925-1015 PM
Oak Sq Y
Conditioning Drills F2012B, F2012C

Total: 80 minutes

Partial Biceps/shoulders weightlifting routine; new F2012B & F2012C Conditioning Drills

F2012B & F2012C Conditioning Drills

F2012B: One repetition of the drill involves: Dribbling (or running without the ball) from A to B; dribbling (or running without the ball) from B to C; dribbling (or running without the ball) from C to D; dribbling while walking (or walking without the ball) from D to A. The turns at the corners are made with the body swiveling clockwise.

F2012C: One repetition of the drill involves: Dribbling (or running without the ball) from D to C; dribbling (or running without the ball) from C to B; dribbling (or running without the ball) from B to A; dribbling while walking (or walking without the ball) from A to D. The turns at the corners are made with the body swiveling counter-clockwise.

Aspects of the drill that can be varied: distance between cones A & B; whether ball is used; type of dribble done.

Today, I did not touch the soccer ball during 50 minutes of doing, for the first time, the conditioning drills described in the adjacent box's graphic and text, the "F2012B & F2012C Conditioning Drills".

I've put up online a new table that gives the scores for the F2012 Conditioning Drills.

One repetition today included: 33 yards of running, 9 yards of walking, 3 90-degree turns (the last 90-degree turn of the three is milder as it is followed by a walk, not a run). My policy today was to do a four-repetition set, and then break for a couple of minutes while walking the cones circuit.

Yesterday I concluded that I needed to diversify the conditioning routine so that I would be able to mimic runs longer than 24 feet, and also mimic turns other than 180 degrees, namely 90-degrees-left, & 90-degrees-right turns.

My intent was to run a square pattern, 37 feet from corner to corner. However I found that the Group Exercise Studio was not big enough to support such a pattern. Hence I settled on a rectangular pattern, 37' x 26'.

The 24 foot cone-to-cone distance done the previous week was intended to simulate 6-pace runs; the assumption then was that an average pace of the observed players was 3.3 feet in length (my foot touches at most 2 feet away from the cone during the turns; (24-4)/3.3 = 6).

I had noted that sometimes the players take long steps, but often the players take short choppy steps as they are speeding up and coming to a stop.

Continuing on the 3.3 foot per pace assumption, the 26 foot cone-to-cone distance represents 7 paces (26-4)/3.3 = 6.7), and the 37 foot cone to cone distance represents 10 paces (37-4)/3.3 = 10).

Looking at the data I had collected, I had noted that although the most common observed run-length was 6 paces and the median was 7 paces, 10-pace runs were also common. Therefore I wanted the distance between cones to be 10 paces.

Yesterday after the games ended I was doing the F2012 and this Japanese young-adult player was watching. According to Matti from Amsterdam, he is the quickest player in the league. During a game last week or the week before, while my team-mates sat on the bench and watched, they had shouted at him repeatedly, "are you a free agent"?, because they admired his play so much.

He is about 5'5"" tall, slimly built, wears a black soccer uniform and black soccer socks. He frequently employs dribbling moves such as: behind-the-back dribble; alternating left and right touch ball on every step dribble; & sole-of-the-foot dribble. I had thought that his flashy dribbling was impractical, until yesterday when I saw him enjoy an impressive moment: he ended a tricky dribble with an alert, powerful accurate 12-foot behind-the-back right-footed pass to a team-mate who scored.

Yesterday said admired Japanese teenager was watching me do the F2012 run 8 yards & make a 180 degree turn conditioning drill. He said, "he'll be good" (meaning, I'll be a good player after I get in good physical condition). I think he was sincere but I think he was also being a good sport. I think he could tell, that I felt annoyed when Matti from Holland proclaimed him as the quickest player in the league, because I think that I am at least as 'quick' as he is. Quickness and endurance are two distinct and different entities.

Running the F2012B & F2012C drills today I noted some things I had also noted for the F2012 earlier: after several repetitions, my style of starting, running, stopping and turning became more fluid, more economical in terms of energy-expenditure, more streamlined, more graceful. Simply making a 90-degree turn can seem to be something unworthy of attention, something that cannot be turned into an art, something that cannot be improved, but my experience has led me to think differently.

Today I tried to start each segment of a repetition with the left-foot and end each segment before a turn, with my right-foot.

Re the continuing problem of not getting time playing offense, I detect a paradox. Yesterday Andre offered to give me a chance to play offense. However I had come to realize that Andre is a person who takes the final score of the game very seriously and likes to pile up a bigger and bigger lead even when we are far ahead; I knew that for Andre, the final score on the board is a higher priority than skill development of individuals. I could tell we would need our (currently) strongest attackers up front to beat the team we were playing. I did not want to disappoint Andre. So I told Andre I'd play defense when he asked me if I wanted to play offense. Make up your mind Andre-- are you willing to take a setback on the scoreboard in exchange for allowing a player a chance to develop his attacking skills?

From 845 - 915 PM for 30 minutes I lifted weights, using dumbbells. Results are recorded in Weightlifting Scores Table for David Virgil Hobbs, Jan 19, 2012 onwards.

I did the biceps curl, the shoulder lateral raise, and the shoulder-press. Looking at number of reps done with the highest weight used for each exercise, my performance was up 25% compared to the previous day these exercises were done, Tuesday February 7, eight days ago.

I did not weigh myself after practice today.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 23 minutes updating tables; 11 minutes new graphic; 23 minutes new log page; 63 minutes today's log-entry. Total: 120 minutes.

Total: 80 minutes

Conditioning Drills: new F2012D done for first time; F2012C repeated; Unconventional body rotation during turns to the right is seeming reasonable

F2012D & F2012E Conditioning Drills

F2012D: One repetition of the drill involves: Dribbling (or running without the ball) from A to B; dribbling (or running without the ball) from B to C; dribbling (or running without the ball) from C to D; dribbling while walking (or walking without the ball) from D to A. The turns at the corners are made with the body swiveling counter-clockwise.

F2012E: One repetition of the drill involves: Dribbling (or running without the ball) from D to C; dribbling (or running without the ball) from C to B; dribbling (or running without the ball) from B to A; dribbling while walking (or walking without the ball) from A to D. The turns at the corners are made with the body swivelingclockwise.

Aspects of the drill that can be varied: distance between A & B; whether ball is used; type of dribble done.

Today, I did not touch the soccer ball during 20 minutes of doing, for the first time, a conditioning drill described in the adjacent box's graphic and text, the "F2012D Conditioning Drill". Then for 20 minutes I did the F2012C drill that I did yesterday again.

My intent had been to next do the F2012E Conditioning Drill described in the adjacent graphics/text box in this log entry. But instead, I did the F2012C that I had already done yesterday.

Both yesterday and today, based on a combinaton of my observation of the players in the league I'm playing in with the knowledge that I unlike most of them am left-footed, my strict intent has been that the primary energy-expending & stress-absorbing foot at the start of the run and immediately after a turn, should be the left-foot; and, that the primary energy-expending & stress-absorbing foot when slowing down or halting immediately before a turn, should be the right-foot. As a result, the F2012E with the body turning clockwise at the turns, which are all left-turns, was in my mind so awkward that I ended up doing the F2012C again by mistake.

When the foot that is the primary force for slowing down or stopping immediately before a turn is the right-foot, the body spinning counter-clockwise when making a 90 degree turn to the right is more natural and efficient, compared to the body spinning clockwise during the turn to the right.

It comes naturally to us to think that when we make a sharp 90-degree turn to the right, our bodies should spin clockwise. When famous admired track athletes made turns towards the right, their bodies turn clockwise. Similarly, when baseball players make turns towards the left while running the bases, their bodies swivel in a counter-clockwise direction. This is because: they are making curved gradual turns that are not as sharp as 90-degree turns; the sports they are in feature turns in the same direction all the time; the sports they are in due not cause as much stress due to sharp turns and stops as indoor soccer/Futsal does; they have not programmed themselves to use one foot for starting and another for stopping or slowing.

Indoor and outdoors soccer are so demanding in terms of sudden sharp changes of direction, and the distances run before a stop or turn are so short, that it is conceivable that even if the body rotating clockwise during a turn to the right produces greater speed, it could still be the case that rotating the body counter-clockwise during the turn to the right would be the wiser choice, because the counter-clockwise rotation produces: a sharper turn, speed that is sufficient given the short distance that will be travelled and the impending stress of coming to a stop or turning; and, less stress and fatigue.

My implemented idea over the past week has been that endurance will be improved if I use my left-foot as the primary-force for starting runs and starting after-turn run-segments, while using my right-foot as the primary-force for coming to a stop or slowing down prior to turns and at stops.

When the foot that is the primary force for slowing down or stopping immediately before a turn is the right foot, the body spinning counter-clockwise when making a 90 degree turn to the left, is more natural and efficient, compared to the body spinning clockwise during the turn. When the stop-foot is the right-foot, the body spinning clockwise is unnatural and strange (still I intend to experiment with it).

The scores/times for the drills reported are posted online in the F2012 Conditioning Drills Scores table. Today my performance in terms of repetitions per minute was up 17% compared to yesterday.

I did not weigh myself after practice today.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: Today I forgot to record the end-time. Total: ??? minutes.

