Playoffs?!

Whaddup fellow ballers? It's been a hectic week-and-a-half since my last post as many other responsibilities in my life have been tugging at me for my time, but you just KNOW that nothing's getting in the way of me being around basketball! Despite reduced time, I've still been able to play plenty of pickup games, read numerous inspiring articles, and enjoy this year's NBA playoffs! As far as the latter, it's been a fun and satisfying postseason so far even though my Phoenix Suns were in the race for the 8th seed for the entire season until they lost an underrated key player in Brandon Knight to injury, and gave up 9 of their last 10 games to teams who could actually keep their roster healthy and make a respectable push into the postseason, and I had to watch as those like the San Antonio Spurs, who looked like they weren't even going to win their first round postseason match-up throughout most of the season, somehow defied their age yet again to become the hottest team in basketball and went on an impressive win streak to finish the season... there's always next year.

As far as the pickup games, the combination of this project and the weather starting to finally move towards spring has made me JACKED to play basketball more than any time in recent memory (I hope you all feel the same)! More and more I've felt eager to go outside and enjoy the day with a good group of friends by playing the timeless game of basketball at our local (and may I add quite nice) court outside of the Midland Community Center. My friends and I love this place as there are two full, free-entry basketball courts that are open any day of the week at any time. An unexpected outcome of going there so often is that I've met many other ballers who do the same, and have formed some casual friendships with a few of them. To anyone who has the ability to come play here, I'm telling you it's a nice spot to shoot hoops and get pickup games going - I know you'll see me there more and more as the weather brightens up!

The picture above is of course LeBron "King" James himself. With the playoffs just beginning, I figured I was going to see a lot more wins and highlights from the Cleveland Cavalier's superstar (widely considered the best active player in the world) over the next few months, so I decided to read up on how the player I grew up idolizing prepares his mind and body to play at the level he does. Coming in, I had assumed that James trains himself strenuously and diligently to maintain the level of athleticism he's accumulated, however I had no idea just how strictly he diets and how intense his training regiment is. LeBron keeps himself under strict and consistent guidelines in order to be in the best shape he can, and his work ethic is awe inspiring. I think we all realize that professional athletes are paid to keep their body in top shape, but I also think that we all tend to underestimate just how hard these "professionals" work in order to be the best they can be - it's commendable.

Link to an article outlining James' workout routine: http://www.menshealth.com/celebrity-fitness/lebron-james-workout

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad

An Eventful Month

How's it going baller-nation? A lot has happened since my last post - from almost a full month ago- and I'm excited to share what I've been working on and learning in order to further my progress toward my goal of being a better basketball player. Over the past month, I've concluded this year's Community Center League basketball season, taken a trip to Florida over Spring Break, and played many more pick-up games than usual. Additionally, I've read one very interesting and helpful article that has changed my mindset in particular.

Shortly after my last post (ironically titled "Feeling Good"), my CCL team played our way into the championship game where we faced the upperclassmen of our very own Dow High School. They were the defending champions and despite an honorable effort, we were unable to pull out the win. Although the CCL season may have ended in heartbreaking fashion, I still feel that this project greatly helped me in becoming a better basketball player, and by improving my overall confidence in any game situation. There's always next year!

My Spring Break trip was very relaxing and a needed break from school, but I made sure not to slump on my goal to improve my game. Although my friends and I (most of the CCL team) were staying at a villa located on an island off the west coast of Florida, we were all hungry to continue playing the game we loved. Fortunately, one of my friends drove and was able to bring along a basketball; however, we still needed to find a court. We all set out and took a long bike ride to the location that we thought looked like a basketball court from Google Maps, and luckily it was a small concrete court. We were all overjoyed to find a place to basketball on our vacation, and we went almost every day to improve ourselves, as well as the team (I feel very good about our championship hopes next year).

