Hybrid E2-E3 Air Dribble Drills, no Weights worn.

Today I returned to the soccer, after being away for a few weeks from it. I came down with an earache in my left ear. Then it shifted to my right ear. Then it was in both ears. Etc. Finally I got over the earache but while I had the earache I felt like I had to rest. And I got addicted to deskwork, working on websites and programming. I found that I got into a mentality where anything other than sitting at the computer working on websites became something that did not interest me. But then I found that just a couple of hours of soccer cured me of that. After the soccer the sitting at the desk seemed like a strange thing, I felt good, I could not understand how I could have developed such a nerdy attitude.

I think part of the nerdiness was that I had become sick of the E3 pattern, involving touching the ball every 3 steps with alternating feet keeping the ball off the ground but close to the body. While doing the E3 I had noticed a certain pattern that came up naturally, spontaneously. This involved a touch with the left, a step with the right, a touch with the left, a step with the right, a step with the left, a step with the right, a touch with the right, a step with the left, a step with the right, and then repeat cycles. In short hand, LT R LT R L RT L RT LR repeat (where T=touch of ball and L = step forward with left, R = step forward with right. I call this the E2-E3 hybrid.

First segment I started at 431 PM, ended at 537 PM, total 66 mins minus 5 mins break = 61 minutes. During this time I succeeded in traversing the 14 yards (thats what I paced it off as) 13 times adhering to pattern exactly and 3 times deviating somewhat from pattern. That comes out to one success every 3.8 mins, and one exact success every 4.7 mins. After half an hour, I was finally able to say re some of the runs, that they were either long or fast or tightly controlled or straight.

Second segment, started at 545 PM, ended at 615 PM. During this segment, there were 10 successes, 1/3.0 mins, and 5 exact successes, 1/6.0 mins.

Third segment, 632-702 PM, 14 successes, 1/2.1 mins; 12 exact successes, 1/2.5 mins.

It was fun that there were kids and parents and staff running around in half of the gym while I was practicing. This guy in a cool looking blue camouflage navy uniform even pulled back the big blue curtain that divided my half of the gym from the other half. There was this ten year old white girl with straight shoulder length black hair wearing a shiny red mountain climbing hat who kept looking at me, I thought she was graceful and attractive, but of course she is too young for me.

It was hot in the gym, despite it being mid February and in the thirties outside.

Hybrid E2-E3 Air Dribble Drills, no Weights worn.

Felt great after the workout of Thursday. Could not understand how I could have turned into a nerd who dislikes everything other than sitting at the desk working at the computer. Again I did the E2E3 hybrid, in which I sprint the 14 yards keeping the ball off the ground and close to the body, using the LT R LT R L RT L RT L R, repeat pattern where T= a touch of the ball.

Today I decided that for the entire practice, I would try to reduce the level of mental and physical stress and effort, try to relax and enjoy myself.

Got started at 409 PM, continued to 509 PM for the first segment, minus 5 mins breaks, 55 mins total. This segment there were 26 successes in total, one every 2.1 minutes; and 13 exact adherence to pattern successes, one every 4.2 minutes. Large numbers of the runs were scored as long and/or fast and/or straight and/or tightly controlled.

Second segment was 520-620 PM, 60 mins, minus 15 mins breaks (gym was crowded with black, white, and East Asian teenagers for whom I seemed to be invisible), total 45 minutes. During this segment, there were 26 successes, 1/1.7 minutes, and there were 10 exact adherence to pattern successes, 1/4.5 minutes.

Re the relaxed attitude, I found that: there were lots of spectacular runs that deviated slightly from pattern; the number of successes in total was up; the number of successes that adhered exactly to pattern was down.

On average the gym had about twenty teenage boys, blacks, east asians, whites in it while I was in there. I found myself baffled that although there were so many spectacular runs, long, fast, with the ball tightly controlled and kept close to the body over 15 yards, still I seemed to be invisible in the eyes of the boys. One of them walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to play soccer with him. I told him no I had to do the drills. He said why? Although time after time I had in spectacular fashion sprinted across the gym keeping the ball close to my body but off the ground, still he did not understand why I would want to do the drills instead of play soccer with him.

The barely audible muttering at the Y and at the nearby Staples store is that I should not let the boys bother me, they are jealous, they are immature, after all, I myself was a boy once.

Regarding the effect of the doing all the drills in weights : the vacation away from soccer allowed me to rest up so that my judgement re the effect of the weights was not clouded by fatigue caused by the weights. I find that most definitely, I am now quicker, faster, have more endurance, and am stronger, due to the work with the weights. The repeated sprints across the gym fatigue me less now. This despite the fact that I was very quick and fast before the work with the weights. Just goes to show what a serious matter it is, that I should get high quality in food into my body. The weights work has to go hand in hand with nutrient intake to be effective.

But I think one has to be careful, doing things like sprinting across the gym while wearing weights on wrists ankles and weightvest, while juggling the soccer ball. My layman's intuition tells me that this stretches the joints ligaments tendons etc, which in turn allows stuff of the bacteria type to enter into the joints, which in turn requires the immune system to go to work against the stuff that infiltrates the stretched joints, which in turn leaves less immune system power available for fighting off things like cold, flu, earaches.

Hybrid E2-E3 Air Dribble Drills, no Weights worn.

Having recovered from my first flu-like episode of the winter, I practiced on February 11 and February 13. Then I experienced my second flu-like episode of the winter, and did not practice until March 3.

This was the worst winter I've ever experienced. There are various suspects regarding how I came down with these flu-like illnesses, which exhausted me to the point where I did not have the energy to exercise. I won't attempt to name them all but some possible culprits are: not consuming the nutrients cocktail that I had consumed regularly in previous years; drinking reconstituted fruit juices instead of juice that is not from concentrate.

The nutrients cocktail ingredients in brief: cod liver oil, hemp oil, wheat germ oil, brewers yeast, carrot-apple-passion fruit juice, orange juice, Vitamin A/D pill, vitamin B pill, vitamin c pill, vitamin E pill, various minerals pills.

I read somewhere long ago, that reconstituted juice has only 10% of the antioxidant power of juice that is not constituted.

And then there are the possible causes of the flu or flu-like episodes, which are such that if I were to list them here, I would end up making people who could damage me angry.

Today the workout was briefer than I wanted it to be, because although it was Wednesday I thought it was Tuesday, and my workout was cut short. Even after watching several hours of TV, one can be off track re what day it is. At the conclusion of the workout I was baffled at how these groups were taking over the gym, because I thought it was Tuesday but it was Wednesday, March 3.

Starting at 400 PM, The first eight minutes everything seemed impossible, these first eight minutes felt like half an hour. I felt as if all my previous accomplishments were just a dream and a lie. I felt sort of dizzy and queezy. It seemed an impossibility to run the width of the gym while juggling the soccer ball in the pattern intended for the day, which was: kick with left, step with right, step with left, kick with right, step with left, kick with right, step with left, step with right, kick with left, step with right, kick with left etc.

I resolved that today would be a low pressure day, not a high pressure day with lots of physical and mental stress in the approach to the practice. Nevertheless it felt like a high pressure day because of the clumsiness, after 17 days of not practicing.

Finally at 456 PM there was a run that was long, fast, tightly controlled, and straight, during which I adhered exactly to pattern keeping the ball off the ground but close to my body while sprinting about 15 yards, and I felt I had regained my touch which I had lost due to the 17 days gone without practicing due to the flu like episode. But then I had to end the workout as the children's stunting and tumbling group, led by a short man with a brown mustache, and the youth aikido group began to take over the gym, which was to my surprise, because though it was actually Wednesday, I thought it was Tuesday.

Overall for the 60 minutes there was one success, meaning getting across the width of the gym with the ball close to the body and off the ground adhering to pattern either exactly or approximately, every 4.3 minutes; and there was one success adhering exactly to pattern, every 7.5 minutes.

This performance was a giant step backwards for my kind, compared to Feb 13; I could see how I had degenerated due to the 17 days without practice.

Somehow I get the feeling that people get offended if I email the Olympians without them being able to see the email. People seem to think there is something offensive about me emailing people like Olympians with them not seeing the email. Yet they seem to find no fault in persons other than myself having a private life. You can see the email I sent to the winter olympics at this web page. Note: The colors in this colorful HTML email look better in the browser in HTML format than they do in Outlook Express eml format.

Hybrid E2-E3 Air Dribble Drills, no Weights worn.

Again today I did the E2E3 pattern: where LK=kick with left, RK-kick with right, L=step with left, R=step with right, LK R L RK L RK L R LK R etc. This while sprinting across the width of the gym, keeping the ball off ground but close to body, a run of at least approx 14 yds with ball off ground but close to body, and adhering at least approximately to pattern, being counted as a success.

Again today, I decided to adopt psychologically and physically an approach that put low pressure on myself as opposed to high pressure.

First successful run classified as long fast tightly controlled and straight occurred at 1130 AM, 20 minutes after practice started. Previous day, the first such run did not occur until 56 minutes after practice started. Today the number of runs classified as especially long fast tightly controlled or straight, was much larger than yesterday.

Today, the first hour, there was a success (running at least approx 14 yds with ball under control and off ground, at least approximately adhering to mandated patter) every 2.4 minutes, and a success exactly adhering to pattern every 5.5 minutes.

The second hour there was a success every 2.1 minutes; and a success exactly adhering to pattern every 3.5 minutes. You can see the gradual recovery from the rustiness produced by the 17 days without practice.

Today I still felt as if my endurance level, my peppiness, was still not back to normal.

Compared to this, February 11 and February 13, after a long layoff due to the first flu-like episode of this winter, which health wise was my worst winter I can remember, I felt more energetic.

The recovery from the rustiness of the layoff is evident in that yesterday, in 60 minutes, one run was especially long especially fast especially straight and especially tightly controlled (LFST); first hour today, 9 runs were classified as LFST; second hour today, 5 runs were LFST. The absence of a need to warm up the second hour was compensated for by fatigue. The LFST runs today were at the following times:

1110 Start

1130
1134
1139
1142
1150
1152
1156
1206
1208

1220 start

1223
1226
1233
1239
104

I just sort of feel like listing the times for each of the LFST runs psychologically rewards and motivates me. Just imagine a colorful flag next to each time listing, and it would look majestic like the lists of the times at which the hockey goals were scored during the winter olympics.

the Y was filled today with toddler activities. I found myself soccer-wise limited to strategic and tactical analysis.

Notation for this analysis: LK = ball kicked with left; RK = ball kicked with right; L = step with left; R = step with right. Repeat means next step is the first action in the pattern and the cycle is repeated.

The E2E3 pattern I have been doing is: LK R L RK L RK L R LK R and repeat, with intended direction being a straight line, straight ahead. The E2E3 pattern is so named because it alternates between the ball being kicked every two paces and the ball being kicked every three paces.

The E3 pattern I was previously doing is: LK R L RK L R repeat, intended direction straight line straight ahead. It is so named because the ball is kicked every three paces.

The E2E3 (as mentioned previously in page 14 of the log) was a pattern I noticed while doing the E3 pattern. Sometimes while attempting to do the E3 pattern, I ended up doing the E2E3 pattern instead; after several such occurrences, I realized that the E2E3 pattern is a natural pattern with natural advantages.

The E2 and the E2E3 patterns practice actions such as kick ball with left foot on slant to right or on slant to straight ahead; and kick ball with right foot on slant to left or straight ahead slant. The E2 and E2E3 patterns tend to fail to practice actions such as kick ball with left foot on slant to left, and kick ball with right foot on slant to right.

The question arises, what E2E3 pattern would be the best choice, for a pattern that compliments the original E2E3 pattern, but practices slants and turns of a type not practiced by the E3 pattern or the original E2E3 pattern?

ANSWER modified E2E3 pattern:

With first kick with left foot, kick ball on slant left; step with right, step with left, kick ball with right foot on slant right; step with left, kick ball with right foot on slant right; step with left, step with right, kick ball with left foot on slant left; step with right; repeat.

Notationally this would be: LK (slant left) R L RK (slant right) L RK (slant right) L R LK (slant left) R, repeat.

The fact that starting with the right foot, meaning rolling the ball back with the right foot, flipping it up with the right foot and then kicking it with the right foot, will be a difficult and time consuming to learn for a left-footed person like me, does not mean that it is impossible.

Fact is, that I still do not know how long it will take to master the art of taking off with the right foot.

Undoubtedly, mastering the art of taking off with the right foot, would improve my ability in terms of right-footed kicks that come after the take-off with the right foot. Such improvement would occur even if the right footed takeoff was never mastered to the point where in a game I could rely on an ability to take off with the right foot.

Practicing the right footed takeoff, would end up being less energy intensive compared to left footed takeoff runs, because it would involve runs of about five yards as opposed to runs of fourteen yards. Hence it would make a good compliment to tiring energy-intensive drills; right foot takeoff practice could be done at times when I was too tired to engage in the energy-intensive drills.

(these points re the right foot takeoff never occurred to me until I sat down today and carefully thought out the subject while taking notes in the computer).

The normal scientific approach would be to make an attempt at learning how to start with the right foot, so as to get some idea re whether the advantages derived from improvement in the skill are sufficient given the amount of time and energy invested in learning the skill. This as opposed to being superstitiously awed by the supposed difficulty of it, and thus not even attempting it.

Noteworthy, how even a thoughtful person such as myself, can fail to attempt something that should be attempted, due to: an almost superstitious feeling of emotional queasiness regarding the task in question; underestimation of the amount of mental time and energy required to master the subject; insufficient thought re the matter; failure to conceptualize some of the advantages of attempting the task in question; failure to conceptualize some of the advantages of succeeding in the task in question.

60 minutes of E2E3, 504-605 PM, minus 1 minute interruption

Again the lexicon is: LK = kick with left foot; RK = kick with right foot; L = step with left; R = step with right.

First 60 minutes, pattern was E2E3: LK R L RK L RK L R LK R LK...; with ball kept off the ground but close to the body while running forwards. A success counted as running approx 14 yds adhering to pattern either exactly or approximately with ball kept close to body and off the ground while running forwards.

First 60 minutes, there was one success every 1.8 minutes; one success adhering exactly to pattern every 3.0 minutes. There were 21 runs rated as long fast straight and tight (LFST); 14 of these were runs that adhered exactly to pattern; and, 7 were runs that adhered approximately to pattern.

The runs that were rated LFST occurred at the following times (E= run adhered to pattern exactly):

start 504 PM
518 PM E
523
524 E
527
528 E
531 E
532 E
534 E
536 E
540 E
542 E
549 E
552
554
555
556 E
557 E
558 E
600 E
602
604 E
end 605 PM

Now imagine a colorful national flag to the right of each time entry, so as to see the majesty of it, similar to the times of the goals scored during the hockey matches at the winter olympics. You are getting sleepy...sleepy (watch is swung back and forth like a pendulum in front of hypnotized patient).

In the gym during the above described brilliant practice: males, grade school to middle aged, white, asian Indian, black, mixed black/hispanic; all seemingly oblivious to the great deeds performed in front of them.

Except the Asian Indian man who was there with his grade school age child said (unless I am mistaken): "I spy...so it's not a lie". Meaning that the stuff about my soccer performance is not a lie.

Which reminds me that in the Hindi or Sanskrit language, not sure which: Satya means truth, Jit means victory, Satyajit means victory of truth.

Next, from 615 to 655 PM, 45 minutes, I attempted the following pattern: RK L R LK. This was a short pattern started just five yards from the wall. I counted a success as being able to roll the ball back with my right foot, flip it up with my right foot, kick it with my right foot, step with my left foot, step with my right foot, and kick the ball with my left foot.

The result was: 28 successes in 45 minutes, one success every 1.6 minutes.

From 700 PM to 745 PM, I did the same thing, but what I counted as a success was: roll back with right foot; flip up with right foot; kick forwards with right foot; step with left foot; step with right foot; kick with left foot; counted as a success only if kick with left after kick with right, done in a manner such that if run could be continued, run could be continued straight ahead and on pattern without undue difficulty.

With the new more difficult definition of success the score was: 39 successes in 45 minutes, one success every 1.2 minutes.

E2E3 LK start reverse #1 pattern: Where LK = kick with left, RK = kick with right, L = step with left, R = step with right, pattern is: LK (slant left) R L RK (slant right) L RK (slant right) L R LK (slant left). Ball is kept off ground yet under control whilst body moves at a run. When I refer to "air-dribble" on this and other pages, I am talking about an action that is like the common ground dribble except the ball is always kicked while it is in the air and the ball never touches the ground.

Purpose of the drill done today, is to develop the ability to kick the ball with the right so as to slant right, and with the left so as to slant left.

Started at 6:06 PM. The gym was incredibly hot, despite the fact that it was early March outside, temperature in the 40s. YMCAs continually amaze me with their talent for making it hot and humid in the gym when it is cool outside.

First 11 minutes, I did not even come close to success, in terms of adhering to pattern while moving forwards across the width of the gym. Therefore I made the following changes: pulled blue gym-divider curtain which hangs from ceiling, out half way across width of gym; set up start marker approx 7 yds from curtain; set up marker to aim at with first kick approx 2.5 yds from start marker; changed to running in the direction of the blue curtain.

This was done because: none of the runs were getting beyond 7 yards; too much time was being wasted chasing down a wildly kicked ball and returning to the start point.

Scoring of runs: if I adhered to pattern up to the 4th kick and touched the ball with the correct foot, the left foot, on the 4th kick, this was counted as a "4th kick done" (4KD). If I adhered to pattern up to the 3rd kick of the run with the right, and touched the ball with the right foot on the 3rd kick of the run, this was counted as "3rd kick done" (3KD).

Attitude used: I did not attempt to institute during this practice, either the high stress attitude or the low stress attitude, I had too many things to think about other than type of attitude to be used.

From 617 PM to 639 PM, in 22 minutes I I scored a 4KD twice, and did not count the 3KDs.

639 PM, I started counting 3KDs as well as 4KDs, and moved the start point back to about 8 yards from the curtain, two yards behind the blue line on the far side of the gym (far side compared to front desk).

639 PM - 750 PM score: 32 3KDs; 12 4KDs; in 71 minutes. Total 3KD or 4KD every 1.6 minutes; 4KD every 5.9 minutes. Looks like at this point 4KDs should be counted and 3KDs ignored. The 4th kick of the run was usually occurring just as the ball reached the curtain approx 8 yds from the start point. The start point should be moved to 3 yds behind the blue line, approx 9 yds from curtain.

Thus at least there was improvement over the course of the practice today, in the sense that the 4KD rate went from one 4KD every 11 minutes 617-639 PM, to one 4KD every 5.9 minutes 639-750 PM.

While practicing several thoughts came into my mind re the drill I did today, which I jotted down with my pen in my spiral notebook:

A benefit of this drill that I did not previously think of: the drill improves the ability to shoot or pass to the right with the right foot, and the ability to shoot or pass to the left with the left foot. Thus, there is a stage where even if the level of skill is not enough to air-dribble to the left with the left foot or to the right with the right foot, the ability to pass or shoot to the left with the left foot and to the right with the right foot becomes improved, to the point where in an actual game, passes and shots that could not be attempted with confidence previously can be attempted with confidence.

This has to do with the fact that air dribble is more difficult than shooting or passing. On the air dribble, the ball has to be placed at a certain point at a certain time. On the pass and on the shot, the ball has to be placed at a certain point, but the time at which it reaches that certain point is less important compared to the time at which the ball reaches a certain point on the air dribble.

I saw an American pro on TV named Klein score a very impressive goal once. His back was to the goal. A teammate, a tall black guy about ten yards from him towards whom he was facing passed the ball to him; the passed ball arrived about chest high in the air a little to Klein's right from Klein's point of view. Klein swiveled to his right and shot the ball with his left into the goal about 25 yards behind him, without even looking at the goal.

Impressive as this goal by Klein was, one has to remember that Klein had much more latitude in terms of WHEN the ball got to the target, a corner of the goal, compared to how much latitude I have on the air-dribble in terms of WHEN the ball gets to the target, a certain point in space. Also it's easier to aim at a visual target such as a corner of a goal, compared to aiming at a basically invisible point in space.

I've already shown in previous drills (there were lots of little kids, who seemed to sense something important was happening, watching one of my best days doing this) that I can handle a ball that flies towards me on one bounce or without bouncing after ricochetting off a wall, by commencing an air dribble in an intended direction on the first touch of the ball and then continuing the air-dribble. Compared to shooting, the ball on the first touch, this involves the added dimension of emphasis on WHEN the ball reaches the target, which is a point in space; when the ball reaches this point, it is kicked again to continue the air-dribble.

Passing, for example lead-passes, involves more emphasis on when the ball reaches a target compared to shooting. The ability to place the ball at a certain point at a certain time developed via the air-dribble, improves passing skills.

Feinting to the left with the right foot, and then actually moving to the right on a kick with the right foot, has certain advantages compared to feinting to the left with the left foot, and then moving to the right with the left foot. The two approaches involve the same amount of movement on the feint to the left, but the first approach covers more distance per unit of time on the move to the right, compared to the latter. The first approach shields the ball more from the defender on the move to the right.

The first kick of the run on the E2E3 LK start reverse #1 done today, is basically the same as on the E2E3 LK start original. Thus what was done today improved the first kick of the E2E3 LK start original also.

My judgement is that I will eventually be able to master the skills attempted today, and that this will add alot of flash, unpredictability, elusiveness and clout to my game.

On the E2E3 LK start reverse #1 done today, on the third kick of the run with the right one is supposed to slant right. On the E2E3 LK start original done previously, on the third kick of the run with the right one is supposed to slant left. It was surprising, how often today, due to nothing but sheer force of habit, on the third kick of the run with the right foot I slanted left instead of to the right as I was supposed to today. This significantly reduced my overall score.

E2E3 LK start reverse #1 pattern: Where LK = kick with left, RK = kick with right, L = step with left, R = step with right, pattern is: LK (slant left) R L RK (slant right) L RK (slant right) L R LK (slant left). Ball is kept off ground yet under control whilst body moves at a run.

Scoring of runs: if I adhered to pattern up to the 4th kick and touched the ball with the correct foot, the left foot, on the 4th kick, this was counted as a "4th kick done" (4KD for four kicks done). If there was doubt as to whether pattern was adhered to, the run was scored as half a success. Such doubt existed when: not sure if slanted in intented direction on kick or went straight ahead on kick; on 4th touch ball touched ground at same time it was kicked.

225-325 PM: 20 4KD successes, 1 every 3.0 minutes. About half the not sure if it was a success run counted as successes, without keeping exact track of how many of these there were. Not aware of using either stressed or relaxed attitude.

325-425 PM: 25 successes, 13 half-successes, total 31.5 successes, one success every 1.9 minutes. Used the mentally and physically relaxed enjoy the practice approach. This kind of thing, the initial frustrating phase of learning something difficult, can get too tedious boring and depressing, if one does'nt lighten up a bit.

425-455 PM: 12 successes, 2 half-successes, total 13 successes, one success every 2.3 minutes. Used physically and mentally relaxed enjoy the practice approach again.

This constitutes rapid improvement compared to yesterday's one success every 5.9 minutes. Strange thing, I would be barely aware of the rate of improvement if I was not keeping score.

Today I was starting approx 9 paces from the curtain. The curtain interfered with a few of the 4th kicks, and lots of the 5th kicks of the run. Next time start point should be moved back to 11 paces from the curtain. Next time, I should also count how many runs are succesful up to the fifth touch.