Total: 47 minutes

Conditioning Drills: new F2012E, F2012SW, & F2012R conditioning drills done for first time; Unconventional body rotation during turn to the left seemed surprisingly reasonable; new sideways-running drill appears to be primary key to exhaustion problem; new backwards-running drill appears to be secondary key to exhaustion problem

F2012SW & F2012R Conditioning Drills

F2012SW: SW stands for sideways. One repetition of the drill involves : Running from A to D using a sideways-running motion (1); running from D to A using a sideways-running motion (2); running from A to D using a sideways-running motion (3); running from D to A using a sideways-running motion (4); running from A to B using a sideways-running motion (5); running from B to C using a sideways-running motion (6); running from C to D using a sideways-running motion (7); running from D to A using a sideways-running motion (8); running from A to D using a sideways-running motion (9); running from D to C using a sideways-running motion (10); running from C to B using a sideways-running motion (11); running from B to A using a sideways-running motion (12); walking from from A to D (13); walking from D to A using a sideways-running motion (14).

F2012R: R stands for reverse. One repetition of the drill involves the same cone-to cone movements as F2012SW, except that a backwards running motion is used; meaning I face away from the direction I am moving, while running.

Aspects of the drill that can be varied: distance between A & B; rest-time between sets of repetitions; whether ball is used ( dribbling); type of dribble done.

While running the drills today, again, as has been usual: I focused on using the left-foot as the primary force for gaining momentum after a turn, and the right-foot as the primary force for reducing speed immediately prior to a turn; I did not use the ball.

Today first I did for 20 minutes, a conditioning drill described in the Graphic-text box in the previous February 17 log-entry, the F2012E Conditioning Drill. The cones were laid out as a rectangle, 37' x 26' in shape.

The drill involved, while making 90-degree turns to the left: using the right foot as the primary stopping force immediately prior to the turn; and, swiveling the body clockwise during the turn. I was surprised at how efficient, fluid, and streamlined this turn became after ten minutes of practicing it. How the efficient fluid motion is developed: the front right foot acts as the primary breaking force; the left foot then lands in front of the right foot; the body swivels clockwise and the right foot lands to tle left of the left foot; the left-foot moves forwards to take the first step after the turn.

Still I think that the superior method when using the left-foot as the start-foot and the right-foot as the stop-foot during turns, is the method employed during the F2012C conditioning drill.

Next, I did for 10 minutes, a conditioning drill described in the adjacent graphic-text box in this log-entry, the F2012SW Conditioning Drill. The cones were laid out at the corners of a square, each cone 18 feet from the cone nearest to it.

The drill involved: using the right foot as the primary stopping force immediately prior to the turn; using the left-foot as the primary starting force immediately after the turn; running with a sideways motion so that I was always facing in a direction perpendicular to the direction I was moving.

While running this drill, I felt pain and stiffness in the outer muscles of the calves, and in the soles of the feet, and general fatigue/shortness-of-breath. I felt the same kind of pain/stiffness that has exhausted me and hobbled me during games. Hence I now believe, that possibly the most important factor limiting my endurance during games, has been that my body has not been used for sideways-running purposes, during the time I gained 45 pounds (I'm now 5' 10", approx 190 lbs). I suspect that just an hour or two of practicing sideways running will produce surprisingly strong improvement in terms of endurance during games.

Next, I did for 11 minutes, a conditioning drill described in the adjacent graphic-text box in this log-entry, the F2012R Conditioning Drill. The cones were laid out at the corners of a square, each cone 18 feet from the cone nearest to it.

The drill involved: using the right foot as the primary stopping force immediately prior to the turn; using the left-foot as the primary starting force immediately after the turn; running with a backwards motion so that I was always facing in a direction opposite to the direction I was moving.

While running this drill, I felt pain and stiffness in the front thigh muscles, and fatigue/shortness-of-breath. But the pain (front-of-thighs) was not felt in the same areas I feel it during games (calves & soles of feet). I now believe, that a secondary factor limiting my endurance during games, has been that my body has not been used for backwards running purposes, during the time I gained 45 pounds (I'm now 5' 10", approx 190 lbs). I suspect that just an hour or two of practicing backwards running will produce surprisingly strong improvement in terms of backwards-running endurance during games. I suspect that if I grew to excel the average players in terms of backwards movements, I might start moving backwards in excellent new ways that they themselves have not manifested.

Why I feel confident that just a couple of hours of F2012R, & F2012SW, will dramatically improvement my endurance during games: approximately speaking, even before signficant improvements in terms of reps per minute are achieved, first, the body ceases to feel the pain in the muscles that previously hobbled the body. When the pain has been banished, the body during games, is able to continue operating when fatigued, but at a lower level of speed, strength, and endurance. The player is able to accomplish much even at the reduced speed/strength/endurance. However when pain develops in the muscles, the body cannot continue at a lower level of speed and strength, because the pain makes even the reduced level of speed/strength intolerable.

The fact that just a couple of hours of practicing running sideways and backwards running can be expected to produce such significant results in terms of game-endurance, leads to the idea that I should have to sit in a corner of a classrom while wearing a dunce-cap, and write 'mea-culpa', 250 times on a blackboard.

It's boring to list excuses for why I did not implement something earlier, but being aware of why implementation was unduly delayed, can serve to prevent future such errors.

Excuse for not having started the sideways and backwards conditioning drills long ago: Looking at the footwork of the players in the leagues, sideways and backwards movement represented less than five percent of all of their running movements, therefore I did not think that sideways or running movement drill would be beneficial.

Patient reply to excuse: how the players in the league move when on the court, could be different from how you move when you are on the court. Could be, that when you are on the court, sideways-running-motion movement is more important for you than it is for the average player (conscientous defenders use more sideways-motion running movement). If you have gained lots of weight while not practicing sideways movement, the sideways movement required during a game could produce premature fatigue. Even if the sideways-running-motion movements are only a small minority of all your running movement, the pain produced by the sideways running movement could accelerate the onset of debilitating fatigue with regards to movement in general.

Lighting and Looks in the Group Exercise Studio

For this analysis, I categorize the lights in the Group Exercise Studio at the Oak Square Y as: 1 (left-panel, left), 2 (left-panel, right), 3 (right-panel, left), 4 (right-panel, middle), 5 (right-panel, right). The room features corner to corner mirrors on every wall.

Tuesday January 10th 38 days ago), I started a three week period during which I basically had only one normal meal a week (I only lost about 3lbs). January 19 (29 days ago), I did the first weightlifting I've done in a long time. January 23 (25 days ago) I did the first running conditioning drills I've done in a long time. January 31st (17 days ago), I stopped restricting myself to just one normal meal a week. January 23 (25 days ago) I noted that in the Group Exercise Studio at the Oak Sq Y, with all the lights off except light #3 (that is the way the Yogis left the lighting settings), in the even light I had that 'one of the world's best looking men' look.

Then February 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, & 15th, over the course of six days I was in the Group Exercise Room at the Oak Square Y doing conditioning drills, and did not notice myself as looking handsome. During these six days, the light was not set at just light #3 on to produce even-lighting, and I did not fiddle with the lighting.

Then yesterday Feb 16th in the Group Exercise Room at the Oak Square Y, I noticed that with lights #2 & #5 on (top-lighting emphasis), I had a movie-star one-of-the-handsomest-in-the-world look that I had not noticed in the mirror before.

Then today Feb 17th in the Group Exercise Room at the Oak Square Y, I noticed that with lights #1, #2, #3, & #4 on (top-lighting emphasis), I had a movie-star look one-of-handsomest-in-world look that I had not noticed in the mirror before. Previously I had noticed that with toplighting dominant my face looked puffy.

Hence it appears that due to the introduction of weightlifting (first done January 19) and running conditioning (first done Jan 23) into my exercise routine, after just approx 26 days of weightlifting and running-conditioning, by February 16th yesterday, my facial appearance in the mirror at the Oak Square Y group Exercise Studio, graduated from looking like one of the handsomest in the world with just light #3 on (even-lighting), to looking like one of the hansomest in the world with lights #2 & #5 on (top-light emphasis), and on to looking like one of the handsomest in the world with lights #2, #3, & #4 on (toplight- emphasis).

Perhaps significantly, before I noticed my good-looks in the mirror today, some East-Asian grade-school-age boys came into the room and started playing with the lights, turning some on, some off, all off, some on again.

Also ever since February 9th, 19 days after my return to weightlifting, & 15 days after my return to running-conditioning, I've been noticing that in the mirrors at the Group Exercise Studio, my body had been looking: more defined in the arms; bigger in the shoulders; narrower at the waist; more athletic, younger.

In the Group Exercise Room at the Oak Square Y, I had always noticed that my wide head and face, combined with my 190 lb athletic-looking body at 5'10" height, combined with a lack of fat, together with other factors produced a potentially very impressive image in the mirror.

I had been following the policy of looking into mirrors as little as possible. I had been thinking that preoccupation with appearance in mirrors is a sign of vanity. I had read on the internet of how supposedly one of Christ's twelve apostles, never looked in the mirror. But now I am thinking that looking into mirrors can be helpful, because it helps one to notice how the lack of a given type of exercise is hurting, and how actively doing certain exercises is helping. The intuitive sense that the better one looks the better one's health is, is so strong as to make it difficult to ignore.

In Christ's time, people were not subject to certain stresses they now are subject to: widespread presence of nuclear weapons; modern technology; very large local and national populations; air, water, noise, & food pollution; sedentary lifestyle due to mechanized forms of transportation.

When my face is more resilient in terms of how it looks in lighting conditions that are not optimally almost even, this can have positive effects: more respect and cooperation from team-mates, players & spectators; more popularity; more glamour. The more team-mates respect me, the more I can expect to get opportunities to practice skills that I cannot practice when by myself.

