Tag Archives: basketball

The original 13-rules of basketball »

December 28th, 2012

Dr. James Naismith published these original 13-rules of basketball in 1892. I especially like #5:

5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed; the first infringement of this rule by any player shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made, or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game, no substitute allowed.

Could you imagine if this rule were still in effect today? It would be like hockey where a team could have a power play. Until the next goal was scored a team would be playing 4 on 5.

/via Jason Kottke.

Weigh in: January 18, 2011

January 18th, 2011

Half the distance to the goal. NFL referees usually use this term as a unit of measure for a penalty against the defense. Depending on what that goal may be, a first down or the end zone, the distance differs. In this case, it is exactly 20 pounds, and the defense is my fat.

Today I weigh 200lbs. for a loss this week of 4 pounds. The second best week on this second-round of The Diet since the first! I couldn’t be more happy with this result. I’ve been very good on my diet this week and – due to a little snow – got a few extra “workouts” in the form of shoveling. Hey, I count everything and every little bit helps.

I feel great. Dropping 20 pounds in 35 days makes me feel like I have actually put a 20 pound weight down and simply continued on with my day. Especially on the basketball court. I play basketball for about 4 hours every Monday night. Even when I was at my heaviest I did this. However, when I was over 220 pounds I would be able to give “OK” energy for the first 2 hours and then it went downhill from there. But now, even only half way to my goal, I am able to be at high-energy nearly the entire time. Last night I think only my last two games my legs felt like they were finished for the evening.

I do not expect the next 20 pounds to come off as “easily” as these first 20 pounds have. So I’m going to be doing three P90X routines per week to help increase my cardio and my calorie burn. Oh, and I secretly hope for a bit of snow so that I can shovel and burn even more.

Don’t forget to check in to see how the other dieters did.

Weigh in: December 21, 2010

December 21st, 2010

I can’t believe that week one is already over and that I’m already doing the second weigh in. I don’t know if it is because I’ve done this before or just that this week was a particularly busy one – but time sure does fly.

The results for this week are very, very good. The first pounds of any diet are the “easiest” to lose – in my experience. It isn’t that it is easy to turn away temptations of food and beer the entire week, or the temptation to sit back on the couch and snack, or to just continually raid the fridge from the time I get up until I go to sleep. However, the first week is generally always a decent amount of weight loss. In 2006 I lost 7 pounds in the first week. So, how much did I lose this time?

I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 10 pounds in the first week on The Diet. I now weigh exactly 210lbs. This is extremely motivating but also I take this weigh in with a small grain of salt. Weight fluctuates and the first week is always a good week if you do well on your diet – so I expect next week’s weigh in to not be nearly as dramatic.

My goal for this week is to be down 3.3lbs or to weigh in at 207 pounds next week. During this first week I did very little exercise (2 sessions of playing basketball and one 3-mile walk in the freezing cold with Eliza). I’m going to try to work out at least 3 times this week, in addition to my normal basketball schedule, and to jog at least 3 miles. I’ll try to bring all of these numbers up each week going forward.

How does this week’s weight loss work into my goal? My goal was to lose 40 pounds in 12 weeks. This week I had the goal of only losing 3.3lbs (which is a good, solid week of weight loss on any diet) but I’ve managed to drop 10lbs. Since it took me 16 weeks to lose 40 pounds the last time I dieted I figure I just dropped 2 weeks off of that number in the first week. So, I’m on track to beat the 16 weeks. Can I make 12?

Weigh in: May 19, 2009

May 19th, 2009

I didn’t weigh in last week. On Monday I was sick and the rest of the week sort of just ran away from me. This week I was really excited to weigh in to see how I did over the last few weeks.

Today I weighed in at 189 lbs. which is down three pounds since I weighed in 15 days ago. I was hoping I’d be 188 or even 187 (which would have meant that I’d have finally beaten Pat Dryburgh in our little challenge) but I’m willing to wait for next week for that to happen. And it will happen.

Overall I had two fairly good weeks full of activity, a decent food diet, and no major setbacks. Even though I missed basketball last week I still managed to run over 9 miles that week and 6 the last week with basketball on that Monday. I’m currently working on bringing my 5K (or a 3.1 mile run) time down. My current goal is 28 minutes. I’m hoping to hit that this week.

