped by my when they tried
to dribble me.
But Black Buddha could not beat Sebastian or Herod the
Second on the dribble.
And Black Buddha is in certain ways a better athlete than me. He for
sure is better at weightlifting, and probably in better anaerobic/aerobic
shape.
This is not an insult to Black Buddha--look upon it as a compliment
to Herod the Second and Sebastian.
It just goes to show, how hard it is to dribble by even boys like
Herod the Second and Sebastian, in the game of soccer.
You could be the fittest, strongest, fastest man alive and not be
able to dribble by boys like Herod the Second and Sebastian.
It goes to show, that it is an error to underestimate the
magnitude of my accomplishment on Friday playing with and against these
boys.
One of the boys told me that Black Buddha's name is Donald so I guess
etiquette calls for me to refer to him as Donald from now on.
Things could change for Herod the Second and Sebastian if they decide
to invest time and energy into their physical development and their soccer
skills. But who knows whether such would be a wise investment of time and
energy for them as individuals?
The last half hour a half dozen or so white teenage females were
practicing volleyball in the gym while I did the soccer. I could not
understand why two of them decided to practice knocking the ball back and
forth so close to the little area of the gym I was doing the soccer in.
Clerical Note: This soccer log entry is 1925
words long as of the day it was written. Since then there have been
additions to the data table. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of Sole Padding New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
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Monday October 8 07
Waltham YMCA
427-630 PM |
123 minutes researching ankle use
minimization/maximization
on first kick angle to precede header
at 3 yds
|
Yesterday I studied kicking so as to head the
ball after 3 yds. Today I continued doing the same thing, with the twist
thrown in that I switched off between maximizing the role played by the
ankle in the kick and minimizing the role played by the ankle in the kick.
Today I recorded the results for today in the
table created yesterday found in the previous Sunday October 7 entry.
My impressions after practice, before I
looked at the tallied and typed up data: I am making rapid
progress in terms of the ability to kick the ball, sprint forwards
for only 2-4 yds at a high speed and then hit the ball with thigh
chest or head before it bounces; surprisingly, minimizing the use of the
ankle seems to produce better kicks even for short kicks that are headed
just 3 yds from the kick point.
Does the data recorded for today bear out my
initial impressions? One thing to keep in mind is that today a greater
percentage of the miskicks were recorded, at the same time there were less
miskicks.
I do not have the time energy or inclination
right now to do a detailed statistical analysis but at most of the
important angle levels the percentage of good kicks was better today.
Yesterday there were 0.09 Red runs
per minute today there were 0.11 red runs per minute. There were
0.22 black runs per minute yesterday, 0.23 today. Yesterday the
avg speed on the red runs was 82% today it was 91%. Yesterday there were only 2 100% speed runs today there were
8.
But somehow today it seemed the improvement
was greater than the figures show. Maybe the black runs (recorded in
boldface black) were of a higher quality today.
Today of the 13 red
runs (best quality), 6 were while ankle use was minimized even though the
ankle use minimization method was in force only one third of the
time.
Prior to today's
practice my estimate was to aim for the 48 degree angle on the first kick
in order to kick the ball so as to head it 3 yds later today my estimate
for this is 50 degrees.
For now my order to
myself is to continue to switch between ankle minimization and
maximization, and to aim at the 50 degree angle, continue practicing the
L3H meaning kick the ball sprint 3 yds forwards and then head
it.
Useful data has been piling up re how to kick
the ball so as to reach it with the foot, thigh or chest 2-5 yds away from
the kick point.
One problem with the estimation of the angles
has been that the markers on the ceiling signify a different angle when
they are seen from a horizontally closer distance such as the end of a 3
yd run, compared to the beginning of the 3 yd run.
Faces in the
Crowd
The hispanic guy who works at the Y who has
the little kid, who gave me the thumbs up the other day, heartily
announced to me that I could have half the gym to myself today. Thus I was
alone most of the time except during the last 10 minutes or so when the
volleyballers began arriving.
Clerical Note: Today's Entry
552 words in length, and also the entry for the previous day was expanded
by 990 wds, thus 1542 wds added today in 117 minutes (alot of slow data
entry today).
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
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Tuesday
October 9 '07
Waltham Y Gym
|
123 minutes researching general
technique &
ankle use
minimization/maximization
on first kick angle to precede header
at 3 yds |
Continued Research Into How to Kick Ball so
as to Head Ball on Sprint 3 Yds Away from the Kick
Point
Today I continued what was begun yesterday,
switching off between maximizing the role played by the ankle in the kick
and minimizing the role played by the ankle in the kick.
Today I recorded the results for today in the
table created Oct 7 found in the Sunday October 7 entry.
My impressions after practice, before I
looked at the tallied and typed up data: I felt as if I was improving at
an admirable rate in terms of the L3H skill. L3H is the acronym I am
giving to what has been done Oct 7, 8, and 9--the kick, the 3 yds run at
top speed and the header.
Today I recorded every miskick.
Yesterday Oct 8 less miskicks were recorded and Sunday Oct 7 even less
than that.
Today there were 11 red
runs maximizing the use of the ankle on the first kick, and 21 red runs
minimizing the use of the ankle on the first kick, over 120 minutes.
Thus there were 0.28
red runs per minute with the ankle-use-maximization, and 0.26 red runs per
minute with the ankle-use minimization. This is a dramatic improvement
over yesterday's figure of 0.11 red runs per minute total.
For some reason before typing up today's data
and looking at it I felt I did better today minimizing the use of the
ankle, even though the red runs per minute figure turned out to
be basically the same for both ankle use minimization and ankle use
maximization.
Prior to today's
practice my estimate was to aim for the 50 degree angle on the first
kick in order to kick the ball so as to head it 3 yds away;
today my estimate for this is 54 degrees.
For now my order to
myself is to continue to switch between ankle minimization and
maximization, and to aim at the 54 degree angle, continue practicing the
L3H meaning kick the ball sprint 3 yds forwards and then head
it.
From 433 to the end at
614 PM I was during the kick mentally concentrating on getting the right
angle and the right level of force into the kick. This seems to produce
good performance.
Seems there are more attempts per minute with
the ankle use maximize method because you get lots of these really short
runs that come to an end quickly with the ball easily
retrieved.
Faces in the
Crowd
407 pm a Hispanic guy was playing with a
couple of toddlers in the gym. At 530 the hispanic boys who had been
playing basketball on the other side of the gym for about an hour came
over to my side and sat down on the bleachers, at this time the
curtain dividing the two halves was pulled and some kids group took over
the other half. From 532 to 548 I allowed the boys to interrupt my
practice for about 16 minutes and talked with them.
Herod the Second had managed to find the this
web page that you are now reading and read it, I gave him the URL on
Sunday.
Herod II said his actual name is Kennin Teo,
but he said he likes to be called Herod the Second. He said he is from
Guatemala.
Herod smiled in fond remembrance of my poems.
He had found my main page by removing a portion of the URL I gave him. He
said the poems were "very nice".
Herod II said he wants to be known as
'Teo el Magnifico'. Herod the Second declined to censor any
of the words I have written about him. By way of contrast that
Italian guy at the Oak Sq Y took offense because I said that I could do
something (air-dribble the width of the gym on the run) that the other
guys at the Oak Sq Y could not do.
Another of the boys said he was Eduardo from
Mexico. He offered to pay me $50 for the new Replique I was using that
cost me $25. I said why. He said because it is the ball thatI had been
using, meaning it was a special ball because I had been using it. Eduardo
wanted to know my age I would not tell him. He asked me if I was over
eighteen I said yes.
Herod II wrote the name of one of the
boys who was with them in my notebook; this boy did not want his name
written in my notebook; at one point he pulled his shirt up to cover his
face. He made sure his name was crossed out, completely
illegible. Herod II wrote in my notebook what he said was another name for
this boy, "Sean John'. They said 'Sean
John' (who is sophisticated looking) had a website called
bangbros.com (which later I found, turned out to be a hetero-porno
website).
One or two of the boys wanted to know if
I loved anybody, if I was married, who my girlfriend was blah blah
blah.
I told the boys that I was not a cop or
border guard; Herod II responded, eyes wide, that his mother told him not
do drugs.
I offered the boys a piece of nicotine gum
they declined.
Seems like these boys are dead-set against
stuff like nicotine and drugs, but at the same time they value/respect
hetero-porn.
They are not grown men yet so they are
especially wise to stay off the nicotine/drugs. But my opinion re adults
is that the hetero-porn is more dangerous than the nicotine or the pot.
Scripture says, that not that which goes into a man defiles, the man, but
what comes out of the man, defiles the man.
I do not know the family history of
these boys specifically but I know some generalizations about the Hispanic
family. I was wondering to myself whether kids born out of wedlock, are
inclined to hyper-tolerance re extramarital sex.
But I understand that the word in the Bible
that is translated as 'bastard' did not originally in scripture mean what
it means in English today, I understand how at least one of the Bible's
great heroes was described in scripture as a 'bastard'.
Clerical Note: Today's
Entry 1057 words in length, and also the entry for Sunday was
expanded by 1169 wds through adding to the Sunday table,
thus 2226 words added today in 126 minutes (alot of slow data entry
again today).
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding; black sweat-
socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
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Thursday
October 11 '07
743-952 PM |
129 minutes researching general
technique &
ankle use minimization/maximization &
knee use minimization
on first kick to precede header at 3
yds |
Continued Research Into How to Kick
Ball so as to Head Ball on Sprint 3 Yds Away from the Kick
Point
Tested ankle-use
minimization/maximization & knee-use
minimization
Today the first segment of 40 minutes was
done with anke-use minimization. Towards the end of this first segment I
began to think that keeping the leg straight when kicking the ball
(knee-use minimization) might work well in combination with ankle use
minimization.
The second segment of 40 minutes involved
ankle-use maximization as done on previous days, but with the added twist
of an emphasis on also keeping the leg straight (knee-use
minimization).
The third segment of 40 minutes done today
involved ankle-use minimization as done on previous days, but with the
added twist of an emphasis on keeping the leg straight (knee use
minimization).
Today I recorded the results for today in the
table created Oct 7 found in the Sunday October 7 entry.
My impressions after practice, after the
first segment, was that the first segment was proof that when it comes to
developing this kind of skill, skipping practice for a day (I skipped
practice yesterday), will set you back; I did not feel that I had done
that well. After the second segment I was
not sure if the second segment was better than previous segments using
ankle-use-maximization. After the third segment I felt that the third
segment today was the segment that to my surprise suddenly brought me to
the virge of mastering this particular skill.
As it turned out the stats for today when tabulated were as follows (top
quality runs recorded in boldface red / total number of runs, (the
percentage figure): 1st segment, knee-use not specified,
ankle-use-minimization--15/36 (42%); 2nd segment, ankle-use-maximization
combined with keeping leg straight (knee-use minimization)--24/40 (60%);
3rd segment, ankle-use-minimization combined with keeping the leg straight
(knee-use-minimization)--24/35 (69%); 1st half of 3rd segment,
ankle-use-minimization combined with keeping the leg straight
(knee-use-minimization)--10/18 (56%); 2nd half of 3rd segment,
ankle-use-minimization combined with keeping the leg straight
(knee-use-minimization)--14/17 (83%).
Thus it is evident that there was
alot of improvement today as there was yesterday, seems to a large
extent this is due to the introduction of the innovation of keeping
the leg straight as possible during the kick, minimizing the use of the
knee.
My theory is that the brain or
mind finds it easier to develop precise skill when only the
ankle or only the body/hip is relied on for the kick as opposed
to two or three out of the trio of ankle, knee, and body/hip all being
relied on. Think of everything the brain/mind has to compute and remember
when ankle, knee, and hip/body are all involved in kicks, as opposed to
ankle + hip/body or hip/body by itself.
As of now my order to myself for the
next practice is to experiment with: ankle
minimization plus knee minimization; ankle maximization plus knee
minimization; and also perhaps throw in for a change of pace knee
maximization for a segment, which would be the opposite of straight-legged
knee minimization.
I kind of feel as if I have died and
been born again during the time between Sunday and this
Thursday evening this week. For a couple of days I felt
stumped by a difficult task, but by the end of Thursday I felt close to
mastering it. I improved faster than I thought I would. It was day after
day, attempt after attempt all the while failing to master the skill, it
was gloomily rainy outside, I was doing something lots of people would
fail to appreciate if they saw it, I was cutting the runs short after the
second touch with the head so as to speed up the process, alot of the time
I was alone in the gym. But now I have my reward, the mastery of the
crucial skill is well within my reach.
Seems the important thing when it
comes to mastering skills such as this, is to keep oneself open to
adopting new innovations in technique.
Today
it seemed that the kicks at an angle of 52 degrees or lower, produced
balls that were a little low/far when headed.
During the second segment I was
approaching the ball from the side at an extreme angle before flipping it
up and kicking it, in the third segment this was a little less extreme,
but still at more than 45 degree angle in terms of approach to ball before
flip up and kick.
During my very hot
streak at the second half of the third segment, I felt as if the feeling
that I know the feel of doing this right, is a helpful feeling that
produces results.
Note: Today Oct 11 I
recorded every miskick except about 3 or 4 of them. OCTOBER 9 i
recorded every miskick. Compared to October 9 on Oct 8 less miskicks
were recorded and Sunday Oct 7 even less than that.
Faces in the
Crowd
I got to the gym early there were alot of Pop
Warner cheerleaders of young grade-schooler age on one side of the gym and
older grade-schooler age on the other side of the gym. They really get a
kick out of doing cheerleading routines cheerleading for Waltham, cheering
for Waltham. Sort of exuberantly and innocently
community-spirited.
But during the workout except for a couple of
guys shooting baskets for a while I was all by myself.
Clerical Note: Today's
Entry 983 words in length, and also the entry for Sunday
was expanded by 1367 wds by way of adding to the Sunday table,
thus 2350 words added today in ??? minutes (alot of slow data
entry again today).
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
orange soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5
psi |
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Sunday
October 14 '07
Waltham Y Gym
557-747 PM |
110 minutes researching ankle use minimization/maximization in combination
with knee use maximization
on first kick to precede header at 3
yds |
NOTE: Friday October 12 I swam for 45
minutes; Saturday did not exercise
Continued Research Into How to Kick
Ball so as to Head Ball on Sprint 3 Yds Away from the Kick
Point
Tested ankle-use
minimization/maximization in combination with knee-use
maximization
Today the first segment of 40 minutes was
done with anke-use minimization in combination with knee use maximization.