I did not weigh myself after practice today.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 12 minutes updating table; 94 minutes writing conditioning-drill part of log-entry (includes text for graphic); 39 minutes reviewing and collecting info from previous log-entries, for section on looks and lighting; 69 minutes writing section on looks and lighting. Total: 214 minutes, 3:34. Total words: 2163. 2163 words a day, is a rate of 1687 400-word book-pages per year, given sundays off. And today's entry was not amateurish rushed stuff.

12 94 39 69

What type of 90-degree turns should I emphasize in practice? Conclusions Arrived at as of now.

What should be the footwork style used for 90-degree left and 90-degree right turns?

Right turns

Looking at the 90-degree turn to the right, as depicted in 1 (counter-clockwise body-rotation during turn), & 2 (clockwise body-rotation during turn), certan variations adhere to the rule of the right-foot being used as the primary breaking force:

Option # R1 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating counter-clockwise, the left-foot stretched out in the direction of the turn to the right (2 steps). This turn-variant naturally uses my body as a shield against the direction that is in front of me and to my right at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

Option # R2.1 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating clockwise, the left-foot stretched out in front of and to the right of the right-foot (2 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is behind me and to my left at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

Option # R2.2 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the left-foot stretched out in front of the right-foot as a pivot-foot, and then the left-foot moved in the direction of the turn to the right (3 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is behind me and to my left at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

There are also variations that all adhere to the rule of the left-foot being used as the primary breaking force:

Option #L1 involves: the front left-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, then the right-foot landing in front of the left-foot and used as a pivot foot, the body rotating counter-clockwise, and the left-foot stretched out in the direction of the turn (3 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is in front of me and to my right at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

Option #L2 involves: the front left-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating clockwise, the right-foot stretched out in the direction of the turn (2 steps). This turn-variant naturally shields against the direction that is to my left at a 90 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

Option #R1 excels R2.1 & R2.2 (at least for me personally), because the ability to place the body between the ball or the direction one turns to, and an opponent who is in front and to the right prior to the turn, excels the ability to place the body so as to block an opponent behind me and to my left prior to the turn. The former blocks off a pursuer chasing me as I move towards the goal, whereas the latter blocks off a defender who is between me and the goal.

Option #L2 is more natural than # R1. The front left-foot simply plants itself as the breaking-force while the body bounces to the right. Option #L2 blocks off potential opponents who are to my left prior to the turn to the right, whereas option #R1 blocks off opponents who are in front of me and to my right as I make the turn. Option #L1 is is like a twin of #R1, except that #L1 involves 3 steps whereas #R1 involves 2 steps.

Thus the top two leading options for the right-turn, are #R1, and #L2. R1 satisfies the diktat, that the right-foot be used as the breaking or stopping foot, but L2 does not. R1 needs to be practiced more, L2 comes naturally. R1 blocks off the opponent in front of me and to my right as I make the turn; L2 blocks off the opponent to my left as I make the turn. The question in my mind: how much practice time should I give R1, and how much practice time should I give L2?

Rotating R1 so that the initial movement is in a 45 degrees left direction, produces a slick yet powerful and physical move (graphic in top left of image). . However, when the opponent presence is directly between myself and the goal, the L2 form of the right-turn, simply sends me into retreat ( depicted in right-diagram in same image).

Thus I am now inclined to emphasize the R1 form of the turn to the right.

Left Turns

Similarly, there exist, various ways in which 90-degrees turns to the left can be made, with the right-foot used as the breaking foot immediately before the turn, or the left-foot used as the breaking foot immediately before the turn (variants 3 & 4 in image) .

Option # R3 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating counter-clockwise, the left-foot stretched out in the direction of the turn to the left (2 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is directly to my right as I make the turn.

Option # R4 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the left-foot stretched out in front of the right-foot and used as a pivot-foot; the body rotating clockwise, the right-foot taking a step in the direction of the turn, and finally the left-foot taking the first powerful step in the direction of the turn (4 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is in front of me and to my left immediately prior to my turn to the left.

Option # L3.1 involves: the front Left-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating counter-clockwise, the right-foot stretched out in front of and to the left of the left-foot. This variant shields against the direction that is behind me and to my right at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the left.

Option # L3.2 involves: the front Left-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the right-foot stretched out in front of the left-foot, the body rotating counter-clockwise, and finally the right-foot moving in the direction of the turn to the left (3 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is in behind me and to my right at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the left.

Option # L4 involves: the front Left-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating clockwise, the right-foot moving in the direction of the turn to the left, and finally the left-foot taking the first powerful step after the turn (3 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is in front of me and to my left at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the left.

Option R3 protects me from an opponent who is in a direction opposite to that in which I turn. Option R4, uses my body to guard me from an opponent who is at a 45-degrees angle to the right relative to the direction I turn, and thus has more promise in terms of use as an offensive weapon.

I prefer option L4 to options L3.1 & L3.2, because L3.1 and L3.2 during the turns, shield me from an opponent who is behind me as I make the turn, whereas L4 shields me from an opponent who is in front of me prior to the turn.

Thus the top two leading options for the left-turn, are #R4, and #L4. R4 satisfies the diktat, that the right-foot be used as the breaking-foot, but L4 does not. R4 involves 4 steps, L4 involves 3 steps. L4 and R4, are the same in terms of the angle which is shielded against, and when the direction prior to the turn is optimal, have the potential to be a powerful move for beating the defender (upper right graphic in image.

For now for left-turns, I choose R4, because R4 although it requires on extra step, maintains the discipline that the right-foot should always be used as the breaking or stopping foot.

Conclusion

Thus my choice for now for turn-styles to emphasize:

Right-turn: Option # R1 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the body rotating counter-clockwise, the left-foot stretched out in the direction of the turn to the right (2 steps). This turn-variant naturally uses my body as a shield against the direction that is in front of me and to my right at a 45 degree angle, prior to the 90-degree turn to the right.

Left-turn: Option # R4 involves: the front Right-foot used as a break immediately before the turn, the left-foot stretched out in front of the right-foot and used as a pivot-foot; the body rotating clockwise, the right-foot taking a step in the direction of the turn, and finally the left-foot taking the first powerful step in the direction of the turn (4 steps). This variant shields against the direction that is in front of me and to my left immediately prior to my turn to the left.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 510 minutes for text and graphics. Total: 510 minutes, 8.5 hours. Total words: 1591 (estimate: approx 230 per hour, difficult writing with lots of difficult abstract logic involved). 1591 words a day, is a rate of 1241 400-word book-pages per year, given sundays off. Today's entry was very difficult and involved lots of thinking.

938 - 1020 PM
Oak Sq Y GES
'Captain's Run' applied to soccer

Total: 87 minutes

Made informed, thoughtful attempt to devise optimal day-before-game exercise routine

Sunday I realized, that if I was going to get clever about preparing for games, Ineeded to reduce my ignorance with regards to what is wisdom in terms of food, rest, and exercise, during the day prior to the game-day.

I ended up studying the subject I think too long on the internet Sunday night, for about ten hours, it was tiring, almost depressing. Once I started studying it I wanted to get it over and done with, but thoroughly done with. I figured studying such was not a sabbath violation because it was not physical and my (jock-nerd?) idea of fun.

I was surprised at the level of energy and mental attention that athletes and coaches put into their plans for warm-up prior to a game, game-day, day-before-game, two-days-before-game, and etc. I had been thinking that the athletes and coaches are so absorbed in distractions such as watching television, that they don't put any time or energy into plans for the day before a game.

Often-times how you do something does not matter, and it's a waste of time and energy, to get deeply into the subject of how the thing should be done. Still apparently the consensus is that what one does the day before a game (above and beyond the obvious such as not getting drunk), can effect game-performance.

Today I attempted to implement an optimal day-before-game exercise plan. I avoided weightlifting, & intense running and tried to limit the total number of hours spent practicing.

I decided not to attempt to correct my deviant circadian rhythm (I've been sleeping the normal amount of hours, but from approx 11 AM - 7 PM), which would make me normal if I were living in Bangkok Thailand, Hanoi Vietnam, or Jakarta Indonesia, instead of the Eastern Standard Time (EST) zone that I live in.

I read over and over, about how athletes are creatures of habit, and how athlete performance is maximized when game-day resembles as much as possible other game-days and non-game-days in the athlete's life. There are experienced coaches who feel that anything that shortens the amount of time between when an athletes awakes and when the game starts, will promote performance. So I decided not to try to tinker too much with the sleep/wake schedule in the days before game-day.

I tinkered somewhat, forcing myself out of bed at 4 PM after only 3.5 hours of sleep, because I knew that I would need to be up on Tuesday by 4 PM in order to perform at my current best in the game which will be 700-830 PM (such thinking 24 hours in advance is surprisingly characteristic of many athletes and coaches). But I allowed myself to go to bed and fall asleep around noon-time.

I ended up with only 45 minutes of time available to me in the Oak Sq Y gym, as I was tardy getting out of bed. I tried to use this time in a way that was cleverly based on what I had learned on the internet studying what should be done the day before a game.

I had been intending to first kick the ball at walls to my left and right in a corner of the gym (simulates game-situation, low physical exertion). However a corner was not available so I had to satisfy myself with kicking the ball at a the wall for 15 minutes.

