Again, today's blog is probably a no-brainer. In about an hour and a half, I will be entering my giant tan van to head southeast toward Durham, New Hampshire for my first official power soccer game as a member of the Vermont Chargers. I think that this will be a good experience for all of us since it is much different to play during practice than in a game. I know from watching many basketball practices over the years that the intensity is not always there like it is in a game. So, hopefully we will be able to get right into the right mindset to play aggressively as well as cleanly. By clean, I mean fair of course, but I have never doubted our team's ability in this area. The clean that we need to work on is turnover free soccer. With only three players on the court, everyone is pretty much used to attack when you are in possession of the ball. Therefore, any turnover means a fast-break on the goalie one-on-one or maybe even two on one. Of course, as they are in basketball, fast breaks are almost always goals.
On the defensive side, we need to play tough one-on-one defense since you are not allowed to double-team. The only way to make sure that you do not give up a goal is to shut down whoever happens to be in your zone or who you assigned to in man-to-man. However, to use the basketball analogy again, there needs to be help defense if someone gets beat. However, if I'm focusing on my man or woman, how will I know if one of my teammates gets beat? The answer is communication. We need to talk and make sure that we are willing to help each other. I just need to pay attention because I might get so into the game that I might not pay attention.
With these ideas in mind, wish us luck, and I'll update you all tomorrow on how we do!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Excited!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Absolute
Sorry I couldn't write yesterday. There's something about finals that puts all of us into overdrive. Anyway, enough with the apologies and onto Fiction Friday!
I returned back into the hole in the wall. I decided I had to go back. There is something awesome about freedom, but there's also something somewhat terrifying. How to operate without rules? Without some sort of absolute moral system, how could I ever know whether or not what I was doing was right? However, I knew that there had to be something beyond the walls of that city. In the city, we had no justification for why the laws are made. We had rules, and they were the absolute. If only we had some sort of book or manual for this type of thing. We had manuals to build things and directions to go to different parts of the city, but there was not even a book that outlines the laws. I had heard that a long time ago there were books that wrote down the laws so that people would know what they could and couldn't do. There even books that told what was right and wrong even beyond the law.
I desired this; I wanted to know there was something beyond just the words of the leaders. I wanted to know that there was something beyond the walls of our city. I had been outside the walls, and I didn't know what to do out there. How could I know what freedom was until I knew how to interpret it?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Fantasy Problems
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, one of my fantasy teams is cursed with too many good outfielders. I have Adam Dunn, Garrett Jones, Chris Young, and Alex Rios but only have three outfield spots. I know you're thinking, move either Adam Dunn or Garrett Jones to first base. Well, I have Prince Fielder there. Okay then, put one of the outfielders at DH. Well, I have too many good players, so I have Ian Kinsler at DH who is batting .320 since he returned from injury and Casey McGehee at second who possesses one of the hottest bats in all of baseball right now. Then, what do I do? Play let's make a deal! My pitching staff is particularly weak at the moment. Basically, it consists of Ubaldo Jimenez and a bunch of other guys. I have David Aardsma and Joakim Soria as well, but I'm not a fan of using relief pitchers in head-to-head leagues. So, that's what I'm shooting for. I don't know if any of my fantasy league groupmates read this blog (even though they should), but I am open to making a deal right now for outfielders. Also, what do you do when you have one of the most consistent catchers in the game in Jorge Posada as well as Carlos Ruiz who is batting .350 and has the fourth most points among catchers? I hate to rely fully on Carlos Ruiz despite the fact that he is a Phillie because he has never been known for his amazing bat. Anyway, enough of my problems, but if anybody has any advice in regards to any of these dilemmas or have any dilemmas you want my two cents on, write me either an e-mail or some comments below!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Physics of Power Soccer
I wrote a few days ago asking why a mid-wheel drive wheelchair would have more problems generating power on a spin shot than a rear-wheel drive chair would. However, as I thought about this I knew the answer had to be physics related as my friends Ben and Evan pointed out. So, jumping off of what they gave me, I decided to do a little research of my own through the little I remember from physics to see why my chair seemingly has a disadvantage while spinning.
