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I just didn't have the opportunity to train properly bro, that i thought it would be a waste of time to bother you with my out of shape ass after a month of eating badly and not training. I'm insecure bout my athletic ability as it, even if i was in a PR place i'd still have reservations! But i also think my next trip wont be so regimented, i went with friends and family this time and didn't have any alone time .. which made it hard to plan to meet my friends and hang out. But now i want to get in shape and make my next trip back within 6 months .. and a priority of that will be in being in decent condition so you can help me go to the next level which ive never been able to. I want to be athletic enough to land windmills, move efficiently and i can't do that without your expertise.

Guys my life since coming back home has been crazy. I went from being sad and lonely to getting to know 2 girls, one i legit wanna marry, she's smart and cute and falling for her and another who is 23 year old and so hot and she's driving me crazy with the sexual tension btw us.   I feel like i have to choose btw heart and lust and it's an impossible choice! I'm torn. That trip changed my life .. and im so hungry for life now .. i wanna PR all areas of life, personal, career, relationships etc.

I need a program for training out of this slump .. not interested in my usual thing ive always done. Open to new ideas. I want to incoorporate lifting and athletic activity like running and jumping but with a stronger emphasis on teh latter than in the past.

Bro, no offense taken. 

Some life advice though.  One of the best pieces of advice was from a really successful person who told me "pride never really gets anybody anything". 

I know it's easier said than done...  We all athletes here and despite the fact that we have different ability levels we all want to show out as best we can!  I get it.  You would rather dunk train with me at your peak athleticism levels than when your tired on a trip and probably dead legged and can barely dunk.  That's embarrassing for you.  Would be for me too.   But it's still prideful and it's still useless in the long run.   I mean in a training session or two I'm not gonna make you a better athlete... But I could figure out something and send you home with some knowledge that will... There is value training even with dead legs or not in peak shape.  Who knows, I could learn something from you as well.   

Also understand I'm a scientist and a trainer.  I didn't offer you to train because I think your an amazing athlete.  I don't train people based on their ability.   I want to see you train because you keep detailed logs of everything, your meticulous (to a fault even), and your driven to improve.  Training you teaches me.  I'd rather train you than a guy who jumps much higher but has never really trained. 

Don't worry about it though, hopefully we can link up on a return visit to the states.  I got a chance to train with LBSS and it was a lot of fun.  The cool thing about this group of people is we can get a chance to make friends with people who are outside of our circle and learn about things other than training.... I mean LBSS is from some suburban paradise and went to the best high school in the country...  I don't know people like that.  Now I do.  That's a good thing.  And I've got to see him go from being slow and not jumping to becoming an explosive leaper.  Also cool.

Don't worry too much about the women man.  Your habits with training and your overthinking and massive strategic changes will punish you 100x over when it comes to women.  Just talk to both of the chicks.  About everything (except eachother).  Do not be thirsty.  You will be fine.  Prioritize training over them.   

nah, i'll still just be that. it's from a quote that says, paraphrasing, if you're a donkey you're never going to become a cheetah, but with hard work you can become a fast and explosive donkey.

Dang, I never new the origin of the journal title but that is a really good quote...  It's both realistic and inspirational.  I'll be using it when training people!

I've been criticized multiple times by various forum members for trying to combine sport specific training with strength/vert/speed training. The way I see it, I might as well add in as much sport specific component as I can or else my training will be inefficient. There's soo much to work on but your body/schedule can only handle a few things at a time, might as well try to get the most out of your training.

The criticism is fair.  You are also right that your body can only handle so much.  But the solution is not to confuse your speed training with sports specific training.  The solution may be to do MORE sports specific training, rather than muddy your speed specific training with sports specific training.  I mean why run 40's without a frisbee catch?  Why not before every 40 have you or a friend throw the frisbee 50 yards down field so it gets to 50 yards in about 6 seconds after you start, that way run 40 yards and go and catch the frisbee?  Wouldn't that be better?  Or would it make your speed training less efficient? 