I kicked the ball at the wall with alternating left and right feet from a point approx 18' from the wall. At the base of the wall the target was a 2' foot wide space between two cones. I kicked the rebounding ball at the wall on one touch, not dribbling it. I was surprised at how accurate I was, in terms of my ability to one-touch difficult balls at difficult angles into the two-foot-wide target from 18 feet away.

There was a tall white balding bespectacled father in the gym playing with his almost-teen wavy-brown-haired son. He looked at me and said, 'a ball-hog?!' (translation of gymnasium crypto-quote: the one-touch moves you are practicing are not ball-hog type moves...why are you buddying up with the ball-hog on your team?). I think he thought I was accurate and competent as I one-touched so many balls into the 2' target from 18'.

Next, I spent 15 minutes doing two new drills that came into my mind as a result of a couple of dreams I had earlier this week.

In one dream: I had my left-foot on the ball; there was considerable distance between the ball and my body; my right-foot and body were shielding any threats to the ball coming from the right; I looked very big and intimidating; my hair was brown not black like it is in real-life.

In another dream I was chipping the ball over a cone on the floor, and then regaining possession of the ball after it bounced once. The chip over the cone was only about 4-5' high in apex, but still the chip had the little cone on the floor completely beaten.

So, first for 7 dream-inspired minutes: I dribbled the ball forwards and backwards with my left-foot, sometimes with the sole-of-the-foot and sometimes with the sides of the foot, with my legs spread far apart laterally in a sideways sense. Sometimes I did this with my torso facing almost in the direction I was dribbling, and sometimes I did it with my torso facing perpendicular to the direction I was dribbling.

Next for 8 dream-inspired minutes: I placed a cone about 8 feet in front of me on the floor; I flipped the ball up, air-dribbled it once, chipped it over the defender represented by the cone, and then touched it after it bounced once. Next I did the same thing but without air-dribbling the ball once prior to chipping it, and I found this to be more difficult.

Both of these dream-inspired drills, represent practical basic skills that can be implemented in actual games NOW, in the present tense.

During the final 15 minutes of the 45 minutes in the gym: I did drills derived from my observation of Futsal videos on the internet (I first started seriously doing this just a couple of days ago); these drills involved moving the ball with the sole of the foot.

If point C is classified as the foot-location when the foot is stretched forwards and outwards, point B is classified as the foot-location when the foot is stretched forwards and inwards, and point A is classified as the foot-location when the foot is brought back to where it is in normal standing position, the ball can be moved from point to point with the sole of the foot in various ways:

Clockwise: ABCABCABC etc; counterclockwise: ACBACBACB etc; back and forth, A as axis: ABACABAC etc; back and forth, B as axis: BCBABCBA etc; back and forth, C as axis: CBCACBCA.

Alternatives such as BCABCA, BACBAC, CBACBA, & CABCAB merely duplicate the movements found in ABCABC & ACBACB. However, the back and forth movement variants listed, do not duplicate each other, because there are variations in terms of the way the ball makes a turn at the various points.

So for the final 15 minutes in the gym, I did ABCABC, ACBACB, ABACABAC, BCBABCBA, CBCA, with both the left and the right feet.

Thoughts re this sole of foot dribbling: perhaps I should not have done it day-before -game, because it is a new thing for me, & I doubt whether it will be deployable during the game tomorrow; I expect I shall become very good at it, as a result of careful creative attention to drill; seems it resembles the aerial dribble in the sense I could become fantastic at it with time; I've been foolish to not practice it more in the past; it can be practiced even on the floor of a small room without causing a noise-disturbance; it can be practiced using a soccer-ball-sized medicine-ball of the type the Oak Sq Y has.

My excuses for said folly of neglecting the sole-of-foot dribble: I felt I was a great dribbler using the sides and top of my foot; I knew I could not practice my sides/top of foot dribbling moves in my small apartment space so I assumed such was the case with the sole of foot dribble also; from the time I was seven years old I was taught to use the sides of the foot to dribble the ball; the use of the sole of the foot seemed eccentric judging from what little watching of video I had done; players who I had watched who used the sole of the foot seemed like impractical show-offs; I was preoccupied with development of the aerial dribble. And then there is the great excuse that I just thought of, but have now forgotten, and the clever excuses I will think of later.

After the 45 minutes at the gym, the gym and the group exercise room were both occupied till 915 PM, so I drove to the store to buy stuff I will need to prepare my body for the game tomorrow. Previously I would not have thought so far in advance, I would have thought that I could properly hydrate myself for the day of the game, on the day of the game, andthat what is important is what I consume the day of the game not the day before the game (even though my intuition has always told me that food drink etc the day before a game is at least as important than such the day of the game).

My research I did last night, on the internet, corroborated my intuition that hydration the day before the game is as important as hydration the day of the game. All the research I did last night has already changed me into a more plan-ahead type fellow.

So I went to a couple of stores and bought stuff that could be useful for pregame hydration purposes: coconut water, mango nectar, strawberry-banana-orange juice; spring water; Aloe Vera drink; tangerine juice.

The coconut water is a natural liquid source of potassium; the mango nectar though reconstituted, contains a natural combination of A (beta-carotene) & C vitamins and tastes/smells heavenly with ice; the strawberry-banana-orange juice, though reconstituted, smells/tastes heavenly when cold; the Aloe Vera drink smells great.

The tangerine juice is not reconstituted, is a natural source of vitamins A & C, lasts much longer than orange juice outside the fridge, and is IMHO the nutritional superstar of the group.

Returning to the YMCA, I explored the 'annex' to the Group Exercise Studio, because the Group Exercise Studio was still occupied by the Yogis; the young ladies at the front desk told me where this annex that is listed on the schedules is. I found that the annex had enough open space to do sole of the foot drills. I found medicine balls (one weighed 8 lbs, another 10 lbs) the size of a soccer ball that I could use to do sole-of-the-foot dribbling drills with. So for 15 minutes I did the same sole of foot drills I did earlier in the evening in the gym, with the heavy medicine balls.

I was thinking: 'how can people be so dumb, that billions of them play soccer, and none of them has ever thought of the brilliant idea I have just discovered all by myself, which is that dribbling a heavy soccer-ball-sized medicine-ball with the sole of the foot is one of the most powerful existing accelerants of performance?"

I was trying to forget the following line of thought: "how could I be so stupid, that for all these years, you have never understood the importance of practicing sole-of-the-foot dribbling with a soccer-ball-sized medicine ball?"

I guess one reason I did'nt think of it earlier, is the medicine balls I'd seen were all much larger than soccer balls.

Next I entered the Group Exercise Studio. From 938 - 1020 PM, I tried to exactly replicate a league game (20 min half, 2 min break, 20 min half) in terms of rest allowed. Runs I ran at 67% max effort, without dribbling a ball:

5 minutes: F2012D with body swiveling counterclockwise at turns (17x12-pace rectangle run clockwise, rep=3 sides run, short-side walked, 4-rep sets interspersed with walks)

5 minutes: F2012E with body swiveling clockwise at turns (17x12-pace rectangle run counter-clockwise, rep=3 sides run, short-side walked, 4-rep sets interspersed with walking)

5 minutes: F2012R backwards running (cones form corners of 8-pace-per-side square; rep=back and forth between two cones 4x, clockwise circuit of 4 cones, counterclockwise circuit of for cones, walking back and forth between cones 2x; 3-rep sets interspersed by walking).

5 minutes: F2012 180-degree-turns running drill (11-paces between 2 cones; rep=back and forth between two cones 3x, walk from cone to cone 1x); 8-rep sets interspersed by walking).

2 minute break

20 minutes: F2012SW sideways running drill (cones form corners of 8-pace-per-side square; rep=back and forth between two cones 4x, clockwise circuit of 4 cones, counterclockwise circuit of for cones, walking back and forth between cones 2x; 3-rep sets interspersed by walking).

The variants done were carefully chosen. F2012D & F2012 E feature the counter-intuitive (Casablanca-Algiers Whirling-Dervishes FC) form of making 90-degrees right and 90-degrees-left turns (discussed in depth in Friday Feb 17 entry). Not sure if the weird-turns will be ready next game but anyway. F2012R & F2012 practice backwards running and 180-degree turns. F2012SW practices sideways movement.

The game simulation done to conclude the practice, was based on a custom I discovered while searching the internet: the so-called 'Captain's Run', engaged in by Rugby teams the day prior to a game. The runs are done in the same location as the game the next day, at the same time that the game will be played next day. They are like a 60-80% of max effort rehearsal of the next day's game.

To be honest, a thought I had re applying the 'Captain's Run' to soccer: I'm smarter than the rest of mankind. I'm the first one that I know of, to apply the 'Captain's Run' idea, to soccer. I thought up the idea myself, nobody helped me.

I did not weigh myself after practice today.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 166; total: 166 minutes, 2:46. Total words: 2501, 904 words per hour. 2501 words a day, is a rate of 1951 400-word book-pages per year, given sundays off. And today's entry was carefully thought out and written.

Woke up 4 PM,

Oak Sq Y
657-707 PM
3 min Warmup

707-749 PM
Game 7 of Indoor season

approx 755-930 PM
Watched League Games

approx 920-926 PM
Played defense for another team

950-1020 PM
weightlifting

7th Game of Oak Square YMCA Soccer League Season; lasted approx 10 mins without getting tired

Note: I am naturally left-footed but I have trained myself to be almost ambidextrous.