At this rate, I estimate that in no more than ten more hours of practice, this skill, which is like a coup de gras skill for me in my soccer relations with planet earth, will be basically mastered.

A day or two after the March 6 practice featuring the Indian man who said "I spy...it's not a lie", a light skinned asian Indian man at the CVS looked at me and said, "the Waltham Y is not behaving".

Brings to mind amusing thoughts of the Indian consulate summoning the Waltham Y official to the consulate and chewing them out. Whatever differences India and I may have due to me being an American citizen, I cannot escape the fact that I was born in Bombay, in the area to which the apostle Bartholomew was sent 2000 years ago.

In the US it is illegal to discriminate against persons on the basis of them having been born overseas. The various localities in the US discriminate against persons born outside the locality; and, persons born in foreign nations have no such US locality to call their own as a birthplace; hence they are protected by law.

As for me, I've been treated harshly by nitpicking female gender worshippers at some of these universities that have gyms-- I tend to see the good side of the Waltham Y.

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Also the entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

Today for the first time I counted the 5KD and 6KD runs separately instead of counting 4KDs, 5KDs and 6KDs, all as 4KDs. Today having moved to eleven paces from the curtain I ran at, I had more chances to make a 5th touch on the ball. Today I had the inclination to attempt 5th and 6th touches and to count the number of runs featuring 5th and 6th touches. Today the number of runs that were on pattern and featured 5th and 6th touches was much greater than the number of such yesterday; also the number was much greater than the number yesterday would have been if I had: made an effort to achieve 5KDs and 6KDs, counted successes in such, and started further from the curtain.

Today from 40 minutes into the practice to 60 minutes into the practice, during these 20 minutes, there were 9 runs scored as 5KD, and 4 runs scored as 1/2 5KD. The majority of these runs would be hard to improve upon given the curtain barrier at eleven paces. During these 20 minutes, it was as if I had magically prematurely mastered the skill. But this rate of achievement did not keep up for the rest of the practice.

Today I did all the segments in the reduced stress state of mind and body. I tried to enjoy myself, relax, not stress my mind too much, not stress my body too much. I thought this approach worked well in that the number of runs that would be hard to improve upon and that were 5KD or better, was much greater than yesterday--even though the number of total successes per minute was not gigantically improved compared to yesterday.

During the practice, I had thoughts related to maintaining a relaxed and happy attitude during the practice, which I jotted down in my spiral notebook:

Looking on the bright side, every run provides the opportunity to practice something or show evidence of skill; this is a pleasant and wise thought that is good to remember. After most of the runs, I can take pleasure in the fact that the run either gave me the opportunity to practice some difficult type of kick, or was a run in which I evinced skill. It's better to focus on such pleasant thoughts, as opposed to being frustrated by frustrating failures on the most recent attempt(s). When I mis-kick a ball during a run, looking at the positive side of it, this gives me the opportunity to practice recovering from such mistakes. Mis-kicks, balls being kicked somewhat incorrectly, give me the opportunity to practice maneuvers that could become intentional in the future. Ups and downs in terms of score are an unavoidable part of nature. Hard to believe that a thoughtful person such as myself, would slip into errors such as self-inflicted unnecessary stress due to focusing on things of the dark side, such as the clumsiness of the previous attempt, as opposed to things of the bright side, such as how on the previous attempt I had a chance to practice recovering from a miskick.

During the second and third segments today, it seemed that since the distance traveled per touch was increasing, I was running into the curtain before being able to touch the ball a fifth time, which served to reduce the number of 5KD and 6KD scores. Seemed the majority of runs that could have been 6KD were blocked by the curtain. Seems next time I should start 13 paces from the curtain.

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

First hour, I employed the relaxed attitude. Second hour, again I employed the relaxed attitude, but at this point I became aware of something I call "intent". "Intent" could be: that the runs should be fast, majestic, long. Intent could also be: that the runs should be slow,easy to accomplish, and less energetic.

Intent is different from attitude. First segment today I had no specific intent. Second segment, my intent was that the runs should be slow, easy, less energetic.

Second segment it took a while before I was able to, so to speak, shift gears and start making the runs slow, easy, less energetic.

Looking at the segment scores, the attempt to switch to slow easy less energetic runs did not seem to significantly improve the performance. This could have to do with the fact that this was the first segment during which I attempted to apply specific intent re what kind of run the runs should be.

During the second segment, the segment during which I attempted to apply intent to be slow and easy-going on the runs, it seemed that although one would expect that trying to slow things down, and make things easier would improve the score, such was not turning out to be the case.

What the attitude that is being employed is, has an effect on intent. When the attitude is a low mental stress low physical stress attitude, and the mind is not officially given over to any particular type of intent, a natural intent develops anyway.

For me, when maintaining a relaxed attitude, when no intent is officially specified, the natural intent is: flamboyance, grace, long runs, speed, magnificence. This gives the relaxed attitude certain natural advantages compared to other attitudes for me. These advantages are not always evident in the scores, because the scoring system for this drill does not take into account things like speed, length of run, to what extent the angle of the slants were correct.

Thus as of now, it appears that, comparing a relaxed attitude combined with unspecified intent, to a relaxed attitude combined with intent to produce runs that are slow, easy, and relatively less energetic, there is no advantage for me in the intent to produce runs that are slow, easy to do and less energy consuming, as far as the scoring goes. Also it appears that when there is no specified intent the runs are of a higher quality in terms of aspects not reflected by the scoring system.

Generally there did not seem to be much significant improvement today compared to yesterday. Night before today's practice, I could not sleep, and compensated for this by sleeping well into the morning.

The inability to sleep followed an excellent meal at Taqueria Mexico; the meal was the 'Campechano', which was Mexican style flavored strips of steak, Mexican style flavored strips of pork steak in sauce, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and beans (I drank 200 ml Cuervo colorless Blue Agave Tequila to promote an appetite).

This Mexican meal was perhaps the best meal I have ever paid for relative to the amount spent on the meal. Usually I have a talent for picking out of the menu the wrong thing, but this time I nailed it.

Great as the Tequila and the meal was, the end result was for some reason, insomnia during the night--which seemed to have in turn resulted in today's practice showing little improvement compared to yesterday's.

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

First hour, I employed the relaxed attitude with no specific intent (intent explained, 3/10 entry). Second hour, the attitude was at least at the start relaxed. The intent the second hour, was simply that on the third step of the run with the left foot, prior to the second kick of the run with the right foot, the left foot should be placed further to the left than usual, the idea being that this makes the subsequent kick of the ball to the right with the right foot easier (while at the same time, if the ball is kicked to the left with the right foot, this is still possible with the left foot planted out to the left prior to the kick with the right foot).

The total score in the first hour was better than the total score has ever been. I noticed that the runs were easier, shorter less energetic than they have been; I attribute this to the influence of intending to produce runs that are slower, easier, less energetic, during the second segment yesterday.

The total score the second hour was significantly lower than the total score the first hour. I attribute this to the introduction of the stepping to the left with the left foot on the third step/kick of the run, prior to the kick with the right foot on the second kick of the run. Noteworthy how an innovation one can expect to eventually increase scores at first reduces the score.

Second segment, it seemed that the runs were long and fast. I attribute this to the fact that on the third step/kick of the run, which is a step with the left foot, I placed the left foot further to my left than usual prior to the kick to the right with the right foot on the second kick of the run. This increased the speed of the run subsequent to the second kick. This increase in speed, also resulted in less runs extending out to more than four touches on the ball, because such speed is hard to handle.

Second hour though I started with the 'relaxed' attitude, I began to notice during the segment that my attitude was turning into something different from both the 'relaxed' attitude and the 'stressed' attitude. The attitude I was beginning to develop is hard to describe: energetic, zealous, attentive without being unduly stressed. Seems it should be classified as a third attitude.

Looking at the numbers as of now it looks like ten more days, about 25 more hours of practice before this E2E3 L-start reverse #1 is fundamentally mastered as a skill. Yet I can see how I will be very improved once I master the skill. Cuts to the right on a right foot kick, and to the left on a left foot kick, are very sharp and quick.

Today I noted that even when the second kick is the last kick prior to the ball hitting the ground, what is often set up is a very powerful shot after the ball has bounced once; this kind of one bounce shot can be exploited in a game even before the E2E3 skill is even half way mastered.

Note: for some reason, the footwork, in terms of number of paces between kicks, has almost always been correct on this drill. When the number of paces between kicks has been off, I have not been scoring the run as either a full or half success on this drill.

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

There were alot of boys and young men, brown, black, white, east asian in the gym. Thus I was restricted to doing the drill in a narrow corridor of space, about twelve yards long, and four yards wide, starting at a point about two yards from the gym dividor curtain on my right, with the danger of running into the boys a couple of yards to my left. Thus there was a high premium on running runs that were basically straight after all the zig zagging had been taken into account, runs featuring zig zags that did not diverge to the left and to the right too much.

The total score was 36 in 56 minutes which comes to 0.64 per minute. However, given the restrictions of space, on average I had to spend about ten seconds longer every time I walked to the desk to note a score and back to the starting point. Since I noted a score 40 times, that comes to 400 extra seconds or 6.7 minutes extra time spent noting scores. 56 minus 6.7 is 49.3; 36/49.3 is 0.73 per second.

Today I had to deal with the distraction and stress of avoiding the curtain to my right and the boys to my left. I estimate that today's practice showed significant progress compared to last time out. Yet I realize to a certain extent the constricted conditions could have forced me into habits that produce a high score such as the ball being kept close to the body and slower speed.

Two grade school age East Asian boys practiced right along side me about half of the segment today. They seemed to be more aware of my presence and more aware of how they could be getting in my way, compared to the typical black or white boys. One of them even noticed when he kicked a plastic marker I use to mark my steps out of the way with his foot.

There was also a tall white man, about six foot four inches tall, clean shaven, bespectacled, dark brown hair, playing basketball with his grade school age son who had light brown hair. This man looked impressively like a success at what we all thought would be easy when we were boys but which turned out to hard, raising a family and maintaining a good income. At one point he looked at me and said, "I have investments". At another point, as he was sitting on the bench watching me do the drill he looked at me and said, "and that's the shimmy". Maybe I should be more talkative with persons who talk like that. Maybe they can tell I would be useful working on their investments for them. But when I get absorbed in this kind of drill I don't feel talkative.

I knew that the "shimmy" is a dance that strippers do. I looked up Shimmy on the internet. A type of shimmy involves moving the right shoulder forwards while the left shoulder moves back, the left forward while the right moves back, the arms out bent slightly at the elbow; I can see how such would resemble my movements while zig-zagging while doing this drill. This dance movement is characteristic of a Russian gypsy girl folk dance the result of which is the coins sewn on the dancer's costume make a noise. Another type of shimmy is the belly-dance shimmy involving fast shaking of hips shoulders chest or whole body. Merriam Webster defines "shimmy" as "a jazz dance characterized by a shaking of the body from the shoulders down". According to Urbandictionary.com, "shimmy" is a soccer move in which the player feints one direction and goes the other way (I've been interested in soccer a long time and did not even know that).

Today my attitude as I did the drill was, relaxed. My intent was just to succeed without running into boys or the curtain. About half way through I began to note especially good runs. I counted three runs as especially long, three as especially fast, four as four as especially straight after the zig zags, and one as especially tight (the runs counted as such combined at least two of these attributes). These were all five touch runs. I was traveling about eleven paces at high speed over five touches, with the slants and footwork almost perfect.

I'd been feeling much improved spiritually the previous couple of days. This was the result of a simple change--replace various visual and audio inputs coming into my mind with simply reading scripture on the internet. I like it best when an entire book of scripture is on one html page. I found such a page and read the first eight chapters of Matthew.

People overestimate the complexity of being able to heal onself spiritually. According to scripture one enters the kingdom, by being child-like (by the way, O ye Americans, this is not the same as childish). The fact that the Sermon on the Mount is lacking in terms of complex philosophical explanations for things like how can a loveable God inflict such punishments is significant in and of itself. The punishments are inflicted on persons whose lives have promoted a spirit of meanness.

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

First segment was the usual thing, 5:50-6:50 PM: relaxed attitude, normal intent to succeed as much as possible. At the beginning of this segment I did not count which runs were especially long fast straight or tightly controlled, as simply scoring a mediocre success was hard enough for me. 6:14 PM - 6:50 PM, during 32 minutes not counting breaks, I counted the number of runs (scored runs earning at least half a point) that were long fast straight and tight ( a run can combine one or more of these characteristics). I counted 11 as long, 6 as fast, 11 as tightly controlled, and 9 as straight.

About 6:15 PM, about ten Spanish or Portuguese young men arrived to play soccer. They used only half of the gym. They were playing five on fivein an area about 15 yards wide and 18 yards long, with goals about five feet wide and four feet high. I was thinking, these guys are smart to use just half the gym, that way they won't get exhausted and the emphasis will be on skill. I remember how during the games at the Brighton Y, full court indoor soccer combined with too few players on the court (less than six), turned the game into an exhausting track meet which de-emphasized skill, made it very hard to even display skill, because of all the exhausting running.

But I continued with my drill--after finding out the details re the young men and their soccer time, I'll try to spend some time playing with them. I noticed that the soccer ball they (the young Latin men) were playing with was very soft and smaller than the normal size adult ball. This kind of unusual ball makes it impossible for me to perform some of the very precise high-skill maneuvers with the ball that I have been practicing. The unusual ball renders the practice time with a normal ball less valuable even when it comes to high performance in the more usual types of actions with the ball such as dribbling on the ground.

6:58-7:50 PM was the second segment. This segment, on every run, prior to the third kick of the run with the right foot, a kick which is slanted to the right, I side-stepped with the left foot, meaning I placed the left foot further out to the left than usual. The idea being that this makes it easier to cut to the right on the right foot kick, while at the same time the cut to the left on the right-footed kick is not more difficult than it would be without the sidestep to the left with the left foot prior to the kick with the right foot.

There were three runs today which extend to five kicks, followed footwork pattern exactly, had the correct slants, and were long fast straight and tightly controlled. These were at:

7:08 PM [imagine your favorite colorful flag here]
7:11 PM [imagine your favorite colorful flag here]
7:21 PM [imagine your favorite colorful flag here]

Second segment I counted successful runs that scored at least half a point that were especially long, fast, straight or tightly controlled. I counted 17 as long, 13 as fast, 31 as tight, and 15 as straight. Almost all the runs were tightly controlled.

There was big improvement today in terms of runs rated as long and/or fast and/or tightly controlled and/or straight after the zig zags.

One result of the sidestep prior to the third kick of the run with the right foot, was that many runs that could have been a success resulting in at least half a point were not a success and did not score any points. This was because on many of the runs the sidestep to the left with the left foot prior to the kick with the right foot was inappropriate given the position of the ball and the feet. However on every run I attempted this sidestep, as a way of training myself to use this sidestep.

The main limiting factor keeping the score down today, was that on the second kick with the right foot, or on the third kick with the right foot, I failed to slant the ball to the right as I am supposed to and kicked it straight ahead or close to straight ahead. Thus these runs were counted as half a point because the slant was in doubt, or as zero points because the slant was not to the right but straight ahead.

Even today the seventh day of this drill, I found myself by force of habit, kicking the ball to the left on the third touch with the right, instead of to the right on the third touch with the right as I am supposed to.

Last night, after drinking some burgundy wine mixed with organic grape juice and reading scripture, I had a couple of notable dreams. Before going to bed I had been reading about how St Bartholomew, a close friend of Christ's while Christ was alive, had visited the Bombay region of India where I was born.

In one dream, I was watching TV, and I saw these little points of light on the TV screen. During the dream I felt taht these points of light represented the TV media's enthusiasm for fascism featuring them bullying everyone.

In another dream I saw this woman I in waking life know of in the neighborhood, who used to have friends at the bar that was called 'Frosty's' on Moody street. This woman is over six feet tall, very buxom, last I saw her she had long wavy yellow hair. In the dream: her body was shades of gray, muscular, yet feminine. her body looked superhuman, as if the skin on her body was thin so as to reveal the muscular structure underneath the skin. her body looked like the sculpture of St Bartholomew dated 1562 AD at the Duomo Di Milano. Then her body and hair were in normal colors, I touched her, and she collapsed with passion.

When I awoke I was thinking: these rich fascists over-rate themselves and under-rate the middle class; there are middle class women who are saintly, martyr-tough, beautiful, despite having breasts which according to a certain tycoon-radio mouthpiece, are a vulnerability because they "can be tortured"; the tycoon-TV fascists think that because authoritarian government is sometimes the right solution in some nations, then therefore them being the authoritarian power is always right--that's typical of the pretzel logic so common in the halls of power these days. Then I began wondering: does it contradicts the ten commandments to build sculptures of saints?; does the fact such statues should not be built impact the interpretation of the dream?; does the fact a top soccer club is named AC Milan have something to do with this dream? am I wasting time and mental energy trying to understand the dream?

The pattern done today, the scores achieved during the practice segments done today, and explanations for terminology used, can be found at the E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries in this log page you are reading, from March 7 on are concerned with the same drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed; the intent in the mind was to make good first, second and third kicks. Simple as this intent was, it had never been in my mind before. Previously it was sort of like it was too much to think even beyond just the first kick, prior to starting a run. Previously all I could do was think in general terms about running a good run, it seemed to me somehow that thinking about good kicks on each of the first three kicks of the run was over my head, too much to load my mind with.

Previously (noted in previous log entries), I've noticed how I tend to surge ahead in a certain way on one day, than surge ahead in a different way on another day. Today was another example of such. Today the overall score per minute was not a personal record; however today, the number of runs per minute which were at 6KD or better, was an all-time record: 0.29/minute. Up till now my personal record for this statistic was 0.15 per minute, set March 11 first segment.

Runs that are 6KD or better are: runs in which the ball is touched at least six times, with correct footwork and slants maintained up to the last touch on the ball.

Today of the runs that scored at least half a point: 18 were long, 11 fast, 31 tight, 23 straight.

Runs 5KD or more, rated as long, fast, straight, and tight:

438 PM 6KD [insert flag here]
441 PM 5KD [insert flag here]

The mental intent employed today was: good first, second and third kicks. This kind of intent seemed to produce slow, low-number-of-yards-per-touch, tightly controlled runs involving lots of touches on the ball.

The first 38 minutes today I was running from north to south towards the big blue curtain; with this route, it takes about ten seconds less each time a note a score. The last 10 minutes I was running west to east towards the wall of the gym.

The 4KD runs were about 7.5 meters long, the runs 5KD and longer were about 10.0 meters long. I've noticed previously that the distance between a point and another point directly above it, seems longer and more impressive than the distance between a point and a point directly to the left or right of it. In the sport of diving, there is a competitive dive called the 7.5 meter, and there is another that is the 10 meter. On the internet, you can see videos of 10 meter dives and videos of 7.5 meter dives.

A couple of days ago after reading scriptures about men being judged after death and sent to hell or heaven I had the following dream: I saw on a computer monitor screen, a table listing various web pages. Alternating rows had alternating background colors. There were about 30 rows visible on screen, some of the rows listed some of my minor relatively unimportant web pages. There was a judgement about something, but I was not too nervous about it. There was a white guy, clean shaven, of average height and build, wearing a white shirt, brown haired, I think he also wore spectacles, with me. This machine that looked like a big xerox machine produced a piece of paper. On the piece of paper there was what looked like a colorful jack-of-hearts of the type you find in decks of cards. The jack of hearts meant that I passed the judgement.

When I awoke I was thinking maybe the dream means I won't be damned because of my good works. Whatever it means, relating it to you gives you a chance to get to know me. The fact that our good works are never good enough in and of themselves to save us does not mean we should abstain from good works. After we are forgiven because we are forgiving, there remains in the eyes of God our works. The fact that faith is indispensable does not mean good works are irrelevant.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed; the intent in the mind was to make good first, second and third kicks.

Today first segment there was significant improvement in terms of: overall score; number of runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled and straight and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball. This history of such runs first segment today was:

310 PM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters if recorded

314 6KD      [insert flag here]
323 5KD 7.8m [insert flag here]
329 6KD 9.2m [insert flag here]
331 5KD 9.2m [insert flag here]
335 5KD      [insert flag here]
337 5KD      [insert flag here]
339 6KD      [insert flag here]
348 6KD 9.2m [insert flag here]
354 5KD 9.2m [insert flag here]
356 5KD      [insert flag here]
409 5KD 9.2m [insert flag here]

410 PM end

This first segment amongst runs that scored at least 1/2 point: 36 long runs (roughly speaking this means long distance traveled relative to number of touches on ball); 29 fast runs; 44 tightly controlled runs; 34 straight runs.

I paced off distances with my feet. My estimate now is that with me one pace = 28 inches, 1 pace = 0.71 meters (1 meter = 39.4 inches).

This segment I only recorded the distance traveled on runs regarding which I was impressed with the distance traveled. Range, and average distance traveled first segment, for various number touches on ball: 4 touches, 5.7-9.2 meters, 6.8 meters; 5 touches, 6.4-9.2 meters, 8.2 meters; 6 touches, 8.5-9.2 meters, 9.0 meters; 7 touches, 9.2-9.2 meters, 9.2 meters.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed; the intent in the mind this second segment was to sidestep to the left with the left foot prior to the second kick of the run with the right foot, and to make good first, second and third kicks.

Today second segment there was significant improvement in terms of: overall score; and, number of runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled and straight and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball. This history of such runs second segment today was:

415 PM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters if recorded

429 6KD 7.1m [insert flag here]
430 5KD 8.5m [insert flag here]
432 5KD 7.1m [insert flag here]
438 5KD 8.5m [insert flag here]
447 5KD 8.5m [insert flag here]
450 6KD 8.5m [insert flag here]
501 6KD 7.8m [insert flag here]
502 5KD 7.1m [insert flag here]
506 5KD 7.8m [insert flag here]

513 PM end

This second segment amongst runs that scored at least 1/2 point: 17 long runs (roughly speaking this means long distance traveled relative to number of touches on ball); 13 fast runs; 31 tightly controlled runs; 15 straight runs.

I paced off distances with my feet. My estimate now is that with me one pace = 28 inches, 1 pace = 0.71 meters (1 meter = 39.4 inches).

This segment I recorded the distance traveled on most of the runs that scored at least half a point. Range, and average distance traveled first segment, for various number touches on ball: 4 touches, 2.1-7.8 meters, 5.7 meters; 5 touches, 6.4-8.5 meters, 7.3 meters; 6 touches, 7.1-8.5 meters, 7.8 meters; 7 touches, 7.8-8.5 meters, 8.2 meters.

This second segment I noticed that: the quality of runs that score zero points because of some defect, is much better than the quality of such runs used to be; lots of runs would be great if the slant right on the third kick was not insisted on; the force of habit still impells me to kick the ball to the left on the third kick instead of to the right.

Undoubtedly the improvement in terms of number of runs that adhere to pattern for at least five touches and are also long fast tight and straight, was hugely improved today, during both the first and the second segments.

This evening from approx 1030 PM to 1145 PM, I was at the outdoor track. I jogged a mile, walked a mile jogged a mile, and walked a mile. This because I was unable to get to the gym for the workout.

I had to attend to a banking problem. March 4, I left my ATM card in the machine by accident. I returned to retrieve my ATM card, and got it back. But today I found out that between the time I forgot my ATM card and retrieved it, someone withdrew $200 from my checking account. So I had to attend to that.

But I had plenty of energy and poise to deal with the disgusting problem. I really feel that much of this energy and poise came from what I had for dinner Tuesday March 16. I had: Tequila and Kheema curry.

The tequila was the Agavales Gold brand Tequila, the label says it is 100% Agave (I believe Agave Tequila helps repel the winter flu type thing. The reasoning behind this, which may be somewhat twisted: we are coming down with flus and colds because of the Mexican type immigrants; Mexican society has flourished despite such sicknesses for centuries; that means the cure for these colds and flus is found in Mexico; in Mexico you find Agave Tequila; Mexican doctors have in the past successfully used Agave Tequila salt and lemon as cures for things like even the dreaded killer flu of the early twentieth century.

At the liquor store they told me that some of the Tequilas that claim to be 100% Agave are not actually. But this Agavales Gold Tequila, which claimed to be 100% Agave, tasted so similar to the Mezcal (similar to a Tequila, twice as expensive, also claims to be 100% agave), that I think it really was 100% Agave. I sure felt healthy the day after eating it with the curry.

The curry combined with the rice to produce a pleasant feeling of getting both proteins and carbs. The curry recipe I used for the 'Kheema curry' was based on: my findings re what the average level of various ingredients and average time in cooking process for adding ingredients is for Kheema curry, based on ten different recipes (complex since different recipes produce different amounts, different recipes have ingredients added at different times); and then this average tweaked by me according to my own judgement. Here I give you the recipe, which shows the average level of ingredient and average time for adding the ingredients, and in parentheses I show the level of ingredient that I myself actually used, if this level of ingredient was different from the average:

Average Kheema

1lb meat
4 tblspns oil
1 onion
3 tspn ginger (5 tspns)
4 garlic cloves (2 garlic cloves)
2 tspn salt (4 tspns seasalt)
3 tspn garam masala (2 tspns)
1 tspn turmeric
4 tspn ground coriander (2 tspns)
1 tspn cayenne (2 tspns)
3 tomatoes (5 small 'roma' tomatoes)
2 tspn tomatoe paste
4 tblspn yogurt
1 cup water
4 tblspn coriander
1 cinnamon stick (2 cinnamon sticks)
2 pods lychee cardamom (3 pods)
1 tspn gr cardamom (2 tspns)
1 cup peas

minutes into cooking process for adding various ingredients to cooking pan:
pre-zero: heat oil
0 onion
6 spices
11 meat
16 yogurt
21 water
26 peas tomatoes
36 end

I believe that the Indians use too much ground coriander, too much garlic, too much garam masala, too little ginger, as you can see. I really feel that the Tequila and curry and rice combo did a great job of energizing me for the insanity of the day, relaxing me so as to be able to competently deal with the madness. On the same day that I discovered the ATM card theft, I found a serious problem with my credit card, but that also was resolved.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed; the intent in the mind this first segment was to make good first, second and third kicks. Previously it was as if the first three kicks happened so fast that I was unable to focus on doing a 'good kick' on each of the first three kicks. But now my mind has caught up with the speed of events so I can focus the mind on making a good kick on each of the first three kicks. But for the kicks after the first three, I still am unable to focus on specifically and premeditatingly making each kick a 'good kick' because the kicks after the fourth kick happen so fast that I am unable to think about making a good kick prior to kicking the ball. I just sort of generally try to have a good run after the first three kicks.

Today second segment there was significant improvement in terms of: overall score; and, speed of runs. The speed of runs does not show up in the score at the Scores Table. Today the speed of the 4KD runs and to a lesser extent the speed of the 5KD runs, was at a speed that would have seemed unbelievable just yesterday. For first segment today, runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled and straight and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball (at one pace = 0.67 meters, latest estimate):

232 PM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters if recorded

237 6KD 7.4m [insert flag here]
251 5KD 6.7m [insert flag here]
303 5KD 8.0m [insert flag here]
307 5KD 6.7m [insert flag here]
315 5KD 8.7m [insert flag here]
315 5KD 7.4m [insert flag here]
319 5KD 8.0m [insert flag here]
321 6KD 9.4m [insert flag here]
323 5KD 7.4m [insert flag here]
326 5KD 6.0m [insert flag here]
331 5KD 8.0m [insert flag here]

332 PM end

This first segment amongst runs that scored at least 1/2 point: 42 long runs (to some extent what I call long has to do with how many touches were made on the ball, more being expected of runs with more touches); 40 fast runs; 53 tightly controlled runs; 46 straight runs.

I paced off distances with my feet, in terms of the width of the free throw lane. The width of the free throw lane came to 4 paces plus 38.75 inches. Thus my estimate now is that with me one pace = 26.3 inches, 1 pace = 0.67 meters (1 meter = 39.4 inches).

This segment I recorded the distance traveled on most of the runs that scored at least half a point. Range, and average distance traveled first segment, for various number touches on ball: 4 touches, 2.7-9.4 meters, 5.5 meters; 5 touches, 5.4-8.7 meters, 7.0 meters; 6 touches, 6.7-9.4 meters, 8.0 meters; 7 touches, 8.7-9.7 meters, 8.7 meters.

This first segment I noticed that: there were lots of 4KD runs that were longer than usual and much faster than usual. There was even more increase in terms of 4KD runs that aside from length, were much faster than has been the case in the past. On the 5KDs also, to a lesser extent there was a significant increase in speed.

Night before the practice today, I had an interesting dream. In the dream: every run that lasted for at least four touches was also a Jackson Browne song, at least some of them were the song entitled, "the times you've come"; Every run was also an exercise in nuclear weapons power; Every touch on the ball after the first touch on the ball was a potential nuclear explosion; and, In the background while doing the runs I saw the graceful black haired white girl wearing the red helmet that I mentioned in the previous entry.

RE the dream, fact is, that especially with me, given my talent skills and the kind of practice I do, given my current level of fitness which is better than in many of the past years, any of the touches on the ball can be turned into an extremely powerful nuclear-weapon like shot, because the ball is in the air when it is kicked. Today on the fourth touch of a run, I casually kicked the ball into the curtain, expending about a quarter of tme maximum amount of energy that I could have expended, on the kick. When the ball hit the curtain, the impact was such that a grade-school-age ruddy brown-haired stocky white boy standing in the doorway about fifteen yards away from the curtain, screamed in terror, I kid you not. As for the red-helmet girl, seems like, everyone around me has been oblivious and/or envious, except for the red-helmet girl--I still remember the look of wide-eyed innocent unfeigned admiration on her face.

Maybe the reason the Spanish and Portuguese young men showed up to play with a small ball that was very soft, very underinflated, was that they fear being blasted by a shot kicked by my, with my foot hitting the ball when the ball is in the air, everything made even scarier due to me running for a few paces before shooting.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed; the intent in the mind this second segment was to make good first, second and third kicks; and also to sidestep to the left with the left foot prior to the third kick of the run with the right foot.

Runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled and straight and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball (at one pace = 0.67 meters, latest estimate):

348 PM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters if recorded

409 5KD 6.7m [insert flag here]
417 5KD 6.7m [insert flag here]
420 5KD 7.4m [insert flag here]
430 5KD 6.7m [insert flag here]
441 6KD 8.7m [insert flag here]
447 6KD 9.4m [insert flag here]

448 PM end

This second segment amongst runs that scored at least 1/2 point: 16 long runs (roughly speaking this means long distance traveled relative to number of touches on ball); 22 fast runs; 40 tightly controlled runs; 34 straight runs.

The meters length of the runs today was estimated on the basis that one walked pace = 0.67 meters.

This segment I recorded the distance traveled on most of the runs that scored at least half a point. Range, and average distance traveled this second segment, for various number touches on ball: 4 touches, 2.7-7.4 meters, 5.0 meters; 5 touches, 6.7-7.4 meters, 6.5 meters; 6 touches, 6.7-9.4 meters, 8.3 meters; 7 touches, 8.7-9.7 meters, 8.7 meters.

Large numbers of runs scored zero points because the sidestep to the left prior to the third kick with the right foot threw things off. Yet the overall score was significantly improved compared to the previous time doing this variation of the drill.

The point of this drill is that sidestepping to the left prior to the third kick can increase speed, also increase the degree to which there is a change of direction on the third kick.

There was a notable run at 330 PM. This run was very fast, covered 9.4 meters in 4 touches, and was straight and tightly controlled. I have never traveled such a distance so fast in four touches before. The run was in a certain sense perfect. On the second and third kicks of this run, I chipped the ball to a max height of about 7 feet.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

The attitude employed was relaxed enjoyment; the intent in the mind was to take more risks than usual as this was an unscored segment. This was the FIRST unscored segment of the E2E3 L-start Rev #1 Series. Though this segment was unscored, I tried to keep up an attempts per hour rate that was the same as the scored segments.

Since this was an unscored segment, I tried to enjoy myself. I found that this pursuit of pleasure tends to lead to the maximization of the quality achieved divided by mental/physical stress and effort ratio. In other words, when I am focused on enjoying myself, what I naturally strive for is to maximize the quality achieved per unit of physical/mental stress and effort experienced and expended. The inclination to maximize this ratio probably produces a positive impact on performance, in that when this ratio is maximized you get quality performance without mental and physical fatigue.

Seemed natural to me that in an unscored segment, I should take more risks, in the sense of actions that pose the risk of the run not being a run that scores half a point or a point according to my scoring system, in the interests of achieving quality on the runs.

At 5:56 PM I achieved what was probably the best run ever in these ten days of the E2E3 L-start Rev #1 drills. This run was very fast, long, tightly controlled, straight after the turns, and (something that does not show up in the scores) the turns were very sharp turns, sharply angled turns.

When the segment is scored there is a natural tendency to play it conservative and refrain from taking risks that might produce an especially high quality run, because the result could be the run does not score even half a point.

Overall today the runs tended to be extra long and extra fast, without too much of a loss in terms of tightness of control and straightness.

A couple of nights ago I had a dream: I was running from south to north through the middle of the U of Chicago campus. I was taking long strides and landing on the balls of my feet. The strides kept getting longer and longer, they became inhumanly long. I came to some ridge that stuck about a foot above the ground and pushed off and started flying (I've flown like this several times in dreams). I had a towel around my neck there was a danger of it coming off I tied it around me. I got to this neighborhood to the west of Hyde Park, a poor minority neighborhood in an area with a high murder rate. There was a new university built in this neighborhood that had brown and white buildings. I got to a gray building with about eight stories high, I was at about the level of the roof of the building. On the top floor in a room I saw a candle burning and heard voices. Then I felt hands around my wrists and my feet, interfering with my flying. I woke up. I could still fell the hand holding my wrists and ankles. I saw a shadow of a tall man in my room. He said something to the effect of 'the Gestapo are searching Abrit's house. I heard music playing on the porch outside my bedroom and in the apartment below. I walked around and as it turned out, there was actually no music on the porch or in the apartment below, and there was no man in my apartment talking about the Gestapo. This was the first time in my life I had heard things, experienced auditory hallucinations while awake. But the hearing things lasted for only five minutes after I woke up. After I woke up for a few seconds my arms were moving in the breaststroke style, which is what I was using in the dream to fly.

Possibly the dream indicates I should run with long strides on the balls of my feet. Possibly it indicates I could do well swimming the breaststroke, I used to be able to swim the breastroke very fast for about 20 yards. But I've become afraid of the chlorine used to clean the pool water, and have gotten nowhere trying to entice the state govt to help produce swimming pools that use milder safer substances than chlorine.

Last night I had a dream that I was in a very big well furnished living room. The interior dec was informal, lots of pillows and soft chairs to lounge around in, colors like brown and white and gray and black. This big living room was about 15 yards by 15 yards. My brother was in it with me. My brother committed the sin of opening the door and letting these three light-brown colored animals into the room. They looked like small leopards. One of them was aggressive and violent and attacked me. It took hold of my left thigh and dug it's claws into my left thigh. There was some pain but I was wrestling with the little leopard, I was able to prevent it from causing serious damage to my leg.

Now I present to you my favorite fish curry recipe, one of my favorite recipes. Possible reasons the recipe tastes so good: Bengal used to be one of the richest places in the world, wealth can produce culture; there are alot of fish in Bengal. The recipe provides various advantages: Once cooked, the curry can be kept in the freezer for weeks; it can be kept in the frig for days; it combines fish with vegetables and nutritious spices; it mixes well with rice, which provides a carbohydrate rich counterpart to the protein in the fish; it renders the rice, which by itself is hard to eat, tasty; unlike most fish dishes, it continues to taste good after being refrigerated and reheated. I get the feeling my dad thinks I should keep the recipe secret, but the saying goes: "freely have ye received, so freely give".

Bengali Fish Curry Recipe. I give the recipe as my mother gave it to me, with modifications I have come up with in parentheses:

1 lb any white fish
2 tomatoes
3 cloves garlic (2 cloves garlic)
1/4 pint tamarind water
+1 t ginger (3 t ginger)
1/4 t chilli powder (1 t chili powder)
1/2 t turmeric (1 t turmeric)
green chillies
1/2 pint yogurt
2 T mustard oil (3 T mustard oil)
(1 T coconut oil)
1/2 t fenugreek seeds (1 t Fenugreek seeds)
2 t salt (3 t sea salt)
1/2 bunch fresh coriander
(lemon if necessary)
Clean and cut fish into pieces. Slice tomatoes. Smash the garlic cloves
and mix in the tamarind water. Add the ginger and mix well together. Put
the fish in a bowl and add the chilli, turmeric, and yogurt. Set aside
for 30 minutes. Heat the mustard oil. Put in fenugreek and fry until
brown. Add the contents of the bowl, salt, and the coriander leave.
Simmer gently for at least 10 minutes. Now add the spiced tamarind water
and the tomatoes. Simmer until the tomatoes are done (about 5 minutes).
Add lemon if necessary and serve with rice.

(use something like a straightened paperclip to put holes into the chilis, 
but do not cut the chilis up. This allows the chili flavor to get into 
the curry and vice versa).

If you don't have mustard oil, use another oil and add some mustard
seeds with the fenugreek.

Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drill done today.

In a repeat, The attitude employed was relaxed enjoyment; the intent in the mind was to take more risks than usual as this was an unscored segment, in the sense that it was unscored in terms of number of 4 KD 5KD 6 KD success runs. I tried to keep up an attempts per hour rate that was the same as in the segments during which I scored 4 - 6 KD 1/2 and 1 point successes.

START 602 pm.

The first ten minutes of action seemed like my best first 10 mins doing this drill ever.

I noted in my notebook:

At this point (less than ten minutes into the start of the practice), despite breaks in the action caused by various delays, it was clear that this segment was my best day on this variant of the E2E3. Lots of long fast 6KD 5KD had already been accomplished by, 613 PM (ten minutes from the start of the practice).

619 PM. At this point, I began to keep a record of my errors.

(took 20 mins to transcribe this 
from the paper notebook)
3 Le R; 3 R Lo; 3 F Le; 3 Lo C Le; 2 Le C; 3 Le F Lo; 3 Le; 
3 Lo; 2 Lo; 3 F; 1 F; 3 Le; 3 Lo Le; 3 Le Lo; 
2 Le Lo C; 2 Le Lo;
2 Le; 3 Le F;
1 Lo F;
6 49 PM At this point there was a run of 5KD, very fast,
very long, Straight after zig zags, tightly controlled, 
featuring sharp angles, 
2 Lo F; 3 R Lo; 2 Le; 
2 Lo Le; 2 Lo Le C;
2 Le; 2 Le; 3 Le F;
1 F; 2 Le; 2 F; 
3 Le; 2 Lo; 3 Lo;
3 Le; 3 C; 3 Le; 
2 Le; 3 Le; 2 F;
2 F; 3 Le; 2 F;
3 Lo;
{ especially before the beginning of the time when I 
started counting mistakes, 
this practice notable for, extra-long, 
extra-fast, + straight, and tightly controlled, 
more touches than 4KD.
2 F; 3 H L Le;
{ fool: assoc w/ crackhead. How then a job?}
2 C; 2 Le; 2 Le' 3 Le C;
2 F; 3 Lo; 2 F; 2 F;
3 C; 3 Lo;
{ the 4 - 6 KD all faster, longer than when the number of such was 
kept count of previous practice.  }
2 R Lo; 2 Lo C; 
3 Lo C; 
3 Lo 1 F; 
sharper cuts than usual.
3 Lo; 2 Le; 3 Le;
on both scored and unscored runs defects noted
curtain a barrier more when taking it easy
4 KD - 10 paces, 5 KD 13 paces 

750 PM end.

The above is the transcript of the notes I took during the soccer practice today.

There were two pages of pen and paper notes in the notebook for this practice of March 21 Sunday night.

Errors were recorded with pen in the notebook during the practice, for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd kicks of the run. R meant the ball was kicked further to the right than it should have been. Le meant the ball was kicked further to the left than it should have been. Lo meant the ball was kicked lower than it should have been. F meant the ball was kicked too far. C meant the ball was kicked too close, not far enough. I wanted to know which errors occurred how often.

The tally:

80% of the error on the first kick, four out of the five errors counted for the first kick, consisted of the ball being kicked too far.

On the second kick, 28 errors were counted; 36% of the error consisted of ball kicked too far to the left, and 25% in ball kicked too far.

On the third kick, 31 errors were counted; 26% of error was ball kicked too far to the left, and 23% of the error consisted in ball kicked too low.

The accounting method used here, a ball kicked 'left and low' is a separate percentage compared to a ball kicked 'left' or a ball kicked 'low'

Therefore a new variant of the drill should for the second kick consist of the ball being kicked especially far to the right while at the same time, the ball's locations is kept close to the body.

On the third kick, a new variant of the drill should consist of the ball being kicked especially far to the right and at the same time especially high.

Thus for example the drill by demanding an especially sharp slant to the right, corrects the weakness which is that the ball is being placed at a point which is further to the left than the target point.

I was thinking about the dream that I described in the March 20; can I get some clues out of it? I can remember in detail the way I was running during the dream, when I was running so inhumanly fast prior to taking off and flying. I was running on the balls of my feet which were almost parallel to the ground when they hit the ground, with my upper body erect, taking long paces, with the toes pointing straight ahead, with the feet staying close to the ground. I was wondering what this style of running signified.

Studying the matter, I found a page that was outstanding compared to the other pages; it was a blog post entitled "Heel vs. Midfoot vs. Forefoot: How do elite runners land?" by Ross Tucker Phd and Jonathan Dugas Phd. The 66 comments on this post were more intelligent than most such comments. I found the page through a google search for distance sprints forefoot heel striker midfoot .

Looks like the style of running that I was engaged in during the dream was most similar to the style used by elite 800 meter runners. Best as I can tell as of now (based mainly on the blog post at sportsscientists.com), the styles used by the 'elite' runners break down as follows:

18.6 miles length race (London): all midfoot/heel except one (comment on Tucker/Dugas post by Oliver); at 3 miles and at 19 miles, at 4:50 mile speed, all midfoot-heel strikers; at 4 min per mile speed, point of contact moves closer to front of foot;

13 mile race at 9 miles: 75% heel-strikers, 24% midfoot

Longer than 1500 meters: first contact with ground outside area of foot, between heel and metatarsal (ball of foot area).

1500 meters: vast majority midfoot/forefoot (comment on Tucker/Dugas post by Magness)

100-200 m: ground contacted by outside edge of sole, high on ball-joint of little toe (comment on Tucker/Dugas post re study by Toni Nett);

400 m: flatter than 100-200 m, contact point further back compared to 100-200 meter run;

800 m: outer edge of sole within metatarsal arch (ball of foot area) is contact point, foot almost flat on outside edge;

Thus it seems the style of running I was using while running so fast in the dream, was an 800 meters style of running. However it should be remembered that: there are various variations of heel-strike or midfoot strike and forefoot strike running; even forefoot strike runners contact the ground with the heel to some extent when running; some heel strike runners hit the ground more heavily with the heel than other heel strike runners; in distances longer than a mile there is variation in the sense that some are heel-strike runners, some mid-foot strike runners and some forefoot-strike runners; which part of the foot hits the ground FIRST may well have been overemphasized by those who have studied the matter; the more important point could be which part of the foot bears the weight of the body.

I have created a graph showing my improvement in the E2E3 L-start Rev #1 drill in practice segments done with normal intent (see entries in this blog from March 7 on). By normal intent I mean I was not trying to sidestep prior to the second or third kick. The graph shows a lightning bolt like pattern with rapid improvement at the beginning, followed by a plateau, followed by more rapid improvement.

How I found trackngraph: through a Google search for online graph tool, I found at result #30 a page at allwebdesignresources.com, which contained a link to trackngraph.com . Seems such searches succeed better when you add the word "tool". Trackngraph.com is the best resource I have found so far for creating graphs out of data. You open a free online account with them, and then you can use the data you upload to the account in various ways (various combinations of lines on the graph, in various different graphs, etc) and update the data.

Re the practice last time out on Sunday March 21, despite the distraction of keeping track of the mistakes made during the practice, the speed and distance of the runs was significantly faster than was the case during previous practices. I was not keeping track of the stats re distances but my guess is that the average distance of the 4KD runs was compared to the previous two practices up 25% to 6.7 meters; the distance of the 5KD runs was up 20% to 8.0 meters; the distance of the 6KD runs was up 15% to 9.3 meters (6KD improvement would have been greater, up to around 10 meters, but the curtain I was running at increasingly became a problem). Some of the 4KD and 5KD runs were up to 9.3 meters at which time I ran into the curtain.

Around March 18, I for approx the first time since late December 2009, did a running workout in which the soccer ball was not used; I did the six mile jog-walk in which the 1st mile is run, the 2nd walked, the 3rd run, the 4th walked, the 5th run, the 6th walked. Tuesday March 23, and Wednesday March 24, I ran a new type of running workout.

The new run is like the six mile jog-walk, except that on the fourth and sixth miles, instead of walking the entire mile, I sprint 10 paces, walk 50 paces, sprint 10 paces, walk 50 paces etc during the mile alternating between walking and sprinting; and the style I sprint in is the style described as used in the dream reported in the Saturday March 20 entry this page. For now I name this new variation the 6 Mile Jog-Walk Variation #1 (6JW v1).

Tuesday March 23, the 6JW V1 was done going around the block. On miles 4 and 6, often I would walk for more than the prescribed 50 paces before doing a 10 pace sprint, because the slants on the imperfect sidewalk were such that I feared twisting my ankle while sprinting.

Wednesday March 24, I ran the 6JW V1 at the outdoors track in the evening. This time I walked almost exactly 50 paces between each 10 pace sprint.

I was thrilled by the majesty of my running style in the dream I reported in the Saturday March 20 entry, and I wanted to see if I could reproduce this style in reality. I realized from recent personal experience working with the soccer ball, that even if this dream running style did not become my standard style for sprinting and jogging, it could influence for the better, whatever style does become my standard style for sprinting and jogging. This dream running running style features: torso kept upright, long strides, feet always close to the ground, feet almost parallel to ground just before feet hit ground; balls of feet immediately behind toes only part of foot to bear weight of body during run, toes pointing forward when foot hits ground. For now I name this style Majestic 1.

