How to choose the right basketball shoes for you

Recently I've had a number of people ask me how to select the right basketball shoe for them and indeed, where to look for advice.

Now I'm no expert by any means and usually a great deal of my advice is go and talk to people more experienced / knowledgeable than me however, failing this advice there are a good few basics to consider and places to look online.

So first off consider what kind of a player you are, not just in terms of style but equally body size, weight, position you play, how much pain your joints give you etc. This is important as people who are heavier or have poorer joint health usually prefer more cushioning to reduce the impact of jumping on their body. Whilst individuals who play a forward or post role should likely look for more heel stability and ankle support due to the increased physicality of the position.

Conversely if your a small guard who slashes a lot then you would likely prefer a lighter shoe, potentially a low top, with better court feel.

Now of course there's also personal taste and preference to take into account, not to mention how they look. This of course doesn't play any scientific part in your performance but often psychologically feeling like you look like the dogs bollocks helps you play just that little better!

Now personally the following sites are the ones I tend to check more regularly for reviews but it's always worth having a good google (other search providers are available) around before purchasing anything.

• http://blog.blacklotus9.com/
• http://blog.eastbay.com/reviews/
• http://counterkicks.com/
• http://kicksnet.com/
• I know I'm missing an obvious one but can't think of it right now...will come back and edit!

Lastly, go and try them on, even if it's not where you end up buying them from there really is no substitute for doing this as there's no telling how a shoe will fit to your foot. I personally know I went to try on the Nike Hyperfuse after they reviewed fantastically and found where the toe box bent was painful on my foot, tried the Kobe VI and whilst incredibly comfortable I just couldn't trust the lack of ankle support, finally I ended up with the Nike Hyperdunk 2011 which have served me well (pic below).



Nike is far an above one of the easier brands to get in the UK (personally I recommend either Hoopz underneath Footlocker in Oxford Street, London or Nike in Westfield in Stratford City), Adidas can be bought from there website but is difficult to find anywhere else, finally Underarmour is a great up and coming brand but again difficult to get in the UK. Other brands such as And1, Reebok etc are available but tend not to be as strong contenders from what I've seen.

Good luck and happy shopping!

BBL Finals and a plan

This evening I've missed basketball training, my excuses for this are that I took too long cooking some damned good cajun chicken and nachos and after playing yesterday I sustained a strain to my thumb. Whilst these are justifiable and reasonable excuses, I still feel a little bit guilty! So I'll attempt to ease this guilt by a post here and probably a solid stretching session later this evening. Here goes:

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...

How time flies...

Ok, I admit it I'm a lazy bum and things didn't go quite to plan. Whilst I had the best of intentions when I wrote my initial posts, sadly these intentions were not necessarily fully realised in the timeframes intended.

So what happened? In short I found a myriad of what I'll continue to refer to as 'good' excuses to avoid actually starting exercising. Anything from being ill (man flu), the boiler breaking which meant cold showers and I didn't fancy more than the minimum necessary on a daily basis, and last but by no means least, stuffing my face with Christmas dinners etc.

That said post Christmas stuffing and complete with working boiler I'm back on the wagon and the workout hath begun.

I'm now into week 3 over the past 2 weeks having completed:

• 3 basketball training sessions (2 hours a peice)
• 2 basketball skirmish sessions (2 hours a peice)
• 1 plyometrics session
• 2 upper body weight sessions
• 2 legs sessions including squats and deadlifts
• 1 climbing session (well bouldering actually)
• 2 squash games

I'm not going to lie, it's been knackering and there's been a couple of days where I've seriously questioned whether or not I could skip a session, but so far I've only missed 1 basketball training session due to food poisoning which seems fair to me.

Further to this I've upped my protein and carbs intake. After purchasing the myprotein.com "big deal bundle" (or something like that) which contained:

• Omega 3 capsules
• Daily vitamins
• Instant oats
• Creatine
• Dextrose
• True Whey Protein (Milk Chocolate flavour)

This is my first time trying all of these products and I've only ever taken protein previously. Obviously it's only been 2 weeks so far but I've found the instant oats work as a good initial start to the day with a hit of protein too. Then again in the afternoon to effectively fit 2 more meals into the day (finding it hard to actually eat enough otherwise!)