Today Chris Fehnel and I did the Plyometrics portion of P90X, an exercise routine that he’s been doing since we re-started the diet, and it was intense. Fun. But intense. It is definitely a much harder workout than I would ever put together for myself. I’m considering doing this workout either every-now-and-then or even each week. We’ll see.

Next week will, more than likely, end the competition between Pat and I but I’m not going to stop there. I’ve decided to make other goals, besides actual weight, for myself. My 5K in under 28 minutes is my first goal, and perhaps “bringing it” to an entire PlyoX routine would be my second (since while I managed to make it through the routine I definitely didn’t “bring it”).

I know that Eliza, Chris, and I are doing great on our diets. How about all of you?

Weigh in: May 4, 2009

May 4th, 2009

You’ve all been waiting with baited breath, I know – but at long last, here it is – my weigh in for this, our sixth week back on the diet.

It has been a great week. I ate very well this week. I don’t remember missing a single meal, I ate enough calories every day, and most of the food I ate per-day was well balanced. And this showed in my weigh in, and also in the results I’ve seen in my workout routines.

My exercise this week went very, very well. I played, as per usual, about 4 hours of basketball on Monday, jogged on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and did three core workout routines. For me this is a fair amount of exercise, but I plan on doing even better this week. Longer jogs, same amount of basketball, and more workouts.

This morning I weighed in at 192 pounds, that is a loss of two pounds this week. I’m feeling great, my clothes are fitting better, and I’m excited to come down the home stretch towards my goal. Losing 15 pounds in 6 weeks is fantastic. Five pounds until I beat Dryburgh, seven pounds to reach my initial goal of 185 and reassess where I am at – and make new goals.

I hope everyone else had a great week. Lets keep going!

Weigh in: April 27, 2009

April 27th, 2009

If I were to graph my week of activity it’d look something like the silhouette of a camel standing in the sunset. The beginning of the week started out great with a really great basketball session on Monday and Wednesday and we finished off the week strong with some basketball on Sunday evening. In between those times, however, I didn’t get the chance to jog at all.

I know, I play basketball a lot. But it is the sport that I could play every single day and not tire of it.

I had one ‘bad day’ on Saturday (for reasons I’ll leave out for now, but suffice to say the day consisted of not very good food, although it tasted great, and a lot of couch time). I’m going to try to avoid this type of day this week.

This morning I weighed in at 194.something pounds. My scale consists of a rotating dial with small numbers that are hard to read from 6′ 1″ above it. That is a loss of 2 pounds for this week. I’m feeling very good, fitting into clothes better, and ready to have an active summer. This brings me down 13 pounds in 1 month and 1 week. I’m looking forward to shedding this last 7 pounds, to beat Pat, before mid-May.

Weigh in: April 6, 2009

April 6th, 2009

I’m happy to report that I did much better during this second week of the diet than I did during the second week of the diet back in June 2006 (Wow, has it been that long already?) when I gained 3 pounds. This week I’m down another four pounds and I currently weigh 199 pounds.

My goals, as stated last week, were: “… to cut down on carbs, eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks, go completely beer and wine free for the week, and lose two more pounds.” I did pretty well with trying to stick to these goals but I was far from perfect. While I didn’t drink any beer this week I did have some homemade pear wine last night that was given to us. I didn’t do very well on trying to cut down on the number of carbs I’ve had for the week. In fact, I didn’t measure the number of carbs I had at all. I didn’t play any basketball and only ran twice. I did, however, eat more fruit and vegetables as snacks and did well with not eating too much.

One of the things I find most challenging during the second week is getting over the “make it a habit hump.” It is said that you have to do something 7 times (I think?) in order to make it a habit. I don’t know how this philosophy fits in with the complexities surrounding diets, but I know that for me to truly change my eating and exercising habits I need to get through the second week. If you look at the arc of my dieting last time, you can see that from the second week on it was a landslide towards the finish. I was totally committed to my diet, did really well with exercising on a regular basis, and kept up with my weekly goals. I’m hoping the same is true this time around.

I’m glad to have this second week over with and to have a decent weight loss. Now I’m ready to really ratchet up my commitment to the diet until I get to my goal.

My goals for this week include: drinking more water, trying to measure the number of carbs I eat, playing basketball twice, running three times, and having only one glass of wine. (I don’t want to cut out wine completely but I’ll probably have it earlier in the week this time.) Also, I’d like to lose two pounds this week.

