playing basketball

My parents weren't athletes but my uncle was, and when I was a kid he got me to practice shooting by flipping a ball into the air using just wrist power while lying around watching TV or whatever. Def gave me a headstart on transition from pushing the ball towards the hoop to an actual wrist-flick high-arc shooting motion.

over the shoulder is prob preferable, not trying helicopter parent anyones children here

My ankle healing progress stalled this week. That combined with ugly looking bruising/discoloration (and girlfriend and sister on my case) prompted me to see a doc and get x-rays. Yep just a sprain. Doc ordered me some PT so at least it wasn't a total waste to see him.
My sister and cousin are visit beginning of April so if I'm smart I'll stay off the court until after they leave, rather than risk reinjury and not being able to take my guests on hikes. I can run and jump but it gets very sore quickly. I still am running the open gym in Thursdays, so it's tough watching from sideline. But things could be much worse!

ankle sprains are seriously the worst

Indeed. Kinda stoked tho to get some professional PT. Was planning to do some on my own anyway.
Going a bit stir crazy. Usually I'm hooping or hiking 6 days a week. Might go for a light stroll on a trail tomorrow though.

Chris Paul wasn't the only basketball savant making his anticipated return to action tonight. I gave it a go. Airballed 1st shot (baby hook from 8 feet. Ouch.) and followed that up with a couple turnovers. But then went on to play better than I have in months. Was even finishing at the rim which is my weakness. Tweaked the ankle slightly trying to stop and change directions on defense but it feels pretty good now.
The guys seemed genuinely stoked that I was back playing (I'd been coming to the runs anyway, since I, well, run them.) That made me feel good. Great group of guys, I genuinely like each of them (now that a couple dick heads stopped coming. I sorta steered the group to make the dickheads feel unwanted). Feel lucky to have that comraderie in runs that are open to the general public.

Keep that group together as long as possible!

I played tonight too and my Achilles flared up, last 4 weeks it’s good for about 3 games then I can barely walk.. think Its time to visit my podiatrist.

It's Sedona so the group is almost definitely not gonna stay together lol. Too much transience. Some of the guys actually come as a group from this substance abuse rehab place, so they're usually just in town for as long as their program lasts. This is like the 4th group of guys I've gone through, with just a couple other "lifers" being constants through the years. Buuuut good thing about Sedona is most people are pretty chill vibes maaaaaan.

Ugh that sucks. Couple months ago I got shoe inserts for Achilles (they just cover the back half of the shoe bed, lifting the heel up) plus these straps that go around the ankle, keeping Achilles in place. Or something. Dunno which did the trick or was combo of both but my Achilles issue pretty much resolved. But yours is just in one foot and it was a partial tear or something right? Hence podiatrist rather than Walgreens

yeah its the same one i tore a while back. i think i need to see the doc just to make sure its stable enough and then get some prescribed PT. plus maybe ill try one of those inserts, got a link to the one you use?

“You’re telling me that in pickup basketball there is a peaceful transition of power??” 😂 pic.twitter.com/1bO9KOgm0D

— Patrick Breen 🌵 (@pjbreenphoto) June 27, 2022

its an amazing system

it's all fine until someone calls a charge

everywhere ive played if that happens everyone just laughs.. like nah

lol, it is pretty amazing. In fact, when I was playing a lot, sometimes I'd wind up way outclassed and people were generally pretty cool about it and humored me. Maybe that wouldn't fly on every court, but the Y and the outdoor courts where I played had some pretty good ballers and no one really minded if I ran with them (or if they did they kept it quiet lol).

haha just realized I responded to six month old comments.

I actually revived this thread because I need to vent somewhere about my daughter's 5th grade bball team which is losing every game badly. It's partly that my town has that kind of artsy/not very jock vibe, partly that a lot of them aren't very experienced, partly that some of the best players are on the CYO team instead of ours, and tbh partly that I think the coaching kind of sucks (but it's pretty hard to complain about a couple of volunteer dads). They keep trying to teach them these fairly elaborate (for 5th grade) screen plays, but meanwhile they can barely shoot layups, some of the girls can't really handle the ball without it getting stolen, the passes get picked off constantly, there isn't consistent hands up defense, like just very basic shit they obviously need to work on before setting screens. Like even when they occasionally set a screen successfully, nothing happens because the girls don't know how to drive to the hoop.

Also my wonderful daughter is just not very confident on the court, which I feel bad about because she's actually reasonably skilled - she shoots and handles better than at least half her teammates, and she's tall. But in game she's still kinda afraid to get the ball in her hands. Gets hard to watch, but I'm just trying to be patient and encouraging. We started watching NBA together a little, which is fun and maybe gives her a little more feel for the game.

the quiddities and agonies of suburban sports parents

feeling old as fuck that your daughter (who i never met) is now in fifth grade and playing basketball and i am still out late at the club

do fifth-grade hoops teams run plays or anything? or are they running around like six-year-olds playing soccer?

kinda worry that kids of that age are maybe too young and will therefore start hating it because of how hard it is?

but! my main takeaway from high school hoops was that if someone who can dribble the ball sprints straight at you, you'll get out of the way.

anyway totally rooting for manalivette and looking forward to her being fast and breaking defenses

They sort of run plays. The level of the teams and players is really widely varied in their league. The team they played tonight was legit impressive.