So, speed is obviously a factor. However, being that this is turn speed, we need to use the equation for angular velocity which is 2π/T where T is the period in seconds. However, all this proves is how many radians per second you are turning. Therefore, we need to multiply this by the radius of rotation to get the most actual velocity. So, the entire equation turns out to be v= (2πR) ÷ T where v is the speed, R is the turn radius, and T is the time period needed to rotate. Therefore, there are two ways to increase the velocity; either you need to increase your turn radius or decrease the time it takes to make that turn. Ideally, if you could increase the radius as well as decrease the time you make the most gains.
This is not the answer that satisfies me because I spin just as quickly as the rear wheel drive chairs. Therefore, I believe that the radius has the largest effect on shot power. The distance between them my rotational axis and the front of my guard is much less than that of a rear wheel drive chair. There is no way I can fix this in my current chair, but it is nice to know that there might be some rational reason as to why I cannot hit the ball quite as hard.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Strategic Gaming
Let's talk about power soccer strategy again. It seems as if an effective way to get around the defender is to use the defender him or herself to bounce the ball off of. It seems like if the ball bounces off of the back tire in such a way that most players cannot turn on it. I know that that is my weakest area. Therefore, I think that is what I have to do use a similar strategy to the one that confuses me on my opponents. Also, I think that by playing off the back tire forces the defender to either stop or go in reverse which I would assume would be weaker than going forward. Also, if they're going backwards, they will need to pay more attention to where they are driving since it is a more difficult skill. Now, you will have turned driving forward versus an opponent who will either be driving backward which would be his or her weaker direction, or he or she will have to turn and therefore you will be long gone. With one defender down, you will have a three on two fast-break out of which there are millions of possibilities to finish off the goal.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Equal Opportunity Dislike
I was watching AAU basketball today, and I came to a new revelation about referees. Most of the time, many people would say that the perfect ref would call a "perfect game." However, what is the perfect game? I doubt that very many of us would want the refs to call everything. I believe that in the rulebook, basketball is an almost noncontact sport. I may be wrong about this, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that there should be very limited contact allowed in a game of basketball. Therefore, if the refs called everything that could possibly be deemed a foul, I would still be in Lake Placid right now. So, obviously we do not want the refs call everything that could possibly be deemed a foul. The direct opposite of this is the refs who will not call anything. I think most of us would agree that this is not ideal either. Therefore, there needs to be some balance of whether or not a ref is doing a good job. I realized today that the ref that is doing a good job would be equally disliked by both teams. Nobody wants to be disliked, but if both teams are booing the refs with equal intensity, it at least means the refs are being consistent. There is nothing worse than biased refs, so I was comforted today as both teams and sets of fans were upset with the refs. Obviously they were not calling the ideal balance of fouls, but at least I was happy to see that the refs were being fair, right or wrong.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Radical Sport
I think that I should invent a new sport. As I sit here in my hotel room in Lake Placid, I'm looking at a framed photograph on the wall of the Olympic ski jump towers that were used in 1980. How awesome would wheelchair ski jumping be? No, you don't have to call the cops; this is not some sort of odd suicide plot. I just think it would be awesome to have wheelchairs flying through the air given the fact that the landing would be something that I could do more than once. However, I do have proof that wheelchairs can fly without wings or jet engines. Don't believe me? Watch this YouTube video. I'm convinced that some type of device of this sort could be rigged to make a wheelchair fly off of a ski jump tower. Granted, this wouldn't really be ski jumping in the classic sense, but I think that obviously a way that would not be deadly would be worth compromising the original sport slightly. Also, I wonder how you could adapt this for a much heavier wheelchair such as my own. It would need to be a pretty major sail. I don't know, but it seems that people are so resourceful that somebody will develop wheelchair ski jumping for those people who in my opinion would be crazy enough to try it.
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