Tuesday game-day I woke up at 4 PM. I went to bed approx 730 AM. Though I was in bed for about 8 hours, I estimate I only got about 4 hours sleep. Nevertheless, my endurance this game was as good as it has been in any of the games. I had some baked frozen fish in the morning before falling asleep. Then when I woke up I had a cup of organic chocolate mixed with hot spring water. Then I got to the game late, so I had only 3 minutes of warmup before the game started.

Having on Sunday spent about ten hours studying how athletes rest, exercise, sleep, and eat the day before a game, I decided that now was not the time to try to correct my aberrant sleep schedule.

In the first 20 minute half, I played the first 10 minutes on defense; the second 10 minutes as goalie; the 2nd 20-minute half, I played the first 10 minutes as goalie, and the last 10 minutes as defense. Then later in another game, I played defense for another team for 6 minutes.

Turns out the name of the white young adult I've been sharing goalie duties with is Mike. Mike played the first 10 minutes in goal, the second 10 minutes on defense during the first half. Then after the 2-minute half-time break, he watched from the bench for a while and then left. I thought Mike was a good sport the way he quietly left. His performance as goalie the first 10 minutes was low. By the time the 2nd half started we had 6 players, 5 on-court and 1 on the bench. We were in our big fight of the season, we had a chance to beat or tie 'Mardhy's Team' (considered the best in the league, we'd never beaten them). As of now the de-facto pecking order on our team places me and Ivan from El Salvador ahead of Mike. Instead of making a scene trying to force himself into the game, Mike just watched for a while and then left.

Drills done in 10 minute warmup today:

I took about 30 one-touch off-the-rebound kicks at the wall from 20', aiming for a cone ( or above the cone) I placed at the base of the wall.

First 20-minute half, first 10 minutes of the 1st half I was on defense (score us 1 them 3 during this time; this first 10 minutes we were a weak team, because Andre and Matti had not shown up yet, our team was just Ivan, Mike, me, & Merrimack Tom, + a guy from another team); 2nd 10 minutes I was goalie (score us 1 them 2 during this time). Second half, first 10 minutes I was goalie (score us 3 them 0 during this time), 2nd 10 minutes I was defense (us 2 them 2 during this time).

In a later game for the last 6 minutes of the game I played defense for a team that was down 7-4. At the end of the game the score was them 7, us 6.

Therefore in total (including the 6 minutes in the 2nd game), while I was goalie, it was us 4 them 2; while I was on defense it was us 5 them 5.

My team the 'Hot Sauce', tied the other team, 'Mardhy's Team' 7-7. The previous game a week ago, 'Hot Sauce' lost to 'Mardhy's Team' 3-6.

Mardhy's team this evening was well-staffed, with good starters and a good substitute. Facing them at the start, we had just Mike, Ivan, me, Tom, & a player from another team, and no substitute. As of now, I say Merrimack Tom, Matti from Netherlands, & Andre are our 3 best players, and Matti & Andre were missing. Beneath this you have Ivan of El Salvador & me; and then at the bottom you have Mike ( Mike's performance would be better if he had spent more time in the past on soccer, but apparently he has better things to do).

So it was very scary the first 5 minutes of the game, our understaffed team against Mardhy's well-staffed & superior team. We had no substitutes, they had a sub. They looked fresh athletic and fit. yet surprisingly, the first five minutes we were ahead 1-0. Then the storm broke and after 10 minutes it was them 3 us 1.

The first six or so minutes it was us 1 them 0. Then Andre & Matti arrived and entered the game. Next the foe 'Mardhy's Team; scored 3 goals before we got ten minutes into the game, featuring them shooting from about 25 feet, with me as defender being in between them and the goal.

Matti of Netherlands saw 2 or 3 of these shots and started shouting at me: "you play like shit! You play like shit!". He shouted in his Dutch attempt at English, words to the effect that I should be marking the defender more closely.

To me Matti of the Netherlands, light-brown haired, slim build, face pink & wet with exertion, about 6'3" tall, sounded and looked like an angry Chicago Polish-American janitor (I lived in Chicago as a boy), as he loudly blamed me for what had been happening, which was that every shot they took was a goal (if every shot the other team takes is a goal, such casts suspicion on the goalie).

Matti failed to understand, the amount of stress our team had endured holding off the best team in the league, 'Mardhy's Team', with 2 of our team's best 3 players missing, & no substitutes.

Weird thing is, that before Netherlands Matti & Andre (2 of our 3 best players) showed up, we were ahead 1-0. Then after the two showed up, they scored 3 while we scored 0, and the first 10 minutes with me as defender came to an end, with the score 3-1 them.

When Matti & Andre arrived late, I thought, now we'll do even better, and surprise everyone with a big win over 'Mardhy's Team'. Then the opposite of what I expected occurred, though at the time in the swirl of the game I did not notice that the opposite of what I expected had occurred, what with Matti shouting at me, as if every goal was my fault, when every shot they were taking, was going in.

As for Matti's complaint: when a defender is repeatedly confronted with situations involving himself and the goalie against two attackers, the defender can have good reason to shy away from attaching himself too closely to one of the attackers. The performance level of the goalie effects the decisions that the defender in front of him makes. If the goalie is not up to taking on one of the attackers all by himself, then for the defender to attach himself to one attacker while the goalie takes on the other attacker, does not make sense. If the defender is to focus on one attacker, while the goalie takes on the other, a level of sophisticated pre-planned communication & coordination is required.

A list of people who unlike Matti thought I did a good job on defense: Calder the ref, Andre, Merrimack Tom, Ivan from El Salvador, 'Red' from 'Mardhy's Team'. I call 'Red' 'Zidane Jr', and his team-mate who looks like him 'Zidane Sr'. At the beginning of the season Zidane Sr. said I play defense well.

Merrimack Tom said I was 100% improved compared to the start of the season. Calder the Ref said I had improved alot and had much more endurance than I used to, he said I looked more relaxed than I used to out there. I was thinking that I don't feel that my endurance is better than it was at the start of the season, and I don't feel my performance is better than it was at the start of the season (though I think I've learned alot).

I was thinking, they think I'm better because I've lost 5 lbs, I've been weightlifting, the appearance of my face and body has improved.

My performance during the game (amount of time spent playing a position wherein the given skill can be applied):

SUMMARY (I am naturally left-footed): I forgot to check the PSI of the ball this game. It seemed soft.

Stats in brief (some numbers given are approximations as I did not get chance to take notes during game):

Defender minutes: 26
Assists: 1
Passes: 5 good, 2 off-target
Shots: 3 (long & accurate)
I Dribbled by defender: 2
I lost ball to defender while dribbling: 2
I lost ball to defender when not dribbling, stationary: 1
Cleared balls: approx 3
blocked shots: 3
I intercepted pass: 1
steals: 5
steals resulting in my control of the ball: 0
defense errors: 3
Beaten by attacker (on the dribble): 0

Goalie minutes: 20
Goalie errors: 0
Saves : 10 saves, 6 diving saves, 2 charging sliding saves
Goals Allowed: 2

One can extrapolate from the stats, that if I had played the entire 40 minutes outside the goal on defense, my stats would have been: 2 assists; 0 goals; 10 good passes; 0 own pass intercepted; 6 blocked shots, 2 intercepted passes; 8 steals; 6 I made defensive-errors; zero beaten-by-attacker incidents; 6 long accurate shots; 4 I-dribbled-by-defender, etc.

You can see from the stats, that if I had played the entire 40 minutes as goalie, my stats would have been: 20 saves, 12 diving-saves, 4 charging/sliding saves, & 4 goals allowed..

PASSING (13 minutes): I felt I was making fast accurate easily received passes during warmup. At the beginning of the game, my 1-touch long pass accuracy was off. As goalie, on one occasion I jumped up for a contested ball and headed it forwards. The ball travelled approx 35' forwards, and reached a high apex of approx 18'. It went where I wanted it to go. Matti controlled the ball dribbled it forwards and scored, thus I achieved an assist. In a previous game I had chipped head-passed a ball to Matti well, but nothing came of it (forgot to report this incident in this log when it happened).

3 or 4 times I jumped up for contested headers and sent the ball where I wanted to with my head. I found that being 50 lbs heavier than I was when I previously played alot of soccer, it is easier for me to do things like physically outmuscle opponents for control of headers, & dribble the ball forwards in bull-like fashion using the body as a shield for the ball.

PASS RECEIVING (13 minutes): I got a couple of passes and passed after getting the pass.

SHOOTING (13 minutes): Like a replay of an incident in a previous game, a bouncing ball came at me, and on 1-touch without first trapping it, I shot it at the opponent goal from approx 27 yards away. The ball reached apex of approx 9', and swerved about 4 feet to my left as it began to descend. It would have gone in, just inside the upper corner that is to my left as I face their goal, but the goalie was there to catch it. This kind of shooting might not work in indoor soccer, but it can be deadly in outdoor soccer. There were a couple of other similar one-touch 25-30 yd shots on goal that I took. These shots have to be fired at a faster velocity if they are going to get into the 8-foot wide 6-foot high goals we are using. But I find that I've been instinctively restraining velocity during these shots, opting for accuracy instead.

DRIBBLING (13 minutes):

Notable events

Event 1. I dribbled by a defender by putting the ball forwards at a 45 degree angle to my right. Then as I was about to continue the dribble, I ran into Merrimack Tom & let him have the ball. Seems this has happened before.

Event 2. I dribbled by a defender by putting the ball forwards at a 45 degree angle to my right as in event 1; there was a 2nd defender behind the 1st; I slanted left at approx a 45 degree angle, the ball would have been under my control afterwards but the ball was just a little bit too far ( or not far enough), & the second defender knocked it away ( seems this has happened before against the same defenders).

