There hasn't been any important competitions recently so I started engaging in more physical activities. I have been quite free for the past few days so I often head down to the basketball court to play for several hours. The day before yesterday, I went there once again. As usual, the court was empty. But it wasn't surprisng. After all, how many people would be like me, going to the basketball court as soon as they finish their lunch. Well, it can't be helped. I guess I'm still a little obsessed with basketball.

I can recall the time when I first gained interest in basketball a year ago and made it my hobby. It's a pity that I did not have any breakthrough and I'm still a rookie. When I arrived at the court, I was still thinking whether I should practice my dribbling or my shooting. Nevermind, I can just practice anything. I can switch from one to the other when I get tired of it.

After 1-2 hours of practice, a few people arrived. I know most of the regulars here, but this time there were many faces that I could not recognise. It has been about two months since I last played (went to Chengdu for 1.5 months and went home for the new year.) After randomly selecting a team, we started a 3v3 match.

I don't really know my two teammates. One of them is probably 10 kg heavier than me and 5 cm taller than me. He seems to be the strong type. The other guy is thinner than me and seems to be the quick and nimble type of player. As for the opposing team, one of them was a fat guy about 15 kg heavier than me. He was as tall as I was (I've played with him several times before and his standard is average), a Secondary School student, and another guy who came with the student.

I was up against the third guy (whom I felt was slightly stronger than me), my strong teammate was up against the fat guy, and the skinny guy was up against the Secondary School student. When the match first started, it was a little hard to distinguish each other. But the guy I was up against was giving me a hard time. Not only did he have a height advantage, he was also always standing inside the red circle and did not even come out to defend.

The fat guy and the Secondary School student kept passing the ball to him whenever they had the opportunity. Each time he tried to shoot (from the 3-pointer line), I would try to jump up and intercept the ball. But I always failed and each time I turned around to look, the ball would have entered the hoop.

After letting him score so many times, I finally realised that whenever I jumped up to try and intercept the ball, he would still be able to score most of the time. Once again, I was lured back to the 3-pointer line and he scored once again. I suggested to the strong guy that we should swap the person we were marking.

But Strong Guy was so full of himself and remained in his area, waiting for someone to charge in. Alas, even the last few times when I managed to jump and shoot a few times, my opponent mocked me and claimed that it was "luck". Can't be helped, I only scored 1-3 times when I shot about 10 times.

At night I had nothing better to do so I accompanied Like to a gym. I was pretty determined to build up some muscle mass as I did not want to get dominated in the basketball court any longer. When I was in the area with the various gym equipment, I met Milk Tea Guy whom I had played basketball with before. He is about 1.82 m tall and 90 kg. He said, "Come Sky, let's train our muscles today."

Under the guidance and assistance of Milk Tea Guy, I managed to complete 4 sets of barbell exercises. Then I ran another 2 km and did one set of squats. I was very exhausted so I returned home.

The second day passed as usual. Suddenly deep into the night, amidst my grogginess, I vaguely remember that I was unable to fully extend my arms. I was still in a daze but I returned to sleep until the next morning. I noticed that my biceps were swelling up. The sharp pain from extending my arms made me unable to take part in any physical activity. Never had I experienced such a sharp pain in my muscles before.

It seems that proper exercise has to be done slowly and progressively. Now I will have to bear with the pain for the next few days...

Source: Sky's Blog