I don’t have my priorities straight.  I should place schoolwork first no matter what.  That’s not the way it works for me though.  Ever since I can remember I’ve loved the game of basketball.  It’s a fast paced sport with an emphasis on teamwork and skill instead of overall athleticism.  Basketball has always come first in my life, and although I like the way it shows on the court as all my hard work comes out, it also shows on my report card as it distracts me from my classes.  That doesn’t really matter that much to me though because preparing myself for this upcoming basketball season takes preference over almost everything.
Conditioning isn’t something that is considered fun by any stretch of the imagination.  If it’s done right it will almost always leave me sore, short of breath, and covered in sweat. Every Monday and Wednesday the basketball team waits in the weight room in a tense atmosphere as we all know the pain we are about to experience.  We are pushed to go harder and harder each time, so we never become immune to the exercises we have to do.  We walk to the corner of the weight room and pull out the jump boxes. They come in various sizes, but they all keep the same round shape.  The edges are well worn from years of abuse from kids just like us.  I have a high vertical jump, so I always feel obligated to use the biggest box.  I do a few leg stretches and start leaping.
How long I stay on the box is entirely up to me; I could give up the second my legs start burning or even when I can’t feel them any longer, but I want to get better.  I try to always go until I’m the last one on the boxes.  The first ten or twenty jumps are easy, I do them with ease with minimal pain on my legs and knees.  After awhile it starts becoming difficult.  At around thirty or forty jumps I’m gasping for air and struggling to get my feet in the center of the box, but I have to press on.  Fifty jumps is the minimum amount I’ve set for myself and I wouldn’t dare do any less.  When I finish, I stumble to the water fountain and smile to myself.  Only two more sets to go.
When I get one with my sets on the jump boxes, I feel like I’ve ran a marathon and my thighs have a consistency similar to that of jello. Unfortunately, I’m not even close to being finished.  I still have another three sets of calf raises.  Calf raises are an exercise where I put the end of my foot on a bar and raise my feet up and down slowly so I can get the most out of it.  If this is done right, it will feel like needles are being inserted into my calves.  That’s only after the first five or six.  Sometimes I get lazy and slack off on this lift because it is extremely easy to.  If I do this quickly instead of slowly, the intense burn I was feeling before is missing.
My calves are nearly dead after the three sets I’m instructed to do.  I’ve only been here for about 15 minutes, but it feels like it has been hours.  Thankfully, I’ve made it to the comparatively easy part of conditioning.  It’s time to lay on the ground and do core work.  Core work is long and not too difficult until the last few things we have to do. I lay on the ground and begin my “In and outs,” which involve keeping my midsection balanced and bringing my legs in and extending them out.  We do twenty five, then we do a variation of them as our next exercise.  Next we do scissors and they’re a breeze.  Then after the relatively easy side taps, I’m onto the last part of the workout.
The final and most difficult part of the workout is exercise that does not even have a name as far as I’m concerned.  I think it’s designed to make you puke because everytime I perform it, thats what I feel like doing.  The first part requires me to lock my elbows at 90 degrees on the pull up bar, which is a huge challenge in and of itself.  Then, while maintaining the position of my elbows, I have to force my knees up to my elbows without letting go or falling off.  One or two of these is almost impossible, but twenty guarantees certain death.
Conditioning is an extremely tiring, but necessary part of being a basketball player.  It will wear me down over the course of the nine weeks, but it also builds me up in a way that only hard work and dedication can accomplish.  I have been anticipating the season ever since the last one ended.  If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that I will be ready when it’s time to take the floor for my first game.