As for the quality of the products, I've not got much to compare against, the capsules / tablets are pretty much what you'd expect, nothing much to differentiate them. Instant oats could mix better but don't have much flavour and still easily go down in a shake whilst helping to keep energy up. The creatine and dextrose I really can't comment on as of yet, it's too early to see much gains from the creatine but feel like it is making a difference, the dextrose I likely won't invest in moving forward as I'm not seeing any noticeable difference between taking it and not.

Finally the protein really is good, it mixes easily, the flavour is superb and quality appears high in terms of grams of protein per serving. I've used Optimum nutrition previously and whilst these seemed better than many other brands I'd tried I would highly recommend www.myprotein.com to any one wanting to get hold of some supplements. (Equally their customer service has been superb).

I'll keep you posted on how the weeks go and will give some idea of what my actual sessions are composed of later this week. For now those of you who have had great intentions for a while, but not quite acted on them yet, just bite the bullet, once you've started it's much easier to keep going.

The starting blocks

Some basic information to get things started:

• I'm a bloke
• 6'2"
• Weigh approximately 12 stone or 168 lbs
• Currently running 5km in about 23-25 minutes
• Vertical jump - I can only just scrape finger tips against a standard height ring

I'm unsure what realistic targets for the period will be but I'm looking to be able to complete:

• 35 minutes of interval running on a treadmill (incline 1, 2 minutes sprint, 30 sec rest)
• Able to comfortably grasp the ring of a standard height basketball hoop
• Improved general ball handling skills, especially left handed dribble and simple cross-overs

Training regime is very slack at current time, with approx 1 x 2 hour basketball game a week, 1 x 1.5 hour basketball training session a week and typically 1 other activity for approx 1 hour session, typically the gym.

The next few days will see me start to compile suggested training routines, eating expectations (I'm not dieting or anything too dramatic but intend to keep track of diet for others to compare against), protein and supplement intakes and finally any additional resources required / at my disposal.

With the above in mind I'd be terribly greatful for any suggestions anyone has to work into any of the above, or indeed add to it.

Who knows what 6 weeks or so can bring...

Opening Statement

Blogging is a new experience for me, with it no doubt a new challenge. This first entry I hope will outline why the devil I thought this would be a good idea and what, if anything, I hope to get out of it, let alone anyone else!

So let's start with the title: Ad Hoc. Ad Hoc means something is created with a specific purpose or justification, which is then closed or changed to deal with another area. Of course this isn't anything you couldn't of gained from www.dictionary.com so heres the value add...the stimulus for starting this blog is a specific personal project I'm embarking on over the coming weeks, but fully expect this aim to wander onto other subjects as time goes on.

With that out of the way, lets get onto the meaty bit, the what! I expect this blog to cover my main interests at any one time, whilst a large proportion is going to be focussed on sports (basketball), training and exercise expect the following topics to regularly pop up:

• Food - because lord knows there's a fatty inside me waiting to come out
• Fashion - or more precisely what my girlfriend tells me I look good in
• Business - I don't intend to comment upon the wider economics but rather those areas relevant to me
• Gaming - plainly put, I'm a massive geek
• AOB - covering my ass just in case I feel like writing anything else that pops into my head

However, that said my initial focus and indeed the stimulus for starting this blog is that I currently play for a local league basketball team (division 3 - yes that means I'm not very good for those of you wondering!) and I'm looking to 'up my game'. This means that following my last game pre-christmas on the 7th of December I will be spending the weeks up until our next game on the 24th of January looking to better myself in areas such as vertical jump, general fitness, ball handling skills and shooting.

This may seem somewhat broad but the reality is because I'm not all that good, gains in all of these areas should be fairly realistic. The following posts will go into my plan for this in more detail but I'm hoping this blog will provide a place to share the real-world, real-life effects of training, diet and general living with those hoping to give similar things a go; whilst also earnestly opening up what I'm doing to the wider world for criticism and let's face it...help!

So thank you in advance for reading, I hope this helps some people as well as myself and provides entertainment to a few others along the way.