The picture above comes from the aforementioned article that discusses the shooting technique of one of my personal-favorite players, Kyrie Irving. When I first searched, "how to shoot like Kyrie Irving," I expected dozens of articles praising Irving for his beautiful shooting stroke and fundamentals. To my surprise, the first search result was an article that critiqued Kyrie's shooting stroke and fundamentals, and said that if he must fix some bad habits if he ever wanted to dominate the NBA. The article provided an in-depth analysis of what is wrong with Kyrie's stroke, and even ways for him to mend his poor technique. This came as a great surprise to me, because beforehand I held up Kyrie as one of the best players in the NBA, and that it was his sound fundamentals and sweet shooting stroke that got him there; the article changed my perspective to one of more awareness in player's shooting errors.

Link to the article: http://hoopshype.com/columns/david-nurse/how-to-fix-kyrie-irvings-shot

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad

Feeling Good

What it do fellow ballers! Since my last post I've completed an enjoyable and successful 20 Time workout, read helpful articles on improving my game, and had plenty of chances to use what I learned. I've really enjoyed fully focusing on becoming a better basketball player and honing my skills, and it's really encouraging to see even little improvements in real-world application.

My 20 Time workout was probably the best application of the project thus far. Due to the other school's gym being used for physical education class, my 20 Time group found its way to the Green Gym, where the Team Sports class was coincidentally playing basketball that week. To start things off, our group took all kinds of layups to not only warm ourselves up, but to work on one of the most important aspects of the game of basketball: fundamentals. Thereafter, my group of three was able to gather three other players, and we all played a 3 on 3 game of pickup basketball. This was really fun, and it served the purposed of testing whether each player in our group had improved toward their goal (I played rather well, I think).

Within the time between my last post and the one I am currently writing, I've had to put my skills to the test in two real, organized games in the Community Center League. Each and every successive weekend that I have played CCL basketball since starting my 20 Time, I have felt more confident and skilled when dribbling, shooting, and making quick, basketball decisions. Overall, I have loved the new found ability and improvements, and it's very encouraging to actually have noticeable progress (however small); I'm really starting to see that the game of basketball still has a lot of rewarding challenges to offer.

The picture above was part of an article that I read over several of my class's SSR time. Like last week's post (from a different source), Stephen Curry's shot is analyzed and broken down to show how he is able to make the amazing shots he does. Overall, this week's theme has been less about what the proper technique is to shoot (despite the diagram above), and more on how you can practice to be a better shooter. More recently, I've been looking at how some of the game's greats (Michael Jordan for example) have been able to reach that level of success, and what kind of mindset a player must have in order to get there. So far, I've learned that to truly be a good player you have to sacrifice and put aside your own bodily complaints to push yourself harder than the rest; the more you put into improving your game the more you get out of it.

Link to the article: http://www.ecbahoops.com/how-to-shoot-a-basketball-steph-curry/

I hope that my 20 Time project is the beginning of the steps that I must take in order to improve to my game, especially to the point of excelling and standing out among the rest. I am still unsure of who exactly will be my group's mentor; many names have crossed my mind, but each one has subsequently been crossed out due to the level of commitment it seems they will have to take in this project. Although that has slightly upset me, I have a positive outlook on the rest of the project, and I look forward to making more gains!

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad

Improvement

Yo yo yo, whaddup fellow ballers! Since my last post I've been lucky enough to participate in a 20-Time "workout", and an actual basketball game at the Community Center. Additionally, we've started reading choice selections that are related to our 20-Time project, and I've been reading a handful of helpful articles giving simple tips of how to better your game.

My 20-Time "workout" was supposed to consist of just one, simple goal: shooting better free throws. Our group of three had planned that it would be best if we were to begin with the manageable goal of 10 out of 10 free throws, and gradually deepen our goal into more difficult challenges. Overall, after a short period of time had passed within the hour, our group begin to lose interest (despite shooting more accurately) in shooting free throws, until the last 20 minutes of class where my group and I played a game of pick-up basketball. While it was useful to work on foul-shooting for most of the hour, I was glad that the work was supplemented with a game, so that it became more exciting and real. Overall, I felt that the time prepared me for my CCL contest, and that it was beneficial to work on free throws for 20-Time.

