Streetball Season Started

Posted
May 17 2004

As you might know, I've been playing basketball through pretty much all of autumn, winter, and spring. Sometimes alone, but often accompanied by one or two players I know. The past few months, Enrique and I have been playing together pretty much every day. During these months, there've been some occasions where there were enough people to play five-on-five, but most of the time we would be by ourselves — or accompanied by some kids, tops. The past week, though, it seems the 'ballers have awaken from their hibernation, and crawled out of their caves.


It started exactly 7 days ago. Enrique and I were surprised to see a lot of people at Tram 2 Court. This appeared to be a one time occurrence at first, as the next few days there were little to no 'ballers to be found, but that didn't last... at all.

The past few days have been like the good ol' days — literally dozens of people on the court, making teams and waiting turns, and non-stop five-on-five action. I've been seeing a lot of familiar faces that I haven't seen for some time (most since last summer), and also faces that did not seem that familiar at all, but that seemed to be recognizing me (must be the passes). I saw faces of people that don't have skills, and I saw faces of professionals (though the two don't necessarily rule eachother out). I saw faces of people that I like a lot, faces of people that I don't like so much, and faces of people that I downright hate (I can't stand the sight of those faces).

It's fun to be able to play some semi-serious 'ball again, and test some of my new-found skills, but I'm not so happy about how I've been playing, really. It's mainly a lack of confidence, intensity, and energy (in which the three relate to eachother strongly). Basically it comes down to: I don't feel too good (well, duh).

I've already established a good feeding rythm — now I need a good sleeping rythm to go with it. I've been going to bed around 7 in the morning again/still. Not only is it majorly unhealthy (hence the lack of energy, perhaps), it also causes me to miss a lot of the action. I will also be working out more — something I haven't done at all (apart from actually playing, which — of course — also is good). I'm determined to get back the vertical leap I had when I was 17/18.

Anyway. Yesterday was Centraal: I played lousy defense and didn't show my offensive potential, but did lay one very nasty (swish) facial upon one guy (who happens to be a pro'). I also delivered some very sweet assists. Today was Huygenspark: I played lousy defense again, but layed one very nasty facial on... (déjà vu?) yes... the same guy. Today wasn't exactly the same as yesterday though — I traded some of the sweetest passes for one very sweet fade-away from behind the backboard. Tomorrow (or today, technically) is Zuiderpark: I'm ready for it.

ACJ

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1 comments so far.

1/1

i love streetball

Posted by: P. Rico on January 27, 2005, at 02:50

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