Adarq.org

i don't think i'll have time for either of those. but this will not be my last trip to gva, i think being in pakistan will mean at least 1-2x/year here. chamonix looks awesome.

passed the f out last night after dinner, was so tired. this morning didn't have time to do full daily routine so did:

- circuit x 3
-- squat x 50
-- YTW x 10
-- push up x 10

- SL jumps x 5,5

- stretch

I'm amazed by the dedication of the people on the board that you can do anything at all... I'd be eating chocolates and thinking about how I should work out...

lots of good discussion.

I just have something else to add..

What if Lebron can't improve his free throws, his left, his footwork, etc? I've watched people toss stuff like that around for a long time.. but at some point, maybe we just have to deal with the fact that he can't make any significant improvements to these areas of his game. It may sound crazy to some, but we also have to realize Lebron is a freak athlete with insane power/strength. I imagine he got away with ALOT, in terms of over-utilizing his athleticism while he was developing as a child, teen, and young adult (and even in the NBA). These are very important years that you can't get back. If you look at someone like Curry, well, he absolutely has to be much better than Lebron at shooting free-throws, 3-ptrs, ball handling, etc. If he wasn't, he wouldn't even be a starter.

So the possibility that Lebron has reached a ceiling skill-wise is definitely there. And with that, he's managed to help get his teams to 6 straight finals, 7 total, various awards/accolades, 2 championships, gold medals, stat sheet monster, among the greatest stat-wise in several departments in HISTORY, etc.

I'm fairly certain he knows he's not ice-cold from the free-throw line to close out games.. How can you practice that? You can't.. that's just something you acquire over the years, or you just don't have it. It's very possible that he just DOESN'T have it. But he makes up for it in so many other ways. That has to be acknowledged.

Look at someone like Rodman.. he figured out exactly who he is. He's considered an all-time great. I'm sure we could go on and on about all of the things he could have improved in his game, but didn't; shooting, ball handling, free throws, etc. I'm sure he tried for a while, then realized it might be better to just hone-in on who he is and contribute in different ways. People rarely criticize him because they've realized who he is, a monster rebounder/defender/leader.

That reason above, is why I just don't understand many of the Lebron criticisms.. He's not Kobe, MJ, Magic etc.. He has his faults, but somehow he keeps winning. I think that needs to be respected as a skill in itself. He's a dominant force when he's out there; rebounding, assisting, scoring, leadership etc. He can dominate in any form.

Finally, again i'll go back to his athleticism.. How many times have we seen freak athletes do absolutely nothing in the nba, or never even make it to the nba. I'm sure most of us who have played basketball on the streets have seen people who are just freaky athletic but never do anything. Lebron could have been "that guy". He's worked on his game HARD in order to not be, that guy. He could have easily have never developed a jumper at all, or the court vision he has. He could have been obsessed with dunking/power and that's about it.



edit: for those who don't know about his h.s. football background: http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5360552

In reality he's a two sport athlete.. He wisely chose basketball. People with his power don't usually have nearly the kind of finesse he has. He's a damn NFL Tight-end out there who can light it up from anywhere on the court.

Also, as far as his nickname.. I have no idea if he named himself "King James" or other people around him did.. It's fair to say it's just going to be his nickname, given it's one of the first things you think of when trying to create a nickname for someone with the last name "James", since for some reason we all know about a King named James.

And Kobe named himself the Black Mamba.... relax people.

I wouldn't say his ego is any bigger than MJ or Kobe.. MJ fought steve Kerr during a practice, got in numerous fights. Kobe got into several fights (chris childs lit him up), he was hated by many of his teammates and those around the league. How many fights has Lebron been in? Maybe that says alot about his personality (or how the NBA changed).. Maybe he just isn't as much of a KILLER as Kobe or MJ. I'd definitely say he isn't. He's this weird mix of scorer, assist-man, rebounder, freak athlete, great leader, etc.

Now if only Shaq had developed a Jumper and improved his free-throws............... 

pc! ;f

Great, great, great post. 

Just wanted to add a few things. 