This brings me to my CCL game, where I felt that I played a bit better last week, following my 20-Time, then any other game this year. In fact, at one point in the game I actually had a chance to shoot free throws. I had not made any of the few attempts I had taken before that point this year, so I was pleasantly surprised by making one of the shots, while narrowly missing the other. The 20-Time workout definitely improved my confidence and free throw shooting muscle memory, and it made my foul shots much more accurate.

The school week after that game, we began to read books related to our topic for SSR, where I learned to improve other aspects of my game. This picture is one that was studied and analyzed in a specific article I read that gave 3-point shooting tips from Stephen Curry (left) and Steve Novak (right) - two of the best shooters in all of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Both of these amazing shooters expressed the need for holding the "follow-through" on your shot (the hand motion that shoots the ball) and to attempt to commit your shot to muscle memory in order to shoot consistently. They stressed that the best shooters are those who shoot the same, great shot time and time again, regardless of the defense, pressure, or unfamiliarity. Great shooters have the same foot placement, jump, and follow through each and every shot they take.

Link to that article: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/21716576/3-point-shooting-tips-from-stephen-curry-and-steve-novak

While the question of "who is my mentor?" still remains, I was glad to be able to secure Mr. Schulte as our adult supervisor so that we could use the gym every week for our 20-Time workouts. I'm optimistic that someone will be willing to sacrifice a little of their time so that our group can all get better, or that Alec Marty will finally be cleared to be that person.


Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad

First Post - Possibilites

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog on "Ballin' Up With B-rad"! This blog will be about my journey to become and better basketball player, and all the steps, measures, determination, and skill it takes to make it happen. This really all came about by way of Community Center League basketball, and also just playing pick-up or recreational games in general, so that I would not only improve my own talent as a basketball player, but also have more fun playing as a result of that. However, this is all only possible because of our opportunity of 20-Time, where 20% of our school time for a few-months-long period is given as free time to do whatever we choose and create a relevant goal for ourselves.

This being my first post I have yet really encounter much of anything yet in my journey, but I still have plenty to speculate on and be excited for. During this week I got together with my partners (Jimmy McDonald and Samir Bahadur) to plan and formulate a schedule for which we could improved certain aspects of our game. So we are planning to use our class time for this project to practice free throws, three-pointers, layups, and finally 1 on 1 tests (to see who is improving the most). While we do not yet have it locked in, I am hoping that Mr. Keith Schulte will be willing to supervise; although, I'm pretty sure that'll be the extent of his role because his basketball skills may need some of their own work. Essentially, every class time our group will be planning to go the gym and use our time to practice or work-out a certain, predetermined aspect of the game (chosen from one on the list above).

As far as progress, as I have mentioned, we have really only been able to set up a rough schedule of different skills to practice. On the other hand, our setbacks have been quite impactful. For one, while Jimmy had everything together and planned so that Alec Marty, star point guard and quarterback for our own Dow High, would mentor and teach us ways that we could improve our game, this idea was shot down by our teacher, Mrs. Hechlik. I was shocked personally that she had first of all never heard of one of Dow's best athletes, and even more so that she suggested that we should attempt to get a "Michigan State basketball player" to mentor us. This is simply impossible. Especially with March Madness coming up where they will be in a serious and focused mindset in order to fight their way the farthest in the tournament, certainly without time to help a lowly group of average players for no benefit of their own...

Also, we may be setback by the inevitable fact that we probably won't be able to practice/work-out in the gym for our class time. This will be very disappointing if it is true because we were actually promised that we could do anything when our project was first presented to us, and therefore our group rightfully assumed that this included the ability to use the gym to improve our game. While I would be a bit less excited and ambitious towards this project if true, I still look forward to being able to improve my game through an array of different methods.

Below is a link that provides solid resources on how to better shoot free throws, which our group will be focusing on improving this upcoming week.
http://www.usab.com/youth/news/2012/04/your-complete-guide-to-shooting-free-throws.aspx


Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad