Game reflections again!
- lost 60-78 playing against the top-ranked team in the league, while we had 7 players. 3 uncles and 4 of us younger ones. I played perimeter on offense and PF on defense. We had no center today.
- stats: 7 points (1 layup, 1 jumper, 1/3 3pt), 1 foul, 0 free throw attempts, at 5 turnovers in about 35 minutes.
- tried to attack the basket more today, but i got blocked twice and missed several attempts at the basket. Need to work on finishing and aggression.
- didn't shoot much once again, but the opponent figured that i was a shooting threat so they closed out pretty quickly on me whenever i got the ball on the perimeter. Need to take more attempts, but the lack of offensive rebounds always deter me. Not to mention that the 3 point line is extended now. Not sure if every court is going to be like that from now on. Ok just checked FIBA rules, seems like every court is gonna be like that from now on. Gotta really work on the range now.
- played pretty good defense today, considering i was undersized for the entire game. Active hands and feet, and tried to box out whenever i could. Good job.
- Couldn't really last the entire game, and for some stretches i was pretty dazed and gazing at the clock for the quarter to end. Gotta work on more suicides. Think the 20 suicides in 20 minutes yesterday was good. Should run that more often.
- Think i have to cut some of my workout items to streamline it further. Now i have 10 items which i work into a circuit (complete-able in 45 mins). And then another 6 which takes another 30 mins. Have to find some way to make each exercises more compound.

k need to shit.

Some things to note before i forget:

On the Iron Maiden concert:
Awesome. Full house, crowd was crazy as hell. Bruce Dickinson can really work the crowd. Set-list was pretty good. Long enough but not too long cos i think most people are shagged out.
Things that irks me:
- moshing and slamming. Wanna mosh/slam then do it with those that want to la. Leave the others out of it man.
- smoking. Very inconsiderate.
- bad sound. And very bad videographer. Please film the guy playing the guitar solo.
Still, an unforgettable experience.
Sidenote: I think i'm the only metalhead in the office.

On the recent game loss:
Terrible free throw shooting. That was the difference between our team and every other pinoy team. I'm a good FT shooter, but the problem is I'm not aggressive enough. I must attack the basket more often and settle less for jump shots. The young guys can play full court man-to-man pretty well, but they lack on ball pressure skills. The pinoys are very calm, and that's another key difference between us and them. We shouldn't get frustrated with the calls and such. Do what you can control.

On St42:
Still no max effort. People are not trusting each other. Superstar mentality still lingers. There's many grievances and complains but none of them get through directly to me. I have to hear it from someone else to know the problem. Guys have to man up and just say it as it is. We still lack honesty with each other. Maybe shaking up the rotation will help. We'll see.

On myself:
Still semi-sick and not 100%. But training has to continue. I'm always faced with this problem: I can train and instruct other people, but who can train/instruct me? I'm always pushing myself, and others. I wish someone can push me instead. The saying goes: When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Maybe i'm not ready yet.

I like my randomised circuit training plan. Cuts quite a bit of time and keeps the blood pumping. Been putting quite a bit of work on jump training, hope it helps with explosiveness. And hope i do not get injured. Gotta pace myself slowly.

On the awesome watch i just bought:
Been wanting to get a smaller digital watch cos my G-shock is just too bulky to wear and shoot at the same time. It knocks against my wrist everytime i grab the ball hard. Bought the wrong watch initially (it has no countdown timer), so went to Mustafa again to buy one with a countdown timer. Awesome. Cheap and good. 26 dollars for small watch that can do so much.

On Vday:
I did not do anything on Vday, which probably pisses off SR. But the thing is that, I celebrate things because i want to, not because i have to. I believe in being judged for 365 days than being judged on 3 special days (Vday, Anniversary and Birthday). Then again, i don't really do much for 362 days either. I don't know, i'm not very good at being a boyfriend. I'm just very good at being myself.

Alright gotta read more journals.