You're right about standing left/right starts not ever happening in frisbee. But even if there's a countermovement, accelerating out of it can be similar to a sprint start. Let's say I put in 1000 sprint start reps, all starting with a right leading leg, and then I attempted that movement (from the video) in a game, using left and right legs. Even though it's not the exact same movement, wouldn't the movement with the right leading leg end up being considerably faster than left leading leg?

You are asking an unfair question.  IF you are asking me to train you to make you the best ultimate player possible AND you are limiting the tools I can use to 40 yard sprint work, then you may have a point...  BUT I would never train you using only 40 yard sprints!  That would be silly.  The countermovement you see in the video is actually VERY different than a 40 yard sprint start.  I'm not going to argue that there is zero carryover, but the carryover is very little. 

I don't know much about frisbee, I know only one athlete who played professionally for the seattle sockeye and from what I understand from him the game is becoming a little less a leisure sport and starting to become a bit more like football and that they now have a combine where players are tested in the 40 yard dash.  If this is true and it is going in the direction of the NFL where they put far too much weight on the 40 yard dash time - you have to accept it and get the best 40 yard dash time possible.   IF the powers of frisbee are stupid and make athletes test their 40 yard dash with both lead legs... Then yeah you gotta practice both.  You have to get as good as possible at combine tests that are part of tryouts - no matter what they are or how silly they are because your performance can make or break your ability to make a team...  It's my understanding that they are including a 40 yard dash like football where you can use either lead leg.  So you need to get as good as possible at this drill.  Not make your performance suffer by using both lead legs...

Think about training efficiency like this.  You can only do so many reps.  Lets use the number you gave of 1000 total reps in some training period.  Here are your options.

Your starting ability:   

1) 40 yard PR = 5.0 seconds  (left/right lead leg = 5.0, 5.1)
2) Left lead leg countermovement ability and right leg (in game skill ranked 0-10) = 5,4

So in these skills we are going to call you a 5.0 (5.0, 5.1), 5, 4 guy.   Obviously we want these all to get better.

Now here are some training options are results:

Option A: 1000 dominant (left leg) 40 yard sprints.

Result A: 4.6 (4.60,4.90), (8,5)

Option B: 500 left, 500 right 40 yard sprints (both done alternating)

Result B: 4.75, 4.80  ( 7,6)

Option C: 500 left (focus on speed without confusion of switching leg) and 500 reps of 60 yard short shuttlee (NFL combine drill for change of direction).

Result C: 4.65 (4.65, 4.85) ( 9,8)


Who makes the team?  IMO Athlete B is the worst one at the tryout.  Whether it's fair or not the coaches are going to see the 4.75 first and foremost and brand him as "Not that quick".   Additionally, because he countermovement ability has been trained in a really not specific way he is only slightly better at change of direction that athlete A.  Athlete B is first to get cut.  He is slow.

Athlete A has overemphasized the 40 at the expense of other drills but may make the team over both A and C if the coaches are anything like NFL coaches and put a ton of emphasis on the 40 yard time. 

However, if the coaches are good and can recognize talent then athlete C will make the team (and apart from making the team athlete C is the best).  He has trained specifically for his 40 and achieved a very respectable time of 4.65 which is only slightly worse than what he would ran if he only trained for the 40...  Additionally by spending time working on his 60 yard shuttle he has far better performance on this test (if it is included in the combine) which allows him the specific change of direction skill to get open better than his competitors and outperform them in the tryout. 

------------------------------

This is how you need to structure your training.   Get your 40 yard time as good as possible without obsessing over it so much that you neglect your sport (how much neglect you should do depends on the weight put on it at tryouts).  Also train sports specific skills.  But don't hinder your ability to get better int he 40 by adding a non-specific variable that will have marginal carryover to the ability you are training...  Does that make sense?

Man... Klay Thompson this year >>> Klay Thompson last year. 

His improvement is really impressive.  He was a good shooter but that's about it when he came into the league... 

To be clear what im saying is if Lebron goes back to Clevand and says eff your GOAT chasing, im going home and i dont care if i win a ring or not but it wud be real nice if we do, and then never did, i would respect that. But to go back, carve the team up in a dumb way and make bad decisions when you don't care bout the team you joined at all, then to lose anyway, why should I respect that? If you're going to run amok and hostile takeover a team, at least do it well and win something lol.