Event 3: I was against the wall that is on my left as I face the opponent goal, and I dribbled forwards, with by the ball between my body and the wall. I simply sort of bulled my way forwards in unskilled fashion and beat one defender, but right behind him there was a second defender who got the ball, assisted by a crazy panel that juts out perpendicular from the wall about a foot.

Event 4: I got the ball somehow, and their tall white guy who looks like a Moroccan International (he started out unimpressive but has been impressing) charged at me and took the ball from me...this humiliating incident, the 1st time the ball has ever been taken from me this season, served to remind me, that it is wise to move the ball on the first touch, as opposed to keeping the ball and body stationary, when dangerous elements such as tall white Moroccan-international types are in the vicinity.

FOULS AGAINST (13 minutes): Nobody was called for fouling me.

FOULS COMMITTED (13 minutes): I was not called for any fouls.

DEFENSE (13 minutes):

I was again never beaten on the dribble.

Whereas in the previous game, and generally earlier in the season, on the majority of steals I have maintained control of the ball after stealing it, this game, none of the steals involved such post-steal control. Rather, they all involved knocking the ball away from someone who was dribbling it. I suspect that the opponents we played this evening are thoughtful, and thoughtfully avoid allowing me to again victimize them the same way I victimized them in a previous game.

One time I was on defense, an opponent took a hard shot, it was way too high, and Andre in goal shouted at me about my positioning. I told him that the reason the shot was too high, was that I had positioned myself properly. Other times I noticed, my positioning would force them to shoot wide, or to make a bad pass. But such successes on my part do not involve me touching the ball and I do not get credited. Fact is that such successes, though unglamorous and unnoticed, involve certain skills abilities talents you-name-it. They involve me anticipating where I will have to be in order to get to a place where I will be able to force a bad shot or a bad pass, and they involve me getting there, quickly and with foresight.

Matti raged at me during the game when I was on defense both during the 1st 10 minutes (us 1 them 3), and also during the last 10 minutes (us 2 them 2). During the last ten he shouted at me to play goalie, but I ignored him. I feel on 3 of their goals I as a defender made an error by not blocking their shot, however there are cases where two or three players all err on the same play the result being a goal for the other team; and some errors are more serious than others. I did not feel the errors involving the other team being able to get off shots, were serious errors. The idea that every time the other team succeeds in getting a shot on goal off, the defender closest to the shot has erred, is erroneous.

My heroics in goal prove I was not as blameworthy as Matti shouted I was. The heroics occurred because our defense (players on my team other than me) allowed the other team to get off large numbers of unmolested, unblocked, unharried, short-distance shots (and because the defenders aside from myself, allowed the team to get themselves into position to take such shots which I had to abort with a charging slide). These shots allowed by defenders other than myself would have been goals if someone else had been playing goalie. When I play defense, the number of such golden opportunities the other team gets is much less, because of my presence as defense. If I when playing defense gave up to the other team as many golden opportunities as the other players give up when they play defense, the number of goals the other team would score would be immense.

My errors ( not aggressive enough to block off potential shots) were errors that I had noticed after the previous game and vowed to correct; yet the errors were repeated this game also.

In one instance I was on defense and Mardhy was to my left. I dashed at him with my right-foot forwards. In his wily way he kicked the ball to my right. Using my forwards right-foot as pivot, I rotated counter-clockwise, stretched out my left-foot, and got my foot on the ball with my back to Mardhy, so he lost control of it.

Moral of story: the turn I made in this incident was similar to the 90-degree turns to the right with body rotating counter-clockwise that I have been practicing the past week while running without the ball; so if something is repeated enough while practicing when alone, it can become second-nature during a game.

GOALIE (9 minutes):

The performance in goal was as good as any this season for me, but people did not say as much as they did before because they are getting used to it. Especially notable events:

Event 1: Mardhy got the ball unmolested, about 15 feet from me in goal, with of course nobody between him and the goal. I rushed at him while sliding he shot his ultra-accurate shot but the ball bounced off my torso and away.

Event 2: same thing happened as event 1, but not sure whether Mardhy or someone else was my victim.

Event 3: I made a diving save, and then the rebound was kicked into me. First time I've been able to save a rebound after a dive.

Events 1 & 2 indicate that the process of having recorded in this log events such as failures to rush the attacker when sliding/diving or standing, has been fruitful in terms of producing game-time change and improvement.

ENDURANCE: My peppiness this game was at least as good as it has been in any previous game this season. I did not drink liquids in the hour before the start of the game, and just had about 2 ounces of a mix of organic-demerara-cane-sugar, coconut-water, & liquid-black tea-concentrate right before the game started. Then I had about the same amount of the mix at half-time.

MENTAL STATE: I basically told myself, that in the long run I'll be better as a player if I minimize missed opportunities to play with others. This thought relaxed me.

OBSERVATIONS RE MY TEAM:

See above in today's log-entry.

Weightlifting

From 845 - 915 PM for 30 minutes I lifted weights, using dumbbells. Results are recorded in Weightlifting Scores Table for David Virgil Hobbs, Jan 19, 2012 onwards.

I did the biceps curl, the front shoulder raise, the standing dumbbell row, the reverse biceps curl, the fly, and the palms-down wrist curl. Looking at number of reps done with the highest weight used for each exercise, my performance was up 84% compared to the previous days these exercises were done, Feb 7-8, two weeks ago.

The last time the exercises done today were done, was two weeks ago, and the only weightlifting I did between two weeks ago and today, was exercises not done today (12 reps biceps curl, 18 reps lateral shoulder raise, 16 reps shoulder press)on Feb 15 approx a week ago. Thus my strength has in a sense, grown by 84% over 2 weeks, in exercises that have not been worked on in 2 weeks, with just 46 reps of different exercises done a week ago as the only weightlifting during the two weeks.

Writing the soccer section of today's log-entry, took me 3 hour & 3 minutes; updating the F2012 Conditioning Drill Table took me 20 minutes (I absent mindedly assumed my editor was failing the way it sometimes fails and failing to save changes made to the file). Total: 3 hours & 33 minutes . The number of words produced in the log entry was 3500. That comes to 985 words per hour, a rate of 2730 400-word book-pages per year given such work every day except Sunday.

Learning of how detailed and far in advanced the plans of coaches and athletes are, I've been thinking I need to spend less time logging the past, and more time planning the future.

This evening I forgot to weigh myself.

Systematic Approach to Sole-of-Foot Dribbling

Sole of Foot Dribbling

The diagram shows an overhead view of a player facing towards the top of the page.

The diagram shows various points that the ball can be dribbled to with the sole of the left-foot (blue lines and letters), and the sole of the right-foot (red lines and letters).

LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, LF, LG, LH, & LI are important spots the ball can be rolled to with the sole of the left-foot.

RA, RB, RC, RD, RE, RF, RG, RH, & RI are important spots the ball can be rolled to with the sole of the right-foot.

The lines connect LA to the other L-points, and R-A to the other R-points.

Various patterns involving the ball being moved between the points shown on the diagram, can be done in practice.

A recent goal of mine, has been to be clever regarding planning soccer skillwork practice, so that the amount I improve as a player per minute of time I practice is maximized.

I decided that for now a focus on sole-of-the-foot dribbling would be optimal (see also Feb 20 entry).

Dribbling with the sole of the foot practice can be done in a small 6' wide X 5' deep area, with a soccer ball or a medicine ball. Effective side/top of foot dribbling practice requires more space compared to sole of foot type practice. Sole of foot type dribbling compared to side of foot type dribbling is slower and and tends more towards moving the ball a couple of feet in a certain direction and then reversing the movement, that kind of thing.

Side-of-foot and top-of-foot dribbling practice encounters complications when the medicine ball is used, because side/top-foot dribbling involves striking the ball not rolling, pushing, or pulling it.

I now realize that my rate of improvement on sole of foot dribbling will be higher compared to what my rate of improvement would be on skills that I have already put more time into in terms of practice.

I am aware of how I tend to get obsessed with a particular skill, even though I know that my rate of improvement would be greater if I diversified, split the practice time up between several different skills.

I am aware of how fast I was sometimes able to progress when focusing on aerial dribbling: I learned lessons while practicing aerial dribbling that are applicable to the practice of sole of the foot dribbling.

I was excited by the experience of dribbling a soccer-sized heavy medicine-ball with the sole of my foot in the Oak Sq Y Annex (can such excitement replace a vacation on a tropical island paradise?). Just 15 minutes of doing it, & I felt that the sole-of-foot on medicine-ball drills done intelligently will quickly: make me quicker, make me stronger, make me less prone to injury/pain, bring my skill with the sole of the foot up to world-class level, enhance my ability to beat defenders.

There are large numbers of conceivable alternatives that can be followed when practicing sole of the foot dribbling while standing approximately speaking in one place, in terms of where the ball is moved to when during a repetition. I feel I have already got a handle on the possibilities when just one foot is used. But there are also possibilities involving the left-foot touching the ball after the right-foot has touched it and vice-versa, and these possibilities complicate matters.

I felt that in order to be able to maximize the skill-improvement per hour invested ratio, I needed to create a graphic/text box showing different possibilities of ball movement with the sole of the foot, so that my mind could get used to the complexities.

Next I plan to investigate sole-of-the-foot dribbling as practiced by the earthlings, learn the jargon and techniques involved, and write out and diagram the most popular sole of the foot dribbling moves so that my individualistic creativity works in concert with the wisdom of the millions of players out there in the world.