My basketball philosophy

(Warning: long text ahead)

These are the principles i stick to because they make the most sense to me.

On fitness:

Basketball is all about execution. The team that can execute their game plan (full court press/ big man offense etc) usually wins.

When the team lacks fitness, it cannot execute properly. Players will be thinking about resting o...r saving energy.

Basketball is a anaerobic sport (start, stop, start, stop), so that is why we train suicides (4-ze)

On offense:

We play Motion offense (freestyle) because basketball is a chaotic game and 80% of the points are scored through broken plays (not set plays).We have players who can make good decisions with the ball when the situation is chaotic.

Offense principles:

- Force the defense to move.When the defense moves, it is easier to catch them sleeping. This is why we must pass the ball into the post and out, and swing the ball left to right.

- Maintain good spacing so that the defense can't double team your teammates. The defense has to run more to guard you when they recover from a double team.

- When you have the ball, be patient. Distract your opponent by faking a shot, a drive or a pass before executing your move (shoot, pass, drive).

- When you don't have the ball, do these to make the defense pay attention to you:

- screens: screen for your teammate (off ball recommended or on ball) or signal your teammate to screen for you

- cuts: v-cut to get open/ cut to the basket/ backdoor cut

- switch: switch position with your teammate (switch between post/wing/baseline/high pole etc)

- post up: if you have a smaller/weaker defender on you, post hard on him to tire him.

On playing against specific defenses:

Zone: Stand in the holes of the defense (in between their players). Less screens, more passing and cuts to shift the defense, more drive and kick to collapse and expand the defense.

- Against 2-3, we must have 3 players outside (2 wing 1 top of key) and 2 inside at the elbow (B spot).

- Against 3-2: we must have 4 players outside ( 2 wing and 2 baseline) and 1 inside at high pole.

Man to man: More screens (off ball) to get teammates open. More spacing to open up the middle. More cuts into the middle to get easy passes for layups. Isolation if our teammate has clear advantage over his defender (eg Weehong/Wenbiao vs a slower guy).

Full/Half court press: Aim is to get past half court. Team advance the ball together by passing quickly. No/minimal dribbling. Pass and move to an empty spot. Think netball.

On team defense

Play what is comfortable.Communicate. However, sometimes we have to adapt to the opponent:

Good 3 pt team (very rare): Man to man. Let them drive since we have help. No 3-2 because we will lose to the baseline 3 pointer.

Good shooting team: Man to man or 3-2 zone to take away their outside shots.

Tall big team: 2-3 zone to takeaway their offensive rebounds. Guards in front will have to work very hard because the guys inside will be working hard to counter their big men.

Small fast driving team: 2-3 or 3-2 zone. If they can shoot then 3-2, but always protect the middle.

1x superstar team: Box-1. Put our best defender on superstar to frustrate and deny him the ball. Stick 100% close to him and don't let him touch the ball. The rest of the 4 can play a box zone or normal man to man with help.

There are many other situations. We must adapt and be ready.

Defense principles (applies to man to man and zone)

- Defense is not about blocking and stealing. Defense is about making it difficult and frustrating for your opponent to do anything. Defense is about taking away his habits (his favourite move, shooting spot, dribbling hand etc.) Defense is about making him doing something he's not comfortable with.

- When your man has the ball:

- Stay lower than him (your head should be lower than his) to prevent drive.

- Harass by trying to touch the ball. This forces him to focus on protecting the ball or throw the ball away. Disturb his passing angles.

- If he starts to dribble, force him to go to his weak hand. If he is good, make him change directions at least 3 times to tire him out.

- If he shoots, stick close, jump and raise up both hands. Bother the shot. Make him lean/jump backwards, sideways to shoot over you.

- When your man does not have the ball:

- Ball-you-man when you are on the help side. Be in the position to see the ball and see your man and help.

- Deny when on the ball side. Deny the pass to your man when the ball is near.