They have won something.  They are back to back eastern conference champions.  I don't understand your argument at all...  I'm not a huge Kevin Love fan myself but you make it sound like the entire world knew a team with LBJ, Irving, Wiggins, and the rest would easily win the NBA finals in its first two years but then Lebron came along and said "no I want Kevin Love" and management was like "dude there is no way we will beat the Warriors w him but fine." 

Assuming they don't come back and win this title... Would they have won one of these with Wiggins in place of Love?  Obviously nobody knows but I don't think that most basketball minds would be confident saying yes.   Had Lebron not came at how many finals would they have gone to from 2015-2025?  You think Vegas would give you the over or under on two trips?  I'm quite sure the smart money is on the under! 

Given that... He has brought them success... And he didn't gut the team.  You can say he did and it's a cool story but it's also just something you made up.

in re: strom thurmond and bill clinton. strom thurmond had a whole set of kids with a black woman all the while he was a full-blown segregationist.

fuck that racist corpse in his worm-riddled eye socket.

I mean... Yeah... I mean ok... I actually learned about that guy in Church - a black church - and about how we should forgive him... So I mean that seems a little harsh.  We also learned that he didn't just have kids with the lady - he raped her.  He was in his twenties and she was 16z.

That level of racism is always somehow truly puzzling.  It's like how people who really really hate gay people turn out to be gay...  Like was Strom Thurmond just extra racist because he hated the fact that he knew deep down there is nothing like a black woman and that killed him inside?  It's a weird story about one of his daughters... 

He was racist as all hell.  He had a daughter through rape that he would never admit was his even though he paid her way through school.  She kept quiet about it until he died and then came claim and as soon as it was out she joined the daughters of th confederacy through his lineage - a racist group of people with confer ate soldier relatives.  She is like the only black person in the group...  Why would she want to be in the group?  Why would he love black women so much if he was racist?  It doesn't make sense but neither does racism.

The substituting of humble for obedient is pure gold. This is exactly what i've witnessed in person (at work) or in other settings. In my personal experience, these things are mostly said by whites, but also by "non-blacks" (latino, asian etc). There are people who know exactly what they are doing when they say these things. I think these are usually the ones who put these narratives out in the media/sports world to begin with. Then there's most everyone else who hear these narratives, slurp them up, and perpetuate them.

To be totally fair I don't think it's only non-blacks who perpetuate these narratives.  Sure, people are self-interested so it's pretty rare to find a black person who is overtly racist toward black people - but this kind of subtle pervasive racism is a stain on society, it affects us all regardless of skin color.  I think the people who you refer to as "knowing exactly what they are doing" are rarely black people - but the narratives are repeated most commonly by white people, less commonly by non-black minorities and even less commonly but still substantially by black people.  I think that in the black community a lot of this comes from jealousy from the older generation - the reaction is sort of "Hey I was obedient and didn't think about what was best for me, what the hell do you think you are doing doing things differently than the way they have always been done!"

Additionally, to be fair some of these people perpetuating the narratives are people who have just taken their fandom for another player to far too extreme of a level.  I have met Kobe fans who parrot any negative thing about LBJ just to keep him from challenging Kobe on the historical charts.  I even have a black friend from Chicago who used to repeat all kinds of ridiculous reasons for why LBJ is no good and not loyal like MJ - although now he is cheering in vain for Lebron and against Curry and the Warriors because he doesn't want to see the 73 win season end in a championship so it won't count.  LOL. 

Speaking of the way things have always been done, it's important to reflect on just how far we have come in America as far as sports.  One of the many reasons to love sports is it's ability to tell us so much socioculturally.  It really wasn't that long ago ( ~ 1950 ) that the color-line was just being broken in major american sports.  At that time there were many fans who believed in an actual white physical superiority and some cultural minds thought that blacks challenging this racism would result in sports becoming less popular...  What's fascinating is now the three most popular sports in America have far more black athletes than white and sports are far more popular than ever...  Unfortunately the simple solution (America is no longer racist!) is not really how we arrived here and you need to look no farther than the popularity of Trump and disrespect of Obama to see how clear that is...  Sport has remained popular in a racist country despite the majority of athletes being black because what sport is has changed - sport is no longer about the athlete but about the management, the strategy, the salary cap deals, the trades, etc - all things orchestrated by the white participants in the sport. This is why fantasy sports are so popular.