During the Tuesday evening run, during the 10 pace sprints, I tried to simultaneously implement all the various aspects of Majestic 1: upright torso, body-weight carried by balls of feet; long strides; feet kept low, feet parallel to ground when first hitting ground, toes point forwards when foot hits ground. By the time I was running the 6th mile Wednesday evening, my intent during the ten pace sprints was to be satisfied with implementing only the aspects of Majestic 1 that are easiest to implement: upright torso, long strides, weight carried by balls of feet--the intent being that later when I become more expert I will go on to implementing the more difficult aspects of Majestic 1.

I felt as if I had become wise in that I realized that developing the ability to competently run even 100 meters in the Majestic 1 style, could be an experience that is similar to developing the ability to competently run the E2E3 L-start Rev #1 using the soccer ball.

I felt like, I'm smarter than people because I see how developing competence in Majestic 1 could improve whatever style other than Majestic one might become my style for sprinting and jogging. I'm smarter than people because I see how similarly, in the world of life outside of sports, developing competence in a certain style of doing things could improve whatever style of doing things one eventually puts into effect.

Then while writing this a few hours after the Wednesday evening March 24 workout, I realized what had not so far occurred to me, which is that: aside from the tradition that fitness for soccer players means the ability to run two miles in twelve minutes, the current wisdom in indoor soccer, based on a very scientific assessment of indoor soccer, is that fitness is produced by: lots of small sprints with changes of direction between the sprints; sprints lasting for a minute or so separated from each other by rest of a few seconds.

As of now it seems to me, that health, fitness and sports performance are not just mechanical, but also have emotional, psychological, and spiritual components. Along this line, running a mile alternating 10 paces of sprinting in the Majestic 1 style with 50 paces of walking, is an activity which for me is sort of like imitating an angel, and which so therefore might have positive impact via the psychological element.

For me as of now, the miles featuring 10 paces of sprinting alternated with 50 paces of walking, are more tiring than the miles featuring just jogging. Thus I have moved up to a more tiring type of running workout, a workout that involves something at least as hard as jogging for mile 1 and miles 3, 4, 5, and 6.

A few days ago I had what might have been a waking paranormal experience. It was during the night. I was watching TV, there was some kind of pop and the TV and the lights all went out. It was pitch black everywhere. Just a day or so earlier I had been watching videos about demons and ghosts on Youtube, I almost felt scared. I could not find my flashlight, or my keys. I slowly walked towards the completely dark bathroom. As soon as I entered the bathroom, the bathroom filled with a white light for a couple of seconds. The white light seemed to have a friendly spirit in it. Technically speaking, there is no way this white light should have come on, because I have always been keeping the switch that turns the bathroom light on in the off position, because if it is in the on position, the defective bathroom exhaust fan runs producing very loud disturbing noises.

Looks like yet again, there have been several missed workouts due to me feeling under the weather. This time the interval of missed practices was March 25 to April 2, meaning about six missed practices. Seeing that six missed practices could be more important than being slightly smarter re some fine point of technique, seems it behooves me to examine why I keep missing practices due to feeling physically low, and how this can be dealt with.

On Friday March 26, around 8 AM, two days after my most recent workout I wrote (somewhat edited and updated):

"The past 4.5 days (since approx Sunday March 21) have been filled with insomnia. As a result, I did not get to soccer practice due to sleeping too late, or due to feeling too tired to get to soccer practice due to the lack of sleep. I also did not get some other things done.

Since my circadian rhythm had been thrown off yet again, I was sleeping approx 8 AM to 4 PM. Things were normal under this weird schedule until 8 AM Monday March 22, when I did not sleep from 8 AM to 4 PM as usual; I was up 40 hours straight from 4 PM Sunday March 21, to 8 AM Tuesday March 23; this happened after doing the six mile run for the first time in months a couple of days before Sunday March 21. Evenings of Tuesday march 23 and wednesday march 24 I did the six mile run. Then again, I was up 4 PM Wednesday March 24, to 8 AM Friday March 26, 40 straight hours. Thus the situation as of now, 8 AM Friday, is that since 4 PM Sunday whereas normally speaking I would as of now had 32 hours of sleep, I have had only 16.

Seems this insomnia, in part has to do with returning to the six mile run-walk, in which three miles are run, the others walked or sprint-walked. For some reason when I am not used to this, it seems to wake me up to the point of not being able to sleep--though what one would expect, is that the run would make it easier to sleep."

Thus, circumventing the confusion caused by the sleeping during the day, I was like a person sleeping during the normal hours who sleeps saturday night, does not sleep sunday night, sleeps monday and tuesday night, does not sleep wednesday night, sleeps thursday night.

My guess is that the alternating between jogging a mile and walking a mile, teaches the body to rest while continuing to be active, in that the walked miles are a rest that is nevertheless active. When the body learns to rest while being active, the body no longer needs to be asleep to rest. Thus the body finds itself not sleeping for extended periods, when the body is not used to this alternating between jogging and walking exercise.

Seems it would be a big leap forwards for mankind, if I have discovered how to teach the body to rest without sleeping.

Then after the first two of the eight missed days, I felt disappointed. I felt that after going 31 hours without sleep, I should have been able to slide back into the normal routine of sleeping at night and waking during the day. Twice in a row, I had gotten to 31 hours without sleep, with it being around 11 PM, and I still had not been able to get back into the normal routine of falling asleep around 11 PM.

After the two so to speak nights (forgetting about being in the habit of sleeping during the day for the time being) without sleep, and the disappointment of not being able to get on the normal sleep schedule despite skipping sleep, I felt tired. I felt like I wanted sleep regardless of what time of the night or day it came at. I felt like I needed to catch up on sleep. So then there were about six days of me sleeping or lying in bed for long periods during the day, not caring whether or not I missed the open gym time at the Y; and constant rain outdoors precluded outdoors runs, except for on one or two evenings.

The concluding six or so days of the eight days without practice, due to a desire to save some money, all I had to eat and drink was inexpensive Tequila, a curry made out of ground beef and vegetables, rice, coffee, and orange juice. The inexpensive Tequila seemed to keep me awake while at the same time rendering me tired. I think I got sick of eating the same curry every day. The limited diet contributed to the feeling of fatigue.

What were the causes of the fatigue and insomnia that resulted in missed practices?; how can I avoid missed practices due to insomnia and fatigue in the future?.

Possible causes: diet--rice has a relatively high glycemic index, even non-diabetics, can be effected by glycemic index factors; inexpensive tequila, I'm told some individuals are more sensitive to the lower quality of inexpensive liquor; the six-mile run shocking me into wakefulness; constant rain and flooding outdoors; a person I seem to be allergic to leaving repeated messages on my answering machine; me failing to realize that though I feel too tired to practice, fifteen minutes into the practice I will not feel tired and the workout will energize as opposed to fatiguing me.

Possible solutions: avoid eating the same thing all the time; avoid cheap versions of alcoholic drinks; combine a six-mile run alternating between a mile jogged and a mile walked with other forms of exercise so as to insure being able to fall asleep; remember that though I may feel too tired to exercise, I am still able to exercise, a fact which has been documented in that research has shown that those who have not sleep for an unusually long period of time, experience declines in athletic performance which are almost insignificant.

I find that there is a danger of wasting too much time just lying in bed trying to force oneself to sleep at night. Seems a better approach would be to just get out of bed and do something, if unable to sleep, until able to sleep.

March 21 practice, during the drill, I had kept track of the errors I made; afterwards I devised a remedial drill, featuring on the second kick, the ball kept especially close and kicked at an especially sharp angle to the right; and, on the 3rd kick, the ball kicked especially high at an especially sharp angle to the right. I am giving this drill the name E2E3 LK-start reverse #1-CSHS. CS stands for an especially close sharply angled kick on the second kick, and HS stands for an especially high sharply angled kick on the third kick.

(Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Today I put this new drill into practice. Notes I took in the spiral notebook with the pen during the practice:

Lick Right left clarp left  harp.

Pleasure of doing something
new/hard, for which no high
expectations, relaxing

score diffics: angle? closeness? 
height? angle?

score depends on how sharp, how close,
how high you are being

700, Bball jock removes curtain

Practice notes interpreted:

Lick Right left clarp left right harp stands for: kick with left (Lick), step with right (right), step with left (left), kick ball especially close and sharp (clarp), step with left (left), kick ball especially high and sharply angled (harp). I found that reciting "lick right left clarp left right harp" before each run helped me to get done what I intended to be done.

It is relaxing to move on to some new difficult drill that has never been done before, because then doing the new drill one does not have high expectations for one's performance, which is relaxing. This coincides with the idea I've been developing that variety and variation in the drills excels the same drill done all the time type stuff.

There are difficulties with scoring this drill. Whether you give a run a point or not depends on what your standards are for how sharply angled a worthy run should be, and how close or how high kicks should be if they are worthy to the point of the run being given a point.

How high the score is on this drill depends on how sharply you attempt to angle the ball on the kicks, how close you try to keep the ball on the second kick, how high you try to kick it on the third kick. For example, the more sharply you attempt to angle the kicks, the lower will be your score.

Runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled and and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball (at one pace = 0.67 meters, latest estimate):

616 AM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters 

627 5KD 9.4m [insert flag here]
700 basketball jocks enter gym
712 6KD 9.4m [insert flag here]

716 AM end

I did not bother with assessing if a run was 'straight', because the whole point of this was especially sharply angled runs, and who knows where I would end up relative to the start point if the zig zags on the runs are especially sharply angled?

703, 706, 708, 710, there were four runs, all 4KD, all long and fast; three of these were 8 meters in length, the last one was 6.7 meters in length. The length and speed of these runs derived from the ball being kicked especially high on the third kick. All these runs were sharply angled enough to be given one point. If the direction that is the shortest line to the curtain or the wall I was running at is defined as twelve o'clock, these all ended up at around one o'clock on the fourth touch; the angle overall was like 30 degree slant to the right.

Idea for New Type of Run Based on New Dream

During the previous few days I had a dream. This was yet another dream about running with angelic power. In this dream, I ran in the following pattern: normal step with right, normal step with left, angelically powerful inhumanly long step with right, angelically powerful inhumanly long step with left, angelically powerful inhumanly long step with right ; normal step with left, normal step with right; angelically powerful, inhumanly long step with left, angelically powerful, inhumanly long step with right, angelically powerful, inhumanly long step with left; and etc. The 'divinely powerful' steps featured me gliding a superhumanly long distance forwards while maintaining a low altitude.

Based on this pattern I resolve to, when I next do the six mile run walk, on the third and fifth run miles, put this pattern into effect, taking an unusually long pace every third pace.

E2E3 at 30 degree turns

Each green cross is separated from the green crosses directly in front and directly to the side of it by the distance of one pace, defined here as 0.67 meters; Lowest red dot=starting point, 1st kick; next highest red dot=2nd kick, etc; blue line=straight line to wall/curtain barrier; purple line=straight line to fifth touch point; yellow line = straight line to 4th & 5th touch points.

The red line shows the path of my body and the ball during a roughly typical successful E2E3-CSHS L-start Rev #1 done with approx 30 degree turns (the CSHS variant involves the ball kept close on the 2nd kick, and kicked high on the 3rd kick, combined with relatively sharp turns).

The red line starts with the bottom red dot representing the first touch with the left foot kicking the ball to the left a distance of approx 4 walking paces, 2.7 meters. After this 1st kick I step with the right foot and then the left foot.

The 2nd red dot shows the ball kicked with the right foot on a slant to the right covering approx 3 paces or 2 meters. After the 2nd kick I step with the left foot.

The 3rd red dot shows the ball kicked on a slant to the right covering approx 5 paces or 3.4 meters. After the 3rd kick I step with the left foot and then the right foot.

The 4th red dot shows the ball kicked with the left foot on a slant to the left for a distance of 4 paces or 2.7 meters. After the 4th kick, I step with the right foot.

The 5th red dot, shows the ball kicked with the left foot on a slant to the left, a distance of 6 paces or 4 meters. After the 5th kick I step with the right and then with the left.

The 6th red dot, shows the 6th kick of the run with the right foot. All this is done with the ball kept off the ground. If the ball is not kept close enough and not angled sharply enough on kick 2, or if the ball is not kicked high enough and angled sharply enough on kick 3, or if the prescribed number of steps are not taken in between touches on the ball, the run is not given a point in the scoring.

The purple line to the 6th touch, covers a distance of 18 paces or 12 meters at an 18 degree angle, which corresponds to 12:36 on the imaginary clock used of old by fighter pilots assuming 'twelve o'clock, is the direction of the shortest distance to the wall or curtain.

The yellow line to the 5th touch of the ball with the left foot, covers a distance of 13 paces, or 8.6 meters, at a 26 degree angle, corresponding to 12:52, almost one o'clock, on the imaginary clock. The yellow line also shows the path to the 4th touch. To the fourth touch the distance covered is 9 paces, 6 meters, at approx the same angle as the line to the 5th touch.

The blue line is the path covering the shortest distance to the wall or the curtain towards which I proceed during the run.

Introductory info re this CSHS variant of the E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 can be found in the April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Notes I took in the spiral notebook with the pen during the practice (explanation added after practice in parentheses; KD=kicks done during run; p=paces, approx equal to 0.67 meters; F=fast; T=tightly controlled; S=straight accounting for zig zags; L=long; times such as noon, 100, 130 indicate direction when noon is to point on curtain run at that is closest to start point):

Lick Right left clarp left harp.
(April 2 entry, this was mistakenly written as,
lick right left clarp left right harp)

553 start
555 4KD, 8 paces
557 5KD, 5p, very sharp on K3, 180 degree turn
559, 5KD, 10 paces
-1
602, 4KD, 6p, 2:00
604, 4KD, 5p, 3:00
605, 5KD, 8p, 1200, Ft
607 4KD, 7p;, 130
610, 6KD, 7p, 1200
611, 6KD, 14p, 1130
613, 5KD, 12p, noon, TFSL
614, 6KD, 13p, noon, TFSL
618 5KD, 10p, noon TFSL
620 4KD, 5p, 300
-3, 621- break 624
625, 4kd, 8p, 130
627, 4kd, 5p, 300

Clock direction, vs which dir ball kicked
on last touch
(the direction from the start to the last
touch is the clock direction, but this is
different from which direction the ball is
kicked on the last touch)

How standards differ for flag runs
now 12-2 acceptable direction for 4 and 5 
touch runs, 11-1 for 6.
(I have a tradition of listing runs that
go for at least 5 touches and are long
fast straight and tight separately. With
this variant the turns are especially 
sharp, so runs that on the imaginary
clock, that are in the twelve oclock to
two oclock direction are considered
'straight' and acceptable for 5 touch runs, 
and runsthat are dirctionally between eleven 
oclock and one oclock are acceptable for 6
touch runs)

Good tries on K2 and/or K3, several,
630, 9p, 4kd, 130, wall interfered w k5
-3
636, 4kd, 6p, noon
637, 4kd, 7p, noon,
640, 4kd, 11p, noon
643, 4kd, 13p, noon, LFST
advantages of predetermined fake decision,
exceeds advantage of last sec decision
sometimes w predeterm, the opponent will be
in wrong place.
(when you make up your mind from the beginning
which direction you will fake and which direction
you will go, there are certain advantages which
outweigh the advantage in making up your mind at 
the last fraction of a second which direction you
will fake and which direction you will go)
646, 5kd, noon, LFST
650, 5kd, noon, 12p, LFST
652, 4kd, 230, 10p, LFST, wall ended run
-1
start this seg 6 paces from wall on right
(The distance between the start point and 
the point on the wall to the right closest 
to the start point was 6 paces this segment)
655, 5kd, LFST, 11 paces
attitude becoming relaxed, pleasure + zealous
energetic attentive
657 4kd 7p, noon
658 5kd 8p noon FT
659 6kd 13p 1230 LFST

Runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled, and directionally proper, and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated footwork and kicks pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball (at one pace = 0.67 meters, latest estimate):

553 AM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters 

613 5kd 8.0m [insert flag here]
614 6kd 8.7m [insert flag here]
618 5kd 6.7m [insert flag here]
646 5kd ???m [insert flag here]
650 5kd 8.0m [insert flag here]
655 5kd 7.3m [insert flag here]
659 6kd 8.7m [insert flag here]

700 AM end

Restarting My Old Tradition of Consuming a Nutrients Cocktail

Had a tough day yesterday monday April 5:

Woke up at 2 am monday April 5, did some internet browsing; from 708 am to 1008 am, cleaned up apartment. Then started cooking hot dogs, talking real chicago style, hot dogs boiled, tomatoes, onions, relish, mustard, pickles, celery salt, no ketchup, per info in msn.com article. Then realized I had no bread. Alas, the organic multigrain bread had gone bad, green mold, as it was left out of the fridge, even though, I had been very careful when withdrawing slices of bread from it the loaf in the bag. So I suddenly discovered no bread for the hot dogs. I rushed off to hannaford with everything half done and picked up some whole wheat or something hot dog buns. Came back, had the hot dogs. Then tried to get the nutrients cocktail in to the body. This was easier than previously a week ago, because I took all the nauseating ingredients, cod liver oil and brewers yeast, mixed them with the carrot juice, drank the nauseating concoction, and washed down the nauseating concoction with pure orange juice. Then I mopped up by at ease consuming the remaining pills oils and juices, none of which were nauseating. This nutrients concoction of pills oils and juices, is like a meal in and of itself. It made me feel sleepy. 2 PM 12 hours after rising/waking, I had to lie down in bed. I needed 2 - 2.5 hours lying down to recover from the twelve hours awake doing stuff. By then it was too late to get to the Y for the open gym and the soccer practice. So about 6 PM I fell asleep till midnight. The day, monday april 5, scared me in that it showed how little you can get done in a day even without taking time out for fun, how tiring a day can be even though little gets done, how expensive loaves of organic bread go bad easily, how the nutrients cocktail can make me feel sleepy.

Key point in the above description of the tough day: finally I consumed what I call the 'nutrients cocktail'. Looking back on my records, I had noticed, that when I was consuming the 'nutrients cocktail' at least about four times a week--I was missing less practices, doing tougher practices, missing less practices due to stuff like colds and flu.

When I was weightlifting I had noted, that my weightlifting performance was, best I can recall, at least ten percent better when I consumed the nutrients cocktail prior to a workout.

So I resolved to return to the nutrients cocktail consumption. Problem was that I had by not consuming the nutrients cocktail for a few months, become less able to handle the consumption of it. First time I had it in months, about a week ago, it was like a big huge meal, and the components of it that I find to be nauseating (cod liver oil, brewers yeast), were even more nauseating than they had been in the past, and I got tired and fell asleep after eating it and did not exercise after eating it.

Then again yesterday April 5 I consumed the nutrients cocktail, this time it was not as nauseating and not as uncomfortably filling as the time about a week ago, but I still lay down in bed and then fell asleep after consuming it. Today I did not consume it before practice but I had consumed it approx 18 hours before the practice started at 553 AM. The nutrients cocktail consists of:

Cod liver oil
Wheat Germ oil
Hemp oil
Bolthouse 50/50 Passion Fruit Juice Blend
Orange juice
Brewers yeast
mineral pills
potassium pills
Vit B pill, 
Vit A/D pill,
Vit E pill, 
Vit C pill
Other pills sometimes included
Whatever I've forgotten to list here if anything

How I rendered this concoction more palatable: I isolated the most nauseating ingredients, the brewers yeast and the cod liver oil, and mixed them with the Bolthouse 50/50 juice. I washed down gulps of this with orange juice which contained no nauseating ingredients. Then after this was done, all the remaining ingredients not yet consumed were not nauseating.

I improved the palatibility by minimizing the quantity of non-nauseating ingredients mixed with nauseating ingredients. When lots of non-nauseating ingredients are mixed with nauseating ingredients, the total amount in milliliters or milligrams that is so to speak polluted with nauseating ingredients is greater. Thus the body is subjected to more nausea and feels more filled, and one ends up avoiding the consumption of the nutrients cocktail in the first place, if one is not wise re the mixing of the nauseating and the non-nauseating ingredients.

Could be that the body can handle the nauseating ingredients better when they are consumed before the non-nauseating ingredients are consumed.

Introductory info re this CSHS variant of the E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 can be found in the April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Notes I took in the spiral notebook with the pen during the practice (explanations added after practice in parentheses; KD=kicks done during run; p=paces, approx equal to 0.67 meters; F=fast; T=tightly controlled; S=straight accounting for zig zags; L=long; times such as noon, 100, 130 indicate direction when noon is to point on curtain run at that is closest to start point):

(13 mins to record 
transcript of notebook notes)

339 start
344, 6kd, 1230, 8p
345, 6kd, 1130, 14p LFST
346, 6kd, noon, 11p
348, 5kd, 1230, 11p LFST
350, 4kd, 100, 8p FT
351, 5kd, noon, 6p facing at 6 oclock on 4th kick, 
(on the 4th kick I was facing the exact opposite
of the direction I was facing at the start. 
This due to sharp angles on 2nd and 3rd kicks.
But I did well in that on the 4th kick I 
reversed direction and made the 5th kick while 
adhering to the prescribed footwork pattern.
On 5th kick I was facing direction I faced
at the start again)
354, 5kd, 1130, 13p LFST
356, 4kd 330 4p
356, 6kd, 1230, 13p LFST
358, 4kd, 430, 4p
401 4kd, 140, 7p
402, 6kd, noon, 12p LFST
404, 4kd, 130, 7p
406, 4kd, 1230, 6p
406, 6kd, noon, 13p LFST
407, 4kd, noon, 12p LFST
409, 5kd, noon, 12p LFST
413, 5kd, noon, 10p LFST
-these do not need to be as fast
 to extreme angles, to be awarded a flag-
(in these notes I report the best runs
as so called flag runs. With this CSHS
variant, the turns are exaggeratedly sharp,
so the overall speed does not need to 
be as high to be a flag run)
414, 5kd, noon, 10p LFST
k2 angle + k3 angle total = judgement
(judgement on whether the turns are
sharp enough to be scored as a success,
is based on a total of the sharpness
of the turns on the 2nd and 3rd kicks.
In practice the turn on the second kick
is expected to be sharper than that on
the 3rd kick at this time)
416 6kd, noon, 14p LFST
curtains are blocking at 14p, 6kd
(I am running into the curtain 14 paces from
the start right after the 6th touch on the ball)
420 5kd, noon, 10p LFST
speed after 4th touch what counts 
w this CSHS variant, these runs 
do not need to be as fast 
(With this variant featuring sharp turns
on kicks 2 and 3, the run is counted as
fast if it is fast starting with the 
4th touch on the ball)
422, 6kd, 1230, 14p LFST
423, 4kd, 100, 8p, FT
424, 4kd, noon, 10p FT
426, 4kd, noon, 10p, FT
428, 4kd, noon, 9p, FT
430, 4kd, noon, 10p, FT
431, 4kd, 130, 7p
433, 5kd, noon, 11p, LFST
434, 6kd, 1230, 11p, LST
436, 6kd, noon, 7p, ST
438,5kd, 1130, 8p, ST
439 END

Runs that were long, fast, tightly controlled, and directionally proper, and featured five or more touches on the ball, with the mandated footwork and kicks pattern correctly adhered up to the last touch on the ball (at one pace = 0.67 meters, latest estimate):

339 PM start
Time; Touches; Length in meters 

345 6kd 5.4m [insert flag here]
348 5kd 7.4m [insert flag here]
354 5kd 8.7m [insert flag here]
356 6kd 8.7m [insert flag here]
402 6kd 8.0m [insert flag here]
406 6kd 8.7m [insert flag here]
409 5kd 8.0m [insert flag here]
414 5kd 6.7m [insert flag here]
416 6kd 9.4m [insert flag here]
420 5kd 6.7m [insert flag here]
422 6kd 9.4m [insert flag here]
433 5kd 7.4m [insert flag here]

439 end

I had some doubts regarding whether I should stay at the gym and do a third segment. I decided to skip a third segment of the day. Why?: seems just as one can deceive oneself into thinking one is too tired to exercise, one can during and immediately after exercise deceive oneself into doing more than one should; excess exercise when not ready for it could disturb sleep pattern; excess exercise prematurely, could result in not enough of non exercise stuff getting done.