- Block his path when he tries to cut into the middle (red square). Shove him out if he manages to get inside.

- When your man is posting on you:

- if he post high (let's say on left), stay on his right and bother his receiving hand. Shove him out to the 3 point line.

- if he post low, front him and stay low. Use ur butt to shove him to the baseline out of the court.

On defensive rebounding and starting the fast break

- When a shot goes up, find someone first and box him by pushing him away from the basket. Jumping right away is a sure way to lose the rebounding game.

- Always rebound as a team. Ensure the ball is secure before we begin fast break. No point running ahead when the team cannot get the rebound.

On offensive rebounding and stopping the fast break

- Offensive rebounds gives your teammates confidence to shoot, because they know someone will get the ball back if they miss.

- When a shot goes up, one man must stay back and protect the back court. The rest can go in for offensive rebound. Find, box then jump/collect.

- If the rebound fails, the man nearest to the opponent rebounder must trap/pressure and occupy him. The longer u can keep the ball on their side of the court, the less likely the fast break will happen. The rest of the team must run back to defense.

- If the opponent fast breaks, one man must quickly find the ballhandler, touch him and force him to pick up his dribble/pass. This will slow down the fast break. The rest of the team must run back to defense and stay in the middle first to protect from layups.

On passing

- All passes should be quick and to the chest/hands of the receiver. Receiver will get a good grip of the ball and go into his moves or pass away, instead of wasting time fumbling with a weak pass. Less time wasted means defense has less time to react.

- Cross court passes are allowed.It is a good way to swing the ball and force the defense to shift. You must zip the ball over with a overhead pass and not do a lazy lob pass.

On shooting

- Shooting is all about repetitions. You can be a better shooter by shooting more.

- Free throws are the best way to score. Training free throws is important.

- A high arc shot has a better chance of scoring than a low arc shot.

- Use the board more often, especially if near the basket.

Randomising the order of exercises actually messes with your body. Forces it to adapt to different strains at different times. I actually wrote a script to randomise the order. Hur.

Doing the exercises as a circuit probably saves more time as u can rest less, and it's less straining on the body as u don't stress the same muscles for multiple sets.

ok on the phone bye.

Don't understand why i have strange spams on my tagboard. Maybe i should remove it.

Being sick sucks. Have no idea what i did for the past 4 days. Not to mention that i couldn't really rest because of the incessant coughs.

Being injured sucks too, but at least with tape i can still play through the pain.

Not very CNY-y this year. Totally no mood.

Feel like eating maggi mee. Think i should follow the zenhabits guy and have a cheat food day. 6 days of proper healthy diet and 1 day of junk. Hur. That sounds like a good idea. I think SR would like that, but she doesnt eat healthy for 6 days. So no cheat food day for her.

Outta water again. Maybe that's why my dad boils water everyday. He's the water boy of the house. And that's manly. I think doing household chores is very manly. It's like taking care of the family.

It seems like after being introduced to the art of manliness, my decisions become largely based on whether a particular action is manly or not. If it's manly, i try to do it.

Maybe sleeping/resting is manly. I should sleep/rest more.

Quite tired of reading political stuff nowadays. Can understand why the common folk are apathetic about it. Politics is pretty much for the rich or clever, which from what i see is only roughly 20% of the population. Don't think there will be much shakeups any time soon.

For me, i'll just hope the country is stable so that i can work in my day job and collect my pay. And spend the rest of my energy on doing things i love. Basketball.

There's an immense sense of gratification whenever i see my shot fall. Can't say i get that from doing other things though, like guitar or whatever. Don't think i'm very good at basketball, but at least i can make enough shots to keep my motivation going.

As NBA aptly puts it: I love this game.

Thankfully, i have a bunch of good friends who likes to ball as well. Trainings have been fun but tough. I think everyone is equally out of shape, so the skill level is quite balanced. Just hope we can continue this for as long as we can.

Ok really tired now. Night