I hope everyone else on the diet had as good or better a second week as I had and that we all continue on to reach our goals.

Random 60: Doing what you love, not what you’re good at.

March 25th, 2009

Random 60: Doing what you love, not what you’re good at. | Favorite on Viddler.

Please consider sharing this on Twitter. Thanks.

I often find myself doing things that I really like to do, even if I’m not particularly good at them. Art, for me, is a great example. I like dabbling with watercolors, pastels, pencil sketches, and even digital art like Flip. Basketball is also another example. I love playing basketball but I don’t think anyone on earth would consider me very good at it.

What do you love to do even if you’re not particularly good at it?

Side note: Thanks for all of the excellent feedback I’ve been getting from the Random 60 videos. These have been truly fun to make and I plan on continuing.

Weigh in: June 24, 2008

June 24th, 2008

We’re back to this?  Back to the diet?  Yes. We are.

I know what you might be thinking, especially if you follow me on Twitter.  How can he play so much basketball and still need to get back on his diet?  It is because I like food and booze too much.  It isn’t due to lack of exercise really, because I get a fair amount of that considering that my day job is in front of a computer.

Today I weighed in at 207 pounds.  My goal for next week is 205.  Pretty simple.

I’m going to be trying to achieve this goal by watching what I eat, cutting down on alcohol consumption to only 2 ounces (or a beer and a glass of wine) per week, and keeping my same routine for sports and exercise.

Nike Air Assault

April 18th, 2008

photo.jpg

My current pair of basketball sneakers. Review: Great ankle support. Outside of sneakers holding up really well. Inside of sneaker is beginning to bunch up. I’ll update this post to say how old they are when I figure that out.

A little bit about basketball

February 13th, 2008

Basketball has been some part of my life, big or small, since I was very young. I’ve never been any good at it really, but that’s another story. As an early teen I would go to the elementary school playground in the morning and not return until it was dark. Summers came and went, meals were missed, and I can still hear my Mom yelling my name from the back porch as the sun went down.

There was a fairly long stretch from about 19 years old until 25 that I actually didn’t play as often as I now wish I had. Maybe it was discovering the world of programming that stopped me from getting onto the court. Maybe it was getting married at an early age, and dealing with the responsibilities that brought, that gave me the excuses I needed not to take the time to play. Or, perhaps as I gained more and more weight I just didn’t feel up to it.

But I’ve come to realize something I consider very important. After gaining, then losing, gaining a little, and now on my way to getting back to my goal weight again – I’ve learned that basketball is an essential part of my healthy lifestyle.

My MeToday video from June 6, 2007 (view)

When I play basketball regularly I’m able to stay in pretty good shape. I feel good. I’ve got energy. My outlook on my own health, and my goals for good health, remains high. When I do not play basketball very regularly, I keep my same eating habits, and end up gaining weight. Put simply, basketball is one of the very few forms of exercise that I truly enjoy doing.

I suppose that ultimate frisbee could also be a supplemental form of exercise for me, but I don’t get the chance to play that nearly as often, and I’ve only just started playing it a few summers ago. Ultimate, as it is often called, is a really fun sport and a great way to get cardio exercise – if you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. You can see how frisbee helped me during my diet. While you’re at it, you might as well see how basketball helped me on my diet too.

Now, at 27 years old, I’m playing basketball at least a few times a week when I’m in my normal routine. I’m loving it. Sometimes I really do not feel like playing but I always feel so much better after I’ve done so. I’m looking forward to losing a few more pounds, maybe gaining a few centimeters on my vertical jump, and playing some of the best basketball of my life.

Do you have a sport you love?

Weigh in: Week Fifty Five

June 19th, 2007

Lately I’ve been lax in my workouts. This is in part due to the fact that my schedule is not lining up with Chris Fehnel‘s schedule and so I haven’t been regularly hitting the gym nor running (though I have managed to play some frisbee and basketball).

I believe it is time to quit making excuses about scheduling problems and start doing things on my own. I’m going to start running, by myself, starting tomorrow. As for the gym I’ll have to create my own schedule (most likely Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). I’d love to go in the mornings but that just doesn’t seem possible – I am not a morning workout person.

This week I weighed in within a few ounces of last week’s weigh in. Which is fine because I fully expect to be around 185 pounds for the rest of my life – so being 187 works just as well.

I hope everyone else had a great week on their diets.