Seems it might be a good idea, to realistically understand what the proper technique is for a sharp turn with the ball kept close on the second kick, based on note taking, with stats based on the notes. But during the practice this seemed to be too much to be bothered with.

Introductory info re this CSHS variant of the E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 can be found in the April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Today I decided to pay close attention to HOW I do the second kick of the E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 CSHS variant. I realized that even after doing this kick well dozens of times, I still did not mentally and consciously understand what proper technique on this kick is. Everything was still sort of intuitive and instinctive. Thus on every run on every kick, I did not have a clear idea of what techniques work and what techniques do not work.

Thus, today, after the second kick of the run, I ended the run; if the 2nd kick was acceptably done, I wrote down in my notebook the methodology used on the second kick and gave the kick a rating of between 1 and 5, 5 being excellent and 1 being poor but acceptable. If I allowed the run to continue for more than two kicks, I found it hard to remember the quality of the second kick and the exact methodology used.

This is the first time I have carefully taken such notes rating a specific kick and recording the method used on it. Hard to believe I have not done this kind of rating and observation before. Leads me to wonder, why I have I failed to rate and observe like this previously? An understanding of such could perhaps be applicable to important endeavours outside the world of sport.

Ending a run after the second kick: is not glamorous; does not result in an energetic workout; reduced the post-workout feeling of well being; forces the mind to be attentively observant regarding failure and mediocrity in one's performance.

But I estimate the most important psychological cause of failing to carefully engage in this kind of careful observation rating and note-taking is this: Most people are capable of this kind of observation and note taking. Persons like myself attended prestigious private high schools and colleges and achieved superior scores on standard exams. We feel bored when we utilize methods that most persons are capable of utilizing. We like to utilize methods that we are capable of but that the majority of persons are not. Thus we tend to lean too much on real or imagined qualities we think we possess but that the majority does not possess, such as talent, skill, spirit, mystic ability, intuition, instinct.

During the first hour of practice today, I did the E2E3 L-start Rev #1 CSHS Variant; for every 2nd kick that was at least minimally acceptable in quality I gave it a score and recorded the method or style of the kick.

The second kick when at least minimally acceptable in quality, was given a rating between 1, lowest, and 5, excellent. The average rating given the second kick was: 105 points/35 kicks=3.0. Body slant (average score of kicks featuring body slant=4.3), right foot extended (average score of kicks featuring right foot extended=4.0), moving body swivel (average score of kicks featuring moving body swivel=3.8), and foot tilt right (average score of kicks featuring foot tilt right=3.6) as of now, seem to produce significantly above average results. The foot flick is characteristic of most runs seems I cannot do without it.

Body slant means my body slants to the right during the kick. Right foot extended means my right foot is stretched out in front of me during the kick. Moving body swivel means my whole body swivels to the right while my body is moving forwards during the kick. Foot tilt right means the outside of the right kicking foot is vertically lower than the inside of the foot when the foot strikes the ball.

The web page containing the table containing the scores and observations for the second kick of the runs is entitled E2E3 L-Start Rev #1 CSHS Variant, 2nd Kick Observations

The second hour today, I kept a record showing what the source of error was, every time the second kick of the run was unacceptable. Today April 7, April 7, I recorded 33 total failures. The leading causes of failure were: Ball contacts foot at point too close to toe (21%); insufficient total sideways force in body + sideways force too dependent on sideways movement of leg (24%); foot flick sends ball too much in reverse (15%); and ball contacts foot at point too close to outside of foot (9%). These errors on April 7 accounted for 69% of the total error.

One of the most important things discovered today, was that swinging the leg sideways as it hits the ball, can deliver a glancing blow to the bottom of the ball, the result being the ball does not go in the direction the foot is swinging as intended, but instead the ball goes straight ahead.

The web page containing the table containing the scores and observations for the second kick of the runs is entitled E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 CSHS Variant 2nd Kick Errors .

The third hour today, I kept a record showing what the source of error was, every time the third kick of the run was unacceptable. Today April 7, April 7, I recorded 24 total failures on the third kick. The leading causes of failure were: Ball contacts foot at point too close to front/outside of foot (17+8=25%); insufficient total sideways force in body/force too dependent on sideways movement of leg (17+13=30%). These errors on April 7 accounted for 55% of the total error on the third kick.

The third hour I found that on the third kick, as with the second kick of the run also, swinging the leg sideways as it hits the ball, tends to deliver a glancing blow to the bottom of the ball, the counterintuitive result being the ball does not go in the direction the foot is swinging as intended, but instead the ball goes straight ahead.

The web page containing the table containing the scores and observations for the third kick of the runs is entitled E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 CSHS Variant 3rd Kick Errors .

Before practice I consumed the nutrients cocktail described in the April 6 entry.

Patrick Ferdinand told me he got the email about eyes closed long distance basketball shooting that I sent to the big time college coach Izzo and cc'd to Patrick.

Introductory info re this CSHS variant of the E2E3 L-start Reverse #1 can be found in the April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology are at E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Today, after the third kick of the run, I ended the run; if the 3rd kick was acceptably done, I wrote down in my notebook the methodology used on the 3rd kick and gave the kick a rating of between 1 and 5, 5 being excellent and 1 being poor but acceptable. If I allowed the run to continue for more than four kicks, I found it hard to remember the quality of the third kick and the exact methodology used.

The third kick when at least minimally acceptable in quality, was given a rating between 1, lowest, and 5, excellent. The average rating given the third kick today, was: 126 points/32 kicks=3.9. Strong foot flick (average score of 2 kicks featuring strong foot flick=5.0), Foot slant (average score of 21 kicks featuring foot slant=4.3), body slant (average score of 14 kicks featuring body slant = 4.3), and right foot extended forwards (average score of 14 kicks featuring right foot extended forwards = 4.2), as of now, seem to produce significantly above average results.

Body slant means my body slants to the right during the kick. Right foot extended means my right foot is stretched out in front of me during the kick. Foot tilt right means the foot is slanted relative to the slant of the body when foot strikes the ball (I suspect the foot was slanted on every success, and that the times when it was noted as a technique used were the times when the foot slant was especially noticeable and memorable).

The web page containing the table containing the scores and observations for the third kick of the runs is entitled E2E3 L-Start Rev #1 CSHS Variant, 3rd Kick Observations

One of the most important things I noticed today: when the leg is swinging from left to right, if it hits the ball on the right side of the ball, the ball will go left, though the motion of the leg makes it seem the ball will go right. This could come in handy when it comes to feints. Drills practicing this feint could get overcomplicated; true sophistication I think, would lie in getting to the optimum ratio in terms of improvement in art of such feints relative to amount of drill time and energy invested.

Yesterday the second and third hours and today also, the positive effects of having done the observation of technique emphasis drills has been evident, even though so far I have made little conscious effort in terms of implementing specific techniques based on observation. So far, I have come to realize that good results can be attained a multitude of different ways and this knowledge I suppose has relaxed me.

Prior to practice today, I did not consume the nutrients cocktail. I had two hot dogs with tomatoes onion hots etc that I made, a piece of 'Bismarck' pastry, fruit juice, coffee, a home-made milkshake made from organic half n half and cane sugar. After this meal, reading an internet web page while the air conditioner made a sleep inducing droning noise, resulted in me feeling very tired and sleepy; I almost took a nap instead of going to soccer practice. Turning off the computer and the air conditioner somewhat re-energized me and woke me up. As I expected, when I started the practice, I no longer felt too tired to practice.

The E2E3 L-start Reverse #1, is the drill that is designed to give me the skills that I lack; me mastering this drill is like a military unit trying to conquer a hill. The CSHS variant of this drill, designed to eliminate weaknesses in the performance of the original version, is like a hill on a hill, which is also being besieged. Starting yesterday and today I felt confident that both the hill and the hill on the hill will fall, will be taken and conquered. Beyond the frequency of runs attaining to a minimal standard, yesterday and today I noticed that during the runs I was able to place the ball more accurately than has been the case in the past.

When the hill and the hill on the hill both fall, then skill-wise (aside from endurance and the natural need for scrimmage practice), I will be in a position to be the world's best player--because both hills represent very difficult drills focused on me using my right foot even though I am left footed; and because, both drills have been carefully constructed so as to eliminate weaknesses and produce very powerful skills.

In the April 2 entry this page, I described a dream in which I ran using the following pattern: two slow low exertion steps; three long fast high exertion steps; repeat. The pattern is: slow: LR; fast: LRL; slow: RL; fast: RLR; repeat. Today, during the first and last quarter-miles of the run miles, I ran using this 2-3 pattern. Today I ran a mile, walked a mile, ran a mile, walked a mile; ended at 432 PM. It was raining during most of the run.

Wunderground record of weather this afternoon: Temp 53 Fahrenheit; rainfall rate 0 - 0.07 inches per hour . The wunderground scale goes up to 0.25 inches per hour. So the rainfall was about a quarter of max. It certainly felt significant.

I wore green plastic rainjacket, sweatshirt, long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt, sleeveless t-shirt, underpants, shorts, shiny plastic type sweatpants. By the time I had finished the first three quarters of the first mile which is a run mile, this was too hot for me. After the first run mile I removed the sweatshirt, and this was about the right amount of clothing given the intensity of the exercise and the weather.

The first mile, which was a run mile, was very tiring, due to the alternation between two slower and shorter paces and three longer and faster paces. The third mile, also a run mile and also done with the two slow pace three fast pace alternation, for some reason was not as tiring as the first mile.

During the run I was remembering how according to the discussion at the intelligent website, in reality: it is not either ball of foot or midfoot, rather, there are various combinations such as mostly ball of foot or mostly midfoot; even when the ball of the foot bears most of the body weight, the heel still strikes the ground.

I found this to be useful in that previously I had given up on running on the ball of the foot because I thought that running on the ball of foot meant all the weight of the body born by the ball of the foot and only the ball of the foot touching the ground, a feat that was too much for me.

However realizing that the ball of foot style, also called a forefoot style, need not be extreme ball of foot style, I learned today to shift more of the weight of the body on to the ball of the foot during the three long fast paces. This was one reason the three fast paces to some extent resembled the angelic style I ran in in dreams described in previous entries this page.

At least today my toes were sort of stretching forward during the three paces, a characteristic of the angelic style of running I found myself practicing in the dreams.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

The activities of today, including a score table, are described at Scores on E2E3 L-start reverse #1 drill First Kick Observations Table. Key quote from this page:

"...I should aim for a 4 pace length on the first kick... it seems that in order to achieve competence on a first kick kicked a four pace length...one should be cognizant of the following points: the ball can be kicked to an apex height of between the upper shin (creating a fast run between the first and second kicks) and the chest (creating a slow run between the first and second kicks); the best result in terms of placement, would be an apex height of about knee-high, which would produce a medium speed on the run between the first kick and the second kick".

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Past few days I have gathered info re what techniques produce the best results on the first, second, and third kicks of the E2E3 Reverse #1 Pattern. Today I made a first attempt at implementing techniques based on these observations into the actual performance of the pattern.

I started out at 6:06 PM, focused on kicking the ball four paces at an arc whose apex is knee height on the first kick, so as to be able to kick it again on the kick 2 without the ball touching the ground. I found that these knee high four pace kicks produced fast runs between kicks 1 and 2, whereas yesterday I had found that these produced medium speed between kicks 1 and 2.

Then I began attempting the following pattern: Lick (kick with left), R (step with right), L (step with left), Clarp (kick ball to a close nearby point at a sharp angle to the right), Lot (take a short step with left foot), Harp (kick ball high at sharp angle to the right). For about ten minutes I was unable to succeed in doing this even though one would think it to be easy, in that the only deviation from a usual run was the short-step coded 'lot'. By 6:31 PM I had succeeded with 'Lick RL clarp lot harp' seven times.

Next segment, the pattern followed was: Clarp (kick ball with right foot at sharp angle keeping it close on kick 2), Lean (lean to right on step with left foot), Harp (kick ball at sharp angle to right and high on third kick with right foot). By 6:48 PM I had succeeded with this variant 9 times.

The first and second segments I noticed certain problems. Prior to each run and then also during each run, I recited the formulas describing the runs, 'lick rl clarp lot harp', and 'lick rl clarp lean harp'. I found that reciting the formula verbally while doing the run, slowed the run down, because the fastest the formula can be verbally recited, is not fast enough to keep up with events during a fast run. So I abandoned reciting the 'Lick RL' denoting the first kick and then the steps with the right and left feet prior to the second kick, and just recited 'clarp lot harp', starting with the second kick denoted as clarp. And I changed to reciting the formula in my mind, which can be done faster compared to reciting it verbally.

At this point I noted that: there are limits to the number of pre-programmed instructions that can be carried out on these runs which feature six different actions all happening in approx one second; so far implementation of the new techniques has produced not always what is intended in terms of ball movement, but the results have been strange, new, bright; the clarp (denoting kick 2), lean (denoting step with left foot while leaning to right), harp (denoting high kick sharply angled to right on kick 3) combination, results in a very sharply angled kick on kick three, meaning a sharp turn on kick three.

Next segment, the pattern was: 'Lick (kick with left foot), R (step with right), Lean (lean to right while stepping with left foot), Clarp (kick ball with right foot on kick two sharply to right keeping it close), L (step with left foot), harp (kick ball sharply to right with right foot on kick three while kicking it high). By 6:58 PM I had succeeded with this variant seven times. I noted this variant also produces sharp turns.

Next segment the variant was: 'Lick (kick ball with left on kick 1), R (step with right), Lean (lean to right while stepping with left), clarp (kick ball with right foot sharply to right keeping it close on second kick), lean (lean to right while stepping with left foot), harp (kick ball sharply to right with right foot, kicking it high). By 7:11 PM I had succeeded with this variant seven times. I recorded the angle I ended up facing on kick 3 (today this was the same angle the ball went on kick 3 almost every time) on all seven of these runs. On average on kick 3, I ended up facing to 3 O'Clock on the directional dial, even though I started out moving towards Eleven O'Clock. That means that kick 2 and kick 3 combined to produce a 120 degree change of direction!

Next segment the variant was: 'Lick (kick with left foot) R ( step with right) Lean (lean to right while stepping with left foot), Clarp (kick ball sharply to right with right foot while keeping ball close), Lot (take a short step with left foot), Harp (kick ball sharply to right with right foot sending ball high)'. By 7:27 PM I had succeeded with this variant seven times. Three of these seven times I ended up facing to 3 O'Clock on the third kick, sending the ball in the 3 O'Clock direction on the third kick. Again, 120 degree turns.

Next segment the variant was: 'Lick R L Clarp Lon Harp'. 'Lon' here is a combination of 'Lot', for short step with left foot, and 'Lean', for lean to the right while stepping with left foot. Meaning that on the step coded as 'Lon', I short-stepped and also leaned to the right. By 7:42 PM I had succeeded with this variant seven times. One of these times, starting out traveling in the eleven oclock direction on kick one, I ended up traveling in the 5:30 O'Clock direction on kick three, a turn of 195 degrees on three kicks! The average turn on these runs was about 120 degrees.

These sharp tightly controlled turns of 120 degrees and more that I made today on three kicks (all with the ball close to the body never touching the ground), once seemed impossible to me; even after I had attained to a high level of skill in this kind of thing, such seemed impossible.

The tactical implications of this tightly controlled 120 degree turn are huge. This means I can start out with my back to the opposing goal, retreat at a slant, wheel around, and find myself flying at the opposing goal, all with the ball off the ground, close to the body.

The advantage of being able to start with the my back facing the defenders and my face facing my own team, are obvious. The fact I can retreat and then circle around and attack, puts the defense in a quandary. If he lets me retreat and does not follow me, the defender sets himself to be victimized. If he follows me on the retreat, again he sets himself to be victimized perhaps even worse, being caught lunging forward towards me at the time when I change from retreat to attack.

Today especially towards the end: the ball was tightly controlled up to kick three; kick three was under good enough control to produce an accurate pass or shot, even if it was not controlled enough to continue so to speak flying with the ball.

I learned today that: trying to combine incorporation of improved new technique with an emphasis on going long distances for many kicks at the proper angles without letting the ball touch the ground, does not work, because in the pressure to succeed in terms of long distances using many kicks, the new improved techniques are forgotten; either I implement the new techniques on every run or I end up not implementing them at all as things are happening to fast to make last split second decisions as to whether the new improved technique shall be implemented; the way to incorporate the new improved techniques into the actual performance is to implement them on every run until one achieves high levels of success on such runs; the implementation of the new techniques must take priority over success in the sense of long fast impressive runs featuring lots of touches of the ball; then one will have two styles the natural style and the improved technique style; the improved technique style will influence and change the natural style.

Next variant up: Lick R Lean Clarp Lon Harp.

Note: today I was willing to give a run that is supposed to end with a 'harp' kick a rating as a success even if the third 'harp' kick was fairly defective.

The past few log entries have been complex, time consuming and tiring. I am beginning to feel pressured for time. Cooking curries for curry afficionados takes time and energy; it can take two hours to buy all the ingredients and another two hours to cook the curry. Today the 99 minute practice and the writing up the log entry afterwards took me almost four hours, 3 hours and 52 minutes.

But there is something to be said for the idea that continual diligent application and practice of observation, analysis and record keeping, result in improvement in the art of observation analysis and record keeping, and in superior performance.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today).

Past few days I have gathered info re what techniques produce the best results on the first, second, and third kicks of the E2E3 Reverse #1 Pattern. Today like yesterday, I again attempted to implement techniques based on these observations during the actual performance of the pattern.

I started out at 3:00 PM, the first pattern I did was clarp lon harp (previous log entry explains such details). By 3:13 PM I had succeeded seven times.

Next pattern I tried was: 'Lick (kick with left), R (step with right), Lean (step with left while leaning right), Clarp (kick ball sharply to right keeping it close), Lon (take a short-step or halt-step with left foot while leaning to my right), Harp (kick ball with right foot kicking it high)'. I first succeeded with this after 8 minutes of failure, at 3:21 PM. From 3:13 to 4:47, for a total of 83 minutes not counting breaks, I continued with 'Lick R Lean CLarp Lon Harp' attempts.

After 83 minutes I had succeeded 24 times to the point of 4KD, meaning to the fourth kick of the run, without the ball touching the ground, with footwork pattern correct, and slants closeness and highness of kicks at least approx correct. 5KD is like 4KD except going on to a fifth touch, I had four 5KD successes. Thus in total there was a success of at least 4KD 0.34 times per minute.

On average with the 4KD runs By the time of the 4th kick I had made a 40 degree turn compared to the direction I was facing on the first kick, and at the 4th touch I was 6 meters from the start point. On average with the 5KD runs, by the time of the 5th kick I had made a 40 degree turn compared to the direction I was facing on the first kick, and at the 5th kick I was 6.7 meters from the start point. The 4th kick, in this pattern, the ball is kicked with the left foot on a slant left.

Yesterday when I started implementing one-syllable commands symbolized and mentally spoken in the mind during runs, I did not think it would be possible to be able to so quickly implement so many commands during one run. The lean command means I have to lean to my right when stepping with my left prior to the second kick of the run with the right foot. The Lon command means that after the second kick of the run with my right foot, I have to take a short step or half step with my left foot, while leaning to my right, prior to kicking the ball with my right foot. Clarp means on the kick number two, I have to keep the ball close and turn sharply. Harp means on kick number three I have to turn sharply and kick the ball high. Thus this new form of the run, features three new embellishments: lean on the step before kick two; lean on step after kick two; half-step on kick after kick two.

The short step with the left foot, naturally sets up lean to the right on the next motion of the body the kick with the right foot on kick three; this short-step also naturally sets up leg extension on the subsequent kick with the right foot. The Lon before the third kick of the run which is coded as 'harp', naturally sets up a high kick on kick three with the right foot. The sidestep of old has become the short-step of today.

Today many of the 4KDs were long and fast between kick three and kick four, due to the high arch of the kick on kick three.

The curtain was only 10 paces from the start point today so several runs that could have been 5KDs were just 4KDs because of curtain obstruction.

I was not finicky about angles today in terms of determining whether a run was a success or not. Not being a stickler for sharp angles or high kicks or close kicks etc, allows for emphasis on technique as opposed to result. Nevertheless most of the runs scored as successes were correct in terms of angle, and closeness or highness of ball.

Overall I surprised myself by making such rapid progress in the art of doing the pattern, while at the same time remembering to execute the lean to the right before the kick two, and the short-step combined with lean to the right after the kick two. Using this new form of executing the pattern, I'm still clumsy compared to how I was using the original natural form without the leans and the short-step consciously included. The mind's focus on the leans and the shortstep distracts the mind from focusing on simply accomplishing a quality run.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

Pattern done: 'Lick (kick with left), R (step with right), Lean (step with left while leaning right), Clarp (kick ball sharply to right keeping it close), Lon (take a short-step or halt-step with left foot while leaning to right), Harp (kick ball with right foot kicking it high)'.

The first 4KD success (four kicks done according to pattern with ball kept off ground) was at 4:13 PM. 4:53 PM, I achieved my first 6KD success, the 6th kick was at the twelve o'clock noon direction, 12 paces or eight meters from the start point. The run was long fast and tightly controlled.

Looking at what might have been yesterday, if runs had not been interrupted by closeness to the curtain--today was still significantly better. Though I was not keeping score today, I could tell that the total of 4KD 5KD and 6KDs per hour, and the 5KDs and 6KDs per hour, was greater today compared to yesterday.

I got to the point today where the 'Lick R lean clarp lon harp' style I was using today, became a natural graceful style that produced speed, long distance per kicks.

Today I realized that amazingly for a few years, and on hundreds of practices days, I had continually ignored figuring out and settling on optimum technique for the first kick of the run. I suppose this egregious omission was due to the lack of glamor on the first kick. Today I decided that the best style on this first kick is ball flipped up to a minimal height, and then maximum use of the force of the body moving forwards on the first kick. Then I implemented this style for the first success and found success.

At 5:10 PM, I achieved a long fast 5KD run.

The last run of the day at approx 5:23 PM, was long fast and tight, ending with no turn in angle relative to the direction I was going on the first kick; this run continued for 17 paces about 12 meters until I got too close to the Y staff that was setting something up for some kids, and stopped the run. The three Y staff certainly saw this run.

At the end of the practice I felt great, and this feeling great made me feel depressed. I felt as if I was progressing very fast in skill, what with this rapid improvement in this new style featuring leans and short step. I could see the impending sunrise of my skill over the horizon. I could see how I was now skilled to the point where my eyes almost never followed the ball to the point of contact with the foot (my eyes look straight ahead and do not see the ball prior to the kick). I could see how though my left foot (I am left-footed) is not practiced so much these days, I have brilliant skill with my left. I could see how the success with the new style of doing the run, was inevitably going to at least very significantly improve my performance on the run and my overall performance. I could see how with the newly gained proficiency in flicking the airborne ball to my right with my right foot and to my left with my left foot, I would now be able to so to speak fly with the ball, farther,faster, with the ball more tightly controlled, with less so to speak flights crashing.