First point about Lebrons athleticism.  You did a great job articulating a myth that needs to die - that Lebron James is just a big beast.  People need to realize that Lebron James is simply not THAT athletic.  What I mean by this is he isn't who he is because he is big and strong.  I play basketball with a guy at the gym who is 6'7 275 (former football player) and he is ok at pickup ball until a decent 6'4 or taller guy guards him.  Could someone dominate basketball through sheer athleticism alone?  Sure.  I'm sure I could dominate without practice in the NBA if I had my athleticism but was scaled up to about 9 feet tall.  Basketball is still a skill.   Lebrons size would make me a beast at the high school level but I would have to put in some serious work to even be an ok d1 player even if I had that height...  Lebrons gifts are not common but they are not so rare that he is the only guy in the world with them.  Everyone who thinks that Lebron is just athleticism should look at Jimmy Grahm of the Seattle Seahawks.  He is 6'7 260 and has NFL level speed and played basketball at the University of Miami.  He is a beast football player.  He basically has approximately Lebrons physical gifts and was an average college basketball player...  That's what Lebron was born with - a body that would get him to come off the bench of play as a mediocre college basketball player even if he didn't put in much work on his game.   Sure that's more than most of us are born with.  And it's more than Steph curry was born with (Less than Shaq was born with though).  But he has surpassed it by so much that it is really unfair to characterize him as just a physical force...

As far as your second point about improving weaknesses... You are right.  We can't look at a player with deficiencies and claim the player is lazy for not improving them because you simply can't say that because one player has easily improved some facet of his game that so too could another...  Individual variation is such that some things are really hard for some people and some things come easy to others...

However what we can do is two things... Look at how much better the player would be if he improved it - and use the evidence we have to make an educated guess about whether the players inability to improve is primarily from his laziness or from his individual variation. 

Take Rodman.  Would he have been better if he shot a higher percentage from the line?  Yes.  Everyone would.  Steph curry would be better if he shot 96% instead of 92%.  But how much better would Rodman have been?  He didn't attack the basket or go to the line much... We can assume it would have helped but not much... It's like Peyton manning if he had worked more on his speed... If he ran a 5.1 40yd instead of a 5.8 40yd or whatever terrible time he ran... Those few times he had to scramble he would have been better but they were few and far between cause that wasn't his game...

Shaq on the other hand would have been far far far better if he could have shot just 65% rather than 50%.  I forget the stats but I think he would have averaged something like 35 pts a game or something had he just shot slightly better from the line...  Free throws are kind of the special case in basketball because everyone shoots them.  You can say a player is better if he shoots 20% from three instead of 15% (because he certainly isn't worse) but it might make very little difference because he still shoots too low of a rate to justify his team wanting that shot at anytime except when the shot clock is expiring...

Now given that Shaq would have been much better at basketball if he could have shot free throws... Let's make an educated guess about how hard he worked at this skill?  He filmed Kazaam in the offseason.  He waited till season to get surgery because he "wanted to heal on company time".  He said dumb things like "I make them when it counts".  Now that's not proof he didn't work on it but my educated guess is that he was satisfied being really good and didn't feel the need to put in extra work to be even better and it pissed guys like Kobe off... This isn't to say that he could have gotten better if he practiced... It's just to say we will never know because I don't think he practiced his free throws as hard as he could have...

As far as Lebrons weaknesses.  You make great points to refute a lot of Chris Ms claims.  However I will admit I am somewhat swayed by Chris Ms free throw argument...  After seeing kawai Leonard raise his percentage, seeing Magic Johnson raise it every year, seeing even Tim Duncan finally raise it after years of struggles I do find it a bit suspicious that Lebron hasn't raised it at all is troubling... The fact that he shot 75% as a rookie and 71 and 73% the last two years does not make sense to me... I mean we don't know.  Maybe a hand injury that hasn't been reported... But you would expect a player fresh out of high school who simply hasn't gotten as many reps in to be able to improve his ft rate at least somewhat... I'm not saying he should shoot 90% but anything about 80% would be sufficient to convince me he does everything possible to make himself better...

Still.  Go Lebron.  I'm a Lebron fan and here is the moment I became a huge fan.  Back when Instagram was in its infancy I was following Lebron at the height of his non-popularity when he had just joined the heat... He posted a picture of his wife with a caption that said something like "I love my beautiful queen".   A commenter wrote "your the best player in the world but sorry bro your girl is about a 5". 

Now most celebrities would do the smart thing and ignore the trolling of mean spirited fans like this.  The most immature celebrities would engage the fan and say something mean back or try and ruin their life on social media (see Rihanna)... What did Lebron do?