The second segment of 40 minutes featured ankle-use maximization in
combination with knee-use maximization. The third half-segment of 20
minutes involved ankle-use minimization combined with knee-use
maximization for the second time.
Today I recorded the results for
today in the table created Oct 7 found in the Sunday October 7
entry.
Figures for runs recorded in boldface red (ball touched at 3 yds at
greater than 60% of maximum speed) in the October 7 table for
today:
First 40 minute segment (Knee-use
Maximization + Ankle-use Minimization): 22/36 total (61%); 1st 20
minutes-8/19 (42%), 2nd 20 minutes, 14/17 (82%). First 10 minutes 3/10
(30%).
Second 40 minute segment (Knee-use
Maximization + Ankle-use Maximization): 20/37 total (54%); 1st 20
minutes-11/19 (58%), 2nd 20 minutes, 9/18 (50%).
Third segment, only 20 minutes (Knee-use
Maximization + Ankle-use Minimization): 14/20 total (70%).
Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
Minimization (L3H Method 5) total for day: 36/56
(64%).
Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
maximization (L3H Method 6) total for day: 20/37
(54%).
Earlier data for high quality runs recorded
in red in this log per total number of attempts has been:
October 11:
Knee-use Moderation +
Ankle-use Minimization (L3H Method 1): 15/36
(42%).
Knee-use Minimization +
Ankle-use Maximization (L3H Method 4): 24/40
(60%).
Knee-use Minimization +
Ankle-use Minimization (L3H Method 3): 24/35 (69%); 10/18 (56%) 1st
20 minutes; 14/17 (83%) 2nd 20 minutes.
October 9:
Knee-use Moderation +
Ankle-use Minimization (L3H Method 1): 21/53
(40%).
Knee-use Moderation +
Ankle-use Maximization (L3H Method 2): 11/30
(33%).
After the practice today before I tabulated
the stats, I felt convinced that Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
Minimization is superior to Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
Maximization. The ankle-use minimization method was the first one used,
there was no warm-up, the first ten runs of the day the score was 3/10
(30%). The kick-runs performed utilizing Knee-use maximization + ankle-use
maximization produced red (high quality) runs that were slower than the
red runs produced by the Knee-use maximization + ankle-use minimization
method. The second half of the first segment, and the third 20 minute
segment, which involved the knee-use maximization + ankle-use
minimization, produced very high success rates (82%, 70%).
Today on the first kicks I aimed for
a 56 degree angle.
As of now it appears
that the best methods are methods 3 (knee-use minimized, ankle-use
minimized) and method 5 (knee-use maximized, ankle-use
minimized).
My orders to myself for the next day:
practice methods 3 and 5; and/or give methods 1 and 2 another chance
seeing they were experimented with at a time when I was less skilled.
Continue to aim for the 56 degree angle on the first kick.
Note: Today Oct 14 I
recorded every miskick , all of them. October 11 I recorded every miskick
except 3 or 4 of them. October 9 I recorded every miskick. Compared toctober 9 on
Oct 8 less miskicks were recorded and Sunday Oct 7 even less than that.
Faces in the
Crowd
I got to the gym early there were alot of Pop
Warner cheerleaders of young grade-schooler age on one side of the gym and
older grade-schooler age on the other side of the gym. They really get a
kick out of doing cheerleading routines cheerleading for Waltham, cheering
for Waltham. Sort of exuberantly and innocently
community-spirited.
But during the workout except for a couple of
guys shooting baskets for a while I was all by myself.
Clerical Note: Today's
Entry 720 words in length, and also the entry for Sunday
was expanded by 1032 wds by way of adding to the Sunday table,
thus 1752 words added today in 123 minutes (alot of slow data
entry again today).
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
blue medium thickness soccer
socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Monday
October 15 '07
Waltham Y Gym
420-624 PM |
124 minutes researching knee
use
minimization/maximization/
moderation in combination
with ankle use minimization
on first kick to precede header at 3
yds |
Continued Research Into How to Kick
Ball so as to Head Ball on Sprint 3 Yds Away from the Kick
Point
Tested knee-use
minimization/maximization/
moderation in combination
with ankle use minimization
Today the first segment of 40 minutes was
done with anke-use minimization in combination with knee use moderation.
The second segment of 40 minutes featured ankle-use minimization in
combination with knee-use minimization. The third segment of 40 minutes
involved ankle-use minimization combined with knee-use
maximization.
What I mean by knee use moderation is:
freestyle, knee used as much as comes naturally.
Today I recorded the results for
today in the table created Oct 7 found in the Sunday October 7
entry.
Figures for runs recorded in boldface red (ball touched at 3 yds at
greater than 60% of maximum speed) in the October 7 table for
today:
First 40 minute segment (Knee-use Moderation
+ Ankle-use Minimization, L3H Method 1): 15/28 (54%);
Second 40 minute segment (Knee-use
Minimization + Ankle-use Minimization, L3H Method 3): 18/33 total
(55%); alot of the 18 'red' 'superior' runs were at less than 90% of max
sprint speed.
Third 40 minute segment, (Knee-use
Maximization + Ankle-use Minimization, L3H Method 5): 21/30
(70%).
Thus looking at the
previous two days data combined with what happened today, cumulatively
total scores have been: L3H Method 1 -- 30/64 (47%); L3H
Method 3 -- 42/68 (62%); L3H Method 5 -- 57/86
(66%).
The previous two days L3H Methods 3 and 5
were about even but today Method 5 pulled ahead.
Now I feel that if future experiments are
carried out, Method 5 will show superiority over Method 3. Question is,
make the decision to choose Method 5 now, or do some more
experimenting?
Method 1, involving the level of involvement
of the knee being unspecified, being left to be simply whatever is
natural, has been defeated by Method 3, featuring knee-involvement
minimized, and Method 5, featuring knee involvement maximized. The
implication is that some kind of mental command, such as 'maximize
knee involvement', or 'minimize knee-involvement', is preferable to
the vagueness of the mind simply telling the body part/joint to 'do
whatever comes naturally' with the knee.
Earlier data for high quality runs recorded
in red in this log per total number of attempts has been:
October 14:
Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
Minimization (L3H Method 5) total for day: 36/56 (64%).
Knee-use Maximization + Ankle-use
maximization (L3H Method 6) total for day: 20/37
(54%).
October 11:
Knee-use Moderation + Ankle-use Minimization
(L3H Method 1): 15/36 (42%).
Knee-use Minimization + Ankle-use
Maximization (L3H Method 4): 24/40 (60%).
Knee-use Minimization + Ankle-use
Minimization (L3H Method 3): 24/35 (69%); 10/18 (56%) 1st 20 minutes;
14/17 (83%) 2nd 20 minutes.
October 9:
Knee-use Moderation + Ankle-use Minimization
(L3H Method 1): 21/53 (40%).
Knee-use Moderation + Ankle-use Maximization
(L3H Method 2): 11/30 (33%).
Today again on the first kicks I
aimed for a 56 degree angle.
Starting about 525 PM today I
remembered to focus my mind during the kick on angle and force-level, I
found this improved performance.
Seems the balls kicked at 52 degrees
or lower are caught at a fast approx maximum speed sprint; whereas, with
the balls kicked at 56 degrees or higher, the balls are caught at a slower
speed, even though the balls are at 56 degrees better placed when
they are caught. A paradox.
My orders to myself for the next day:
practice methods 3 and 5; or practice method 5 only, moving on to
concentrating on the angle of the header that comes after the first kick
with the left foot, and how the angle of the header effects the
outcome, the desired outcome being a kick after the header before
the ball has gone a long way or touched the ground, with the body moving
forwards at full sprint speed.
Notes:
Today Oct 15 I recorded every miskick. Oct
14 I recorded every miskick. October 11 I recorded every miskick
except 3 or 4 of them. October 9 I recorded every miskick. Compared toctober 9 on
Oct 8 less miskicks were recorded and Sunday Oct 7 even less than that.
Seems that with the passage of time, I have
become less likely to record a given run as featuring 'cos' (ball caught
on sprint), meaning I was at basically maximum sprint speed when I reached
the ball, and I record more of the runs as being at 80% speed, 70% speed
etc.
With the passage of time it has become more
difficult to judge the angles of the balls because the ball altitudes have
been getting lower, everything moves faster and faster, the little gap of
time after I kick the ball during which I look at the angle before I
sprint forward is disappearing.
Faces in the
Crowd
When I walked in the gym, I got mobbed by a
half dozen Hispanic boys. They wanted to sell things, borrow things,
discuss the blog you are now reading, etc. 'Carlos' said this is because
they found me to be 'interesting'.
Sebastian offered to give me a spiral
notebook I said I did not need one. They continued their yap about the
porno site. They all enthusiastically shouted 'yes' when I asked if they
were Catholic, but they did not know what 'lust' is. I explained to them
that 'lust' is being sexually excited by someone you are not married
to.
Eduardo wanted me to let him hold my car key.
I said no. He said, 'would you say yes if I was white?'. I told him the
truth, if he was white I would not let him hold my car keys.
They continued to annoy me by: lying to me,
then confessing they had lied as if it was a joke, and by pretending that
they were stealing my soccer balls.
I had earlier informed them that it is low,
to tell a lie, then confess the lie, then laugh as if such is a joke. In
Proverbs in the scriptures, it says that such is foolish and
dangerous.
Seems the Catholic Church would do a better
job if it taught kids lessons found in scriptures such as "Proverbs of
Solomon, Son of David, King in...". Proverbs has alot of practical earthy
advice appropriate for people such as 15 year old boys.
Kennin 'Herod II' Teo, displayed the
air-dribbling of the type where you just stand there without going
anywhere, kicking the ball up in the air with your feet without touching
the ground. He has become good at this trick. He dribbled the ball like
this for about 20 touches. He challenged me to a competition re who
can do this trick better. I declined, I told him he could do it
better--which as of now is the truth. I should have challenged him to
attempt the trick that I was doing, the kick the ball up, sprint 3 yds
forwards and head it trick.
A long time I ago I decided that juggling the
ball while standing still is a waste of time. Do that in a game and the
ball will at best quickly be stolen from you; at worst someone will kick
at the ball and injure you on the follow-through, without even being
called for a foul. So I have not put any time into such.
Notably when Kennin 'Herod II' Teo does his
stationary juggling trick, his eyes are always on the ball when he kicks
it; by way of contrast I have progressed to the point where when I
juggle the ball while sprinting here and there (the 'air-dribble'),
my head and eyes stay up and do not follow the ball to my foot--which is a
real advantage in a game situation.
As Eduardo and Carlos were leaving one of
them gave a loud cheer as he saw me perform a run which I coded in the
Sunday Oct 7 data table as 'L56 cos at 3
yds'. At least there are some people who can appreciate
what I am doing.
Clerical Note: Today's
Entry is 1438 words in length, and also the entry for Sunday
was expanded by 1213 words by way of adding to the Sunday table,
thus 2651 words added today in 158 minutes (alot of slow data
entry again today). Today the majority of the time I was
watching/listening to the Red Sox Cleveland game on my computer while
writing/typing this up, which apparently slowed down the productivity
rate.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thin orange
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5
psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tuesday
October 16 '07
Waltham Y Gym
402-600 PM |
52 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs;
15 min break;
52 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
I decided to to use the L3H Method 5 (see
previous entry) for the first kick of the runs. The object was
to roll the ball back, flip the ball up, kick the ball with the
left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds forwards at full speed and head the ball
(2nd touch); continue the full speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a
minimal distance away from the 2nd touch point (3rd touch); continue the
full speed sprint and head the ball at a point a minimal distance
away from the 3rd touch point (4th touch).
Today I recorded in the table found in this
entry, every run, no run was excluded due to it being supposedly an
'insignificant' aberration.
In the table, the top quality gold medal type
runs are recorded in boldface red and the silver medal type runs in
boldface black, according to criteria I established today, having to do
with the distance between the 2nd touch and the 3rd touch and the speed at
the time of the 2nd and 3rd touches, and what part of the body the 3rd
touch was made with.
I was faced with a kind of crisis--there were
runs that I was very pleased with, impressive fast well controlled runs,
that during the practice I labeled as "very cool" etc. I felt tempted to
list these runs in boldface red but I chose the mature
option, and decided to record runs in boldface
red or boldface
black based not on how cool they seemed to be at the
time but rather based on speed and distance between second touch and
third touch. This is because what I am trying to develop is a head
on the 2nd touch, a kick on the third touch, full speed sprint at the time
both second and third touches are made, and minimized distance between
second and third touch.
Today I could feel, how the L7H, and
then L5H, and then L3H drills done on previous days (see previous log
entries for September and October 07) had built up my sprint
speed (I was very fast even before this improvement), resulting
in speed increase over the first 10 yards of a sprint, as today the runs
extended beyond the second touch allowing me to appreciate and be aware of
the speed increase. While doing the L3H drill I had suspected that such
would be the case.
I had been wondering why the L3H had been
tiring me out so much and I had concluded that this was because The first
3 yards of a sprint place more of a burden on the body than the subsequent
yards of a sprint, as an approx 170 pound body is being moved from
stationary to full speed while at the same time difficult things are being
done with the ball and there is the physical/mental burden of developing
new extremely precise/quick skills.
Today I could feel how the L3H etc done on
previous days had improved my skill in the sense that today the ball was
being kicked with greater confidence, the air-dribbles have become much
faster than before the L3H L5H L7H drills and the rebound off the
wall drills of the previous days. There has been a real change, the
kicks on the air-dribble runs are now more confident accurate and
decisive, the sprint speed during the air-dribble runs is faster, there is
tighter ball control. Seems to me that the depressing boring
un-glamorous drills such as L3H L5H and L7H are mainly responsible for
this improvement though the rebound off the wall drills may also have
played a part.
Today it seemed that after a spectacular
first half, during the second half I felt as if I had nowhere to go but
down, I felt like I wanted to quit after the first half and go home
and celebrate, and so the second half was not so good, also there
was the fatigue factor.
Today after the 3rd touch of the run I
aborted several of the runs so as to be able to remember data mentally
recorded during the run.
L3H Extended Results
Table
Notes on Table:
I flipped the ball up from the ground with my
left foot and kicked it forward with my left foot. My intention was to
after kicking the ball, sprint forward at full speed and then head the
ball at a point ONLY THREE yards in front of
the point at which I first kicked the ball with my left foot; and then to
kick the ball before it hit the ground while continuing to sprint forwards
at full speed, at a point as close as possible to the 3 yds from
start point at which it was headed; and then after this to head the
ball while continuing to sprint forwards at maximum speed at a point as
close as possible to the point at which the ball was previously kicked.