The graphic is created so as to render the width of the player's shoulders as at 21". The green crosses in the graphic unless erased for purposes of clarity are 12" from each other. The soccer ball is 9" wide. My shoulders are 21" wide.

Ellington Darden, Ph.D. has written that 21" wide shoulders 'will get plenty of attention'. I have created a table that organizes the Phd's factoids re shoulder-width into a more comprehensible format.

Hard to understand why people, typicalist as they are, get enthusiastic about extremely-abnormal 30 inch wide shoulders, while treating persons with 21-inch shoulders as if they are just somebody. If you make too big a thing about shoulder-size, you end up making too little a thing about other things.

Continuing with the look at anthropometry, looks like 99% of North American adult males have narrower shoulders than me, whereas only 28% of North American adult males have narrower hips than me. Meaning that putting the shoulders and the hips together, I have that classic 'V-shaped look' that men dream of having. So then why do all these people treat me as if I was less important than people who are less important than me?

Why are people so simple-minded and feminist in their approach to issues such as sexual harassment, that they think that a mob-mentality, featuring men attractive to women being financially devastated and destroyed so as to free the women up for average guys to score on, is somehow cute and funny? Seems people who were never spanked think everything is cute and funny.

How is that these credentialed experienced 'experts' statistically compare unspanked kids to spanked kids, without distinguishing between kids who were appropriately spanked and kids who were inappropriately spanked?

Time spent on today's log-entry: 61 minutes page on shoulder-width page; graphic/caption-text 124 minutes; 78 mins log-entry; 11 mins section on shoulder-width, total 4:34, total 2:30 (not counting graphic). The number of words produced in the log entry was 897, and in the table on shoulder-width, 1244, total 2141 words. That comes to 856 words per hour (not counting time on graphic). If during a year on every day except Sunday I produced as much as I produced today, the production rate would be a rate of 1670 400-word book-pages per year.

3D Image Showing Quandary for Defender in Two-on-One Situation

3D Image of Defender's Paradox Facing 2 on 1

The crash-dummies (yellow or gray humanoids) are playing the humans. The humanoid goalie (A), & the humanoid defender (B) face human attackers (C & D). The humanoids are playing with one defender and three attackers. The humans are playing with two defenders and two attackers. The humanoid defender (B), faces a paradox of sorts: if he sticks close to C, this allows D a clear path to the goal. If he hands back, C might get off an open shot.

My temperament inclines me to forget and forsake the notes I made weeks ago and instead work using just the program help-section and my less-than-world-class memory; such worked out OK. An advantage of ignoring your own notes of the past is you develop new insights, new methods, notice things you did not notice the first time.

At least now I have an alterable template containing the proper-sized soccer goals on a basketball court populated by players, surrounded by objects most people have a good understanding of re their size, for the sake of visual reference and orientation. I believe the technical knowledge I attain by building the 3D images, is worth the time and energy and frustration. The situations I create on the court can be looked at from every conceivable visual angle without me having to do anything.

The graphic above in todays log-entry, shows a typical situation wherein the defender marking the attacker closely (staying near him even when he does not have the ball), as has been demanded by Matti from Netherlands, could backfire and make things even worse.

I've noted how Matti from Netherlands, when playing goalie, sometimes rushes recklessly forwards and out of the goalie box too much, the result being the other team scores. Such might be an example of the famous admired 'total football' that originated in Matti's homeland the Netherlands, featuring every player playing every position on the field, but in order for such a style to work you have to start off with the right players in the right positions to begin with.

I've been thinking about how last game Fewb 21st, the first 5 minutes we were up 1-0; then the dribbling/shooting hotshots Matti & Andre arrived and the score became us 1 them 3 in the next 5 minutes. Excessive dribbling and shooting results in: the ball being turned over to the other team; golden offensive opportunities for the other team; alternative event-sequences that would have been superior to the dribbling failures and missed shots produced by the hotshots, never taking place.

Often my team, crazed with goal-lust-motivated hotshots, will end up playing with one defender (me), and 3 attackers, while the team we are playing is playing with 2 defenders and 2 attackers. The result is a 2 on 1 for them when they are on offense, and a 3 on 2 for us when we are on offense. The fascinating alchemical reaction creates a situation wherein we end up with 1.5 attackers for every defender of theirs, but they end up with 2.0 attackers for every defender of ours (namely, me, all by myself).

As the lone defender, if I mark one of the attackers closely, shadowing him around when he does not have the ball, such opens up the danger that another attacker will be able to get off an unmolested shot at the goalie, or even worse, unmolestedly dribble in on the goalie and score.

Conceivably, the goalie and I could coordinate so that I the defender (B in image) shadow and/or rush attacker C while the goalie (A) takes on attacker D alone either by hanging back or by rushing D. Such would be an example in a way of the 'total Football' originating in Matti's homeland the Netherlands. Problem is, such requires a level of coordination between myself and the goalie, and a level of skill in the goalie, that usually does not exist.

There are goalies (I call them grade-C goalies) whose current level of performance is so low, that when I am playing defense in front of them, the last thing I want, is that the attacker should have a completely unobstructed shot on goal, or a completely unobstructed dribble-in on-goal. With such goalies in place, I would rather partially obstruct every shot taken by every attacker, compared to shadowing one attacker and letting the other go free. I name such goalies, grade-C goalies.

Grade-C goalies, are pushovers when the attacker has an unobstructed dribble to the goal or unobstructed shot. With a Grade-C goalie in goal, there is at least some hope, if I manage to put at least some obstruction between the goalie and the attacker; my presence could force the attacker to pass inaccurately or shoot inaccurately.

With a grade C goalie in goal, attackers often succeed despite the partial obstruction I manage to produce; but if you think that's bad, think of what their goals/shots percentage would be without such partial obstruction.

Time spent on today's log-entry: 61 minutes page on shoulder-width page; graphic/caption-text 300 minutes; 75 mins log-entry & graphics-box text; total 6:10, total 70 minutes (not counting graphic). The number of words produced in the log entry was 922, total 922 words. That comes to 790 words per hour (not counting time on graphic). If during a year on every day except Sunday I produced as much as I produced today, the production rate would be a rate of 616 400-word book-pages per year.

Off-Wall Corner Ballwork Skill-Drills. Touch 1= kick ball at a predetermined wall, preferably with predetermined foot. Touch 2= Dribble Rebound in predetermined direction, with predetermined foot. Touch 3= kick ball at a predetermined wall, preferably with predetermined foot.

Corner Dribble Drill F2012CD1

F2012CD1 involves a corner of the gym. I kick the ball (A) at both the wall on my left (B), and the wall on my right (C). The kicks are of approx 90 degree angle (outgoing relative to incoming ball-direction). I place orange cones about every 10 feet at the base of the wall so that I will have targets to shoot at.

Characteristics of F2012CD1: the first contact of the foot with the rebound off the wall C, is used to dribble the ball; the second contact of the foot with the ball, is used to kick the ball at wall B.

For each variant of F2012CD1 I predetermine: which foot I will attempt to use to kick the ball, which direction I will attempt to go in using the one dribble of the ball, & which wall I will attempt to kick the ball at at what time.

Doing F2012CD I keep going, alternating between kicking at wall C and and kicking at wall B, until something prevents me from continuing. The dribbling patterns cause me to move further and further away from the wall, or closer and closer to the wall. As a result, for maximum results with this drill one needs lots of space, more than a quarter of a basketball court.

Today I did drill F2012CD, described in graphic and text in box this entry. F2012CD is evolved from and similar to, a drill I described earlier this year in a log entry. Having resolved to imitate coaches and athletes by focusing more on planning for the future and less on logging/reporting the past, I have not bothered to now here myself provide the details of the evolution of F2012CD into its present form.

I used a ball PSI of 6.0.

Before I had doneF2012CDfor 30 minutes, I felt convinced that F2012CD is a new miracle-vitamin for quickly curing the indoor-soccer low-performance disease.

I attempted to use my left-foot to kick at the wall on my right, and my right foot to kick at the wall on my left. First attempting to use my left-foot for the contact-with-rebound/dribble, I dribbled the ball in one of four different predetermined directions before trying to kick it at the wall other than the wall the ball came to me from. Second I did the same thing, attempting to use my right-foot for the contact-with-rebound/dribble.

Afterwards, I felt that for the purposes of preparing for indoor soccer, F2012CD is at least as good as any drill I've invented. I'm now convinced, that F2012CD does an excellent job of replicating indoor soccer in terms of rhythms, variations, distances, dribbles, shots, passes, running, fatigue-level, & fatigue-type. F2012CD promotes the rapid development of skills and abilities that are important in indoor soccer.

I was inspired to implement F2012CD by the incident in the most recent game, game 7, which involved me for the first time in the season losing control of a ball I had under control (the 'Moroccan International' who has been steadily improving stole it from me). I got control of the ball, did not dribble it on the first touch, was stationary, and he stole it. I concluded that I have to polish up my skill and ability in terms of dribbling the ball immediately on first contact with an incoming pass or loose ball.

We should not forget facts such as: the vast majority of goals in World Cup soccer involve the goal-scorer touching the ball three times or less in the process of scoring.

There has been the glamor of me touching the ball 7 times sprinting 20 yards while keeping the ball off the ground but close to my body while touching it only with my alternating left and right feet. I've resolved to in the future not allow pre-occupation with such glamor to divert too much of my time and energy away from working on skills that can relatively quickly be gotten to a level where they can be effectively consistently and respectably implemented in actual games.