He responded.  With a sad face emoji.  That's it.  Maybe it doesn't strike the rest of people but I thought it was so brilliant.  No engagement.  No need to remind the fan that he is a loser and "I am Lebron James and have millions of dollars".   Just the humanistic response to say with a single emoticon that "hey man I'm sorry you sad that it hurts my feelings cause it's mean."  Brilliant.   

my disdain for lbj is purely from the way he approaches bball.  he is very powerful and athletic but just don't have a whole lot of finesse.  the way he moves isn't as appealing as other players to me (probably just matter of personal taste).  if he truly loves the game of bball he would be balling all day everyday and making himself a better player.  i'm 42 and i still improve my game each year, if little by little...  if he wasn't so egotistic then i wouldn't hate him, he'd just be another nba star to me.

and i absolutely hate floppers.  i look down upon all floppers.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fSlLdXNzPw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fSlLdXNzPw</a>

look at his hilariously bad footwork.  and the blind ass refs don't even call it when they're right in front of it...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptH0DyiomvE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptH0DyiomvE</a>

Fair enough.  I'm not gonna argue about matters of taste - he doesn't have to be your favorite player or even one of your favorites... But usually when we hate somebody - especially someone we don't know it's a reflection of ourselves first and foremost...

You can criticize him all you want but just ask yourself if that's really what bothers you and if it bothers you when others do it as well?  By all accounts Kobe and MJ are a million times more egotistical than Lebron (players overwhelming would rather be teammates w a prime Lebron than Kobe) so do you hate them as well?

You hate flopping so do KD and RW bother you when they flail their legs to draw fouls on ridiculous three point shots even though they get far more calls than Lebron who when he doesn't flop gets completely mauled and refs often make no calls because of some misguided notion that strong players should be allowed to be fouled?

And please don't compare yourself to LBJ as far as your love for the game. You are still getting better at the game at 42 so this means what?  Are you busting your ass at work to be the absolute best at whatever job you do?  Basketball is a hobby for you.  Loving your hobby is completely different.  If you have ever played sports at any high level you would understand burnout and how amazing it is that LBJ has been playing basketball and breathing and sleeping basketball from age 10 till now and is still able to even make it to practice.  Most of us would be so sick of playing a game for a living and just want to get out of it and talk about something of substance after 20 years!  His love for the game is ridiculous.  There's a reason Jordan took two years off and played baseball and it's not just cause he lost his father.  Playing professional basketball at that level or anything for that matter is draining as hell and the desire to do anything else would hit 99% of us a lot faster than it has it the top guys.  Say what you want about them but they love the game.  Those that don't do not last.

Your questions are a little fragmented and all over the place so I think it's best you stick with facts and focus on your goals when you do your programming, here's the key points where your understanding is perhaps incomplete and where you should focus on your program design:

1) Weight/Fat Loss.  First of all - do you even need to achieve more weight loss or is 165-170 weight range sufficiently light to maximize your jump performance?   This is something you have to figure out - the only way to know for sure is to lose weight slowly until performance suffers - right before this point is when you are the ideal weight.  This is highly individual and involves a lot endocrinology and morphological variation.  One piece of advice to keep in mind is to not dogmatically stick to any recommendation about bw - even one given to you by Kadour Ziani.  KZ is obviously a great leaper but he is also a single leg jumper with a traditional North African body type - short torso and very long lean legs.  You have a long torso, short legs and jump off two feet.  In general your body type will be heavier at the same level of leanness.  Don't use this as an excuse to be fat but keep it in mind. 

1b). If you do decide to lose weight - realize that you have already done the easy part.  You are already lean.  There isn't much more you are gonna get from losing additional weight - but then again the last inch or two can be what makes your dunk happen.  At your leanness levels some type of system work will be paramount to weight loss.  I like your idea of using your active recovery to kill two birds with one stone and speed up weight loss while recovering.  Slow steady state cardio isn't bad but I would mix in some more tempo work as well.  Just remember that if you are using running to recovery to stay off flat hard surfaces if possible.  Try to find a soft surface or at least a hill to keep shock down. 

2) Upper body.  Here is my only strong recommendation for you.  Drop the upper body day.  In fact drop the the "lower body day".  I don't know what your training split it as far as weight training but in general you need to drop the body part split.  This isn't to say you are precluded from upper body lifts or training completely.  IMO aside from core work you don't need to do much upper body training for vertical jump performance BUT if your coaches suggest pull-ups or push press or some upper body movements you can include them in your training but they don't need their own day.  You can do 3 lower body movements and one core and upper body movement when you train - you certainly don't need an upper body day.