The first kick of the run, with the left
foot, resulted in a variety of outcomes. Sometimes the ball would be at
what I call a medium height for this particular play featuring a header at
full speed 3 yds from the starting kick point; sometimes the ball would be
at what I would call a low or a high point. The first column shows what kind of ball
I was dealing with on the second touch of the air-dribble run. The second
column shows the time of the run, the distance from the starting kick
point the ball was next touched and what transpired
thereafter.
Distance between 2nd & 3rd touch of run
in yards = DB23
Distance between 3rd & 4th touch of
run in yards = DB34
If 2nd & 3rd touches were both with the
head an H is put after the number as in DB23=1H
How to read the shorthand in
the second column:
The second Column gives a brief step by step
description of what happened after I kicked the ball, which is basically
the notes taken in practice verbatim. Figures such as 90%, 40% etc. mean
I was sprinting at 90% the speed I can sprint at when I sprint
as fast as I possibly can at the time the ball was touched.
If no mention is made of the ball bouncing during a run, this
means the ball did not bounce during the run.
Med=medium; w/ or w = with; H=head; ht
= height; w/o = without; L = ball kicked with left foot; R = ball
kicked with right foot; K=ball kicked; F=foot cos = caught on sprint at
approx maximum speed; a number followed by the word 'pace' = this
many paces taken before ball next touched; AD = air dribble, running
forward while keeping the ball off the ground under some level of control;
c = caught as in ball caught; WHB = would have been; bo = ball bounced; DK
or dropkick=ball kicked immediately after bouncing; str=straight; number
such as 11 O'Clock or 11 PM = the run was in this direction given straight
ahead in the intended direction as 12:00 on the imaginary clock dial; YMCS
= Yard Marker Cone Syndrome -- the burden of looking at the cones marking
how many yards from the start I was at during the touch on the ball,
impaired performance on the touch on the ball; 10' etc high chip =
the ball was chipped on an arc that reached 10' etc at its apex; dir =
direction; if direction of run not recorded, run was on target straight
ahead
Example of how to read the shorthand
in the second column
402 Medium height/distance ball cos at 4 yds; H, cos w F at 10
yds, 11' high chip, cos w thigh at 15 yds Picture perfect on
first run of day. DB23=6' means: a
ball that was at medium height and distance, was caught on the sprint at 4
yds with the head; then it was caught on the sprint with the foot at 10
yds; when it was caught at 10 yds with the foot it was kicked in a chip
that went 11' high at the apex of the arc; the ball was then caught on the
sprint with the thigh at 15 yds; the ball never bounced the entire time as
no bounce was mentioned; this was a picture-perfect run; the
distance between the second touch of the run and the third touch was 6
yards.
Meaning of black boldface and
red boldface as of Oct 16: If
the DB23 number is 4 or less and the ball is caught on the third touch
with a part of the body other than the head at a speed of 70% or greater,
and the speed at the 2nd touch was 70% or greater, the run is
recorded in boldface
red. If the DB23 number is 5 or 6 and the ball
is caught on the third touch with a part of the body other than the head
at a speed of 70% or greater, and the speed at the 2nd touch was 70% or
greater, the run is recorded in boldface black. If
the DB23 number is 4 or less and the ball is caught on the third touch
with a part of the body other than the head at a speed of less than 70%,
or the speed was 70% or less at the second touch, the run is recorded in
boldface black. If the ball is caught on the second
touch at 4 yds and the the ball is caught on the third touch at 8 yds or
less at at least 70% speed the run is recorded in boldface
black.
The roll-back and the flip up of the ball at the beginning are not
counted as touches. The first kick forward is the first touch, the next
touch after that is the second touch, etc.
Faces in the
Crowd
The usual type were in and out of the gym
while I was doing the runs, parents and kids, Hispanic boys, etc. I
estimate some of the spectacular runs were seen. Seemed like poetic
justice--my first hour had been spectacular featuring runs faster and more
tightly controlled than ever before, and after the workout as I left the
gym, I saw in the parking lot something I had never seen before--two
Waltham Police cars, that seemed to be there on unofficial business as the
lights were not flashing and nobody was in them.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 2490 words in length, took approximately 165 minutes to
write/type. The entry contains alot of new stuff that could not be based
on content in previous entries.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thin white
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wednesday
October 17 '07
Waltham Y Gym
743-948 PM |
55 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs;
15 min break;
55 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
I decided to to repeat what I did
yesterday, use the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first
kick of the runs. The object again was to roll the ball back,
flip the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3
yds forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the
full speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away
from the 2nd touch point (3rd touch); all this is supposed to be done
without the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found in the
Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no run was excluded
due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Before the practice started I did
some air-dribbling and ground dribbling with a soccer-ball-sized heavy
medicine ball. This seemed to throw me off for the first 10-15 minutes but
things improved after that.
Yesterday, I consumed about eight cod
liver oil pills right before practice. Seems this made a big difference.
Today I had no cod liver oil pills, did not feel nearly as peppy.
Today lots of runs, most of the
runs, were aborted after the 3rd touch so as to enable me to remember
data mentally recorded during the run, and conserve energy.
Watching the yard marker conflicts with continuing the run.
I did not feel royally spectacular today like
I did yesterday, but looking at the data table the performance
given the goals set for this drill was way up. The score was way
up today given my method of scoring. Looks like you get
performance-wise what you score highly.
Thinking things through carefully
yesterday and today, helped me to concentrate on the task at hand, which
is, not being spectacularly cool, but rather shrinking the distance
between touches while maintaining speed.
What happened after mis-touches (mistake on
the touch) on the second touch not recorded today.
Yet again I surprised
myself by improving so quickly, so quickly getting so much closer to the
goal I set for myself skill-wise. I think the main reason for this is that
I mentally disciplined myself to value a reduction in distance
between second and third touches while maintaining speed, as
opposed to spectacular 'coolness'.
I surprised
myself today by doing things that I had just yesterday thought were
impossible, such as catching the ball at full sprint with
my head, and then just one or two yards later touching the ball with my
foot or thigh without slowing down.
Faces in the
Crowd
A bespectacled clean-shaven dark-haired white
guy with graying hair who was wearing glasses was there in my side of the
gym for a little while today shooting baskets. His name was Mark. His
email address is, lest I forget, markbot5@gmail.com . He told me,
looking at all the cones I use for this drill, that he thought what
I was doing looked 'pretty sophisticated'. He was interested in reading
this soccer log you are now reading. I told him I would send him the link
to this hyar soccer log.
I told Mark about the soccer leagues for
people 50 years of age or older, he was shocked at the idea that I was 50
years old, I assured him that I was not 50 years old.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 632 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1124 words. Total 1756
words. Took approximately 72 minutes to write/type. Alot
of data entry involved.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
med thickness
black
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thursday
October 18 '07
Waltham Y Gym
748-948 PM |
52 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs;
15 min break;
53 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did yesterday, use the
L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs. The
object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip the
ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today the added innovation was to attempt
to continue the full speed sprint forwards after the 3rd touch
and head the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found in the
Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no run was excluded
due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Today again I found that keeping track
of the cones used as yard markers so as to keep track of the distance in
yards at which ball was touched, impaired performance.
During the first segment today, the first
half was strong from the first run, but the second half of the first
segment was not as good. The skill of doing difficult stuff is
there, but the conditioning needs to be improved.
I should consider
myself fortunate. It is alot easier to improve conditioning, than it is to
get to the point where you go out and the first time you touch the ball
with your feet you do something really hard.
I had the cod liver oil today, I was
not as peppy as the previous time with cod liver oil Tuesday, but
more peppy that yesterday. Tuesday came after a few days of runs aborted
after the first touch, which must have somehow been restful. Yesterday
I aborted the runs after the third touch.
Today I changed the cone marking the
7 yds from start point from being directly in the path of my run, to two
cones at 7 yds each to the side of the path of the run. This improved the
third touch with the foot performance, as the tendency is to
avoid knocking over cones, even if one tries to dispel oneself of the
tendency. It is a pain in the ass to reset a knocked over cone.
90% of these runs were directionally speaking
in the correct direction today. Many were so perfect directionally perfect
that the cones placed directly in the path of the run (11 yd and 15 yd
marker cones today) were almost run into but avoided, or indeed knocked
over.
Today I was not always recording what
happened after the last touch.
Today unlike most days I felt a need for
water in the middle of the second half.
It is an important
development that today I was regularly extending the runs to the 4th
touch, and often producing results that were cool combined with
disciplined on these 4 touch or more runs. I had not
expected to jump ahead to four touch runs so quickly, I was expecting to
be stuck doing runs aborted after the 3rd touch for a couple of more days.
Today I was aiming for
the 52 degree angle on the first kick whereas on the previous two days I
had been aiming for the 56 degree angle. This seemed to improve things.
Faces in the
Crowd
This white clean shaven approx six foot tall
guy with a crew-cut, in his twenties, who wears a sweatshirt that says
'Navy' on it, was in the gym with me shooting baskets the whole time,
although he took alot of long breaks. He has been in the gym with me after
the Pop Warner cheerleaders leave, in the evening, previously. Seems like
he is so absorbed in his basketball that he does not even notice me.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 737 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1074 words. Total 1811
words. Took approximately 69 minutes to write/type. Alot
of data entry involved. Looks like in past few days I have made real
improvement in terms of word output per minute despite the data
entry. I am becoming fast at data entry, mixing together numbers and weird
characters with letters of the alphabet. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thin green
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
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Sunday
October 21 '07
Waltham Y Gym
610-750 PM |
45 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs;
10 min break;
45 Minutes Extended L3H+Extension
Runs; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 18, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I sometimes attempted to continue
the full speed sprint forwards after the 3rd touch
and head/thigh/kick the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal
distance away from where the ball was touched for the 3rd
touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found in the
Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no run was excluded
due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Today I was wondering whether hidden purposes
are served by unconscious(?) variations from the exact intended course of
action on these runs. I might have been trying to paint a rosy picture of
what was simply a decline in performance compared to October 18, but I
sort of felt that variations from the intended course of action can reveal
new possibilities and add valuable data to the data table; I felt as if
the unconscious mind can express a kind of thirst for such data and such
new possibilities via variations not willed by the conscious mind.
Today I noticed that even if the second
touch is not made with the head as is intended, and the 3rd touch is not
made with the foot as intended, the alternating between foot/thigh and
head spirit of the drill is still adhered to when such alternation is
executed, and such imperfect alternation that is still indeed
alternation was executed a few times today.
I was wondering whether today I was off
because of my activities yesterday. Yesterday at dinner I had a
scotch & water and a glass of wine, then later in the evening about 50
oz beer around 11 PM. A problem with this is that drinks at dinner time
might be just fine for those at the dinner who woke up early in the
morning at the normal time; but the person at the dinner (example
me) who woke up late forgets that he has not been awake long enough
to have a drink without impairing himself mentally/physically.
Another possibility is that beer and
scotch simply cause more of a negative after-effect for the next day than
wine when it comes to performance in this kind of drill. I have
noticed that the days after drinking a significant amount of
Burgundy wine, have sometimes been excellent days featuring
significant improvement over previous days.
Then there is the problem of strange persons
who are constantly shouting when one is in their company, and the
disconcerting, stress-producing effect such persons can have. These people
talk at an extremely loud volume, and they are constanty talking.
I earned some extra money yesterday doing a
moving job for a constantly-shouting type of guy. He was constantly
shouting about his own good qualities and how bad people who abuse
him are. I was wearing 32-decibel ear-plugs and it was still almost
unbearable for me. Not only was he constantly shouting, and never
quiet, he was drunk the whole time that I was using my Honda Element to
move him from one place to another.
But I like the way my Honda Element pays for
its relatively low miles per gallon capability and its high price compared
to some other cars with usefulness for things like moving jobs extra money
can be earned on.
On October 18, it seems I had much
less of a problem with 'Yard Marker Cone Syndrome' (YMCS), the
name I have come up with for the phenomenon wherein performance on a touch
on the ball is impaired by the eye and the mind checking to see where the
marker cone showing distance from the start is at the time the ball is
touched, due to the need to obtain distance-from-start data.
I had a few cod liver oil pills before the
practice today, there did not seem to be a dramatic effect.
I aimed at the 52 degree angle again
today on the first kicks.
It could be that not having practiced
for two days was the reason for impaired performance, it could be
that the activities of Saturday was the reason, it could be a combo of
both, but what I felt intuitively during the practice was that the
drinking before being awake long enough, the beer and the scotch instead
of the wine, and the guy who I had agreed to do the moving job for being
drunk and constantly shouting, was more of a performance-inhibiting factor
than the layoff of two days.
Faces in the
Crowd
The tall black guy Donald who I used to call
'Black Buddha' and his black friend were in the gym shooting baskets while
I did 643, 646, 649, and 654 runs today.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 942 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1071 words. Total 2643
words. Took approximately 97 minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
med thickness black
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5
psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Monday
October 22 '07
Waltham Y Gym
413-626 PM |
133 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs; ; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 21, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found in the
Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no run was excluded
due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
The 1st 9 min segment today, there was no
special emphasis on forward-lean during the first kick or flip-up. 2nd 38
min segment, there was forward lean both during the flip-up and the kick.
3rd 86 min segment, there was forward lean during the first kick but not
during the flip-up preceding the 1st kick.
I was remembering how when I was first
developing the skill of kicking the ball forwards so as to head it at 3
yds on the sprint, leaning forwards during the 1st kick seemed to work
well. I did not remember all the details re this lean forward. In the 2nd
segment today I tested leaning forward during the flip-up AND the first
kick. In the 3rd segment I tested leaning forwards during the first kick
but NOT during the flip-up preceding the 1st kick.
Given that the object is to kick the
ball forward 3 yds, head it on the sprint and then kick the ball on the
sprint after going less than 4 yds further forwards: seems forward lean
during flip-up AND kick is worse than no-forward-lean-emphasis or
forward-lean-emphasis during 1st kick but not during preceding flip-up;
forward-lean-emphasis during 1st kick but not during preceding flip-up is
better than no-forward-lean-emphasis on low balls but worse on medium
balls.
The fact remains that it is possible that
variations such as forward-lean-emphasis during flip-up and 1st
kick, or forward-lean-emphasis during 1st kick but not during preceding
flip-up, are capable of producing more than usual
amounts of certain kinds of runs that might sometimes be needed,
and are capable of producing a change-of-pace and surprise.
