‘GIVEN the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain’ – William Faulkner.
I pop four red little pills of Ibuprofen into my mouth and get ready for another battle on the hard-court.
It’s our seventh training session of the week and we’re only four days into the season.
I pack my gear into my bag: tiger-balm, basketball shoes, white and green vest, water bottle, Red Bull. I switch into basketball mode.
This has been a tough preseason for me. The training schedule has doubled and my body has gotten older.
I started pre-season with a niggle in my back – and my knees have been an on-going battle as long as I can remember.
But don’t feel sorry for me just yet; every player who has been playing as long as me has pain somewhere. A sob story along the basketball highway.
When I was 20, I was already preparing for a career in basketball plagued by tendonitis in my knees; a dull pain that gnaws away at you until you accept it, move on and then, all of a sudden, sharp angrier pains emerge that scream when you run, jump or walk up and down stairs.
My physiotherapist at the time simply said, ‘Basketball is a high maintenance sport’ and handed me an ice pack and box of Ibuprofen. She was right.
Still, there is something to be said about facing and overcoming physical or mental pain in sport. It gives you confidence – opening up your mind to self inflicted barriers about what you can and can’t do.
I remember running hill sprints during pre-season at Franklin Pierce College in New York in the US. It seemed like hours – our coach moving further and further away.
He was like some God, the light shining behind him, silhouetted, staring down at us from the top of the hill.
Desperately trying to reach him; sprinting up, being barked at, jogging back down, sprinting back up, then back down and up, and never, ever, STOPPING!
Stop and be kicked off the team was the message. Some did and they were gone.
Pre-season tends to be harsh and this one is certainly brutal, but there is a serious tone this year. We’re hungry to win, win, and win some more.
That is the business we are now in and success is what is demanded, this year more than ever.
I can see in our eyes and attitude that the BBL league championship is not something to aim for this season, but something tangible and maybe even expected. Thankfully, with four trophies on offer, winning the league won’t be our only shot at glory.
The tone has been set and I have been feeling the screens (screen equals running into a tree) from our bigs (big equals a man upwards of 6ft 7in built like a vending machine).
Every player in the squad is looking sharp.
My instinct is that when the season rolls around, we’re going to charge out the gates, muscles twitching, eyes focused and minds ready.
The key is maintaining that energy over the course of the entire season and being at our best at the business end.
Little nuances will be the factor then: teamwork, tenacity, injuries, coaching and, of course, lots of Ibuprofen.
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