So i'm blessed with a remarkably good girlfriend (who admittedly wears the trousers in our relationship), who also comes with a great set of in-laws. Now the point of this is not to boast about my personal life (it's pretty great!) but rather to say they kindly gave me 2 tickets to the BBL finals which I took the aforementioned girlfriend too last weekend.
It was the first game I've been too in a good number of years and actually a damned good one to watch with the Newcastle Eagles playing Plymouth Raiders in what was, if memory serves, the highest scoring BBL final ever.
The day started with the womens BBL finals which was a slower pace but served to teach the girlfriend the rules and they admittedly are a darned sight better than me still!! Entertainment was provided in the form of the BBL Babes (see picture below), which in reality was a bunch of fairly attractive girls wiggling around in time to the music. With the missus sitting next to me and a liking for my testicles remaining attached to my body, this was only mildly enjoyed wiggling.
However, admittedly the more impressive entertainment was a troup of europeans called the All-Star Dunkers (or something similar) which used trampets to perform truly impressive acrobatic dunks.Think 360 somersaults *mid-air* ending with a dunk, and this is when they're warming up! Truly an impressive act to see and deserving of much greater applause than the already reasonable amount they were given.
The dunk competition equally deserves a mention as there were some clearly impressive athletes. I do feel we've been somewhat desensitized in terms of expectations within dunk competitions by being able to watch some of the top NBA dunkers compete in all star competitions on youtube. I certainly tend to forget just how hard it is even to put down a standard 1 handed dunk (I can't even do this), let alone jumping over another guy to tomahawk it down into the basket!! As for youtube, there was a guest "joe public" dunker from youtube which sadly despite a clearly impressive vertical, was unable to put the rock in the hoop.
The day ended with the main event of the mens game starring the Newcastle Eagles and the Plymouth Raiders. I wont even attempt to provide any running commentary on the game but I will say it was a great game, some superb individual performances, particularly by Charles Smith of the Eagles who seemed unable to miss a shot! However, Newcastle started very strong and whilst Plymouth never looked like a weak team, they never truly looked a threat to Newcastle despite getting to back within 10 points at times; this was typically down to Newcastles defence stopping Plymouth ever really getting up to speed.
I'd whole heartedly recommend trying to catch the game somewhere online if you can and in the meantime a full review by someone much mroe knowledgeable than me can be found here: http://www.bbl.org.uk/?nilsen-eagles-win-x-factor-final,3129.
I want to end this post by talking about my plans / goals for training as my initial ambition has been tempered by reality. Our season ends in March so I'm looking to spend from now until then getting in good overall shape. This then allows me to focus on strength training as this seems to be my biggest area of weakness currently until pre-season. Finally use pre-season to get cardio back up to match fitness level and ensure the strength is being utilised appropriately just in time for the next season!
Well that's the plan anyway...
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