COS meaning 'caught on sprint' is an
approximation term. It means I was running at at least 90% of maximum
sprint speed when I touched the ball. Day by day my forward speed on the
second and third touches is getting faster and faster as ball control and
sprinting speed improve--this makes accurate kicks etc on the 3rd touch so
as to set up a 4th touch more difficult.
Today I saw more balls being caught
on the sprint at 2 yds as opposed to 3 yds--this is an example of
variation from intent producing desirable result (tighten up distance
between touches); it has to do, it seems, with forward lean of body
on 1st kick with left foot producing more 2-yarders.
Generally it seems forward lean on
1st flip-up AND 1st kick produces the lowest balls, no forward-lean
emphasis produces the highest balls and forward-lean-emphasis on 1st kick
but not on preceding flip-up is in the middle in terms of height of balls
produced by 1st kick.
There were good points in the
performance today that I gloomily failed to notice while practicing but
did notice after the minute by minute reports were typed up. Today there
seemed to be an improvement in terms of the number of fast 4 touch runs
featuring minimal distance run between touches on the ball.
Indicates emphasis on minimizing distance between touches is producing
results.
I had a few cod liver oil pills before the
practice today, there did not seem to be a dramatic effect.
I aimed at the 52 degree angle again
today on the first kicks.
Faces in the
Crowd
While I was in the gym practicing various
people were in and out of the gym such as the white young man shooting
baskets, the East Asian woman and her daughter, two short stocky white
guys who work at the Y who were checking the ceiling lights above the area
of the gym where I practice, this dark East Asian teenager guy who works
at the Y and wears military T-shirts etc alot and practices Karate, my
personal name for min is the 'Karate Kid', & the white adult
volleyballers who took over the gym at 630 PM.
The E. Asian woman's daughter got in the way,
I was politely quiet and patient, her mother called her out of the way.
The E. Asian woman looked at me before she left the gym and said,
"Bhayya!". "Bhayya" or "Bhaia" or "Bhaya" is Hindi for "brother". I
was surprised. I think there is also some area of Brazil called 'Bhaya' or
something like that
One of the guys who work at the Y, while
slowly wandering around looking at the ceiling lights knocked one of the
cones out of place with is foot, which surprised me. I was quiet about
it.
A white adult female volleyballer starting
picking up the marker cones I had set up at about 615 PM while I was
absorbed in making notes in my notebook. I explained to her what I was
doing and put the cones back in place. The way she moved the cones out of
the way reminded me of some little kid. The little kids at the Y for some
reason love to waddle out to the cones I set up and move their
position etc etc.
A couple of days ago, one little white kid of
about four years old walked out to one of the cones I had set up and
started moving it; I explained as politely as I could in as nice a voice
as I could that the cone should not be moved; and the child ran back to
its mother's embrace and cried and cried, all because I had told the child
to not move the cone.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1167 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1190 words. Total 2357
words. Took approximately 117 minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
black sweat-socks
socks got sort of folded out of place in
front of left foot
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5
psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tuesday
October 23 '07
Waltham Y Gym
357-557 PM |
120 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs; ; |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 22, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant'
aberration.
Today I found that as I had
suspected, a slight slowdown from the full speed sprint speed, allows for
perfect, short distance between touches adherence to the intended LHKH
pattern, which involves the first touch being a kick with the
left foot, the second touch being a header, the third touch being a kick
with one of the feet, and the fourth touch being a header, with ideally no
more than 4 yds distance between touches at a high speed, with the
ball never touching the ground.
You can find some comments of the
type that used to be found in this section of the log
entries, inserted attached to the entries for today in the table
created Oct 16 that is found in the Oct 16 entry.
At least today we see overcompensation,
the ball kicked straight up on the 3rd touch to compensate for it being
often kicked too far on the 3rd touch, such is a good sign.
Today again I noticed that this drill
requires alot of mental concentration, and as the practice drags
on I get tired of all the intense mental
concentration.
As a result of ever-rising expectations, runs
I would be crowing about, excited about when I first started this drill a
few days ago, do nothing to disrupt my general sense of gloom during the
practice.
But gloomy though I may be during
practice, I can for the first time report today that the practice
gave me confidence that this battle of mastering this skill
wherein the LHKH pattern is adhered to with small distances (< 5
yds) between touches at a high speed, will indeed soon be
won.
Not only that, but I can see from
today's practice that I will soon master skills that are similar to but
more difficult that the LHKH pattern with less than 5 yds between
touches, (skills I once thought impossible) such as 4 touch runs at
high speed featuring less than 4 yds between touches.
Again I had a few cod liver oil pills before
the practice today, again there did not seem to be a dramatic effect,
but maybe that is because I have had the cod liver oil before practice a
few days in a row now. Actually compared to how things were before I took
the cod liver oil before the practice, I feel much less tired--but maybe
this reflects improvements in conditioning that are not a result of cod
liver oil intake.
I aimed at the 52 degree angle again
today on the first kicks.
Faces in the
Crowd
Six of the junior high school age Hispanic
boys were playing a full court soccer game when I got to the gym, they
were using a volleyball which is very light compared to a soccer ball.
When I re-entered the gym after going to the
locker room, a short stocky clean-shaven young white male who works at the
Y got the cones out of the closet for me, he told me I could ignore the
Hispanic boys and set up my drill on half of the gym. I set up the cones
and the Hispanic boys just quietly stopped their full court game without
complaint. I was impressed by them and by the YMCA worker for not impeding
my practice drills.
Around the time of the second run of the day,
around 359 PM, I hustled a little to retrieve a ball for the Hispanic
boys. Eduardo said to me, 'you're so fast'.
I told Eduardo (the truth as far as I
can tell) that someone who is famous and important said that I was a
'Pele'. I told him that it was a secret who said this. Eduardo did
not scoff, he and the boys he was with gave me no lip about
this.
From 357 to 430 PM, the majority of the time
the gym I was practicing in contained Hispanic boys, and/or a young white
man shooting baskets, and/or the pretty young white female with the
straight brown hair who was working at the front desk. This front-desk
girl had a long conversation with the boys in the far corner of the
gym as she watched me doing the drills.
457 PM Eduardo returned to the gym. He told
me that he wants to be my coach. He barked at me not to walk in between
air-dribble runs. I told him I would note his suggestion re not walking
but that I would not implement it immediately.
Eduardo asked me if I knew about Santos, a
Mexican who plays for Barcelona. He said his three interests were, Mexican
soccer, cars, and "P----", a name for a cat that also in slang refers to a
part of the female anatomy.
Eduardo told me I should be on a team in a
league. But I find a problem with these teams, is that they are loaded up
with players and cannot take anybody new. I told Eduardo how the smart
coaches say that scrimmaging (playing in games) is over-rated and
overdone.
Eduardo sat on the bleachers near me and
talked with me between runs from 500 to 521. His email address, lest I
forget, is erik9147@hotmail.com
.
530 PM the middle-aged white woman who works
at the front desk, the one with the short brown hair, came
into the gym, some alarm had gone off. She said that Hispanic boys are
"excellent" kids, she talked of how impressed she was by Edgar ( he was at
the gym today), the Waltham High School soccer star who she had seen
playing in their games. And I was thinking, this woman thinks these boys
are 'excellent'--but to me they seem to be less than 'excellent', because
of their lustfulness.
Note: one reason for such detail in this
section is that it reminds me that I can perform while people are watching
me closely. Another is that such detail is evidence that I am not
lying about what goes on during practices.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1241 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1223 words. Total 2464
words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
black soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wednesday
October 24 '07
Waltham Y Gym
757-945 PM |
108 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
5mg nature's bounty maximum strength
Melatonin eaten 20 hours before practice; drank 0.75 liters Carlo Rossi
Chianti wine 22 hours before practice; today was a NC day. What NC means
is a secret |
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 23, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant'
aberration.
At 811 PM today I started retching, even
threw up a little bit. I had tangerine juice, coffee w non-dairy creamer
& sugar, and 2 'samosas' & cod liver oil before
practice.
Today there were these long runs with lots of
touches which took a long time to record in the notes.
Today the balls between touches
followed a chip-like, lob-like trajectory more often than in the
past, this was not always reported in the run descriptions
in the Oct 16 data table, because long several touch runs take so much
time to report. These chip like kicks have the advantage that the ball can
be sent over the defender's heads giving them no chance to intercept.
Today the kicks with the foot on the
3rd touch of the runs several times almost set up a header on the 4th
touch of the runs, which is a step in the right
direction.
Today was an incredible day from the
2nd touch with the head on, but the first kick was off
today.
Today there was dramatic very
significant improvement in terms of things happening after the first kick
from the second touch on: short and very short distances between touches
and alternation between foot/thigh and head at high speed with the ball
never touching the ground.
I aimed at the 52 degree angle again
today on the first kicks.
Faces in the
Crowd
The Pop Warner cheerleaders were in the gym
before practice (looked like grade-school age and junior-high school age
girls). As they were leaving the gym and I was getting set up, I heard one
of them say in a loud voice, 'he's a Pele'. Then when I went to KFC I am
fairly certain that the nice Haitian man who is the manager there, said to
me in a low tone of voice as I was making my order, 'you're a Pele'. I
keep feeling as if nobody sees my best runs but I guess some people are
noticing.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 568 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1120 words. Total 1688
words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thin green soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thursday
October 25 '07
Waltham Y Gym
753-945 PM |
112 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours; drank 0.75
liters Carlo Rossi Chianti wine 22 hours before practice; today was a NC
day. What NC means is a secret.
Before practice had cod liver oil, fish oil,
wheat germ oil, hemp oil, mineral pill, Mcdonald's hamburger, Burger-King
hamburger
Ate little 24 hours previous to
practice
|
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 24, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant'
aberration.
The first 5 runs of the day today (with no
warm-up activities) were all boldface red runs (see scoring system Oct 16
entry) with the intended LHKH pattern adhered to on 2 of them.
Today I managed to adhere to the 5-touch
LHKHK pattern several times, whereas my goal has been merely to
adhere to the 4-touch LHKH pattern (abbreviations explained in Oct 16
entry).
Again today I felt taht feeling, that things
will just get worse for the second half of the practice, which makes me
feel kike ending the practice prematurely.
Yet today I felt that I was learning how to
overcome that 'I feel like quitting early because I'm doing well'
syndrome, which impairs performance. You just sort of bear down and
concentrate and try hard even though you feel like going home and ending
the practice early.
Faces in the
Crowd
4 black young adults were in the gym while
with me while I was practicing from 753 to 844 PM. At 826 PM they had a
big argument regarding whether one of them had committed the 'traveling'
foul while dribbling the basketball. They shouted questions at me, such as
'did you see that!?!', 'he traveled!'...'no I did not!' etc etc. And I was
thinking to myself, I was doing spectacular things right in front of them
and they said nothing, yet at the same time they think the big thing of
the evening is whether one of them committed the 'traveling' infraction in
basketball, and they expect me to have noticed whether he did or did not.
Then from about 844 PM to 911 PM a white guy
wearing a 'city basketball' jersey and a hispanic teenager were shooting
baskets.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 519 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1051 words. Total 1570
words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
med thickness
black soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Saturday
October 27 '07
Waltham Y Gym
456-750 PM |
174 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 1 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine approx 21 hours before practice; today was a NC day. What
NC means is a secret. Also a NCG day, another secret.
Before practice had cod liver oil, wheat germ
oil, a pea Samosa, cup coffee (coffee in past not recorded when consumed);
during break between segments had 2 small pieces of 'Jalebi' (Indian sweet
looks like gold pretzel)
Ate little 24 hours previous to practice but
ate the 32 bean Whole Foods mix
|
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 25, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
All this is supposed to be done without
the ball hitting the ground.
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Notes of the type that used to be found in this section are attached to
the runs in the Oct 16 entry table.
The first six runs in the first 27
minutes today (not counting the run that was grounded at 0 yds), were
incredible. There was no warm-up with the ball prior to the first
run-nevertheless: the 1st, 2nd, and 6th runs all adhered to the
LHKHK pattern at a sprint; the 4th run adhered to the LHKH pattern a
little shorter than LHKHK at a sprint; and all six of the runs
covered at least 13 yds before running into the wall at the far end of the
gym, at a sprint, with tight control, and the ball never hitting the
ground.
The pattern seems to be that I forge
ahead in a different way every day.
I know we are supposed to say our prayers
secretly where nobody can see us but this is science: today
before every run I said the "Our Father who Art in Heaven..." prayer.
The problem with the performance
level decreasing as the practice drags on seems to be mental
exhaustion, not physical exhaustion. Then again one could say that in an
activity so precise, even an almost un-noticeable level of physical
exhaustion could throw things off, though this effect should
lessen as skills increase.
Today it felt like, the performance
level declined as the practice dragged on because I drank too much wine
the day before, and/or did not eat enough in the 24 hours prior to the
practice.
Seems the angle of the face when the
ball is headed (face pointed up or pointed straight ahead) is a key factor
on the headers in this drill.
Seems the lesson of the day for me is: I am
at the point where I can for extended periods of time be a soccer God, but
I have to cut down on the wine consumption--which sort of
reflects the meaning of the words in the Lord's Prayer.
Seems like as of now, there is a limited
amount of 'soccer god' available in me for reach practice and once this
limited amount of 'god' gets used up, I am back to being a mortal.
Prior to the second segment I had a
snack--two very small pieces of the Indian sweet 'Jalaybee' (dont
know exact spelling looks like a gold pretzel) (there are tons of Indian
grocery stores in my neigborhood); this very small snack seemed to
be helpful in terms of bringing performance back up. Seems a snack
can ward off not just physical but also mental
fatigue.
Like I said before, being able to be god-like
without a warm-up is better than being in shape, because it is easy,
simple, to get in shape.
It was hotter in the gym today than it
has been for weeks, almost uncomfortable hot.
Faces in the
Crowd
In summary suffice it to say for now that
today it feels like these black/white locals could watch you walk on water
and they would do nothing but pout--and this is discouraging. Seems the
brown hispanics conform themselves to be silent like the black/whites when
they are hanging out with the black/whites.
At the beginning at 456 PM, there were two
approx ten year old white grade school boys playing basketball in the far
side of the gym, and in the near side of the gym there were four teenagers
playing basketball, seems 3 of them were white and one of them was
brown/hispanic. By 535 PM the two grade school boys were gone. 545 a white
young adult male entered the gym and shot baskets. 556 PM the gym
contained myself, the four basketball teenagers, a middle aged white man
with a two year old daughter, and a bespectacled white grade school boy.