White people are ok with being fans of sports where the majority of athletes are blacks as long as they are the loyal foot soldiers in the operation - they grumble about them being overpaid (which is RIDICULOUS because some of these same people who say LBJ is overpaid are free-market republicans who should be in full opposition to an artificial max-salary that forces LBJ to be massively underpaid relative to what he is worth in a fair market) but accept them as part of the game.  This is IMO why football is the most popular sport in America - it's black athletes are truly faceless soldiers hidden behind a helmet, with unguaranteed contracts, short careers and a lifetime of brain damage to look forward to, while the decision makers are wealthy whites making strategic deals...  I mean how many football fans have you met who are fans of Bill Belichick?  He doesn't even play football - yet the game is made about how he is a genius rather than the skill of the players. 

This is why football players can have straight up criminal records and basically kill people but Cam Newton get's heat for celebrating when he scores rather than running back to the sideline obediently and Richard Sherman gets called a thug for being emotional about the most important play of his life... Of course Richard Sherman and Cam Newton both have long time girlfriends/wives and children with only them and have never been in legal trouble.. But the same media that loves to blame bad models in athletics won't praise these guys as excellent role models... 

such a great post

One thing that I really like about this thread is how; in other settings (youtube, facebook, x-forum, in person) normally these things are said about Lebron and they pretty much go un-checked. It's great to see all of the points that have been brought up to defend Lebron; mostly his character and achievements. As for the debate on whether or not he should have improved his free throws, footwork, jumper, post up game, left hand etc, more by now; that's still up in the air. But, to simply say he hasn't improved or won more championships because of his ego, character, not practicing hard enough, etc; I think those have been shot down fairly well.

There's an ongoing character/achievement assassination of Lebron, that seemed to begin with him leaving Cleveland. I hope people who shoot down his character/achievements so easily, without a strong argument, realize at some point that they've just been sucked into this campaign or that they need to address some deeply rooted racism that they never knew they had.

And I can't say it enough.. I've witnessed this same exact thing with Serena Williams and it drives me up the wall. It's just much more obvious in the case of Serena. Apparently, that "one moment" where she freaked out on the line judge calling her for a foot fault during a serve, was "the moment". That allowed everyone who wanted to hate her, to openly voice their disgust for her, every time she takes the court. To diminish her accomplishments, every chance they get. To openly voice their frustration that a black female tennis player is dominating in a mostly "white" sport.

Serena would fall under the category of "disobedient". She's vocal, aggressive, powerful, confident, and she's been destroying her opponents for a very long time - even while spending much of her energy in off-the-court endeavors such as fashion etc. If you ever wanted to see people lash out at "the disobedient black", look no further. It's disgraceful.

As you can see I get heated on this topic. Just witnessing it in person, in so many different settings, stays with you.

Finally, just look at what Raptor said in reaction to Draymond's kick.. That's a great example of some of the stuff we're talking about here.. obviously more blatant. If he wasn't as blatant with his remarks, he could have easily disguised it using other excuses/attacks for years to come, ie much more subtle, all over one action which I perceive to be the trigger that allowed him to just let loose his hate. In this day&age, you can't convince me that calling a black person an ape/monkey in an attack, doesn't have deeply rooted hate based on race.

pc!

Really good points.  You probably have an interesting perspective being a white person in that people probably let their guard down and say these racist things a little quicker...  I'm so racially ambiguous that I try to hide in the shadows but I think people are a little more guarded and careful to not reveal themselves to me quite as fast..  In fact I don't have many white friends that are into sports but it's the one I do have who tells me the racist things people tell him about athletes that have really shocked me the most...

It's great that it gets you heated, it should!  Speaking of Raptors hate filled posts - it's perspectives like this that are so dangerous because they lead to a racism and hate that the person feels is justified.  I really hate to talk about my personal life but I find it unavoidable to give LBJ credit for one of the things I respect so much without admitting to my own personal failings...