I felt like I was at a stage in my life where I was showing intellectual, tactical and strategic brilliance in terms of figuring out what kind of drills should be done. I felt youthful, powerful, fast, graceful, bouncy, energetic. Feeling on top of the world in so many ways made me feel depressed in that I felt as if: Here I am, manifesting natural graceful style, speed, long runs, great skill, great improvement, and high cunning in terms of tactics and strategy, and my dad who it is very difficult to get a compliment out of, is telling me what a great conversationalist I am, and at the same time as all this great stuff is happening, I'm in danger of the economic or financial rug being pulled out from under my feet at any moment.

Last night I felt so energized by this mango lassi drink I made (mango pulp straight from the mango, lots of pistachios, yogurt, milk, water, sugar, kewra water) that I stayed up all night working at the computer on this soccer log and on a poem about the local college, Boston College, winning the NCAA ice hockey championship. Seems this yogurt smoothie thing with cultural roots in India energized me to the point where I was quite surprised to find that I was working at the computer at 6:00 AM having stayed up all night, as I did not feel tired or sleepy. The poem about the ice hockey is at: http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2010/04/ice-hockey-poem-commemoration-of-2010.html. This mango yogurt smoothie tastes as if it came straight out of the kitchen of a fabulously rich Mughal ruler of India of bygone days. I found it in my computer. Seems that long ago I averaged the ingredients in several different recipes for this mango smoothie called 'lassi', and that the recipe I used is the average. The recipe:

1 c water
1 c milk
4 c yogurt
1 c sugar + to taste
3 c mango
2 c mango pulp
1 tspn kewra water
3-16 oz pistachios
1 c ice added last 

My guess is that mysterious catalytic properties of nutrients found in pistachios interact with the other ingredients in this mango smoothie 'lassi' recipe, increasing the usability of the ingredients for the body. One could expect rich persons living in very hot climates, employing lots of highly intelligent cooks, to become expert in the art of producing invigorating beverages.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

We have been living in an abstract world, in which I run the E2E3 reverse pattern, keeping the ball under control while kicking it a few times while zig zagging while keeping the ball off the ground. However the fact is that on any touch of the ball during this pattern, I could in the real world in a game, pass the ball away or shoot it.

The world out there finds it easier to relate to such passes and shots, compared to the magical high speed zig zag with the ball kept under control but off the ground. The players of the world like to be on the receiving end of passes which set them up for fun and glory of their very own. The world is used to being impressed by long hard shots, long high passes. The word is used to full size fields and goals. The world is used to thinking in terms of yards and meters (a meter is a tenth longer than a yard).

So I wanted to experiment with regards to finding out what is the natural tendency of how the ball travels, if on the first or second or third touch of the E2E3 Reverse Pattern, I kick the ball away with maximum force, instead of keeping it close to continue so to speak flying with it as I run in some direction, keeping the ball off the ground but close to my body.

So today I measured the results experimenting with kicking the ball away instead of continuing to keep it close, at various points during the E2E3 results run. The results are posted at Ball Kicked Away at Various Points in the E2E3 Pattern Results Table.

My aim was to get ten recordable results in which the ball did not hit the ceiling, with a kick-away replacing the first kick, then the second kick, then the third kick of the E2E3 reverse run.

I found that when the first kick (a left footed kick with the middle or inside of the foot), after I flip the ball up, is replaced with a maximum force kickaway: the ball usually traveled approx 20 meters before bouncing; the apex of the arc of the ball during flight was on average approx 3.5 meters or 12 feet; the number of balls kicked to the left of the intended straight ahead direction were equal to the number of balls kicked to the right of the intended straight ahead direction; on average the actual direction of the ball diverged horizontally from the intended direction of the ball by 16 degrees.

I found that when the 2nd kick of the E2E3 pattern, an outside of the right foot kick, (this kick comes after I have flipped the ball up, kicked it, and taken 2 paces) is replaced with a maximum force kickaway with the outside of the right foot: the ball about 1/2 of the time travels approx 20 meters before bouncing; about 1/2 of the time, the ball travels more than 20 meters before bouncing but the ball hitting the wall at 20 meters makes it difficult to say how far this would be; the apex of the arc of the ball during flight is on average approx 3.0 meters or 10 feet; the number of balls kicked to the left of the intended straight ahead direction were equal to the number of balls kicked to the right of the intended straight ahead direction; on average the actual direction of the ball diverged horizontally from the intended direction of the ball by 13 degrees; the majority of the balls kicked low so as to bounce 20 meters from the start point, swerved about 3 feet (like a curveball) away from the path they would have followed in straight line trajectory; the majority of the swerves were in a left to right direction with the ball spinning in a left to right direction (closer to my left hand as I face the moving ball, being the left direction).

Regarding how much farther these balls that hit the wall before bouncing would have gone, if there was no wall: the majority of these balls hit the wall with great force and velocity. On average they hit the wall at a vertical elevation of 4.0 meters, 13 feet. Off the bat I estimate (unscientific guess) that if there had been no wall in the way, these balls would still be above ground and traveling fast, at least 30 meters from the start point. The kick point on these kicks which replaced the second touch of the run, was approx 2.7 meters from the start point.

Regarding the replacement of the third touch of the E2E3 reverse run with the ball being kicked away instead, I ran out of time and was only able to record five such kicks. In the E2E3, I kick the ball, run two paces, kick it again with the right to my right, run a pace, and kick it again to my right with the right (the third touch) at the beginning.

I found that when the third kick--an outside of the right foot kick--of the E2E3 reverse pattern (this kick comes after I have flipped the ball up, kicked it, and taken two paces, kicked it again on a slant, and taken a step) is replaced with a maximum force kickaway with the outside of the right foot:

The ball about half the time travels approx 18 meters before bouncing; about half the time, the ball travels more than 20 meters before bouncing but the ball hitting the wall at 20 meters makes it difficult to say how far this would be; the apex of the arc of the ball during flight is on average approx 2.6 meters; the number of balls kicked to the left of the intended straight ahead direction were equal to the number of balls kicked to the right of the intended straight ahead direction; on average the actual direction of the ball diverged horizontally from the intended direction of the ball by 17 degrees; one of the two balls that hit the far wall hard without first bouncing, swerved about 2 feet like a curveball, away from the path it would have followed in straight line trajectory; the swerve on this ball, was in a left to right direction with the ball spinning in a left to right direction (closer to my left hand as I face the moving ball being defined as the left direction).

Regarding how much farther these kicked balls which replaced the third kick of the run, and that hit the wall before bouncing would have gone if there was no wall standing in the way: these balls hit the wall very hard, and they hit the wall, 21 meters from the start point, at an average height of 3.3 meters or 11 feet. My first estimate is that if there had been no wall in the way, these balls would still be above ground and traveling fast, at least 30 meters from the start point. The kick point on these kicks which replaced the third touch of the run, was approx 4.0 meters from the start point.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

Today I measured the results experimenting with kicking the ball away on the 3rd kick of the E2E3 reverse run, instead of continuing to keep it close. The results are posted at Ball Kicked Away at Various Points in the E2E3 Pattern Results Table.

The main story today was that the third touch of the E2E3 L-start reverse, on which the ball is usually kicked with the right foot on a slant to the right to continue the air-dribble run with the ball kept off the ground but close to the body, was replaced with a shot with the right foot. Today I moved across the width of the gym instead of across the length of the gym (advantage: quicker less energy consuming ball recovery, less chance of others getting in the way).

I kept close track of what happened on about 25 of these 3rd touch shots. Twenty or 80% of these shots traveled 13 meters and then hit the wall without bouncing. Most of the remainder hit the wall on one bounce, the ball bouncing on average 9 meters from the run start point and then hitting the wall at 13 meters. The shots that hit the wall before bouncing (about twenty of them), on average hit the wall 13 meters from the run start point, at an average height of 7 feet above the ground; the apex height of these shots was on average just one tenth of a foot above the height at which they hit the wall--these shots that hit the wall without bouncing were like line drives.

Three of the shots hit the 3 foot wide, 6 foot high target. On average, the shots missed the target by 7 degrees (for example, if the target was twelve o'clock on the imaginary clock and the shot hit the eleven o'clock marker on the imaginary clock this would count as a miss of 30 degrees).

Three shots swerved to the left, the average swerve on these was two feet, the spin on these was left to right (right being the side closer to my right arm when I am facing the ball as it moves away from me). Four shots swerved to the right; the spin on these was left to right except for one that hit the wall very hard that had little spin on it.

Re this spin, I suspect that as the ball nears the wall, this increases the wind resistance as the air being pushed away by the ball hits the wall and bounces back at the ball, and I suspect that this increases the swerve of the ball. However yesterday there were a few balls that swerved without getting near the wall, these swerved at the last instant before hitting the ground.

Today during the practice I noted that: blasting the ball reduces accuracy but I like to just blast away to discover blast power, and what angle is natural when blasting the ball; I was aiming but exulting in powerful kicks at the same time; I was letting it rip, which reduces accuracy; due to getting about 4 meters closer to the target through the first two kicks of the run-up, the ball hit the wall about 4 meters closer to me at the point of the shot compared to the distance to the start point; the kick performance is effected by the speed of the preliminary run.

I was surprised at the small average error of seven degrees, the ball missing the target directionally by only seven degrees from the start point perspective (seven degrees from left edge of start point for misses to left, and from right edge of three foot wide start point on misses to right). This is surprisingly accurate, seeing that I flipping the ball up, kicking it on a slant right, and then blasting it all without the ball touching the ground.

Before the run a tall dark 'Spanish' man with something that looked like a vacuum cleaner was in the gym talking to Jose who is the daily maintenance guy. I've never seen this tall guy, guess he's not at the Y full time like Jose. He smiled at me and said, 'you're a star'. Jose who is short never called me a star. But Jose's toddler son has a movie star quality smile and he often smiles at me.

I wrote a program which you can use, to make such calculations:

For example, using this online program A, you can see that given an average miss of 7 degrees, I would when aiming for the center of a soccer goal 8 yards wide from 33 yards or 30 meters away from the goal, miss the goal by being horizontally directionally astray, about half the time; because half the time I would miss horizontally by more than 4 yards, and half the time I would miss horizontally by less than 4 yards. This because the average miss of 7 degrees produces a ball missing the center of the goal by 4 yards, when shot from a distance of 33 yards or 30 meters, and about half the shots miss more than the average of 7 degrees, and half less (I understand the difference between average and median). In the top box just put 7 in the first input, 33 in the second, click 'click here', and you will see that being 7 degrees off produces a miss of 4.05 yards from the aimed at center of the goal.

Some reasons I could'nt resist writing this program: it shows how much better one understands mathematical concepts such as tangent, when they are presented via javascript, as compared to trying to understand 'teachers' who seem driven by an unconscious desire to intellectually obfuscate and emasculate; it shows how much better understanding through javascript is compared to weird, dead, mathematical flamboyant-italic-script-type mathematical formulas, which in HTML pages on the internet, are in strange fonts that are difficult to write and read, and regarding which there is a lack of consensus re what means what; it shows how much easier it is to build enhancements on mathematical formulae when javascript is used, as compared to mathematical notation.

For example I could easily add an output showing what percentage of the time a ball could be expected to miss the goal, given a certain angle and distance from the goal, or given the distance from the goal and the average distance by which the target in the center of the goal is missed; I could add an output showing what percentage of the time various parts of the goal would be hit if I aimed for the middle of the goal, given input such as average angle of miss, and distance from goal, or distance from goal and average distance of miss.

Trigonometric Tables were useful in building this program in that they allowed for easy checking of program accuracy. Unbelievable how hard such tables are to find on the internet. The trig table was found through Google search for degrees radians table.

E2E3 Reverse K4 Shot

Each green cross is separated from the green crosses directly in front and directly to the side of it by the distance of one pace, defined here as 0.67 meters; Lowest red dot=starting point, 1st kick; target is approx 13.5 meters from start point. Red line is air-dribble path, blue line shot path.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

Today I measured the results experimenting with kicking the ball away on the 4th kick of the E2E3 reverse run, instead of continuing to keep it close. The results are posted at Practice Results for Drill Featuring Ball Shot Away on 4th Kick of E2E3 Reverse Pattern .

First thing I did from 5:25 PM to 5:50 PM, is experiment with shooting the ball hard on the fourth kick, without aiming at any specific point, to determine what the natural target point is when I shoot the ball on the fourth touch of the E2E3 Reverse. I found that the natural target point is what I established the target point to be as illustrated in the diagram. Thus the natural target point seems to be slant left about 25 degrees relative to my body motion on the final slant before kicking the ball.

Twenty-three (23) shots were taken on the fourth touch as shown in the diagram, with results carefully recorded, from 6:09 PM to 7:45 PM. More than 90 percent of these reached the wall where the target was situated, without bouncing. On average, from the start point perspective the shots that hit the wall without bouncing, were directionally off in a horizontal sense, by only 4.8 degrees. The last nine shots on average were off in terms of horizontal direction by only 1.7 degrees. This was basically my first day doing this shooting off on the fourth kick.

Calculator A in the April 16 entry this page, produces data showing that if I aim for the center of the 8-yard-wide goal, and miss by an average of 1.7 degrees (and the median is approx equal the average), I will be on target in terms of being horizontally within the goal-posts about 100% OF THE TIME FROM 67 YARDS.

Stunning news. I could execute the run and the shot described in the adjacent diagram, and count on being on target in the sense of being horizontally within the goalposts 100% of the time, if I was missing my target by an average of 1.7 degrees, so long as I restricted myself to shooting from less than 67 yards or 60 meters away from the goal.

Seems tools like the April 16 calculator can produce stunning insights that we would be ignorant of relying on our instinct and intuition alone. I estimate that the shot on the fourth kick of the E2E3 Reverse air-dribble run I practiced today, to have an effective range of 35 meters or 40 yards. Looks like I could take this shot from 40 yards and count on it being on target close to 100% of the time in the horizontal sense.

Vertically speaking the average shot today hit the wall at a height of 1.9 meters, about six feet, about two yards. For a goalie diving sideways a ball six feet high is tough to handle--the further sideways he tries to extend his body, the lower his body will be.

I started out today when doing the experiments to determine the natural shot angle, showing great consistency in being able to do the run up to kick four without the flight so to speak crashing. Then the pressure of aiming at a target reduced this consistency, as did a tendency to want to speed up the preliminary air-dribble run, as did forgetting to aim for a specific apex arc height on kick one. Lots of kids and boys and young men with their children running around probably also reduced the performance on the air-dribble runs that preceded the shots.

The kicks today were hard curving line drives again, the apex height almost always the same as the height at which the ball hit the wall.

At the end of the practice a big-headed big-faced black high school age boy, who had been playing basketball next to me, looked in my direction with his head hanging down and gravely and soberly said to his friend (re me) 'he's not missing'. I was too involved in the practice to notice but my review of the practice notes shows that the old-boy slash young man was right: The last ten shots the average miss in terms of angle, was just 1.6 degrees, with SEVEN hits on target.

Yet I was so mentally concentrated on doing the runs and shots, and on taking good notes re what happened, that I had not even noticed what great stats I was putting up on the last ten shots of the practice. Seems had I not taken notes in the notebook during the practice and then reviewed them afterwards, I would have woken up tommorrow not even realizing that I had scored great stats on the last ten shots, humbly remembering the last ten shots as just a little above average.

E2E3 Reverse K5 Shot Natural Angle

Each green cross is separated from the green crosses directly in front and directly to the side of it by the distance of one pace, defined here as 0.67 meters; Lowest red circle=starting point, 1st kick; top red circle= point directly straight across gym, 12.7 meters from start point. Red line is air-dribble path, completed without ball touching ground between K1 the first kick and K5 the fifth kick on which the ball is shot. Blue line shows median path between start and ball impact; green line shows average path between start and ball impact. Each black dot represents a ball impact after a shot on the fifth kick of the run (in reality the balls shown in a line one above the other all hit at the spot shown by the top black dot in the line). The yellow area is the range of angle. The ball was shot in the direction that seems most natural without aiming. The red line shows the intended angles and distances of the pattern, these angles and distances were in actual practice diverged from.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

Today from 6:10 PM to 7:45 PM, I did the E2E3 Reverse Air Dribble Run, shooting the ball away on the fifth touch as opposed to continuing the run on the fifth touch. I was able to do the run up to the fifth touch and shoot it away on the fifth touch 17 times. I shot the ball without aiming, in the direction that seemed most natural. I wanted to know what the natural angle of shot was relative to the start point. The diagram entitled "E2E3 Reverse K5 Shot Natural Angle" in today's log entry graphically describes the drill and its results today.

The so to speak 'flight pattern' I followed today: At K1 I rolled the ball up, kicked it in the direction of K2, stepped with my right, stepped with my left, and then kicked it with my right at K2 in the direction of K3; after K2 I stepped with my left and then at K3 kicked it in the direction of K4 with my right foot; then I stepped with my left, stepped with my right, and then at K4 kicked it in the direction of K5 with my left foot; then I stepped with my right, and shot the ball with my left foot at K5. All this was done without the ball touching the ground between K1 and K5.

Today I did not throw out results simply because the angles on the turns prior to the shot were not quite right--I was looking for realistic results showing what actually happens in reality. I found that the natural target point is 2.5 paces to the left of the point straight across the gym 19 paces away from the start point. That would be a slant left of 7.5 degrees relative to the start point, or a tangent of 0.13. This is the target position that I will aim at in the next drill when I will aim for a specific target when shooting off on the fifth kick, and record how much this specific target is missed by.

The main determining factor in terms of where the ball was shot, was the direction of the air-dribble run prior to the shot.

The shots ended up being taken with many different parts of the left foot: the inside, outside and top of the forefoot; the inside, outside and top of the midfoot; and, the inside and center of the toe area.

Hard to believe, but the pattern involves a 26 foot length curving air-dribble before the shot. 26 feet is the distance from the floor to the ceiling of the gym, which looks a long way. For various reasons such as visual perspective and things happening so fast, it does not seem like I fly a curving path with the ball for 26 feet before shooting the distance seems flown with the ball before the shot seems much shorter.

Today they left the stuff from a birthday party which was supposed to have ended at 5:30 PM out on the gym floor until 7:00 PM, I moved alot of it myself which ate up time and energy. I estimate that not counting this activity today in 80 minutes I managed to fly with the ball up to the fifth kick and shoot it on the fifth kick 17 times. I thought I did a good job getting up to the 5th kick. But checking the practice record, looks like I've gotten up to the fifth kick more often per minute previously. I Guess factors such as crowding in the gym, shooting the ball away and then recovering it, the wall or curtain stopping the ball being further away from the start point, taking detailed observations and notes re the shots, having to keep moving to get out of people's way, kept the number of successes per minute down. I was approaching each run with energy, attention, zeal.

There have been lots of East Asian dads and their kids around lately. Seems they are beginning to appreciate I am some kind of star. One of these dads today fetched stray balls for me even though he had his son to attend to, and his son started imitating me with a Y soccer ball he found.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in the immediately previous April 18 entry this page, but I did not keep track of exactly where the shots ended up, and tried to keep the shots from going too far sideways.

For about the first 43 minutes, there were 15 runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a kick-away on kick 5, and about 8 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 15 + 4 = 19 pts for runs with more than four touches in 43 minutes, 0.44 per minute, pretty good for my first day in a long time outdoors on the playground. 0.44 per minute is equal to my second best score ever in terms of number of runs getting up to at least five touches per minute.

From about 8:00 PM to 8:35 PM, there were only 4 runs that adhered to pattern up to the fifth touch with a kickaway on the 5th touch. Statistically this meant, down to only 0.11 per minute of runs of at least five touches. The cause was that around 8:00 PM, it began to get dark quickly. The playground lights did not go on.

The dropoff in performance started at about "civil twilight" time.

After civil twilight time, though there were few runs that adhered to pattern up to five touches, the runs were impressive, fast runs with the ball kept low and close. The darkness reduces the pressure I feel to succeed lots of times per hour, which relaxed me, and resulted in interesting runs with the ball touched only three or four times.

Today prior to each run the 'mantra' I recited that described what I was going to do during the run was: 'lick (first kick with left foot), one (step with right) two (step step with left); rick (kick with right foot) one (step with left); rick (kick with right foot), one (step with left), two (step with right); lick (kick with left foot) one (step with right) lick (shot with left foot). The words outside of parentheses are part of the 'mantra'; the words in parentheses describe what the words outside of parentheses mean. All this is done with the ball kept off the ground and close to the body, as I move forwards about 9 meters in a curving pattern and then shoot the ball on the fifth touch.

I reduced the amount of info crammed into the so to speak 'pre-flight' 'mantra' because I felt as if I had reduced mental capacity due to: being outdoors for the first time in a long time; the pressure of being watched by the'Spanish boys' at the playground (about forty of them). I, a left-footed person, was doing something very difficult with my right foot playing the dominant role in the drill, but the boys did not know I was left-footed working on my right foot skills, and this was a little disconcerting.

Fact is, what I was doing is much more difficult than a right-handed person throwing a baseball accurately with his left hand. Because were I, a left-footed person, to do what I was doing with my left foot, it would be more difficult than me a left-handed person throwing a baseball accurately with my left hand.

My first shot today at the playground, taken after a four touch curving air-dribble 'flying' run, sailed over the fence and a little 'Spanish boy' retrieved it and dutifully returned it and I thanked him for that. About four 'Spanish boys' sort of formed a square around me and kicked the ball to each other while I was doing the drill--I guess this gave them the chance to watch me while they practiced.

Jose who works at the Waltham Y had told me I should get outdoors and practice. Outdoors I get watched alot more because of all the 'Spanish boys'. 'Spanish boys' know soccer, they are interested in it, they watch attentively, and there are lots of them. And then there are all the people walking and driving by, and all the restaurants near the playground. Seems I have some kind of mystic impact on my environment outdoors that is missing when I practice indoors.

Before the practice I felt too tired to do a soccer workout but as usual this tired feeling was an illusion.

During the soccer practice the temperature fell from 68 degrees fahrenheit to 60 degrees. Shorts, sleeveless t-shirt, and t-shirt, were right for this temperature.

In the April 2 entry I described a dream I had in which I was running with superhuman angelic power in a certain pattern (at first the pattern run in was incorrectly described in the April 2 entry but this has been corrected). Then April 9 during a four-mile jog-walk (alternating between a mile run and a mile walked) I during the run miles, ran four quarter miles using this pattern. Today again I ran four quarter-miles in the 'angelic' pattern.

This pattern is: two relatively slow low exertion steps; three long fast high exertion steps; repeat. The pattern is: slower shorter steps: LR; faster longer steps: LRL; slower shorter steps: RL; faster longer steps: RLR; repeat.

In the six mile jog-walk, the first mile is run, the second walked, the third run, the fourth walked, the fifth run, the sixth walked. Today, during the first and last quarter-miles of the third mile which is run, and the fifth mile which is run, I ran using this 2-3 'angelic' pattern.

My take on this 'angelic' style of running that I got out of a dream I had is this: the 'angelic' style of running has the advantage of preparing me for the future when due to practice, I will be stronger and have more endurance. The three long steps get me used to the kind of style of running I will be using when I become more strong and fit. The problem with the normal style of running is that one runs in a style that fits one's current level of conditioning, which is a style which will have become outmoded by the time one becomes stronger and fitter.