My daughter's team has a few plays they run, but they don't seem very effective to me - I can see how it would take time for them to pay off, but as noted, the problem I see over and over again is that the basics aren't there yet, so even when the play works, no one can take advantage of it. But they're definitely beyond just running around like six year olds chasing a ball.

Weirdly, manalivette does have a good fastbreak when she gets past her anxiety - I've seen her pull it off really well a few times, just grab the re and go coast to coast - she's both big and reasonably fast and handles pretty well so the few times she's done it she's hard to stop. In fact I haven't seen other players on her team just go straight down the middle the way she does, most of them tend to veer off to the side.

The coach is like way overcoaching them though I think. And also they, and especially she, tend to take stuff a little too literally and try a little too hard to do exactly what they're supposed to do. Like today she told me the coach told her her main job is to get rebounds, not shoot. And I was like I'm pretty sure the coach doesn't want you to not try to shoot if you have an open shot.

i agree that 5th grade probably a little early for plays, PNRs and what have you

boxing out, layups and basic spacing probably better to nail first

my 14 yo son is on a very good team that plays against other very good teams and they have plays they run but more often it’s just improvisation and reads. he’s actually a little annoyed at his coach who wants them to do way more structured plays and it’s very tough to pull off and the coach yells at them when they fuck it up and in general they are not playing with “joy”

my 11 yo is in i guess a comparable situation to yours man alive and they do have the concept of picks but they never actually execute them in games.. it’ll come eventually i guess. for now what i’m struck by is how slow offenses are at making decisions, how badly they telegraph their passes. everyone just gets stuck, like triple teamed, lobs a pass, gets it stolen, rinse and repeat. spacing still a big issue.

lol yeah, that's a pretty perfect description of their team for the most part. Their spacing isn't bad actually bc the coach constantly reminds them about it, but they don't really know what to do with the spacing. In the game I watched yesterday, every back court player kept driving around the outside to the right when they had the ball instead of driving toward the hoop.

Manalivette also clearly has a lot of anxiety about messing up in the game and maybe a little of an attitude of "it's better if I don't get the ball" to shake off. Not really sure what, if anything, I can do about that - whatever approach I take to talking with her about it seems to fail, soft, firm, positive, constructive criticism, doesn't matter much. I want her to make the connection that she has a team to help and every time she's on the court she should be trying to help the team, whether it's spacing, rebounding, shooting, passing, whatever the team needs. I guess practice and experience mean more than anything else.

kids just need to learn to shoot threes, then after that dunking

Watching the pickup game at my gym while working out, think I’ve seen 15 missed threes in a row. Steph really ruined pickup ball.

I don't think I saw a single three sink. And a skilled and athletic bunch of ballers too.

a couple years ago all those guys would have been bricking from 20 feet

nah threes have been popular in pickup since they painted the line

also a 20fter is a three on most courts

ah true good point

sometimes over lunch i walk past this court outside a junior high, and sometimes the kids are out playing pickup -- except all they do is heave threes that most of them can't even get to the basket

steph curry is hurting america's children

― mookieproof, Tuesday, January 15, 2019 10:24 PM (four years ago)

Everyone chucks cos 1) they are lazy and/or not in good shape 2) even if you make like one out of four it’s a good shot cos in most pickup games it’s worth twice as many points as any other shot

It's funny because when I was a kid everyone just wanted to do reverse windmill layups and no one cared about long ball.

high school line aka the top of the key line was added in the late 80s and thats around when they started painting them on every court everywhere, since then its been a three party baby, you cant see the line and not want to shoot from it

Everyone chucks cos 1) they are lazy and/or not in good shape 2) even if you make like one out of four it’s a good shot cos in most pickup games it’s worth twice as many points as any other shot

― four square ups... no punches thrown (Spottie), Sunday, February 12, 2023 5:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

exactly, it’s super valuable in pickup

2x zero. I'm sure that on at least a few of those plays someone could have driven and made a layup

playing by ones and twos is lame imo

no its good it encourages hoisting

https://i.imgur.com/KCEm704.jpg

My kid has got into it in a big way. He's 12, and at 5'9" is not afraid to play with adults. He's made me remember how much I enjoy playing, even though I've never been that good.

I broke my wrist last night, fell back and used it to save my head from a concussion, but it paid the price. Displaced fracture, lucky it didn’t break skin. Bummed, this might be it for me.

fuuuuuck sorry to hear that man

oh no sorry! you can bounce back tho, i broke my wrist, got a steel plate, all that stuff and it's been fine for 20+ years.

noooo spottie I’m sorry

I recently had to go to two ankle braces from just one, father time is undefeated

oh no sorry! you can bounce back tho, i broke my wrist, got a steel plate, all that stuff and it's been fine for 20+ years.

yeah i followed the same path (and injured myself basically the same way breaking a fall)--set in the ER, give it a few days and then assess with the orthopedist. mine wasn't going to heal right. surgery is obviously not pleasant but you get a more certain outcome i think.

I’ll say this… ketamine is a helluva drug

hell yeah

Damn spottie I’m bummed for you. I was just asking my dad how old he was when he tore his achilles which shut him down for life and he was just 5 years older than I am now. On the other hand some dude that must be in his 70s balls with us now and then so who knows

I said I’d never play again after I tore my achilles but the hoops spirits are persuasive and I was lured back after a few years.