3) Jump.  Finally, you need to always remember that you are a jumping athlete now.  Understand that the bulk of your energy needs to be put toward jumps.  Jumps w various steps, surfaces, weighted, unweighted, resisted, etc.  Also to dunk you must start practicing spending a great deal of time w a basketball!

Damn great game again! I really like both squads but I'm feeling for OKC, they're working so hard and playing great team ball. Then GSW comes down the court and it's a flick of the wrist 3pt shot that just looks so easy. Just like that they take the lead despite not having played a great game.

Both teams are worthy of winning the series but I'd just feel bad seeing OKC lose when they've played the better basketball thoughout the series. Damn it's tough. Logically I'm thinking GSW will win with home court, the way they conserve energy, and curry being a better closer than Westbrook. Great stuff though.

Interesting that you think OKC played the better basketball.  I believe GS had more assists, fewer turnovers, higher shooting percentage, etc.  All the hallmarks of what I consider good basketball.

Russell Westbrook really is a force to be reckoned with.  Amazing.  But Kevin Durants reliance on free throws and the thunders attempts to draw shooting fouls on jumpers is really frustrating to watch imo... Also, the fact that they have so many possessions that start with a bad miss and a offensive rebound and put back by one of their garbage collectors is imo just bad basketball...

ya adams is so beast.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQogqwWSp_g" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQogqwWSp_g</a>

draymon posterized.

Seriously though, I love the DG was posterized too.  So much to love about that play.  I love the DG still had a bunch of blocks that game because he has no fear, he doesn't fear getting dunked on despite being undersized he keeps making an effort and can live with the fact that helping his team as one of the greatest 6'7" shot blockers of all time you will on occasion get completely posterized!

Also love that the underrated Adams got a chance to show out what a beast he is.  I thought about how the commentary blamed OKC about how they lost cause KD and RW were playing "hero ball" and realized that the reason they play such blatant hero ball is because they usually don't get punished for it because of their selfless supporting cast... I mean how many times does Roberson or Adams or somebody convert an airball or bad miss into a bucket or extra possession?  These guys are so good at cleaning up the glass that a bad miss is hardly disincentivised...  Nice to see the major improved Steven Adams get a chance to shine once in awhile!

T0ddday did he ever get onto you about training over in LA?

No I never heard from the man

Did back and biceps Tuesday night. Shot some last night and omg. It took me almost 45 mins to get my jumper even feeling remotely normal lol! Handle came along nicely with some drilling. Now the interesting part (well to me)....Jumping.

Im not getting up as i should be due to lack of practice, my efficiency is wayyyy down. So i noted a few things. Number 1, since im unable to carry my normal speed into my approach i tried a semi JusFly approach where i 'hopped' into the plant. Boom. Instant inches even tho it felt weird as shit. Seems like the reactive forces are still there they just arent turned 'on' yet due to my low plant speed. Im sure with some practice my normal speed will return but it was a nice little 'experiment'

Secondly, Ive been hammering legs with both volume and weight lately but ill be damned if my quads werent sore after 3 or 4 max jumps! Now, my quads are on point right now (IMO lol) so this confised me slightly and i thought it was maybe a conditioning thing but as i kept jumping i realized im feeling the jumps MUCH differently than any squat or leg exercises i do in the weight room.  I usually feel the outer quad and across the top of my thigh on most stuff and vmo/glute on BSS and such but in my jumps it was the quad insertion points to the knee that are sore sore SORE. (Excluding VMO since ive been working on it a lot). So...it reminded me of what raptor has been screaming forever about his quads shutting down even when hes strong in the weight room in quad dominant exercises. We just arent targeting the right area of the quadmaybe?! Big question now is: CAN I target that area in the weight room or is it something that only comes with repetitive jumps.


Hmmmmmm.

Watch out. Watch out. Watch out.  Younghollywood has been shutdown by an injury and that's exactly how he described the initial signs before it that he ignored... Soreness right there that happened when he started lifting more along with dunking... Led to quadriceps tendon tendinitis... Prp and rehab and he still dealing w it now... Yours could totally be different but figured I would pass on the story...