Although I had not exercised on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, still, this evening I felt more tired than I've felt in a long time.

After the practice I went home, fell asleep and had a dream. In between repetitions of the F2012CD drill, I was running certain patterns without the ball. In the dream, I could feel that I was having trouble sleeping/dreaming; my mind was winding-down as I ran the patterns without the ball, and running the patterns without the ball symbolized my mind winding down while I was sleeping. The running interspersed with the F2012CD produced a state of physical exertion resembling that in a game.

After the game I was thinking, that although back in grade school the gym teacher had mentioned and promoted some 'winding down' type thing involving slowly running a couple of laps after a mile had been run, I had heard little regarding such 'winding down' since, except that I had heard that exposure to television and the internet/PC hypes one up making it difficult to fall asleep.

This evening I did not intersperse running without the ball with the skillful ballwork. I can understand, how precise skillwork with the ball, when not interspersed with running without the ball, could 'wind-up' a person's mind excessively. I can understand how if one intersperses running without ball with skillwork, the skillwork is performed while fatigued as is the case during a game.

A message in the dream seems to be: combine the ballwork/skillwork with running work, because this will help you to relax/recover from the ballwork/skillwork.

Looking at the science of it: 1) Ballwork/skillwork involving quick reactions and precision, resemble video-games. 2) Video-games, despite the lack of physical exertion, have been shown to increase heart-rate, & blood-pressure; this has been posited to be due to release of adrenaline and noradrenaline (which also produces an increase in the stress-hormone cortisol); video games have been also shown to reduce beta-wave frontal-brain activity. 3) given that there is truth to 2), one suspects that ballwork/skillwork can cause nervous system effects that simple running work does not cause, despite the physical activity involved in the ballwork/skillwork being similar to that involved in the running. 4) aerobic/anaerobic exercise that does not involve precise highly-skilled ballwork is recognized for various positive biochemical/brainwave effects on the body; 5) it is reasonable to suppose that mixing simple running with the skillwork/ballwork could mitigate the central nervous system effects of the difficult stressful skillwork/ballwork.

Turns out the 'winding-down' phase, is commonly called the 'cooldown'. The consensus amongst experts is that the 'cooldown' (a period of light exercise at the end of the workout) helps the body to transition from a revved up state to a relaxed state, as a result of which high blood pressure, high heart rate, and high norepinephrene levels caused by the exercise come down to normal levels more quickly.

I suspect that along similar lines, the after-effects of the revved up state of mind and body produced by difficult ballwork/skillwork, are mitigated as a result of the gradual reduction in mental/physical stress caused by the transition from work with the ball to work without the ball.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 30 minutes adding identifying letters to yesterday's graphic; 115 minutes log-entry; 60 minutes studying physio-psychological effects of video games; total 205 minutes (3:35). Log-entry contains 1257 words. Cannot compute words per hour rate because I did not separate time spent on the graphic from time spent writing the text.

622 - 700 PM
Oak Sq Y
38 minutes
'Captain's Run'

Pre-game day: 137 minutes off-the-wall corner rebound skill drills; 38 minutes 'Captain's Run', total 3 hours

Corner Dribble Drill F2012CD1

F2012CD1 involves a corner of the gym. I kick the ball (A) at both the wall on my left (B), and the wall on my right (C). The kicks are of approx 90 degree angle (outgoing relative to incoming ball-direction). I place orange cones about every 10 feet at the base of the wall so that I will have targets to shoot at.

Characteristics of F2012CD1: the first contact of the foot with the rebound off the wall C, is used to dribble the ball; the second contact of the foot with the ball, is used to kick the ball at wall B.

For each variant of F2012CD1 I predetermine: which foot I will attempt to use to kick the ball, which direction I will attempt to go in using the one dribble of the ball, & which wall I will attempt to kick the ball at at what time.

Doing F2012CD I keep going, alternating between kicking at wall C and and kicking at wall B, until something prevents me from continuing. The dribbling patterns cause me to move further and further away from the wall, or closer and closer to the wall. As a result, for maximum results with this drill one needs lots of space, more than a quarter of a basketball court.

CORNERS 8 AM-847 AM & 230-400 PM WALTHAM Y

For 2 hours 17 minutes, I did F2012CD, described in graphic and text in box this entry.

I started wtih a ball PSI of 8.0; due to the pounding against the wall after 40 minutes the PSI declined to just 4.8 after 40 minutes; so periodically I re-inflated the ball.

1st 40 minutes: kicked ball using either foot; used left-foot to make 1 dribble between kicks; 10 minutes eack spent on 4 different variations (the direction of the dribble between kicks varied). Low altitude kicks, ground dribble.

2nd 40 minutes: kicked ball using either foot; used right-foot to make 1 dribble between kicks; 10 minutes eack spent on 4 different variations (the direction of the dribble between kicks varied). Low altitude kicks, ground dribble.

3rd 40 minutes: kicked ball using either foot; used left-foot to make 1 dribble between kicks; 10 minutes eack spent on 4 different variations (the direction of the dribble between kicks varied). High altitude kicks, aerial dribble.

CAPTAIN'S RUN 622-700 Oak Square Y

From 622 to 700 PM I was at the Oak Sq Y, in the gym, doing the 'Captain's Run', which I transplanted from rugby and first explained in the 2/20 log entry.

I tried to exactly replicate a league game (20 min half, 2 min break, 20 min half) in terms of rest allowed. I ran at about 80% max effort, without dribbling a ball:

5 minutes: F2012D with body swiveling counterclockwise on turns to right

5 minutes: F2012E with body swiveling clockwise on turns to left

5 minutes: F2012R backwards running

5 minutes: F2012 180-degree-turns running drill

2 minute break

18 minutes: F2012SW sideways running drill

I woke up at 130 AM. I felt tired & stressed until 5 PM 15.5 hours after I woke up; after 5 PM I felt tired but relaxed. I went to sleep at 1000 PM, 20.5 hours after I woke up. I slept until 730 AM Tuesday 2/28 (I write this on 2.28). I planned out what will be done where and when, for both Monday and Tuesday, on Sunday.

If I do 2 hours & 20 minutes prior to the game today, a 40 minute game, and then after the game 60 minutes of weightlifting, the total adds up to 4 hours. For now my doctrine is that I should practice/work-out for a max 4 hours in a day.

Minutes spent on today's log-entry: 55. Log-entry contains 425 new words + 222 repeated words (graphic text). Thus 464 new words per hour rate today.

123 minutes of Off-right-wall slant-right, slant-left dribble drills

Dribble Drill F2012-ORWSRSL

F2012-ORWSRSL Drill. F2012 stands for February 2012; ORWSRSL stands for Off-Right-Wall, Slant-Right, Slant-Left. All variants of this drill start with: (1) me kicking the ball at the wall (C) to my right; on first contact with the rebound (2 & 3) starting a diagonal dribble to my right with my left-foot; me stepping with my right-foot and my left-foot; me starting a slant left towards wall B with my right-foot at the R1 (right-1) point.

The variants differ in terms of what happens after the slant to the left is started at the R1 point. L2 stands for a step with the left-foot; R3 stands for a step with the right-foot; L4 stands for a step with the left-foot; a red-arrow indicates a feinted movement of the ball; the black arrow shows the actual directional movement of the ball.

The orange dots show possible locations for marker cones.

I vary whether I use the sole of my foot or the side of my foot for various touches during the dribble.

I started off today in the morning at the Waltham Y, doing the new F2012-ORWSRSL drill described in the graphic/text box in this log-entry.

I spent about 15 minutes on each of the 8 variants described in the graphic/text box. Sometimes I used the sole of the foot, sometimes the side of the foot.

I invented the F2012-ORWSRSL drill over the past couple of days in part because I had noticed, looking at my notes for games this season, that twice exactly the same thing happened: I beat a defender by slanting forwards and towards my right; then when I slanted inwards to my left a second defender knocked the ball away from me.

The drill is designed to develop my ability to feint and to change direction after the inwards slant to the left.

It is natural for me to slant in to my left after beating a defender by first slanting to my right. The slant in to the left puts my body in between him and the ball. The slant in to my left keeps me on track going towards the goal. The indoor soccer situation features a narrow field and a small goal, so if I do not slant back in left after I slant right, I tend to end up moving away from the goal, far from the goal.

I missed the league soccer game (game #8) last night for several reasons. But at least I was present for the first 7 games of the season. One reason I missed the game is that the workout the day before the game was too energetic. During the Captain's Run I ran too fast, in part because I was not alone in the Group Exercise Studio, but in the gym surrounded by all these people and there develops a natural desire to impress.

Last night I had a dream about the new Waltham Y Executive Director Jack Fucci. I have not had time yet to attempt to interpret the dream.

In the dream, I was indoors speaking in front of an audience, the situation looked like a courtroom or the floor of Congress. I was well-dressed; I was standing to the side of what looked like a stiff poster mounted on an easel so the audience could see it; I had a brown colored telescoping pointer in my hand for pointing at things on the poster. The stiff poster on the easel, resembled props used during the presentations made by congressmen during speeches on the floor, or lawyers during presentations in courtrooms. The content of the stiff poster on display was very similar to the content of the graphics describing drills that have been featured in my log-entries over the past few days. I was telling the audience that Jack Fucci had done something wrong, and I was pointing at various parts of the poster, to back up the point I was making.