During the run the temperature was about 50 degrees fahrenheit. Shorts, sleeveless t-shirt, t-shirt, long-sleeved t-shirt, sweatshirt with hood, light rain-jacket with hood, and gloves were right for this temperature.

The 'angelic' pattern is: two relatively slow low exertion steps; three long fast high exertion steps; repeat. The pattern is: slower shorter steps: LR; faster longer steps: LRL; slower shorter steps: RL; faster longer steps: RLR; repeat.

In the six mile jog-walk, the first mile is run, the second walked, the third run, the fourth walked, the fifth run, the sixth walked. Today, during the first and last quarter-miles of the third mile which is run, and the fifth mile which is run, I ran using this 2-3 'angelic' pattern. Thus today was a repeat of yesterday.

Aside from the quarter miles that came after the quarter miles run in the angelic style, the six mile run today was far as I can remember maybe the fastest for me. I attribute this to the quarter-miles run in the 'angelic' style. This style lengthens out my paces and quickens my pace rate. As a result of having run in the 'angelic' style, as my fitness level improves, I am used to a running style that corresponds to an improved level of fitness, as opposed to being used to an outmoded running style that is appropriate for a lesser level of fitness.

During the run the temperature gradually declined from 65 to 60 degrees fahrenheit. Windspeed was negligible but there were regular 'gusts' of wind of about 8 mph. Shorts, sleeveless t-shirt, t-shirt, long-sleeved t-shirt, was appropriate for this weather, except for the last walked mile. The last walked mile I added a sweatshirt and a fisherman's hat.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and diagram April 18 entry this page, but I did not keep track of exactly where the shots ended up, and tried to keep the shots from going too far sideways.

Over 47 minutes not including breaks, there were 19 runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a kick-away on kick 5, and about 10 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 19 + 5 = 24 pts for runs with more than four touches in 47 minutes, 0.51 per minute. 0.51 per minute is better than my best score ever (see March 18 entry this page) for runs at least five touches per minute. This despite it drizzling and being windy outside.

The scoring as with the previous time out on the Gilmore playground, did not require any minimum angle of turn on a kick, so long as there was a turn in the proper direction on the kick.

I still feel frustrated over the possibility that those seeing me out on the playground fail to realize the difficulty of what I am doing. As you can see in the diagram April 18 of this page, on the second and third kicks of the drill I kick the ball on an angle to the right with my right foot. This is difficult for me because: I am left footed; angling to the right when kicking with the right foot is more difficult than angling to the left when kicking with the right foot.

I give myself a point on this drill if the footwork and the slants are all correct up to kick five and there is a fifth kick on the ball. If I have doubt as to whether the slants were correct I give myself a half a point. Today it became noticeable, how for me now on this drill there exists a trade-off between playing conservatively, going short distances slowly, so as to achieve a high score, and letting loose and going a long way fast but not getting as high a score. Previously due to less control over the ball during the drill, this choice was not apparent.

Touches 2 and 3 on this drill feature the ball kicked with the outside of the right foot, and touch 4 features the ball kicked with the outside of the left foot. In preceding entries I establishrd how such kicks by creating sideways spin cause the ball to swerve. Some links re balls spun and swerved by being kicked with the outside of the foot:

Drill and pattern were the same as described in previous entry.

When I looked at my watch in the darkness before starting, I saw and remembered an impossible time given when I ended according to my car clock which was correct. Then during the practice I made a point of not checking my watch. Thus I am not sure if it went on from 8:36 PM for 120 minutes or from 9:36 PM for 60 minutes.

The plympton elementary school has this baseball diamond with a high fence on one side. In times past the ground in this area was grassy and very bumpy. Today I noticed that the entire baseball diamond area was sandy and much smoother than in the past, though still bumpy. I felt it would be wise to practice at night in the darkness on slightly bumpy ground. The sun had already set, the diamond was slightly lit by the streetlights in the vicinity.

I succeeded in going the route up to and including a fifth touch only five times. A couple of times I got to a fifth touch but I was not sure if the angles were correct. About four times, I got to the fourth touch but not to the fifth.

It was difficult because the ground though not as bumpy as it used to be, was still bumpy. This made especially the initial roll-back, flip-up, and kick difficult. I suspect it might be a good idea to buy a cheap small doormat type thing and take it with me to use for the first kick, placing foot and ball on the doormat.

This time the darkness led not to footloose unconservative fast long runs, but rather to conservative, slow, short runs. I suspect because the bumpiness of the sand is more difficult than the relatively smooth if not perfectly flat playground concrete.

I remembered how I'd read somewhere, that walking on uneven ground is good for lower back problems. I remembered how the somewhat random nature of movements in soccer ball juggling, was the factor I estimated to be responsible in how soccer ball juggling cured me of my lower back problem. I hypothesized that possibly the uneven ground at the baseball diamond would be good for my feet, which have been hurting after soccer practice and had been hurting after jogging.

The slightly dusty air in the vicinity of the dust I was practicing on, seemed to somewhat fatigue me. As a child I was found to be allergic to trees, housedust, and grass.

At 10:35 PM today, I had been awake for approx 9 hours but had not eaten anything all day since waking, not even a cup of coffee with cream and sucanat (today I skipped all caffeine); I became very hungry, the practice had to end. I was just too hungry, and too tired from hunger to continue. This was the first time in a long time I felt so hungry.

During the night I had been unable to sleep due to the heat, despite opening the door to my bedroom that connects to the porch, and opening the windows. Then I remembered that on msn.com, I had read that things like fans make one feel cooler, because the air surrounding one's body is set in motion. So I cranked up the air-purifier in my room full blast. This accomplished what opening the door and the window could not and made me feel cooler so I was finally able to fall asleep.

It was dissapointing to be suddenly hit by debilitating hunger, whereas just two days previously, Tuesday, I had done 83 minutes of soccer drill and then the six mile run which went on for another 2.5 hours. Perhaps I underestimate how tiring an hour of soccer drill is compared to an hour of alternating between a mile run and a mile walked. Tuesday I had probably had around 24 ounces of coffee with cream and sugar by the time I finished with the six mile run-walk. Today by the time I sort of collapsed from hunger at 10:35 PM, I had had nothing, not even coffee all day.

The conventional wisdom amongst health-buffs seems to be that coffee cream and sugar is nutritionally worthless, that is provides an immediate rush of energy that is more than compensated for by subsequent fatigue. However the people not so deeply into healthy eating seem to believe that coffee cream and sugar can be useful. The Dunkin Donuts coffee shop logo is 'America Runs on Dunkin'. People drink lots of sugar caffeinated soda pop. Maybe the water in the coffee serves to delay the time at which one feels overcome with hunger. Maybe the sugar and the cream do this also. In college I knew of energetic, successful students who consumed alot of sugary soda pop.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and diagram April 18 entry this page, but I did not keep track of exactly where the shots ended up, and tried to keep the shots from going too far sideways. In brief, I kick the ball to my left with my left, then kick it to my right with my right, then kick it to my right with my right again, then kick it to my left with my left, and then shoot it, all done without the ball touching the ground with the ball being kept close to the body with me traveling forwards 6.0 to 11.4 meters (range today) in between the first touch and the shot on the fifth touch.

Over 64 minutes not including 7 minutes in breaks, there were 18 full-point one point runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a shot on kick 5, and 3 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 18 + 1.5 = 19.5 pts for runs with more than four touches in 64 minutes, 0.30 per minute for runs reaching the fifth touch with a shot on the fifth touch.

By way of contrast, yesterday the estimated score (I was not keeping score in the notebook yesterday like I did today) was 0.51 per minute, which was much better than the 0.30 per minute rate of today.

Today I made a point of not looking at my watch during the workout (a reason performance was off today?). Today it seemed that the first 20 minutes featured a total loss of skill with just one or two successes the entire time.

During these hellish 20 minutes (and also for the entire workout), before I started each run, I looked at the cones I had set out marking out the turns and kicks during the run, and in my head recited the following verbal formula denoting what I was supposed to do during the run: 'Lick (kick ball with left foot) two (take two steps) rick (kick ball with right foot) one (take a step) rick (kick ball with right foot) two (take two steps) lick (kick ball with left foot) one (take a step) lick (kick ball with left foot)'. Mentally reciting this formula coincided with a high score yesterday, but today the mental recitation of the formula was not producing good results.

Possible reasons for poor performance during first 20 minutes today: not paying close attention during the first and second kicks; after-effects of having trained on the playground baseball diamond sand yesterday.

Perhaps despite mentally reciting the formula before each run, I today failed to do what common sense dictates should be done when things are going badly, which is focus on high quality during the first and second kicks of the run. Things tend to take care of themselves if the first and second kicks are done well. Yet one tends to ignore so-called easy steps in the process when things are going badly, and incorrectly focus on more difficult steps in the process, or incorrectly focus on nothing except the overall big picture instead.

The runs on the uneven sand yesterday, I found to be very difficult, having been able to succeed only five times up to the fifth touch of the run, while on the sand. While attempting runs on the uneven sand, in a situation featuring a very low rate of success per attempt, I began to develop certain habits of technique which apparently infected my technique today for the first 20 minutes on the playground concrete, producing poor performance. As of now it appears that these habits of technique tend to produce slow, very tightly controlled runs that cover a short distance relative to the number of times the ball is touched. Apparently these techniques might be helpful for increasing the success rate in difficult low success rate environments such as uneven sand--but they can be in certain ways harmful when it comes to success rate on easier higher success environments such as outdoors playground basketball court concrete.

The aftereffects of a practice on uneven sand are noteworthy in the wide context of all the different surfaces soccer is played on locally and in the world and all the different styles of play these surfaces produce.

The outdoors grass soccer fields in my local area, are all even more bumpy than the playground sand I practiced on yesterday in terms of altitude and width of the little hills that produce the bumps. And unlike the sand they have long grass.

The air-dribble 'flying' runs I did today, are perhaps almost impossible on the typical outdoors bumpy grass fields in the area I live-- the main problem being that the bumpiness produces imbalance and inaccuracy on the crucial first kick of the run, during which my right foot is firmly planted on the uneven ground during the roll-back, the flip-up, and the first kick.

I can as of now expect attempts to practice the skills practiced in todays drill, when on these bumpy grass fields, to produce a slow, very tightly controlled, short distance traveled per times ball touched style. I should perhaps calmly tolerate the problem that an aftereffect of practice on uneven ground is a few minutes of impaired performance when one changes over to even ground such as a basketball court.

But my feet felt comfortable and bouncy today, perhaps this was a positive after-effect of the practice on sand of yesterday.

Today amongst the Spanish boys, there was this white guy who looked different from the typical Spanish boy. I don't know his name, I'll call him Barbarossa. He had brown, what some call reddish-brown hair and a beard. His hair was wavy and thick but did not fall below his shoulders to the point of looking feminine. His brown beard was a couple of inches thick. He was about six feet one inches in height I guess. His shiny matching sweatshirt and sweatpants were dark blue with white stripes. He reminded me of some carefree offspring of some rich feudal landowner family of the middle ages.

Barbarossa impressed me, because even though I was having a horrible day, he patiently kept watching me until he saw me make some great plays. Even after I had fallen short of what I was attempting to do five attempts in a row, Barbarossa would still be watching me on the sixth attempt and he would see me make a great play. Barbarossa was like that. His patience and his attention span impressed me.

For the second day in a row, my sports workouts were cut short because I became very hungry, and felt as if I could not continue with more exercise without eating a significant amount of food first. Today I became very hungry about 7.5 hours after waking up, having consumed nothing since waking up. Today was my second day in a row without caffeine.

One thing's for sure, as of now, on attempts in which I do not succeed in getting to the fifth touch and shooting, the ball is not being wildly being kicked away, but is kept under control even on the failed attempts.

In the world of nicotine gum there was a significant event today. I used to use Walgreens nicotine gum. It had a mildly peppery flavor. Then at Walgreens boxes labeled the same as the boxes that had the mildly peppery gum began to contain a sweet sugary gum. A box that had the same numerical scanner label as a box that had mildly peppery gum would sometimes and sometimes not have sweet sugary gum. And the sweet sugary gum I found did not agree with me.

I worried about the health effect of this sweet sugary flavoring; there is plenty of evidence indicating that such flavorings can be harmful. I could find no unflavored gum anywhere. Every gum I looked at boasted some flamboyant flavor. On a lark I drove to the 'Target' store and bought their 'up&up' brand nicotine gum. This gum said that it was flavored, but surprise! it tasted just like the mildly peppery gum that Walgreens used to have (Walgreens labeled their mildly peppery gum as 'flavored' also).

So I got lucky and found mildly peppery gum just like Walgreens used to have, at Target. Usually I don't have such luck. As of now I am convinced that much less flavoring if any, is used in the mildly peppery tasting gum, compared to the sweet sugary flavors, and as of now I believe the mildly peppery gum is healthier. I suspect that the mildly peppery gum may not actually be signicantly flavored at all, in that the producers may just be saying their gum is flavored so as to impress the public. Seems that the public is childish, obsessed with flavorings, and that the producers know this. It does seem to be the case, that often superior products disappear from the grocery store shelves because nobody wants to buy them.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and diagram April 18 entry this page, however again today I did not keep track of exactly where the shots ended up. In brief, I kick the ball to my left with my left, then kick it to my right with my right, then kick it to my right with my right again, then kick it to my left with my left, and then shoot it with my left foot, all done without the ball touching the ground with the ball being kept close to the body with me traveling forwards 6.0 to 12.7 meters (range today) in between the first touch and the shot on the fifth touch, at a typically faster than jogging type speed. An exact footwork pattern is adhered to.

Over 36 minutes not including 4 minutes in breaks, today Saturday evening, there were 13 full-point one point runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a shot on kick 5, and 4 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 13 + (4/2 =2) = 15.0 pts for runs with more than four touches in 36 minutes-- 0.42 per minute for runs reaching the fifth touch with a shot on the fifth touch.

I could tell I was doing better than yesterday, when I scored 0.30 per minute.

Again each half success and full success was manually noted in the notebook, which takes up time and somewhat reduces the number of attempts.

Today the formula recited before each run was: 'Lick (kick ball with left foot) R (step with right foot) Lean (lean body to right while stepping with left foot) Rick (kick ball with right foot on second kick of run)'. Nothing in the formula recited before each run today, contained any info designed to program me for what happens after the second kick of the run with the right foot.

I find that I can remember what the pattern is for the remainder of the run after the second kick with the right foot, and competently execute the pattern for the remainder of the run, without before starting the run reciting any verbal formula type stuff specifying what should happen after the second kick of the run.

I felt I needed to mentally concentrate on what goes on up to and including the second kick of the run, prior to starting each run. If the second kick of the run is off enough, the run comes to an end in that it is no longer possible to maintain pattern up to the fifth kick.

If the second kick of the run is executed properly, the remainder of the run tends to take care of itself. The third kick with the right after a well placed kick on the second kick of the run--which also uses the right foot--is not as difficult as a well placed kick on the second kick of the run with the right foot.

In terms of the verbal formula recited before each run, the recitation of which alerts me to do certain things during the run, I have to be wise when it comes to choosing what to recite in my mind. There are errors such as: reciting the wrong words focusing on the wrong actions in the routine of the run; using too many words and commands; using too few words and commands; failing to focus on an aspect that should be focused on.

Sometimes, words in the formula recited prior to an attempt end up having no impact on the runs, the net result being a waste of a limited number of commands or reminders that the mind can process during a run. For example, pre-run commands might be specified for the 4th touch of the run, but by the time the 4th touch of the run comes around they are forgotten and so have no effect on the run. The commands are sometimes forgotten because they are preceded by too many other commands re the earlier phases of the run.

Today I knew: that I had been messing up often on the second kick of the run; that leaning in the direction I was slanting while making the second kick of the run was the most important determinant of success; that I had often not been leaning prior to the second kick with the right foot; that I should verbally command myself prior to the run to lean to the right as I made the second kick of the run with the right foot.

Repeatedly I had been 're-enacting' the error of old, namely using leg power alone to slant the ball to the right, the erroneous result being that I would undercut the ball with my foot moving to the right, the ball would start spinning counter-clockwise, but the ball would keep moving forwards instead of slanting to the right.

The past three or so days, I have been surprised at how far I get distance wise relative to the start position, while sort of flying like a jet, by the time I take the shot with the left on the fifth touch,. Several times I've taken what seemed to be just short low-effort steps, little baby steps, and then found myself, on the fifth touch, 8 meters from the start point. Today a few of the runs culminated with me taking a shot at a point approx 12 meters from the start point after a fast aerial flight with the ball.

NOTE: Every run the number of steps taken between each touch, and the feet that are used to take the steps is the same. Runs are not given any points if the number of steps between touches of the ball varies from what is prescribed by the pattern. The first slant left is 3 steps, the second slant right is 2 steps, the third slant right is 3 steps, the fourth slant left is 2 steps. Each of these slants is supposed to get me about 2 meters further away from where I started.

Today again I felt unusually tired at an earlier time relative to exercise start time compared to what is normal for me. Seems the drill I have been doing is more tiring when done at the Peter Gilmore Playground, compared to the YMCA indoors basketball court. Seems this drill at the Gilmore playground is more tiring than the six miles alternating between a mile jogged and a mile walked. Unfortunately society is predictably lagging behind when it comes to the air quality as effected by motor vehicle exhaust emissions. But there are advantages to sometimes practicing at the Gilmore playground.

One aspect of the routine that has been consistently ultra-fighter-jet-like is the 4th and 5th touches or kicks (less civilized sounding) of the run. Often I have raced after the ball at a sprint speed, kicked it on the fourth touch of the run with my left foot on a slant from right (closer to my right arm as I face the ball) to left a distance of around 12-15 feet, stepped with my right foot, and then shot the ball strongly and accurately with the left foot, all while speeding up as opposed to slowing down in terms of overall speed, and all done without the ball touching the ground and while maintaining the proper footwork pattern. To appreciate how air-show-impressive this is, realize that from ground to about the top of the backboard on a basketball court, is around thirteen feet.

The shots at the ends of the run have been horizontally basically where I wanted them, near a point that is the shortest point on the fence relative to the start point of the runs. Vertically today not even one sailed over the fence having to be retrieved. The shots have been like line drives striking the fence at I guess (not having counted) about 8 feet high on average, the height at fence-contact time being about the same as the apex height of the ball, the ball having maintained a constant altitude for a significant amount of time prior to striking the fence.

Balls that have maintained a constant altitude for some time prior to striking the fence, can safely be said to be balls that would not--absent the fence--have sailed uselessly high above the goal. It would be safe to say that such balls were they passes and not shots, would not uselessly sail over the intended recipient's head and out of bounds.

I would say the shots have been impressively, effortlessly, rocket-like, despite having been shot at less than maximum force, due to a concern for the ball having to be retrieved after bouncing a long way or sailing over the fence.

Today during the drill, a white boy, who was unlike most of the boys at the playground not a Spanish boy, and who looked like he was around 14 years old and rode a bicycle, began questioning me re what I was doing. He was accompanied by two younger smaller boys on bikes who appeared to be Spanish boys. I tried to answer his questions. He wanted to know if I played on a soccer team. I thought this boy looked about 14 years of age and slightly resembled Sam Bradford, the NFL draft choice from Oklahoma University.

Bradford incidentally was born and raised in Oklahoma City (population 552,000, metro-area 1.3 million); Bradford was not imported from some state like California Louisiana or Florida far from Oklahoma.

Today was my third day in a row without caffeine, until tonight about 1130 PM, when I had organic green tea that I boiled in spring water, and then mixed with organic cane sugar and half 'n half.

Today all day, I tried to: maximize the use of the body during the first kick; flip the ball up a minimum altitude prior to kicking it; attempt a waist-high apex-altitude for the ball; aim the ball at a cone 2.7 meters from the ball start point. This produced many runs that were fast right from the start. Conceivably were I to flip the ball up higher and use the body less on the first kick (which I consider to be inferior technique), the runs would be slower and there would be more successes.

Sometimes after a particularly good run today I'd look back to see if anyone saw me. Every time it seemed as if at least a couple of the long row of Spanish boys on the other side of the basketball court had watched me during the run. Whereas at the YMCA, 90% of the good runs are never seen by anyone.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and diagram April 18 entry this page, however without tracking where the shots went. In brief, I kick the ball to my left with my left, then kick it to my right with my right, then kick it to my right with my right again, then kick it to my left with my left, and then shoot it with my left foot, all done without the ball touching the ground with the ball being kept close to the body with me traveling forwards 4.0 to 13.4 meters (range today) in between the first touch and the shot on the fifth touch, at a speed between jogging and sprint speed. An exact footwork pattern is adhered to.

Over 57 minutes not including 5 minutes in breaks, today Saturday evening, there were 20 full-point one point runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a shot on kick 5, and 3 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 20 + (3/2 =1.5) = 21.5 pts for runs with more than four touches in 57 minutes-- 0.38 per minute for runs reaching the fifth touch with a shot on the fifth touch.

The score was kept down due to: the lack of boys on the court meaning me having to chase down every loose ball by myself; and, relatively high speed of runs resulting in balls bouncing away a longer distance as a result of mistakes and miskicks.

During the practice not knowing the total score, not knowing how much time had elapsed, I felt as if, I'm not actually having that bad a day, there have been good runs that scored zero points, there have been especially good runs amongst the runs that scored points, but the score I'm going to end up with today, is going to be low, I'll be lucky if it's above 0.30 per minute. I felt depressed because I felt my score was going to be low when I added everything up after the practice. But after the practice when everything was added the score was not that low, 0.38 per minute.

Again each half success and full success was manually noted in the notebook, which takes up time and somewhat reduces the number of attempts.

Like yesterday, today the formula recited before each run was: 'Lick (kick ball with left foot) R (step with right foot) Lean (lean body to right while stepping with left foot) Rick (kick ball with right foot on second kick of run)'. Again, nothing in the formula recited before each run today, contained any info designed to program me for what happens after the second kick of the run with the right foot.

During the practice, I felt I should in coming practices, add more info to the pre-run recited formula, and I felt that possibilities for added info to be: keeping the ball close on the 2nd kick with the right foot; taking a short-step with the left after the 2nd kick with the right; leaning to the right prior to the 3rd kick which is done with the right foot. But I realized that I could end up adding too much info to the pre-run formula, result being a decrease in performance.

During the practice I was aware of the fact that for example, verbal formula commands for what happens late in the run, could be such a distraction that the verbal formula commands for what happens early in the run are not implemented during the run, and also the verbal formula commands for what happens late in the run are not implemented either--end result being, none of the commands are implemented because there are too many of them.

Today before the practice, I consumed approx 16 oz organic green tea, strongly brewed (lots of teabags per unit of water), with spring water organic sugar and half n half. The previous three workouts I had nothing containing caffeine before the workout. This was not decaffeinated green tea. The green tea can kind of hit the body hard with a bite, when consumed by itself without any solid food as was the case today.

There were only about a half dozen boys on the court today, maybe this had to do with it being Sunday evening. Thus I was watched much less. The reduction in terms of persons watching did not coincide with an improvement in performance. Several times previously I've noticed that I do not perform better when there are few or zero spectators. Nevertheless, Spanish boys are such savvy and attentive soccer hobbyists, that I was watched during alot of my successful runs today, despite there being less than half a dozen persons out on the entire court.