615 PM Donald, who I used to call 'Black Buddha' joined the teenage boys
to play basketball ith them, the solitary young adult white male
basketballer and the man and his little daughter left. 635 PM two of the
teen-age basketballers were still hanging around. About 700 PM 2 young
adult white males, a black teenager, and a brown teenager entered to play
basketball. 711 PM two over-weight white teenage females entered to play
basketball.
The teenage basketballers saw me while I was
red-hot the first half-hour and said nothing--but at least they did not
complain about all the cones, one of the cones I must admit was somewhat
in their way. At 743 PM I had a fantastic high speed tightly controlled
long air-dribble run, while one of the basketballers was on my left and
the other on my right throwing a football back and forth. I remember one
of the basketballers was this six foot tall thin bald bearded bespectacled
guy. They saw the great 743 PM run and said nothing. But at least the two
grade school boys who were in the gym at the beginning looked sort of wide
eyed and shocked. I remember one of them wore a yellow shirt and the other
a red shirt. I think one of them said in a very quiet small voice, 'he's
God...'--but I am not sure, hard to be sure of things when people speak at
a low volume and you are wearing ear-plugs.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1131 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1483 words.
Total 2614 words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
med thickness
blue soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sunday
October 28 '07
Waltham Y Gym
633-748 PM |
75 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx ? liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine approx ? hours before practice; today was a NC day.
Also a 1-CG day
Before practice consumed ???
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 27, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
The ideal that I strove for, was: 1st
touch--left foot; 2nd touch-header; 3rd touch--foot; 4th touch--header;
5th touch--foot. The ideal I strove for was, that all this should be done
at a sprint, with the ball never touching the ground, with the 1st touch
at 0 yds; 2nd touch: 3 yds; 3rd touch: 7 yds; 4th touch: 11 yds; 5th
touch: 15 yds
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Notes of the type that used to be found in this section may
be attached to the runs in the Oct 16 entry table.
The notes taken during the practice session
were very laconic this time, maybe because I had only 75
minutes.
During the practice session I felt
like I was regressing from my performance on October 27. I felt
like today was the first day in weeks, on which I did not excel my
performance of the previous day. This because I was not as
successful at adhering to the LHKH pattern, meaning, ball kicked
with left foot on first touch, headed on 2nd touch, kicked with left or
right foot on 3rd touch, and headed on 4th touch.
But after I typed up this entry working from
the notebook notes made on Oct 28 on Oct 31 wednesday
night, what I felt was this: even if I
am failing to adhere to the LHKH pattern, the air-dribble runs are often
spectacular, tight, fast, traveling a long distance without a bounce, and
are distinctly and significantly superior to the air-dribble runs I used
to do before I started the LHKH drills on October 16 twelve days
ago. This because they are faster, tighter in the sense of
distance between touches, & fail in the sense of the ball bouncing
along the way or getting out of control a lesser percentage of the time.
In other words,
constantly attempting to adhere to the LHKH pattern on the
air-dribble runs, improved my performance on air-dribble runs in which the
LHKH pattern was not adhered to.
The LHKH pattern was decided upon after
reviewing what happened when I would do the drills in which I would
intercept the ball after it bounced off the wall and start an
air-dribble. I had concluded that the LHKH pattern was the natural
typical pattern when commencing an air-dribble off of a ball that bounces
towards one or come towards one on the fly. Could be that as
I evolve as a player other patterns might become more common and natural
on such air-dribble runs.
Thus not to
under-estimate the importance of the improvement in terms of
air-dribble runs that deviate from the intended LHKH pattern.
The whole point of these drills
featuring an attempt to adhere to the LHKH pattern is the
improvement of the air-dribble that is commenced off a ball bouncing
towards me or volleyed in the air towards me.
It would be sort
of like a nutty coach, or a crazy general in a movie, to get obsessed with
what percentage of the time I succeed in adhering exactly to the intended
LHKH pattern. Nevertheless keeping in mind what percentage of
the time I succeed in exactly adhering to the LHKH pattern is
important, a good motivator, helps to improve performance in terms
of adhering to LHKH pattern and otherwise.
Seems performance would
be better than today if time between when out of bed and when
practice begins were increased.
Faces in the
Crowd
None the gym was empty this practice session
save for myself
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 787 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 696 words.
Total 1483 words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. Written-typed on night of Wednesday Oct 31, after Wednesday
Oct 31 practice. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
??? soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wednesday
October 31 '07
Waltham Y Gym
749-949 PM |
120 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx ? liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine approx 1 liter wine in 24 hours before practice; today
was a NC day. Also a 0.25-CG day.
Before practice consumed 1 coffee with cream
& sugar, pizza slice crusts, wheat germ oil, hemp oil, vitamin E, fish
oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, 6 oz water
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I missed soccer practice on October 29 &
October 30. My guess is that stress-producing messages left on my
answering machine by a rejected-by-society, panicky guy, is one reason I
missed the practices. Seems the spirits of persons are contagious, and
some spirits are more contagious than others. Rejected-by-society panicky
types and drunks seems to have especially contagious spirits. Another
contributing factor could be that avoiding CGs & the NC lifestyle have
in some ways made me lazier.
I repeated what I did October 28, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
The ideal that I strove for, was: 1st
touch--left foot; 2nd touch-header; 3rd touch--foot; 4th touch--header;
5th touch--foot. The ideal I strove for was, that all this should be done
at a sprint, with the ball never touching the ground, with the 1st touch
at 0 yds; 2nd touch: 3 yds; 3rd touch: 7 yds; 4th touch: 11 yds; 5th
touch: 15 yds
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Notes of the type that used to be found in this section may
be attached to the runs in the Oct 16 entry table.
Today the long fast non-LHKH pattern
runs were being done much better than before I started the drill
attempting the LHKH pattern on October 16.
The main problem
today as on October 28 seems to be, not enough time between when out of
bed, and start of practice, impairs performance. On Oct 28 I felt I
did not equal the performance of Oct 27, and today Oct 31 again I
did not feel I equalled Oct 27.
Today I did not have the advantage of
being able to see the typed up report re the previous day's
practice, as the report re the previous day's practice was not
typed up until after today's practice.
Faces in the
Crowd
Jose the maintenance man from Brazil entered
the gym approx 915 PM and chatted with me. He told me he is from Rio De
Janeiro in Brazil. His friend was at that time taking his little son
swimming. He asked me when I started playing soccer I told him when I was
about seven years old. He said that on Saturdays he goes to Providence
Rhode Island to play soccer with a bunch of Brazilians who drink beer and
smoke cigars while they play soccer. He said there is a crime problem in
the big cities in Brazil. He said he has lived in Australia and also in
Canada; he said his wife is Italian. He said it is very good for him (I
think he means financially) to be in the USA.
The way Jose looked at me when I told
him I had been playing since I was seven, and something else he said, and
the way he looked when I told him about the Brazilians at the Oak Sq Y on
Tuesday nights, gave me the feeling that he had some kind of contempt for
the Oak Sq Y, mainly because of how Tariq had implied that I was an
inexperienced player--seemed that somehow he had read my soccer log that
you are reading here or heard something through the grapevine.
I tried to explain to Jose how the heat and
the humidity at Oak Sq Y impaired my performance.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 709 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1139 words.
Total 1848 words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type. Written-typed on night of Wednesday Oct 31, after Wednesday
Oct 31 practice. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thin white soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Thursday
November 1 '07
Waltham Y Gym
804-950 PM |
106 minutes L3H+Extension
Runs;
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 1 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a C day (c does not
stand for cocaine). Also a 3-CG day.
Before practice consumed 1 coffee with cream
& sugar, 2 slices Borowsky 12-grain bread, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine
juice
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
Felt a little melancholic from listening to
somewhat-melancholic ('For Everman') Jackson Browne tunes the evening
before (IMHO Browne was an excellent artist but some of his tunes can
produce melancholic nostalgia in me)
Note: for a few weeks now I have been avoiding garlic as
it is supposed to slow reaction times.
|
Extended L3H Air-Dribble Runs, Runs
Continued Beyond the Header after the First Kick
Emphasis on reducing distance
between 2nd & 3rd touch while maintaining
speed
Runs extended to 4th
touch
I repeated what I did October 31, use
the L3H Method 5 (see previous entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The object again as yesterday was to roll the ball back, flip
the ball up, kick the ball with the left (1st touch), sprint 3 yds
forwards at full speed and head the ball (2nd touch); continue the full
speed sprint and kick the ball at a point a minimal distance away from the
2nd touch point (3rd touch).
And today I usually attempted to
continue the sprint forwards after the 3rd touch and head/thigh/kick
the ball (4th touch) at a point a minimal distance away
from where the ball was touched for the 3rd touch.
The ideal that I strove for, was: 1st
touch--left foot; 2nd touch-header; 3rd touch--foot; 4th touch--header;
5th touch--foot. The ideal I strove for was, that all this should be done
at a sprint, with the ball never touching the ground, with the 1st touch
at 0 yds; 2nd touch: 3 yds; 3rd touch: 7 yds; 4th touch: 11 yds; 5th
touch: 15 yds
Today I recorded in the table found
in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, every run made today, again no
run was excluded due to it being supposedly an 'insignificant' aberration.
Notes of the type that used to be found in this section may
be attached to the runs in the Oct 16 entry table.
Again today I was aiming for 52 degree angle on the
first kick this is the angle I aim for unless otherwise noted.
Notes taken during practice laconic. Felt unusually
tired during the practice. After the practice I felt that: I started out
strong, then got worse at about the half-way point, then got better
towards the end; there was alot of success adhering to the LHKH
pattern today.
Seems that when before the run I remind myself
to try to do the LHKH pattern, then I succeed in doing the LHKH
pattern.
Faces in the
Crowd
The Pop Warner cheerleaders were supposed to
be out at 730 PM, they did not get out until 755 PM. This adult white
female was angrily shouting at about a dozen of them, right in the middle
of the basketball court, until 755 PM. I could not make out what she was
saying, I was wearing earplugs, I was resting my mind and hearing her
shout without understanding what she was saying.
There was a young white clean-shaven adult male
shooting baskets in the gym while I was there from the beginning at 804
PM. He wore white sleeveless T-shirt, yellow pants with a black letter M
on them. In the past I have seen him wearing a 'Navy' sweatshirt.
When he dribbled the basketball it hit the ground so hard that it
made a thunderous noise, & I was wearing earplugs. 846 PM a black male
teenage basketballer entered the gym. 851 PM the white basketballer
exited. 900 PM the white basketballer re-entered. 916 PM the white
basketball re-entered after having left again and the black basketballer
exited. 934 PM the white basketballer exited.
I turned around after finishing one of the best runs of
the day and caught the white basketballer looking at me as he picked up
the basketball. His eyes were big and wide and he had a wry half-smile,
Mona-Lisa type smile on his face.
Likewise I turned around after finishing another of my
best runs of the day, & the white hispanic lady with the bushy black
hair who mops the gym floor was looking at the floor, with the same wry
Mona-Lisa type half-smile on her face.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 699 words in length, plus the additions to the the
Tuesday Oct 16 table made today, amounted to 1109 words.
Total 1808 words. Took approximately ??? minutes to
write/type.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
thick maroon
(as in U-high Maroons my
high school
team) soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 p |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Saturday
Nov 3 |
Historical Analysis of
Oct 16 Table Data |
Table Showing
Historical Performance in Achieving LHKH, LHKH+
Pattern
Based on Data in Table in Oct 16
Entry
The table shows for each practice
session the number of times the LHKH, LHKHK, LHKHKH, & LHKHKHK or longer pattern was
achieved. LHKH means the pattern of air dribble
forwards featuring on first touch ball kicked with left, on
2nd touch ball headed, on third touch ball kicked/hit with thigh, on
4th touch ball headed. LHKHK is the same with an additional kick/thigh-hit
at the end; LHKHKH is the same as LHKHK with an additional header at
the end; LHKHKHK is the same as LHKHKH with an additional kick/thigh-hit
at the end. For each date the number of runs adhering to each
pattern is shown, the top number in a table cell shows the
number of runs started with a low ball that adhered to the pattern,
the middle number in a cell shows the number of runs started with a
medium ball that adhered to the pattern, the bottom number in a cell
shows the number of runs starting with a high ball that adhered to the
given pattern. An LHKH run is awarded 4 points, a LHKHK run is
awarded 5 points, a LHKHKH run is awarded 6 points, and a LHKHKHK (or
longer featuring head vs thigh/foot alternation run is awarded 7
points.
You might say, what an over-attention to
detail, but I have already recorded in previous entries in this log, how
it appears that you get what you score for in terms of
performance. Meaning, that when you score a practice session so
as to give a high score to certain kinds of performance, you get
improvement in the kind of performance that is scored highly.
On November 1 there were 0.27 runs per
minute, the runs were not so numerous because of the time spent noting the
results of each run. If the average score for each run was 5 points as
awarded for a LHKHK run, this would come to 1.35 points per
minute. Thus I estimate that a score of 1.35 runs per minute is a
Greek-God type of score and status.
On Oct 18 my score was 0.08 points per
minute. On November 1 it was 0.43 points per minute. That amounts to a
0.35 rise over 14 days, 2 weeks. So I now estimate that I will reach this
Greek-God type level, five weeks from today, assuming that every two weeks
my points per minute score rises by 0.35.
Alternatively you could say (simply
be using a compound interest calculator in an unorthodox way) (
http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm ) that over the past 2 weeks my points per minute has
been rising by 12.8 percent per day, and so therefore if the points per
minute keeps rising at a rate of 12.8 percent a day, I will be at the
'godly' level of 1.35 points per minute in 9.5 days.
Averaging 9.5 days and five weeks
which is 35 days you get 22 days, 3 weeks as the amount of time it
will take for me to reach the 'Greek-God' type level of 1.35 points per
minute.
Subjectively speaking, it has felt like it
has been such rough going to get to the point of 0.43 points per minute
that I am now at, that it feels as if it would take much longer to attain
to 1.35 points per minute.
It should be kept in mind that on these runs
there is always a very strong emphasis on speed and keeping the ball off
the ground, and keeping the ball tightly controlled. For example I never
on the 3rd touch with the foot, attempt to merely kick the ball so that it
bounces and then bend down and head it. I always try to on the 3rd touch
kick the ball up so that I can head it at a point a minimal distance away
from the 3rd touch point at high speed. Were I to de-emphasize speed,
being so to speak 'airborne' or keeping the ball off the ground, and
tightness of control or minimal distance run between touches, I might be
able to get my score in terms of points per minute up to a higher level,
but I do not intend to de-emphasize these things.
