Typically, a group of guys I know play pick up basketball on Saturday afternoons. For as long as I have known and played with these guys, we have hardly played full court basketball. I'd say 99.99% of time we have played half court games with the rare exception of playing full court. Most of the guys are in the mid 30's and some are older than that, so running full court isn't always optimal.
In the past few years, we have hardly missed many weeks. Of the 52 weeks in a year, I'd say we play 80 to 85% of the time. Obviously some guys come and go due to various thing but we usually get enough to play regardless.
Alas, the past three weeks, we have not played. There were several reasons for that. One, several guys were out of town. Two, the gym we normally play at was closed for gym floor maintenance. Since we have grown to love playing indoors, the remaining guys decided to just skip playing.
As someone who typically plays a lot of basketball, I realized how much I have missed playing the past few Saturdays. First, since I didn't really play Saturdays for a few weeks, I lost a little bit of stamina and feel on my jump shot. That affected me in the first three games on my Thursday night basketball league. I was getting up and down but not as well as I normally do. Plus, my usually reliable shot was just not going in. When my shot is going, it's pretty automatic. But the past three Thursdays, I felt I was pushing my shot.
Today, the Saturday basketball crew finally got back together and played. Just about everyone was a little out of sync early because your body hasn't really moved that much in a while. I struggled with my shot quite a bit today. Because I played in league, I was in ok shape so I could rebound and hustle a little but my shot was way off.
Playing basketball today made me realize how everything works together. Lots of young kids just like to run and play full court basketball. Those pick up games end up being run and gun affairs with minimal defense played. Our guys play hard and we have to keep moving. I think playing with the Saturday crew actually has helped me get my shot more consistent during my league games. I personally don't mind playing full court pick up sometimes but it gets harder as you get older and have to run against young kids.
Lastly, even I haven't played a ton of basketball lately, I did work out at the gym a bit. There is a major difference being in decent (and healthy) shape versus being in basketball shape.
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