“My belief is stronger than your doubt.” ~Dwyane Wade
What’s Good Basketball Spotlight World,
This is my 6th Diary of A Baller entry. This week consisted of a lot of training, family time, and basketball overall. I hope you like this week’s diary!
Sunday ~ First I would like to say Happy Mother’s Day to every mother in this world! I woke up around 11 this morning, and did my morning routine like always. I started to make breakfast for my brother and I. Today we spent just about the whole day with our mom even though I had training at 3:00 p.m. with Jared. Today was going to be a skill work day because yesterday was a rep day, and I put up shots on the gun. I was working on different moves coming down into my transition shot. Also, I worked on my mid-range and floaters for most of today’s workouts. Once I got home I stretched and took an epsom salt bath. After taking my bath I proceeded to get my stuff ready for school, and I finished the night by watching a movie with my family until I went to sleep.
Monday ~ I got up and jogged a mile before getting myself ready for school. I finished my run, and had eggs with bacon for breakfast. I was pretty bummed that I didn’t have workouts this week. Although I will have them next week. I was in the gym after lacrosse practice working on my vertical by doing the workouts Coach Dana assigned to me. I ended the workout off with a cool down/recovery with the trainer at my school. Once I got home, I did my homework then went outside to work on my handles. After coming inside from working on my handles, I started helping my mom in the kitchen. We made spaghetti, and it was amazing. No wonder why I get called “Chef DJay” it’s simply because I’m a natural born chef after my mom and dad. After eating dinner I chilled down, and played the game until it was time for bed.
Tuesday ~ I woke up a little bit later this morning because I was tired from last night. I woke up, and had some Cinnamon Toast Crunch with Almond Milk for breakfast. After eating breakfast I was on my way to school with my mom. I had lacrosse practice, and it was light today. We worked on our footwork, and we got a little bit of time to play around with each other. After practice ended, I went to the weight room and worked on my legs for today. I was still mad that we couldn’t use the gym because of AP Exams, but I was able to get outside and work on some shooting on our outdoor court until it was time for me to be picked up from school. I got home and started my homework. Once I finished my homework, I went outside to work on my handles. I worked on different combo moves, and some off hand activation work. Once I finished my workout, I came back inside and finished my nightly chores. I watched The Falcon and Winter Soldier Series with my family before going to bed.
Wednesday ~ I woke up early around 4:40 a.m. because I have 5:30 workouts this morning. I ran a mile before workouts started. Unfortunately, I was off by one second in my mile from last week, and my time was 7’38” today. After training I had drank some Gatorade, and by the time I finished a few swallows, I had a very teachable moment from Coach Dana. Coach Dana showed me the label and pointed out that the Gatorade I was drinking has more than 50% added sugar and very low electrolytes. I was shown that Gatorade has Red40 ingredients, and Red40 is not something I want to put inside my body as refuel after working on my neurotransmitters to increase my sports performance. The sugar content will undo the progress and cause interference with them. Coach Dana poured out my Gatorade, told me to drink something else with more electrolytes or water and sent me to school. While walking to the car we were all laughing afterwards. After school, I went home and chilled until Christian finished his schoolwork. We started to play Warzone, so we spent about an hour or so on the game. Soon after, I started to work on my handles and then got started on my homework. By the time I finished my homework, I was tired, so I took a 2 hour nap. Once I woke up, I did my nightly chores and finished watching tv with my little brother before going to sleep.
Thursday ~ Today I ran my best time so far of 7’33” for one mile. My goal is to be in the 6 minute range soon! I was on the vertimax today, and I worked on my legs. My legs were on fire after every drill, but pushing until you can’t feel them anymore means you are putting in hard work. I didn’t let it bother me, so I kept going and going. I had a good session, and I was on my way back home so I could get ready for school. I am learning about WW2 for two of my main courses, my English and Global Perspectives classes. After a long day of school, I had lacrosse practice and it was cool. I was in the weight room doing small things to get myself stronger outside of training. Once I got home, I started my homework and then I was outside working on my handles. I helped make dinner after my workout, then chilled by watching some basketball highlights and games on YouTube. I stayed up to listen to J Cole’s new album “The Off-Season” and the album is by far the best. After listening to the whole album I did my routine set of push-ups and went to bed.
Friday ~ I woke up excited because today was a dress down day at school. We are supposed to wear clothes that represent Pennington, or if not black and red clothing. At school, I didn’t have much homework which was awesome. School went by pretty quickly because the way my schedule falls, I only have one class in the afternoon, and the rest at the beginning of the day. We got pretzels at the end of school, and I was hype because I haven’t had pretzels in forever. After getting pretzels, I had my pizza party for the end of lacrosse. We had Vito’s pizzeria, and it was a chill day afterwards. We were playing music, and playing lacrosse here and there. It was so hot, so half the time I was eating ice. Once I got home, I watched a YouTube video with my parents on the new guidelines on college recruiting. After watching the video I went outside, and used my medicine balls to work on my handles. I was outside until it was time to come inside to eat dinner. After eating dinner I played the game until it was time for bed, since I have basketball practice tomorrow morning.
Saturday ~ Getting up this morning felt like a normal school day. I had AAU practice for my team “NY Rens” today at 10:00 a.m, so my dad and I got out the door by 8:00 sharp heading to Brooklyn. We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast, then were on route to practice. At practice, I worked out with my Coach, and the team. At practice we worked on skills and drills such as shooting and dribbling drills. Once I got home from practice, I ate, stretched, then I took a mini nap. When I woke up it was about 4:30 p.m., and I started to get my stuff ready for my 6:00 p.m.training with Jared. When I got to training, I stretched then started to shoot on the gun. I made a total of 520 shots from the perimeter and mid-range, (actually made 446 in an hour) and made 30 shots at the free throw line for a total duration of an hour-and-a-half on the gun. My arms were dead dog tired after all of that shooting. Overall, it was a great workout, and I worked on keeping my consistency while shooting. By the time I got home after training, it was time to eat with my family. After eating, I hopped on the game with my brother for the rest of the night.
Talk to you guys next week on Diary of a Baller ~ It’s the way DJay does it!!