Clerical Note: This Entry is
1152 words in length
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Friday
November 9 '07
Waltham Y Gym
927 AM-1200
Noon |
80 minutes researching footwork pattern on LHKHK
Runs
73 minutes LHKHK Run Attempts Adhering to Footwork
Pattern
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0.2 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a C day (c does not
stand for cocaine). Also a 4-CG day.
Before practice consumed 2 coffee with
cream & sugar, 2 slices Borowsky 12-grain bread each with a 'natural'
no artificial ingredients Oscar Mayer hot dogs, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
Return to Practice After 8 Day
Rest
First Morning Practice in A Long
Time
The practice started at 927 AM, been a long time since I
last practiced in the morning. For various reasons I missed practice for 8
days. I realized that I had to get in the habit of practicing in the
morning. I felt too decrepit to do it but I did it, as usual once I had
been practicing for 20 minutes I no longer felt too decrepit to do the
practice.
Research Into Footwork Pattern on
LHKH+ Runs
I had concluded that I should get a detailed
understanding of what the footwork pattern is on successful LHKHK runs. I
did several LH runs with the ball while watching my footwork pattern.
Then I figured out the subsequent footwork patterns without the ball by
sprinting past marker cones.
I concluded that the pattern on an ideal full-speed
LHKHK Run is as follows:
LK(1) LRL H(2)R LR LK(3) RL H(4) RL
RK(5)
Meaning: I roll the ball back with my left foot, flip it
up with my left foot, kick it forward with my left foot (1st touch); then
I step forward with my left foot meaning I put my left foot forwards, step
forward with my right foot, step forward with my left foot, step forward
with my right foot and head the ball a moment before my right foot hits
the ground (2nd touch); step forward with my left, step forward with my
right, step forward with my left and kick the ball with my left
foot a moment before the left foot touches the ground (3rd touch);
step forward putting my right foot forwards, step
forward putting my left foot forward, step forward putting my right
foot forward and head the ball before the right foot touches the ground
(4th touch); and, step forward with my left foot, step forward with my
right foot and kick the ball a moment before the right foot touches the
ground (5th touch).
LHKH+ Air-Dribble
Runs
Emphasis on Footwork
Pattern
I had decided that I should do the LHKH+ Runs
based on footwork pattern instead of based on visual sighting of cones. Up
until today I would use cones marking the 3, 7, 11, and 15 yard distances
from the start, to guide me with regards to where I would attempt to place
the ball during the air-dribble runs.
What I mean by based on footwork pattern, is that for
example the mind is instructed to head the ball, step forward with the
left, step forward with the right, and then kick the ball with the left;
in this method the cone markers are not used to target the
ball.
My hypothesis before I started today's practice was that
I will accelerate improvement by combining the visual eye on cone marker
method used in past days, with the number of paces method used
today, with regards to using the mind to spot the ball on the
touches.
Previously when I had improved my ground dribbling,
I improved by dribbling in patterns such as kick with left, step
forward with right, step forward with left, kick with right and etc. This
kind of pattern practice resulting in me resembling a 'natural' dribbler
from a 'soccer country' much more.
Also, again, previously
when I had improved my air-dribbling, I improved by dribbling in
patterns such as kick with left, step forward with right, step forward
with left, kick with right and etc.
So I did LHKH+ Air Dribble Runs from 1047-1200 based on
footwork/headwork pattern, meaning I attempted to adhere to the exact
footwork pattern described above, the 'LK(1) LRL H(2)R LR
LK(3) RL H(4) RL RK(5)' pattern on each run. I ran the runs at a slower
pace than the usual full speed sprint, due to the added difficulty of the
precision of attempting to take exactly the same steps between touches and
touching the ball in exactly the same way on each
touch.
I used the L3H Method 5 (see previous
entries) for the first kick of the runs.
The ideal that I strove for, was: 1st
touch--left foot; 2nd touch-header; 3rd touch--foot; 4th touch--header;
5th touch--foot. The ideal I strove for was, that all this should be done
at about 70% of full sprint speed, with the ball never touching the
ground, with the 1st touch at 0 yds; 2nd touch: 3 yds; 3rd touch: 7 yds;
4th touch: 11 yds; 5th touch: 15 yds
Today for a change I DID NOT record
in the table found in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, any of
the runs made today, I had decided that I needed time
doing some runs without keeping track of exactly what happened on each run
or keeping score. Could be simply not keeping record of what
happened on each run, not keeping score, could be a better relaxing change
of pace than say swimming, in terms of the effect on overall soccer
performance.
Today I was aiming for the 60 degree angle on
the first kick as I was trying to slow things down.
From 1047 to 1200 PM in 73 minutes I achieved (ball
not bouncing during the run): the LHK pattern several times; the LHKH
pattern 10 times; and the LHKHK pattern 2 times.
Faces in the
Crowd
The white young adult female in charge of the 'Sports
Movement' class which is scheduled to be from 1000-1045 AM in one half of
the gym, came up to me to make the false claim that the whole gym belonged
to her. But they figured out she was wrong.
The middle-aged white basketball guys took over the gym
at noon for their basketball game. I took special note of this a little
below average in height white guy with a brown mustache. I remembered
how once when I was practicing soccer while they were playing basketball
on the other side, during 'open gym', he complained about how if the
soccer ball rolled into their basketball game one of them could break an
ankle, and this comment of his had disgusted me, I remember he was wearing
some kind of Fire Dept T-shirt when he had said this, this was months
before the fire that killed the two fire-fighters in the area.
Today he was wearing this T-shirt that said 'Raiders' on
the front; and on the back it said, 'play hard or go home'; on the back
there was a picture of a black haired clean-shaven white guy with red
cheeks wearing a red headband, with a feather at the front of the
headband, looking down at the ground and walking somewhere, I think maybe
carrying a white flag, I suppose this was supposed to be the idea of
the guy who did not play hard who was being banished to go home. This
image of the banished reminded me too much of myself. I often wear a red
headband, I am clean-shaven, I am a type of white, I have black hair, I am
not the most upbeat or hard-working guy, I've been avoiding
basketball.
But I still remember how years ago when I dabbled in
basketball, shooting baskets at the Waltham Y, I got to the point where I
could succeed on 40% of my attempts with this shot which was a running
jump shot from 24 feet which is the pro distance for 3 point shots
(college distance for 3 pt is 21 feet).
Maybe I should dabble in basketball games with these
guys. But to do that I would have to be in good shape...things that cause
stress to me, screw up my attempts to get in good shape.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1350 words in length. Took approximately ???
minutes to write/type.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
med thick blue
soccer socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 p |
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Saturday
November 10 '07
Waltham Y Gym
1005 AM-1200
Noon |
115 minutes LHKHK Run Attempts Adhering to Footwork
Pattern
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0.2 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a C day. Also a 4-CG
day.
Before practice consumed 1.5 cups coffee
with non-dairy cream & cane sugar, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
LHKH+ Air-Dribble
Runs
Emphasis on Footwork
Pattern
Again I did the LHKH+ Runs based on
footwork pattern instead of based on visual sighting of cones. Up until
today I would use cones marking the 3, 7, 11, and 15 yard distances from
the start, to guide me with regards to where I would attempt to place the
ball during the air-dribble runs.
I used the L3H Method 5 (see previous
entries) for the first kick of the runs.
Today again I DID NOT record in
the table found in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, any of
the runs made today, again I did the runs without
keeping track of exactly what happened on each run.
Today again I was aiming for the
60 degree angle on the first kick as I was trying to slow things
down.
From 1005 to 1100 AM in 55 minutes I
achieved (ball not bouncing during the run): the LHK pattern several
times; the LHKH pattern 12 times; the LHKHK pattern 4 times; LHKHKH 2
times; LHKHKHK 1 time; and LHKHKHKH 2 times.
Thus by the system of scoring introduced
previously, in which LHKH is 4 pts, LHKHK 5, LHKHKH 6, LHKHKHK 7, and
LHKHKHKH 8 points, in the first 55 minutes there were 103 points, which comes to 1.9 points per minute.
From 1100 AM to 1200 noon, I achieved (ball
not bouncing during the run): the LHK pattern several times; the LHKH
pattern 14 times; the LHKHK pattern 8 times; LHKHKH 0 times;
LHKHKHK 0 times; and LHKHKHKH 0 times. Thus 2nd half in 60
minutes the score was 96 points in 60 minutes, 1.6 points per minute.
Total for day, 199 points in 115 minutes, 1.73 pts per
minute.
Yesterday on Nov 9, there were 50 points in 73
minutes, 0.68 points per minute.
Previously on Nov 1 (see table Nov 3 entry), the score
was 0.43 points per minute, but on Nov 1 the drill was different, the
emphasis was on full speed sprint during the air-dribble, and the headers
and kicks were aimed visually using cone markers, as opposed to what was
done today, headers and kicks aimed to be caught after a given number of
paces. Another difference is that Nov 9 yesterday I estimate the average
speed of the runs at 70% of full speed, today I estimate the average
speed at 65% of full speed, on Nov 1 the average speed was more like 90%
of full speed or faster. Another difference is that when I do the
drill as I did it today, there is strong emphasis on taking only the
prescribed number of paces between touches. If during the run I exceed the
prescribed number of paces between touches by more than one pace during
the course of the run, I do not count the run as a successful LHKH, LHKHK
etc. run, when I am doing the patterned-version of the drill as done
today.
Another difference is that on Nov 1, there was one run
every 2.7 minutes; whereas my estimate is that today with less detailed
note-taking and slower less tiring runs, there was 1 run every 1.3
minutes. Therefore I estimate that the score of 0.43 points per minute of
Nov 1 would have to be adjusted to 0.89 points per minute to be compared
to the scores of today Nov 10 and yesterday Nov 9.
Nov 1 I estimated that I would be at a god-like level if
I could get the score to 1.35 points per minute, I was doing the
speed-emphasis version of the LHKH+ drill. For the
Pattern-emphasis version of the LHKH+ drill as done today, I
estimate that I would have to get the score to 3.8 points per minute to be
at a god-like level, this has to do with the fact that when I do the
pattern emphasis there is less note taking, the runs are slower and less
tiring, the balls easier to retrieve.
So since yesterday I was at 0.7 points per
minute, today I was at 1.7 points per minute, and the god-like level for
the drill as I am doing it now is 3.8 points per minute, you could say
that I will be at the god-like level for the emphasis-on-footwork-pattern
version of the drill in two days assuming I improve at the rate of 1.0
points per day.
The most common variation from the prescribed footwork
pattern today, was that after the 3rd touch with the foot, I would
sometimes take 3 paces before heading the ball instead of 2 as prescribed
by the so-to-speak 'flight pattern'.
3 times today runs were disrupted by the marker cones.
The marker cones are still out there but today I was not using them to
spot the touches, I was just telling my mind: 'I want to be able to kick
the ball two paces after I head it" and etc. Today I was using the cones
to judge things like how many yards separated the touches; and I wanted to
keep everything the same, not startle myself through unusual stuff like an
absence of cones.
I discovered that this pattern emphasis version
produces runs with shorter distances between touches than the
speed-emphasis version; today there were several successful runs featuring
less than 3 yds between touches. It is good news that my ability
to minimize the distance between touches is continuing to improve
dramatically.
Faces in the
Crowd
During the first half this white adult female wearing
glasses, carrying her baby in a knapsack like thing, was walking back and
forth about 5 yards to my right. Twice I aborted runs to make sure I did
not collide with her. This woman left at 1024 AM.
This cheerful middle-aged white man, clean shaven, a
little bit below average in height named Randy, was in my side of the gym
during the first half. He said he recently moved here from Seattle.
During the first half there were kids on the other side
of the gym separated from me by the big blue divider curtain. 'Alberto',
this hispanic boy came in and talked with me half way through the first
half and then left. He wanted to know what I was doing. Alberto gives me
the impression of not wanting to compliment me because he is jealous of
me; some of the hispanic boys seem like that to me but others of them
compliment me filling the compliment-void left by the 'gringos'--shows the
danger in generalizing about ethnic groups. The compliment-void is a
problem as I follow the rule to not compliment yourself but let others
compliment you. It seems insane to me that a 14 year
old boy should feel competitively jealous of an adult. In the first half
there was present also a white teenager basketballer male for a little
while.
1100 AM beginning of second half, the kids group
in the other half finished up, a black boy entered at 1115 AM, by 1138 AM
my side of the gym was empty except for me for the first time all
day.
As I was finishing up this clean shaven, about six foot
two inch tall young adult white male who seemed to be European, and
his little I guess six year old daughter were playing soccer with my ball.
The girl was frisky and cute, and seemd smart. I went and asked the
father for my ball, I told him that if I asked the girl to give me my
ball she would cry. Then the girl ran and sat, very quiet and
still, underneath a desk that her mother was sitting next to; I never
saw the American children run and sit beneath a desk still and quiet
beneath a desk like that. And her mother sitting next to her muttered,
"Americans..." in a tone of disdain.
And to be fair, re the basketballer guy I talked about
yesterday, when they came in, twice I heard him loudly say, "He's Pele". I
realize he was talking about me, but yesterday I got too involved in
detailing the history of how he had annoyed me previously to mention that
he said that. I guess it just goes to show, individuals are a mix of
things that annoy us such as complaints, and things we like such as
compliments.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1442 words in length. Took approximately 90
minutes to write/type.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 2 Layers of
Sole Padding;
gray dress socks
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 p |
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Monday
November 12 '07
Waltham Y Gym
1010 AM-1200
Noon |
110 minutes LHKHK Run Attempts Adhering to Footwork
Pattern
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a C day. Also a 3-CG
day.
Before practice consumed 1-2 cups coffee
with non-dairy cream & cane sugar, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast, & a cold refrigerated Taco Bell Burrito Supreme
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
LHKH+ Air-Dribble
Runs
Emphasis on Footwork
Pattern
Again I did the LHKH+ Runs based on
footwork pattern instead of based on visual sighting of cones to guide me
with regards to where I would attempt to place the ball during the
air-dribble runs.
I used the L3H Method 5 (see previous
entries) for the first kick of the runs.
Today again I DID NOT record in
the table found in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, any of
the runs made today, again I did the runs without
keeping track of exactly what happened on each run.
Today again I was aiming for the
60 degree angle on the first kick as I was trying to slow things
down.
