Zen and The Art of Pickup Basketball

I'm not a great basketball player, but I am a good hooper. I can step into any pickup game and contribute. Usually I start with rebounds and assists. Hustle plays. I use fitness to my advantage. I run hard, change speed, set picks and box out.

I've recently fallen in with a group of guys that run early games four days a week. It's the first time I'm playing outside of a league or big city walk up games; it's also the first time I'm playing regularly in about 10 years. I've gotten to know most of the guys (not personal stuff, just how they play). I have days where I'm able to use my fitness to dominate certain games, and I have days where nothing goes in and I revert to picking and boxing out.

The best part is the heart rate data is generally the same whether I did great or stunk it up. Just over an hour, 1,000+ cals burned and a ton of sweat given. As I continue to play, the data gets better. Less peaks, still high effort heart rates but it's slowly smoothing out. We run full court games to 25, usually 4 of them in a session. If there's more than 10 we sub in 1 or 2 pairs every 3 made buckets. If there's 16, we run 2 games of 4v4 on 2 courts.

The age range is late 20s to early 60s. Everyone is competent; some are former high school and college ballers, some are guys that picked it up late in life.

A few months ago, I took off and landed on someone's foot. I knew right away it was bad. I had sprained my ankle on both sides and it swelled like a balloon right away. Limping out, the oldest guy in the group Joe, a guy in his early 60s that still plays good ball, said "see ya in a week".

We both knew that wasn't true. I took 14 weeks off. It's still not 100% - but almost.

I get daily lessons from these games. There are guys I gel with and guys I don't gel with. I play with and against all of them on different days. I've learned how to help facilitate a 'ball hog' and how to become the shooter on a weaker team. I've figured out how to play in the post and use size, as well as play perimeter and shoot long range in transition.

I've never been a morning person but I'm now up at 5am and excited to go in every day. It's been a great change for me and one that I hope keeps going for a long time. Thanks to guys like Joe, I can see it happening.

It's important to find this group; it can be anything. Golf, CrossFit, Pickleball, Chess, Music, Yoga - whatever you like, just a group that elevates you, challenges you and pushes you to improve; free of judgement and full of encouragement.