So I've been
playing basketball with Dave and Woo (mostly Woo since Dave frequently
works out of town). It's just a basic half-court-get-to-21-point game
that we play at the Sun basketball court -- the Sun complex at the west
end of the Dumbarten Bridge. Woo still knows the people there so he can
ask them to turn on the court lights.
When I started about two months ago I was an atrocious player. Now I'm
just a bad player. I'm a bad shooter, below average rebounder, have
trouble moving side to side when defending. I'm just very slow. But
right now I'm working on building up my stamina and it is nowhere near
as bad as it was at the start.
My biggest physical problem is my back. I guess my back muscles are not
used to the workout because my lower back starts hurting after a
strenuous game. It's been happening sooner and sooner too. I've gone on
to taking it easy so that I don't twist my body and jump around so much
-- not that it was doing me any good against Woo.
Let me say that Woo is light years better than Dave and I. When he's
going full out on a game he can win 21-0-0 (we each have independent
scores). But sometimes his back does hurt and usually he's not going
all out. In contrast Dave plays at 100% or near it all the time. He'll
go after every rebound and he gets a lot of them too -- he needs it too
because he's a pretty bad shooter. But if you get three times as many
shots as the next guy you'll score points.
When we three play it's usually Dave and Woo fighting for the top score
and I'm bringing up the rear. I don't mind. One of my problems is that
I'm not aggressive, I don't want to get hurt, so I don't get a lot of
rebounds. When I do have the ball I'm kind of slow so it's easy to
guard me. But it's fun playing with Dave.
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Not that it's
not fun playing with Woo. But we don't talk much and I know I'm so
outclassed that it's not as fun. And with Woo I realize how much time
basketball is taking from my life. Three days a week I leave early to
go play and after that I'm too tired to do much -- meaning that three
nights a week I get much less done than normal.
Last Monday we had a fourth player (Raj, who I guess works at Sun) and
played two on two. Two on two play makes me realize just how much more
bruising up-tempo basketball is. There's just a lot more pain involved.
Dave and I got beat (mostly because Woo can beat us by himself and Raj
mostly just passed back to Woo). I mean I guess it can be fun but it's
too much like constant work. Maybe it'd be better with full teams and
then I'd only be on the court for a few minutes at a time.
Dave was nice enough to buy me some cross-training shoes for my
upcoming birthday. I was just playing with normal dress shoes which I
didn't mind but it was messing up my feet and knees. Then again even
with the new shoes my body isn't used to this much pounding and my
knees and feet are sore for about a day afterwards.
Afterwards we sometimes go eat. Perhaps too often because it is kind of
expensive. I do like to go out to eat but I'm still trying to get my
budget back in order after DunDraCon. I have a habit of trying to pay
more than the other guys and usually it works too. But it does mean
that at times I've paid two or three shares worth of a meal.
In the end it's nice exercise and gets my blood pumping. It takes a lot
of my time that I can ill afford to spend. It's good to spend time with
my friends. It's a bit expensive. I'll probably keep doing this until
it's stopped by something else. And I'm not too sure if I'm happy about
that prospect.
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