The idea today was that it should be a relaxing practice
like swimming, with the results unscored. But though I tried to turn off
the counter in my brain, my brain still insisted on counting how many
times I achieved the LHKH pattern or better (better meaning LHKHK, LHKHKH
etc).
From 1005 to 1100 AM in 55 minutes I
achieved (ball not bouncing during the run): at least the LHKH
pattern 28 times; from 1100 AM to 1200 noon I achieved at least the
LHKH pattern 33 times.
Yesterday the average points per run that achieved LHKH
pattern or better, was 4.63. Thus I estimate that today in the first half,
I scored 2.4 points per minute, and in the second half, 2.5 points per
minute, total for day, 2.5 points per minute.
Yesterday the score for the day was 1.7 points per
minute. Thus you could say that at this rate I will be at the 'god-like'
level of 3.8 points per min in two more days.
Today I noticed improvement in terms of tightness of
control, and speed. The best runs today were better than the best runs
yesterday.
Today the second half was not worse than the first half.
Today for some reason I felt like I was breathing in crisp clean air, as
if I was breathing in mentholated air. A difference today was 2 capfuls of
wheat germ oil instead of the usual 1, and 3 vitamin E capsules instead of
the usual 1, and the burrito eaten before the practice.
The most common variation from the prescribed footwork
pattern today, was again that after the 3rd touch with the foot, I would
sometimes take 3 paces before heading the ball instead of 2 as prescribed
by the so-to-speak 'flight pattern'. During the scoring of these patterned
LHKH+ runs, I do not penalize myself if for instance the two paces between
touches are left first then right when according to the pattern they are
supposed to be right first and then left.
The patterned approach, adhering closely to a footwork
choreography, forces me to keep the ball close to my body.
It is a form of common sense, that progress is achieved
in things like LHKH pattern air dribble runs by first slowing things down
and refining technique; the patterned runs are slower than the non-pattern
adherence ones.
Faces in the
Crowd
During the first half an elder East Asian man was in the
gym shooting baskets and talking on his cell phone.
From 1100 AM to 1121 AM this group of disabled adults
entered the gym along with this white yellow haired lady who was their so
to speak shepherd. She said I did not need to move the cones they only
needed a little space.
During the second half, this white man who looked to be
in his fifties brought these five grade school, about fourth
grade, boys into the gym. He asked me for permission that they should
play basketball I told him this was open gym they could do whatever they
wanted to. Iam not on the Y staff, I do not wear any Y insignia, yet
people ask me for permission to do this or that. I asked him if he wanted
me to move the marker cones out of the way he said no for this I give
him credit, the cones marking my flight path sort of cramped the boys, I
set them up when nobody was in the gym but me.
One of the boys put a cone he knocked over back into
place. Then later they knocked over two cones and ignored them. I felt
that the boys made some but not enough effort to stay out of my way. I did
some great runs in front of them, they acted as if nothing remarkable had
happened. But they were constantly shouting enthusiastically about some
'feat' one of them had just performed with the basketball. I admit, boys
like that get me depressed somewhat.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 803 words in length. Took approximately 40
minutes to write/type. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1
Layer "Propel-Gel" Sole Padding;
white sweat-socks; new 45" white
shoelaces
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday
November 13 '07
Waltham Y Gym
1010 AM-1200
Noon |
110 minutes LHKHK Run Attempts Adhering to Footwork
Pattern
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0.3 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a C day. Also a 3-CG
day.
Before practice consumed 2 cups coffee
with non-dairy cream & cane sugar, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast, no solid food
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
Woke up approx 500 AM, 5 hours before
practice |
LHKH+ Air-Dribble
Runs
Emphasis on Footwork
Pattern
Again I did the LHKH+ Runs based on
footwork pattern instead of based on visual sighting of cones to guide me
with regards to where I would attempt to place the ball during the
air-dribble runs.
If something like what an LHKH pattern is, is left
unexplained in an entry such as this, that means the explanation is given
in a previous entry. LHKH with emphasis on footwork pattern means: kick
ball with left, run 2-3 paces forward, head ball, run 2 paces forward,
kick ball, run 2 paces forward, and head ball, all without ball touching
ground.
I used the L3H Method 5 (see previous
entries) for the first kick of the runs.
Every time, before the first kick, the following
'mantra' was in my mind: 'knee max ankle min angle force and do your
best'. Which means, on the first kick maximize the use of your knee,
minimize the use of the ankle, concentrate on kicking the ball at the
proper angle with the proper level of force, and do your best'. I have
been using this mantra for several days now.
Today again I DID NOT record in
the table found in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, any of
the runs made today, again I did the runs without
keeping track of exactly what happened on each run.
Today again I was aiming for the
60 degree angle on the first kick as I was trying to slow things
down.
Again the idea today was that it should be a relaxing
practice like swimming, with the minimal
scoring/taking-notes.
From 1010 to 1110 AM in 60 minutes I
achieved (ball not bouncing during the run): at least the LHKH
pattern 52 times; from 1110 AM to 1200 noon I achieved at least the
LHKH pattern 49 times.
On Nov 11, the average points per run that
achieved LHKH pattern or better, was 4.63. Thus I estimate that today in
the first half, I scored 4.0 points per minute, and in the second half,
4.5 points per minute, total for day, 4.3 points per minute. Yesterday the score for the day was 2.5 points per minute.
Previously I had estimated that when I
got to 3.8 points per minute, I would be 'god-like'; and today I was
already at 4.3 points per day.
No doubt it was a great day featuring dramatic
improvement; but despite the score that is supposed to indicate I am now
above a god, I admit that I am still below a God.
This because in the zeal to achieve a high
score, there are more and more runs per minute, and at the same time the
score is judged on a per minute basis. Notably the scoring being done on a
per minute as opposed to a per attempt basis results in me hustling very
hard during practice, getting a good workout.
Another reason I am not a god yet, even though the score
of 4.3 shows me as being above the god-like level that I estimated
to be 3.8, is that there are runs that I would consider to be so-to-speak
'ungodly', that still by my scoring method register as a succesful LHKH or
better. For example the way I have been scoring it if I bend my head down
to below shoulder level to head the ball on the fourth touch, the run is
counted as a success. Of course I do not want to encourage myself
or others to bend down to head the ball as this is dangerous. On the other
hand however, even though when I head the ball when it is at shoulder
height this is a deviation from good form, it is nevertheless not that far
away from good form, and I want to encourage myself to get at least close
to good form.
The way I have been scoring it even if I veer away from
running straight ahead for the course of the run, that is run off at a 45
degree angle or some other angle unintentionally when my intention is
to run straight ahead for the entire run, I still count it as a success in
terms of adhering to the LHKH or better pattern if >=LHKH
pattern is adhered to (>= means greater than or equal to, meaning LHKH,
or LHKHK or LHKHKH etc).
The way I have been scoring it, even if I slow down to a
very slow pace as I make a touch the run is counted as a success if the
>=LHKH pattern is adhered to.
Still the majority of the runs counted as successes were
fell formed runs and several were spectacular. I guess that about ten
percent were low quality runs that neverthess qualified as a success.
Though I tried hard to achieve a high score this did not slow me
down to a snail's pace or anything like that. I guess that the average
speed like yesterday was about 65% of max full speed. At the same time
compared to yesterday there were more fast runs that adhered to
pattern and the fast runs that adhered to pattern were faster. This was
compensated for by a larger number of slow runs.
There were several great god-like runs
today that were long, 15 yards in length, done at a high speed of around
85% of max sprint speed, with the ball very tightly controlled, and with
the patterns such as LHKHKHK etc adhered to, lots of touches, the ball
never touching the ground, alternation between heading the ball and
kicking it.
I felt that today was a classic
example of how when you set up drills that are scored, you get in terms of
performance what you are giving a high score to; and a classic example of
how this principle can be used to get what you want out of yourself or out
of some player you are coaching.
In my determination to achieve a high score I
slowed things down to slower than a full sprint; this fulfilled my goal of
slowing things down.
In my determination to achieve a high score I
sort of minimized the distance between touches; this fulfilled my goal of
tightening control by reducing the distance between
touches.
In my determination to achieve a high score I
gave 100% in terms of effort, concentration, skill,
endurance.
The scored element of the runs was whether or not at
least LHKH pattern was adhered to. The unscored element was what happened
beyond LHKH, such as the KH after the LHKH in a LHKHKH
run. Somehow I did well in terms of what was scored, which was
runs that were at least LHKH; and at the same time, I did well in terms of
what was not scored, which is what happened after the first four
touches (the LHKH touches).
What happened after the first four LHKH touches
did not effect the score, this coincided with alot of virtuosity in terms
of what happened after the first four touches. Falling short of adhering
to pattern while keeping the ball off the ground for the first four
touches did effect the score, and this coincided with good performance on
the first four touches.
When I got home, I felt tired, I knew I had had a great
practice, I knew the practice was evidence that I am on my way to being a
soccer-god, a Pele or greater; and at the same time I felt sad.
Seems --and I have noticed this before--the great performance in my eyes
increased the gap between the way society treats me and the way society
should treat me, and this made me feel sad.
Today I noticed improvement in terms of tightness of
control, and speed. The best runs today were better than the best runs
yesterday.
Faces in the
Crowd
I went to the equipment closet that adjoins the gym
before practice to get the cones out. The closet was locked. I went to the
front desk and asked them to open the equipment closet for me so I could
get the cones. The elderly white woman wearing spectacles, who had longish
straight grayish-white hair, said to me in that 'charming' exasperated
sarcastic stepmother-ish Massachussetts way of talking, 'what do you need
cones for?'. Then 'Laurie', this young adult white female with wavy black
hair who is some important Y staff, walked to the gym with me to open the
closet. She strictly instructed me to not go in the closet, only
staff are supposed to go in the equipment closet. She said this
was due to safety considerations. She had me stand outside the closet
while she got the cones.
Then I went to my locker and discovered that my ball
that I thought was in my bag had disappeared. I went out to the parking
lot to look in my car. It was not there. I walked back in the gym, and
there it was lying against the wall of the main hallway. Maybe this little
walk out to the car and back helped prepare me for the workout. The first
20 minutes were much better than on previous days (there is no warmup for
me in these drills, the clock starts in terms of scoring with the first
touch of the ball once I am out there in the gym).
There were about a half dozen toddlers about four years
old and a few adults, all white, on the other side of the gym divided from
me by the big blue curtain that they decided to draw between us. One of
these adults was this clean-shaven brown haired medium build white guy
around six feet one inch in height, who wore a T-shirt with a H for
Harvard insignia on it. The kids seemed sort of fascinated by me
before I started the practice. One of their balls rolled over to my
side during the practice. I knocked it back to their side, and this little
about 4 year old white child, looked at me and sweetly said, 'thank-you';
I said 'you're welcome'. The tone of voice and the facial
expression of the child reminded me of a kindly grade school teacher,
speaking to an admired student.
The adults and toddlers were on the other side during
the first hour. I got to thinking, even when they cannot see me, they can
hear all the steps I take, they can hear most of the touches on the ball,
all this must register somewhere in their brains; and it seemed to me that
they were aware of the significance of such registering in their brains.
These toddlers seemed unusually mature, solemn, and adult
like.
At one point during the practice, Lori was in the
far corner of the gym as I looked at her and she said, 'Ya
Pele'.
I know people are comparing me to Pele, but it is hard
to get used to, I keep thinking that I am imagining that I am hearing
people say things they are not actually saying, but I know that I am
hearing what people actually are saying and not just imagining it.
Today for the entire practice there was nobody on my
side of the gym and I did great. Maybe solitude is a plus when you are
trying to develop a new skill by way of drill.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 1917 words in length. Took approximately
75 minutes to write/type.
|
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1
Layer "Propel-Gel" Sole Padding;
white sweat-socks; new 45" white
shoelaces
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5 psi |
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| Thursday
November 15 '07
Waltham Y Gym
714 AM-728 AM;
848-1134 AM
|
119 minutes
LHKH Run Attempts Adhering to Footwork
Pattern
Emphasis on forgetting the score
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0.0 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a 0.1 C day. Also a
1-CG day.
Before practice consumed 2 cups coffee
with non-dairy cream & cane sugar, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast, and rice with spicy ham steak and vegetables
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
LHKH+ Air-Dribble
Runs
Emphasis on Footwork
Pattern
Emphasis on Forgetting
Score
Again I did the LHKH+ Runs based on
footwork pattern instead of based on visual sighting of cones to guide me
with regards to where I would attempt to place the ball during the
air-dribble runs.
LHKH with emphasis on footwork pattern means: kick ball
with left, run 2-3 paces forward, head ball, run 2 paces forward, kick
ball, run 2 paces forward, and head ball, all without ball touching
ground.
I used the L3H Method 5 (see previous
entries) for the first kick of the runs.
Every time, before the first kick, the usual
'mantra' (see previous entry) was in my mind.
Today again I DID NOT record in
the table found in the Tuesday Oct 16 entry, any of
the runs made today, again I did the runs without
keeping track of exactly what happened on each run.
Today again I was aiming for the
60 degree angle on the first kick as I was trying to slow things
down.
Again the idea today was that it should be a relaxing
practice like swimming, with the minimal
scoring/taking-notes.
Previously I had found that even when I try to
forget how many times I have achieved the LHKH pattern or better, I am
unable to. Today I continued with attempts at forgetting. Today I did
not put any cone yard markers out on the floor, even though I
have gotten used to having them out there.
From 714-28 AM, I attempted to forget about the number
of times I achieved the LHKH pattern, by keeping count of how many times I
did the first touch of the LHKH pattern which consists of kicking the ball
with the left foot after rolling the ball back and flipping it up with the
left foot. The idea was that keeping track of this would help me to forget
how many times I achieved LHKH or LHKH+. Nevertheless, I was unable to
forget how many times I achieved >=LHKH.
728 AM the basketballers started their scheduled
full court game and I sat and watched. 853 AM I continued with LHKH
pattern run attempts, while at the same time attempting to forget how many
times I achieved the LHKH pattern or better. 853-911 AM I tried to forget
how many times I achieved >=LHKH by keeping count of on how many runs
the first touch was made, and also on how many runs both first touch and
second touch were made. Still I was unable to forget how many times I
achieved LHKH or better.
918-925 AM I tried to forget the LHKH/LHKH+ count by
keeping track of on how many runs the first touch was made and on how many
runs the third touch was made. Still I could not forget the LHKH+ count
(LHKH+ means LHKH, OR with more touches than LHKH such as LHKHK, LHKHKH,
LHKHKHK, etc.