What's so ironic is that while Lebron is hated for not being obedient (although they use the euphemism that he is not humble or too egotistical) while he is actually fiercely loyal.  His loyalty is on display in so many ways - to his family, to his city (returning to Cleveland after being blasted by the owner), to his friends (hiring them rather than some established agents), and most importantly in my opinion to his woman.  I think a lot of us have grown up with the support of a loyal girl that is down to ride just like he has... But most of us don't still have her...  While my level of athletic/academic/professional success is obvious far less than Lebron and I still went from very little to a lot more in my life and I have to confess that track meets at UNLV, pool parties in Vegas full of previously untouchables (tall light-skinned women really), and the temptation to get the rewards that one feels he deserves was stronger than my ability to be loyal to my ride or die...  I can contrast myself with Lebron, who despite levels of temptation far greater than what I couldn't handle is still loyal to his middle school girlfriend and put a ring on her finger. I can honestly say that while his basketball game is amazing that this is an aspect where I look up to him like as a man - it's taken me a lot longer than him but at my current age (same as him) I can see the value in living life loyal to those who were loyal to you rather than like you for what you did...

This experience is why I don't judge Dwight Howard for coming into the league as this Christian role model and having a bunch of kids out of wedlock with a bunch of women.  It is not easy.  I get it.  And it's really unfair to judge someone for giving in to a level of temptation that you haven't experienced.  It's why I have no patience for Raptor when he talks about how unfair it is that he doesn't have a girlfriend because "if he did he would be so loyal and perfect unlike all these other assholes who take it for granted".   It's like Chris Rock said about 90 year old Strom Thurmond during Clinton's sex scandal in the 1990's - "it's real easy to judge Bill Clinton when your 90 years old and nobody is begging to give you a blowjob". 

That said while I don't feel right judging athletes for their indiscretions - I do 100% feel that we should praise and elevate those who don't.  It makes me really mad that a media who claims to take things like rape culture seriously and care about athletes who are role models never bring this up...  It's like you only can get scorn for messing up.   It kills me that Kobe got a pass for raping someone*** and that some of the targets who get labeled thugs or put down because of trivial things like dancing or emotion or self-determination and free agency (eg Cam Newton, Richard Sherman, LBJ).  I think we are going to see this more and more because what the media really doesn't like is disobedience and intelligence in combination.  Some athletes are disobedient because they don't care about the status quo so they push back against it (eg Randy Moss, Allen Iverson, Ron Artest) - these athletes are hated by the media and the general (ie white) population because of their disobedience but invariably these guys give the media non-racist justification for criticism by getting in fights or having gun charges or something else of the sort...  However, I think these guys still get less scorn than athletes who are both intelligent and disobedient and REALLY scare the defenders of the status quo.   This is where Serena is totally an example and this is where societies racism becomes so clear as they invent ridiculous reasons to hate them.   In Serena's case I have heard that she is hated because she doesn't practice hard enough and spends too much time on fashion?  She only wins like 3 out of 4 grand slams a year in her 30's and you are mad because you think she isn't working on her game enough??  Clearly whatever she is doing is working.   

Glad to see you exposing this, one of the most frustrating barriers still in sports.

***I know Kobe didn't get charged with rape.  I realize that. But he admitted to rape which in today's narrative of "yes means yes" (which I agree with) should have resulted a bit more scorn...  His apology was basically "I realize you feel like I raped you and I didn't get consent but I didn't realize I was raping you so sorry".   I don't want to get into a debate about rape because I feel like there are "lesser" and "greater" levels of the crime of rape (eg locking someone in a dungeon for a year and raping them is definately a lot worse than what Kobe did) but by the current definition that is being taught and should be taught on college campuses Kobes apology was an admission of rape.  I'm ok with him not being punished further, I'm not vindictive and I believe in second chances and don't really believe in prison in general...  The only punishment he should continue to endure is the media never forgetting that in the debate between who is better between him and LBJ that he is way way way behind Lebron is as far as which is a more positive role model outside the game...  LBJ is also the better basketball players, but that's neither here nor there for this debate...