Today I noted that the marker I place on the ground showing the spot for the fifth kick or touch on the ball, which is done with the left foot, is 8 meters from the start point and the fence I shoot at, is 9.5 meters from the fifth touch marker point. The shots, today almost always reached the fence and hit the fence with at least moderate level of force, even when the shot was taken 13 meters from the fence with me off balance. This tells me that my passing range, if I were to choose to pass on the fifth touch without shooting, can be counted on to be almost always at least 40 feet.

Perhaps I can excite the soccer world, make people happy, and produce good fortune for myself by plotting out what the distance, apex-altitude, and placement of passes naturally are when I pass the ball on one of the touches of the run, as opposed to continuing the run or shooting the ball.

For passes to the left, passes straight ahead and passes to the right, there will exist for each type, a natural placement, apex of arc, angle, and distance. Problem is that experiments re where my passes would end up, though potentially a thrill for the soccer imagination, eat up time that could be invested in improving important skills.

On a typical American soccer field the goal is 24 feet wide, the penalty area is 132 feet wide, the field is 180 feet wide, the distance from the center of the field to the goal is 150 feet, the distance from the center spot on the penalty area border to the center of the goal is 54 feet, the distance from the center of the end-line in the middle of the goal to the side-border of the penalty area is 66 feet (http://www.sportsknowhow.com/pops/soccer-field.html from http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS300&q=soccer+field+dimensions).

The median and average distance for runs today between start and fifth touch shot was around 30 feet; I estimate that usually but not always my effective shooting range shooting on the fifth touch is 100 feet. 30 feet of aerial flight with the ball plus a 100 foot shot is 130 feet. I estimate that usually my effective passing range passing off the fifth shot would be 150 feet. Passes do not need reach their target as quickly as a shot.

The main advantage to the passes that can be made when there is a pass on a touch of the run instead of a shot or continuing the run, is that the ball can be hanged high in the air at a certain spot, giving a team-mate who is not at that spot time to get to that spot. The team-mate having a better idea where the ball is going compared to the defense, this could result in penetration of the defense. A good player reaching a lobbed chipped pass at a sprint pace, is capable of a blistering shot or some other kind of trickiness that utilizes his own momentum combined with the ball being airborne.

What is the usual distance from shooter to goal line when goals are scored in soccer? What is the usual passer to recipient distance of a soccer pass which ends up being scored as an assist because it results in a goal? What is the usual apex height of the ball during such passes? I wanted info re such matters so as to more wisely use my soccer time and so as to more wisely be able to appreciate my own strengths and weaknesses. I was surprised at the paucity of info of the type I was looking for.

According to Prozone Sports Limited (http://www.epysa.org/pdf/Euro08.ppt) (http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:pQwJ9Tv6QtcJ:www.epysa.org/pdf/Euro08.ppt+%22goals+scored%22+feet&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us), (from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS300&q=%22goals+scored%22+feet&start=10&sa=N), in the Euro 2008 tournament, 42% of the goals were scored from a box roughly defined as a second goalkeeper's box in front of the goalkeeper's box. This extrapolates to: 42% of the goals were scored from an area in which the distance to the goal varies from 5.5 to 18.9 meters.

According to Prozone Sports: 30% of the goals at Euro 2008 were scored from the goalkeeper's box, meaning from 0 to 15.6 meters from the goal.

According to Prozone Sports: at Euro 2008, 19.5% of the goals were scored from an area that is a box in which the closest point to the goal is 11 meters from the goal, and the furthest point from the goal is 21.7 meters from the goal.

The Prozone Sports 42% box, 30% box, and 19.5% box, add up to 91.5% of all goals. Another 5% of goals came from a large ill-defined box in the middle of the field beyond the penalty area.

Thus according to Prozone Sports, 92% of goals at Euro 2008 were scored from less than 21.7 meters from the goal. My estimate (weighted average method used) for these goals off the bat, is that on average they were scored from 12.8 meters from the point at which they crossed the goal-line.

Prozone Sports Ltd, also published a graphic showing the area of the field from which the plurality of assists, 12.7% of them, originated. I estimated the distance between this area and the area from which the plurality of goals originated. This distance was 5.5-55 meters, average 30 meters.

According to Prozone Sports Ltd, 56% of the assists in Euro 2008, originated in a box that is like the penalty box except extending sideways to the sideline. I estimated the distance between the estimated average shot spot when goals were scored at Euro 2008, and the average spot in this box. The geographical points in this box varied from 38 meters from the average shot and goal spot to 0 meters from the average shot and goal spot; on average the geographic points in this box were 19 meters from the average shot and goal spot.

Prozone Sports divides the field area up into boxes in a graphic, and gives the percentage of assists originating in each box. Looking at the graphic I estimate that the distance between the assist origination and the shot origination varied overall, at Euro 2008, between 0 and 55 meters, the average such distance being 21.4 meters.

To me it seems a sign of disarray that I should have to make all these extrapolations. Seems the data should simply exist so that I do not have to make such extrapolations.

According to African researchers, founr via Google search for "goals scored"+feet, at the 2002 Soccer World Cup, 85.5% of the goals originated on shots from within the penalty box. The furthest distance between a point in the penalty box and a point between the goalposts, is 29.0 meters--this is the distance from a far outside corner of the penalty box, to the goalpost on the opposite side of the field.

Overall it seems apparent, that the soccer world has given insufficent attention to matters such as: what proportions of shots resulting in goals are from what distances from the goal; what proportions of assisting passes leading to goals are from what distance from the person receiving the pass and scoring; what proportions of assisting passes leading to goals reach what apex in height on their way to the pass recipient.

When training or practicing, it does not generally make sense (exception to the rule being the unusually skilled superstar) to spend most of your time practicing shots that are of the type that result in only a small percentage of the goals in real life match conditions.

Likewise, it generally does not make sense to spend a disproportionate amount of time on a certain type of pass that in games rarely results in a pass that is an assist for a goal scored.

Without data re what shots that score goals and assists that produce goals are like in terms of meters traveled and apex height of ball arc, it is difficult to structure practice time wisely, and it is difficult to assess and fully appreciate talent and skill.

However I did succeed in finding high quality information re shots and passes on a game by game basis. Through a Google search for "shot chart" soccer "real madrid", I found Notre Dame's Shot Chart - Statistics and Analysis - Soccer forum ..., which referred me to a an espn website at which I found soccer shot (gamecast tab) and pass (match action tab) charts for individual games for Premier and Champions League soccer.

Generally, it seems as if American college soccer is the only subset of the soccer world that pays any attention to shot charts showing where the soccer shots were taken (example US college soccer shot chart).

E2E3 Reverse K5 Shot at Gilmore Playground

This graphic uses an actual satellite photo of the exact basketball court at Gary Gilmore Playground where I have been practicing, to visually display the drill I have been doing. Number 1 shows the start point where I flip the ball up with my left and kick it with my left; 2 shows the point at which I kick the ball on a slant to my right with my right foot; 3 shows where I kick the ball again on a slant to my right with my right foot; 4 shows where I kick the ball on a slant to my left with my left foot; 5 shows the point at which I shoot the ball with my left foot. The yellow line at the bottom corresponds with the top of the fence that I kick the ball at. Between the 1st touch and the shot on the 5th touch, the ball never touches the ground. The straight line distance between point 1 and point 5 which is the shot pointk, is 25 feet (8.3 yards, 7.6 meters). The distance between point 5 the shot point and the fence is 27 feet (9 yards, 8.2 meters). The kick points show where I place the ground markers, approx what an average slants and distances run looks like, the slants and distances I aim for when I do the runs.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and photo/diagram in this entry.

Over 52 minutes not including 3 minutes in breaks, today Monday evening, there were 18 full-point one point runs that adhered to pattern up to kick five, with a shot on kick 5, and 2 runs that were half-point type runs re which I had doubts whether they were on pattern or not. That comes out to 18 + (2/2 = 1) = 19 pts for runs with more than four touches in 52 minutes-- 0.37 per minute for runs reaching the fifth touch with a shot on the fifth touch.

In order for a run to be given a point the run must: feature the ball kept off the ground between the 1st and the 5th touch; feature slants in the correct directions; feature the correct number of steps taken between touches on the ball.

The score was kept down due to unusually detailed taking of notes re what happens. When I do not make a tally in a notebook after each run that scores a point or a half-point, but keep track in my head, there are about 0 seconds of score-keeping per success. When I take very brief notes, just writing 1 for a full point success and 1/2 for a half-point success, it takes about 5 seconds to jot the info down in the notebook. But on a day such as today involving more detailed notes, I spend around 45 seconds every time a point or half-point is scored jotting down what happened. Meaning if I had been taking only brief 5-second notes, I would have had 13 more minutes to do runs. Thus you could say that if I had been taking brief notes instead of longer ones today, my success rate would have been 0.49 per minute, 1.3 times greater than the actual tally of 0.37 per minute.

My notes show that the average straight line distance from the first touch to the fifth touch, covered in 20 runs today without the ball touching the ground, was 9.2 meters (10.1 yards, 30 feet). 71% of the shots taken at the end of these runs hit the fence, which is 16 meters or 18 yards from the start point (distance from point on fence closest to start point to start point), without bouncing. On average these shots that hit the fence without bouncing, hit the fence 8 feet above the ground. 14% of the shots taken at the end of the 5 touch runs hit the fence on one bounce. 14% rolled to the fence. On average the shots traveled 8 meters or 9 yards before hitting the fence. Half the shots were recorded as hitting the fence especially hard (occasionally the thing they hit was basketball post, basketball backboard, basketball hoop, street outside fence).

The five touch runs are becoming longer compared to a few days back in the gym when the longest ones covered about 9 meters. Now the average is about 9 meters. I remember noting in a previous year how outdoors practices result in longer air-dribble so-to- speak 'flights'.

One of the shots was not a shot, but like a chip pass, it's apex of arc was 11 feet. It first bounced 8 meters or 9 yards away from me, on a 30 degree slant left relative to the direction I was moving at the time of the kick. This is the first tidbit of info I've picked up re the natural direction and distance of a chip pass coming off the 5th touch (such tidbits re passes off the run are designed to win the hearts and minds of the soccer world, mollifying their envy).

One of the shots taken on the 5th touch of the five-touch run, reached an apex of 13 feet and sailed over the fence. It rocketed through some tree branches, and landed hard on the road outside, first hitting the ground at a point 16 meters from where the shot was taken.

I noticed today that the balls were swerving the way they were in the inside gym. In the gym they swerved right before hitting the wall. Outdoors they swerved right before hitting the fence. The level of swerve was similar to what it was indoors. Thus it seems that the swerves indoors were not a result of wind resistance due to wind being pushed away from the ball and then bouncing off the wall towards the wall. Apparently it is just the nature of the way the ball swerves when I kick it, that it swerves when it gets near the walls and fences I have been kicking it at.

I definitely felt that I did better today than yesterday though the score did not show it due to the more detailed note-taking. A greater percentage of attempts ended in success today. After the practice I stopped at Burger King, and as I ate, a young 'Spanish' (Jose at the Y wants me to call them 'Spanish') man, who I did not notice as having been at the basketball court while I practiced, looked at me and said to his friend, 'today was a good one', as if he knew I had done well today at practice.

Today before each run I recited the following verbal formula: 'Lick (kick ball with left foot) R (step with right foot) Lean (lean to right while stepping with left foot) Rose (kick ball with right foot keeping ball close to body)'. Yesterday the performance was worse and the formula recited was: 'Lick (kick ball with left foot) R (step with right foot) Lean (lean to right while stepping with left foot) Rick (kick ball with right foot)'. Note that today the formula had more information in it, in that it specified that the ball should be kept close to the body on the second kick of the run which is done with the right foot.

I did not program myself to take a short step with the left foot after kicking the ball with the right foot on the second touch of the run. I realized that sometimes taking this short step so to speak causes the plane to crash, because a short-step is not always appropriate. I decided the short-step should be always taken, only when there is a lack of emphasis on final total score. The short-step is designed to set up the right foot being extended outwards to contact the ball on the next step.

Today before the practice, I consumed approx 16 oz organic green tea, strongly brewed (lots of teabags per unit of water), with spring water organic sugar and half n half. Such has replaced coffee for me the last couple of days.

There were about 20 'Spanish boys' out on the court today. One of them loudly lectured the young-man who I named 'Barbarossa', who I described in the April 23 entry this page. He said to Barbarossa, 'You're rich...you have no worries', in a dark, serious, almost threatening tone of voice. He was parroting what I said about 'Barbarossa' in my Friday April 23 entry. I was wondering, how did he find out about what I wrote in my soccer blog?

The young man at the basketball court parroted what I said in my April 23 entry. The young man at the Burger King knew I'd had a good practice today. Unbelievable how much people know. I wonder re the possibilities for how they know what they know: some media announcer spies on this soccer log and makes an offhand comment; a high level of cellphone chatter results in widespread knowledge; the people read each other's facial expressions; the people are psychic; the people have found this soccer log and read it.

I wrote a program which you can use, to make such calculations:

Directions for Use of Program: Input into input 1, the length of your pace when you walk in a normal way, in terms of meters. The default is 0.67 meaning a pace is defined as 0.67 meters. If you have changed this number, clicking on 2 will reset it to 0.67. Input a number into input 3, 4, 5, or 6. Only one of these inputs should have a number input into it. Then Click on 7 to find the equivalences for the number. Click on 8 to reset 3, 4, 5, and 6.

I found that I was constantly faced with challenges when it comes to 'paces', meters, yards, and feet, in terms o4converting one into another, and I simply could not pass up the opportunity to solve the problem through a display of programming skill. I found that while practicing I was estimating distances using 'paces' (horizontal) and feet (vertical). But 'paces' mean nothing to the public; some of the public visualizes in meters; others in the public visualize in terms of yards.

I found Google Calculator in the sense of its appearance on the main search page results, to be helpful in putting together this program.

E2E3 Reverse K5 Pass

Each green cross is separated from the green crosses directly in front and directly to the side of it by the distance of one pace, defined here as 0.67 meters. Each blue line represents a 20 foot distance. The red circle represents the point at which I kicked the ball on the 5th touch of the run, trying to kick it in a backwards direction or backwards and to my left.The red arrow represents the direction of my body at the time of the fifth kick which simulated a pass. The numbers represent the apex height of the ball during its arc after I kicked the ball on the 5th touch. The placement of the numbers represents where the ball first bounced in relation to where I was when I kicked it and the direction I was moving when I kicked it. For example, the numbers directly to the left of the K5 marker, all represent kicks of the ball that landed directly to my left in relation to the direction I was moving when I kicked the ball. the 18 to the left of the red circle represents a ball that reached an apex height of 18 feet after I kicked it, and landed 4.5 feet to my left.

Introductory info re this drill: April 2 entry this page. (Details re pattern of run, scores, terminology: E2E3 L-Start Reverse #1 Practice Segments Scores Table . Entries from March 7 on are concerned with the drills similar to the one done today. Entries immediately prior to today's entry have relevant details).

The same pattern was done as is described in text and photo/diagram in the April 26 entry, except on the 5th touch instead of shooting the ball forwards, I passed it, trying to pass it directly backwards; if the situation was such that a directly backwards pass was not possible, I tried to pass it as much in a backwards direction as possible and to my left.

Over 172 minutes not including 8 minutes in breaks, today Friday morning, I succeeded in completing the five touches without-the-ball-touching the ground run up to the the fifth kick, and then kicking the ball sideways to my left on the fifth kick, 63 times (sometimes it was not possible to get the ball in a backwards direction). That comes out to sideways kicks of the ball on the 5th touch, 0.37 times per minute. There were only about four cases in which the ball accidentally was sent to my right instead of to my left as intended.

As usual these days, I kicked the ball to my left with my left, then to my right with my right, then to my right with my right, then to my left with my left, and then kicked it with my left foot on the fifth touch, all without the ball touching the ground, all covering about 10 meters in total movement from turn point to turn point, with the 5th touch ending up about 8 meters from the start point on average. But today, on the fifth touch, I kicked it away practicing passing the ball. On the 5th touch I was trying to kick the ball backwards as far as possible at as backwards an angle as possible, while keeping the ball to my left.

Most of the instances in which I kicked the ball forwards instead of directly to the side or backwards, occurred at the beginning of the workout, as I was getting used to this new variation.

I was trying to get an idea re what the natural direction and arc of a pass is on the fifth touch of the run when I am attempting to pass the ball as far backwards as possible at as sharply backwards an angle as possible while keeping the ball to my left. The results are difficult to interpret because: today was the first time I have done this drill; and, I naturally slowed the runs down so as to make sure that I was able to kick the ball in a backwards direction on the 5th touch. If I had been going full speed, the results would have been different.

I wanted to get an idea re the backwards and sideways possibilities. I wanted to get an idea of how high the ball naturally arcs on such passes.

Advantages of the pass off the air dribble, moving forwards with the ball close to the body but off the ground: one can flip the ball sideways and backwards while one's body motion reveals less re the intended direction of the pass than is the case with the ground dribble; one can pass the ball backwards better than would be the case from the ground dribble using the heel of the foot. And of course there is the advantage that the ball flies in the air, reaching a height that even the tallest best jumpers cannot reach with their heads.

When I have a good idea re the natural direction of such backwards passes, this could help me to focus on the direction to aim at during practice. When the natural direction of such passes is understood, the players on my team will have a better idea re where to position themselves in relation to me.

Passes do not have to go in a backwards direction in relation to my body. It's just that there is something glamorous, unusual and potentially stellar about such backwards chip passes.

At some time in the future, I think I should test out making the preliminary air-dribble run at full speed and then trying to on the fifth touch pass the ball in as much a backwards angle as possible while aiming to send the ball to my left or right if I cannot get it to go directly backwards.

Looking at the diagram included in this entry, one can see that a cluster of passes ended up first bouncing, approx 15 feet behind me at a negative 60 degree angle. On average these passes reached an apex arc of 11 feet.

Thus a player trailing behind me by a little more than 15 feet, at a -60 degree angle, would be in a good position to receive the pass. How much further than 15 feet he would optimally be has to do with the amount of time it takes for the ball to descend from the apex of its arc.

Looking at the equation for how far a ball will fall in a given amount of time, one can see that a ball will fall six feet from an apex height of twelve feet to a height of six feet in 0.6 seconds. With a running start a top athlete should be able to cover 15 feet in 0.6 seconds. This because the square root of 2 times the height fallen in meters divided by 9.8, is the time taken for the object to fall the given distance.

(by the way, as I learned from some National Science Foundation produced pdf targetted at youths, no matter how far the ball goes horizontally, it will still take 0.6 seconds to fall six feet vertically)

Looking at the diagram in this entry, one can also see that there is another cluster approx 17 feet directly behind where I was when I kicked the ball, directly behind in relation to the direction I was moving when I kicked it. These balls reached an apex height on average of 14 feet.

At least today's experiment establishes that I am capable, while running forwards air-dribbling the ball, of sending the ball to a point about 5 meters away, directly behind me or at a -60 degree angle.

The diagram this entry shows that essentially, I was able to accomplish what I intended to accomplish on the simulated backwards passes on the fifth kicks of the runs. In terms of intent, two things were on my mind. One was kicking the ball as much as possible in a backwards direction. The other, secondarily, was making sure that the ball went to my left, and not to my right.

The diagram this entry, shows that today I demonstrated potential substantial range for backwards passes.

A pass, reached an apex height of 12 feet, and first bounced 31 feet away from me, at a negative 15 degree angle (eight-thirty o'clock on the clock dial given twelve o'clock as straight forwards).

One pass, reached an apex height of 24 feet, and first bounced 36 feet away from me, at a negative 30 degree angle (eight o'clock on the clock dial given twelve o'clock as straight forwards).

Another pass, reached an apex height of 20 feet, and first bounced 32 feet away from me, at a negative 60 degree angle (eight o'clock on the clock dial given twelve o'clock as straight forwards).

Another pass (the superstar of the day), reached an apex height of 23 feet, and first bounced 44 feet away from me, at a negative 45 degree angle (seven thirty o'clock on the clock dial given twelve o'clock as straight forwards).

Undoubtedly, such passes potentially could produce spectacular results. A team-mate behind me could start his sprint forwards towards the ball as he sees it reach it's apex. Then upon reaching the ball he would be able to blast a powerful shot or pass or keep it under control and in the air creating danger for the defense.

I've seen alot of flailing around funded by organizations like the National Science Foundation, the goal being teaching the nation's youth physics. Advice for the government re teaching physics: JUST GET THE PHYSICS FORMULAS TRANSLATED INTO JAVASCRIPT SO THAT PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND THEM AND WORK WITH THEM! AND MAKE SURE THE JAVASCRIPT IS WRITTEN IN AN UNDERSTANDABLE, MINIMALLY COMPLEX WAY! I could write a javascript, quickly, that gives the amount of time it takes for a ball to fall a given distance--at some time I might do it, but I have too many other things to do right now.

The wikipedia entries are filled with formulas written in the old-fashioned flamboyant academic script notation, without accompanying explanations re what the symbols in the script means. This makes no sense. An advanced august org like wikipedia of the internet, should present such formulas in javascript.

I've come to realize that the majority of the internet gurus purporting to give us a free education with their web-pages, are actually not interested in teaching us, but rather are interested in parading themselves as intelligent through being incomprehensible--which is based on the fallacy that those who are hard to understand are intelligent. Au contraire, actually, being able to make oneself understood, with a minimum of time and energy invested by the person trying to understand being required in order for that person to understand, is an important respectable skill and a sign of talent.

E2E3 Reverse up to Kick 5, with primary intent pass directly backwards and secondary intent pass at as far backwards an angle as possible to the right, on 5th kick with left foot.

				12
					10
	K5
	C						C
									C			15
			C									3
					C			15
		C							3
			C		7
				15
	2	5												22
	10	10			20	17									4
	19			21
	12
	15										18
					24
																evd

diagrio

K5 in red represents the point at which I kick the ball on the fifth touch of the run

The curving line represents points that are all 20 feet away from K5 the point at which I kick the ball.

The green arrow represents my general path except for the zig-zags, as I air-dribble the ball to K5 at which point I make the simulated pass.

E2E3 Reverse K5 Pass Backwards and to Right Drill Results for May 1

The blue boxes in the grid each have four sides each representing 0.67 meters (one pace). The diagram depicts how I air-dribbled towards the K5 point keeping the ball off the ground but close to my body, and then kicked it on the fifth touch simulating a pass kicked backwards and to my right. The white numbers represent the apex height of the ball during its arc after I kicked the ball on the 5th touch. The placement of the white numbers represents where the ball first bounced in relation to where I was when I kicked it and the direction I was moving when I kicked it. For example, the numbers directly behind the K5 marker, all represent kicks of the ball that landed directly behind me in relation to the direction I was moving when I kicked the ball; the number 10 in the same column as the K5 marker represents a ball that reached an arc apex of 10 feet and then landed 9 paces directly behind me. The letter C's represent balls that hit the ceiling.

End of Page 15 of the Soccer Log

The log now continues at Page 16 of the soccer log (this is page 15 of the soccer log).

I feel good about moving on to the procrastinated moment of a new page of the soccer log. The programming effort that goes in the log can become unbearable for me, when the log is loaded with too much code. I end up having to wait for several seconds every time I refresh the page after making a change in the source code. The browser begins to display inconsistent responses to code (for example after restart it can do what it failed to do prior to restart). It's easier to make improvements to the overall page containing the entries, when you are on a new page with few entries.

So adios, see you at Page 16.