929-1004 AM I tried to forget the LHKH+ count by keeping
track of on how many runs the first touch was made, on how many runs the
second touch was made, and on how many runs the third touch was made.
Still I could not forget the LHKH+ count.
1010-1134 AM I tried to forget the LHKH+ count by
keeping track of on how many runs the first touch was made, keeping track
of on how many runs I achieved LHKH+, writing down the score every 10
runs, and setting the counters back to zero every 10 runs. This
worked better when it came to forgetting the score than the other methods
I tried.
Other possibilities are writing down the score
and setting the mental counters to zero every 10 minutes, or every fifth
time I achieve a successful LHKH run.
By the end of the day, I had some idea how many times I
achieved a successful LHKH+ run, even though I tried to avoid such
knowledge, due to the fact that I had some idea re the percentage or runs
that resulted in the LHKH+ pattern being achieved, I had some idea
regarding how many minutes I was doing runs and how many minutes I was
resting, drinking water, taking notes etc. I could estimate
that I was at around 45 LHKH+ runs per hour spent doing runs. Thus
for all my trouble I had not succeeded in being able to forget the score,
basically because I had an idea re how many successful LHKH runs occurred
in a 10 attempt segment.
The results I recorded today were:
714-728 AM: 14 mins; 18 run attempts with at least the
first touch executed; 5 LHKH+.
With this pattern adherence, in
the first 15-20 minutes I have usually encountered trouble, much more
trouble than when doing full speed and not adhering to a footwork pattern.
853-911 AM: 18 mins; 20 runs with 1st touch executed; 20
runs with 2nd touch executed; 10 LHKH+.
NOTE: I could not help remembering how many times I
achieved LHKH+ during these segments. On my main page of notes I wrote
down a ? for how many times I achieved LHKH+; and on another page whose
contents I hid from my eyes when making entries in it, I noted how many
times I achieved LHKH+ during the given segment.
918-925 AM: 7 mins; 10 run attempts with at
least 1st touch executed; 10 run attempts with at least 3rd touch
executed; 5 LHKH+.
So far there were a few fast
90-100% of max sprinting speed LHKH+ runs; for the first time in all these
days, the LHKH+ runs were achieved with adherence to footwork pattern at
speeds that I usually achieved LHKH+ runs without adherence to footwork
pattern.
929-937 AM: 8 mins; 10 run attempts with at
least 1st touch executed; 8 run attempts with 2nd touch executed; 8
run attempts with at least 3rd touch executed; 6 LHKH+.
943-951 AM: 8 mins; 10 run attempts with at
least 1st touch executed; 10 run attempts with 2nd touch
executed; 10 run attempts with at least 3rd touch executed; 5
LHKH+.
At this point I noted that the
fast LHKH+ runs at 90-100% speed were continuing to occur.
956-1004 AM: 8 mins; 10 run attempts with
at least 1st touch executed; 9 run attempts with 2nd touch
executed; 9 run attempts with at least 3rd touch executed; 6
LHKH+.
1011-1020: 9 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 6 LHKH+.
1030-1038: 8 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 7 LHKH+.
1040-1050: 10 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 5 LHKH+.
1058-1106: 8 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 7 LHKH+.
1108-1117: 9 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 5 LHKH+.
1119-1126: 7 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 4 LHKH+.
1129-1136: 7 mins; 10 run attempts
with at least 1st touch executed; 7 LHKH+.
Thus in 119 minutes of doing runs, which is not counting
the various breaks taken for various reasons, there were 78 LHKH+
runs, which comes out to 39 LHKH+ runs per hour. Whereas before I
added everything up and did the calculations my estimate was that I was at
a 45 per hour rate. Thus one could say that I still have not mastered the
art of forgetting what the LHKH+ count is.
This practice seemed to be an example of how on one day
you surge ahead in one way, and on another day you surge ahead in another
way. Today I surged ahead in terms of
achieving for the first time long fast 90-100% of max speed
runs with lots of touches that adhered to the LHKH+ etc pattern and
also adhered to the footwork pattern of usually two paces between touches.
But I lagged back in terms of LHKH+ runs per minute. Today the
quality of the average run counted as an LHKH+ success in the score was
better than yesterday; there were less goofy runs today that
counted as a score for the scorekeeping.
Seemed the spicy ham steak and rice and veggies before
practice resulted in lots of drinking water and pissing during the
practice. Not sure the effect on the quality.
Seemed that I was unusually tired during the
practice today. This was because of: stress-creating message left
on my answering machine (a guy who used to be a successful book-keeper
ruined himself through drink and wants my help with this and that); temp
being too cold while I was swimming due to a window behind a curtain left
completely open and the weather/wind-direction changing; incense stick
causing slight respiratory irritation; all of this adding up to a very
slight cold. The 'opium' incense was ritzy from a ritzy store, I thought
it would be cool/hip despite the bad news I have heard re the effect of
incense on health but there you go. Seems burning herbs like sage or using
the natural orange mist air freshener is better.
918-1004 today I gathered some interesting info
re how many times I did the first touch on the runs, how many times the
second, how many times the third, how many times
LHKH+.
I cannot help but congratulating myself on what
a great chess move it was on my part to switch from full speed LHKH+
runs to footwork pattern adherence LHKH+ runs. The pattern
adherence LHKH+ runs are becoming full speed runs and so after sagging
back to slow speed, I am now back to speed, light years ahead of where I
was originally before I sagged back into slow speed footwork pattern
adherence.
Faces in the
Crowd The basketballers who play full court basketball started
their games at 728 AM and continued till 848 AM. I was thinking, why do
they reserve the whole court from 700 AM when they start at 728
AM?
I admit that as I watched them play, I was
thinking to myself, that 'alot of people, are what they think others think
they should be, not what they themselves think a person should
be'.
This one basketballer, nice looking,clean shaven black
haired adult male with a hairy chest, slim to average build,
asked me if I wanted to play, he told me that they count jump shots
outside the 3 point line as 3 points, I told him this was important to me
because I could hit 40% of pro distance 3 pointers on the run. He
was the basketballer that stood out during the games as I watched. He
plays very unselfishly, very good at teamwork, alot of hustle, smart
passer, smart rebounder, good on defense, good at everything other than
shooting and not a bad shot.
The basketballers probably saw some of the end of the
first 714-728 AM segment during which I felt clumsy (if I do not
report any warmup activities here that means there was no warmup, the
714-28 segment contained my first touches on the ball of the
day).
As I watched I observed how long their games
were; I saw 5 games, that averaged 12.6 minutes in length. The breaks
between games averaged 3 minutes in length. I need to know such
stuff if I decide to get in the kind of condition that will allow me to
excel if I join their games. I'd like to join in their games but soberly
speaking I realize that time and energy put into basketball is time and
energy that could be put into soccer.
I think the basketballers also saw the beginning of the
853-911 segment.
About 1000 AM there were five toddlers and five parents
on the other side of the gym; 1010 AM they pulled out the big blue curtain
that divided my half of the gym from theirs.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 2020 words in length. Took approximately
75 minutes. Midway through writing this entry, the air conditioner
lost power, the computer restarted; I lost a little work; I probably would
have lost alot of work were I not in the nervous habit of saving my work
often. |
Adidas Bracara Indoors Shoes with 1
Layer "Propel-Gel" Sole Padding;
black sweat-socks; new 45" white
shoelaces
New Adidas Teamgeist
Replique
Ball
Purchased
at Olympia
Sports Watertown MA, October 9
'07
inflated to 7.5
psi |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday
November 16 '07 |
Basketball Drills Chart
Link for Copying |
Basketball Drills/Moves Chart that can be
Copied
Seems like there has developed alot of basketball
playing at the Y. They play full court games at 7 AM and noon almost every
day, the Cambridge School of Weston practices very earnestly almost every
afternoon at 300 PM.
So I caught the basketball bug, I went back to the kind
of heavy thinking and planning regarding basketball dribbling moves I used
to do years ago. This morning I made some quick breakthroughs sitting at
my desk thinking out the chess-like strategy of the basketball dribble
move; then as time wore on the thinking became hard, almost head-achy.
Just as I came to realize that being very thoughtful is
important in soccer, so also I figure the importance of being very
thoughtful is under-rated in basketball.
I decided not to share with the world the details re
the basketball moves that I have developed. I am ahead in soccer, I
share with the world my knowledge and experience of soccer; but I am
behind in basketball. Reminds of the scripture:
Gen 1:16 And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule
the night
But one thing I will share with the
world of necessity, is that in US college, US high school, and
international FIBA rules, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_(basketball)),
when you end your dribble by catching the ball, after you catch the ball,
the foot that hits the ground first has to be the pivot foot; and if both
feet hit the ground simultaneously, either foot can be the pivot foot. You
are then free to step forward with the foot that is not the pivot foot,
and then step forward with the pivot foot, so long as you release the ball
before the pivot foot hits the ground.
So please do not falsely accuse me of
'traveling'.
(apparently going by NBA rules you can move more after
ending the dribble by catching the ball but I am ignoring that for
now)
I am willing to share with the world, with regards
to basketball, a chart that can be printed that I will use when I dabble
in basketball, to keep score re my performance doing drills in which I
start at one point on the court, dribble to another point on the court,
and then shoot. This chart can be found at:
I really feel, that the kind of practice drills
the chart is made for, and recording the scores for the
practice drills the way the chart is designed to record them, is
the smart approach to excellence in basketball; I have alot of experience
at forging ahead in soccer using scored drills.
You might want to copy the chart from the page at the
URL I have given, paste it into a new HTML page somehow using an HTML or
Email Editor and then print it so as to avoid printing the advertisement
on the page.
Clerical Note: This Log Entry is 505 words in
length.
|
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| Saturday
November 17 '07
Waltham Y Gym
525-723 pm;
|
118 minutes
A (1-4) and B (1-4) basketball scored
drills
First time played basketball in at least 10
years
0 mg Melatonin previous 24 hours;
drank approx 0.6 liter Paul Masson Burgundy
wine in 24 hours before practice; today was a 01 C day. Also a
5-CG day.
Before practice consumed 2 cups coffee
with non-dairy cream & cane sugar, wheat germ oil, hemp oil,
vitamin E, fish oil, cod liver oil, mineral pill, tangerine juice, brewers
yeast, cheese, peanuts, candy bars
Ate ??? 24 hours previous to practice
|
A1-4 and B1-4 Basketball
Dribble/Shoot Drills
I devised 4 basic dribble and shoot
basketball moves the past couple of days. I call these 4 moves A, B, C,
and D. Each of these as of now has 4 variants. Today I practiced the four
variants of A, and the four variants of B. The starting point every time
today was a point approx 5 feet outside of the top of the key, 11 feet
away from the free throw line, horizontally in the middle of the court.
This was the first time I have played basketball in I
guess at least ten years.
I was more intelligent with the basketball than I have
been in the past. Seems working every day with a computer has made me more
intelligent and/or more skilled; and also I am more aware of the
importance of the intellectual element in games like basketball.
Everything was counted from the first shot.
First segment I did not attempt to spin the ball or
bounce it off the backboard. Results were (drill goals/attempts): A1 3/10;
B1 2/10; A2 2/10; A3 4/10; A4 3/10; B2 1/10; B3 not recorded; B4 1/10.
Total 19/70 27%.
Second segment I tried to put backspin on the ball
but did not try to bounce the ball off the backboard. Results were (drill
goals/attempts): A1 3/10; A2 5/10; A3 1/10; A4 4/10; B1 3/10; B2
3/10; B3 4/10; B4 3/10. Total 27/80 34%.
Third segment I did not try to put backspin on the
ball but I tried to bounce the ball off the backboard every time. Results
were (drill goals/attempts): A1 2/10; A2 0/10; A3 3/10; A4 6/10; B1
3/10; B2 1/10; B3 3/10; B4 2/10. Total 20/80 25%.
Simplistically speaking you could say results indicate that for most
shots I am not a rebound the ball in off the backboard guy. But this fails
to take into account that all my life I have almost never used the
backboard when shooting.
Each attempt consisted of dribbling and shooting. The footwork and
the dribbling part went smoothly despite the Rip Van Winkle like absence
from the game for so many years. I achieved alot of penetration fast, the
penetration in feet per dribbles made ratio was high, the moves worked out
well, the moves were clever, I was smooth and quick up to the point of the
shot, the shots were clumsy.
My plan for the next basketball outing is to try out ways of shooting
such as: stylistic off backboard; stylistic spin; off backboard with spin.
By stylistic I mean that there is an emphasis on grace and style in the
taking of the shot.
About half way through the practice I began to feel sad, sadder than
I have for a while.
I remember when I last played basketball, the USA, the nation I have
lived in most of my life, was in better shape than it is now; and when I
played basketball as a child it was in much better shape. Memories of such
are sad.
It is sad how the economically nationalist USA of old, which was an
economically healthy force for moderation as opposed to a force for
hyper-elitism in the world, has been replaced by the USA of today, an
economically sick force serving the cause of hyper-elitism in
the world.
It is sad how the USA of old, which was managed the way middle class
parents would want to see the government their children are citizens of be
managed, has been replaced by a government uninterested in the children of
middle class parents. The USA's middle class you might say has a certain
star quality to it, this makes the demise sadder.
For me basketball brings to mind the USA nation, living in the USA
nation, my American born mother; and my mother has passed away. Strange
how I never felt as sad about my mother's demise, as I began to feel about
half way through the basketball practice today. Today was the first time
that I played basketball since my mother died. Maybe I've been avoiding
basketball because I knew it would depress me.
I could tell from my performance that I can eventually be good enough
to be at least an NBA scrub. True tall players could watch me and imitate
me but they will always be a step behind. True they could victimize me
when I was on defense but I can compensate for such by scoring 3 point
shots, offensive teamwork, drawing fouls as I drive on the hoop. I could
tell that if I was ten percent taller than I am now I could easily be a
basketball star. But still I felt sad.
Faces in the
Crowd There was a white brown haired mother and her white
brown haired daughter shooting baskets in the same side of the gym as me
at the beginning. Then later there were some kids shooting baskets, and
some kids being taught mountain climbing. Seemed to me that a few of them
had wry smiles on their face as they watched me; which in my mind is a
sign of perceptiveness on their part, because the moves I was executing
are as clever as clever can get, and they dribbling and the footwork was
executed smoothly and quickly.
Clerical Note: This Soccer
Log Entry is 902 words in length. Took
approximately ??? minutes to write/type.
|
Adidas
Powerpoint Cross-trainers, light brown sweat-socks.
Old (approx 13 years old) Spalding NBA ball inflated to
8.0 psi |
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