Definitely learn the best 40: 39.
Definitely learn the best Choose the ordinary or the advanced?
It depends on how much money you have in your pocket…
darn, it depends on the actual situation.
If there’s no other choice, the ordinary tasks are not bad either; they don’t require spending time and energy on Basic Running Position.
Now that there are more attractive advanced tasks, his thoughts have changed.
In the reserve team’s two to three weekly team training sessions, they teach Basic Running Position.
It’s not difficult, nor does it involve much skill; by following the team’s training, one can slowly but surely get it right.
The reserve team certainly doesn’t lack training time.
But advanced tasks come with risks.
Zhang Yang calculated that from August 10 to September 12, it took him 33 days to accumulate 20,000 Shooting Value.
Now, with nearly three and a half months until Christmas, based on the past month’s efficiency, he can guarantee at least 70,000 Shooting Value.
The more he practiced, the more accurate his shooting became; both training and match Shooting Values would increase, so the Shooting Value he could accumulate in three and a half months would definitely be higher than 70,000.
The risk lies in whether the progress speed can meet the expectations?
After all, there’s no telling when a bottleneck might arrive.
Just like DeRozan, he has been struggling with his mid-range shots, showing no significant improvement for a while.
Zhang Yang comforted him, saying that if he is stuck in a bottleneck with his mid-range shots, then he should shift his training focus to three-pointers and layups.
DeRozan is from the honors class, smarter; he readily agreed.
However, Zhang Yang didn’t hesitate for long before decisively choosing the advanced task.
Pressure brings motivation!
After making up his mind, the task bar changed; the description for the ordinary tasks disappeared, leaving only the task to accumulate 100,000 Shooting Value before Christmas.
The displayed value for Shooting Value also changed to 21/100000.
Closing the Gate of Trials, Zhang Yang continued to train, that folk song from Eastern Europe, what tune are those chords…?
On Saturday, after a month of intensive training, the 11th and 12th grade players officially finalized the ten main players and five reserve players, creating a new main lineup centered around Afflalo and Hip.
That afternoon, the coaching staff took the reserve team to play an internal match against the main team; that 20-minute game was brutal.
The players of the main team…
no, they were not just players, they struck mercilessly at their juniors, almost bursting into evil laughter.
Consequently, the next day, when the reserve team visited San Diego Preacher High School, under the leadership of Zhang Yang and Tatum, they transformed into mad dogs, fiercely attacking their opponents and biting them to death, with DeRozan playing explosively…
The crazed Compton High School reserve team crushed the stronger main team of Preacher High School 114-86.
DeRozan scored 31 points, Zhang Yang 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks, Tatum 15 points, 9 assists, 3 steals, Miller 15 points…
Seeing the performance of the players, Johnson thought that pulling the reserve team to spar with the main team could be a regular thing!
Apart from erupting in rage after being ‘bullied’ by the main team, another thing about the reserve team pleased Johnson—the team managed to operate several basic tactics normally in the fifth warm-up game, cutting the initially anticipated necessary time by more than half.
Having a field commander is really great!
Johnson felt that the reserve team was ready to move to the next stage.
As the team was considering making changes, Zhang Yang was also starting to make changes.
The next day, Monday, life for Zhang Yang was as usual; attending classes, training, and during the noon break, he went fishing with DeRozan and Tatum.
After he starting dribbling, Zhang Yang enjoyed playing Streetball during lunch breaks and became known as the ghost of the Compton High School playground.
When Tatum played Streetball, he liked to take it easy, keeping everyone happy.
When DeRozan played, he enjoyed creating challenges when there were none, always leaving the opponent with hope.
Zhang Yang was different; he preferred playing in the simplest way, practicing body coordination with the help of his classmates.
Even so, they never lacked opponents.
When the three of them played Streetball together, a crowd lined up to challenge them.
There was no lack of players as Tatum feared.
By the afternoon and after the evening meal, a change occurred in Zhang Yang— he added an hour to his shooting training time.
Having to collect 100,000 Shooting Value in less than three and a half months put a lot of pressure on him; he decided to push himself by trying to increase his training time, specifically how much based on his body’s feedback.
While making full use of each day, he was mindful of its impact on his body, a lesson learned from time management expert Steve Nash.
A week passed quickly, and after a few days of experimentation, Zhang Yang confirmed that adding one hour of training time was the right choice.
Adding an hour and a half or two hours made him noticeably tired the next day, affecting his class performance and training efficiency.
By Saturday, changes within the team had occurred.
Johnson moved 9th-grade freshman Alfred Aboya and Sam Smith to the reserve team.
Aboya, 15 years old, 206 cm tall, a white power forward with good one-on-one skills, decent mobility, and good strength, but lacks explosiveness and jumping ability.
Sam Smith, a 15-year-old, 180 cm tall point guard whose speed is not particularly fast, typical for his stature, with the advantage of long-range shooting.
As new players came in, naturally some had to leave, but those eliminated from the reserve team were not the weakest; they were the two least enthusiastic about training.
Besides those few with top-notch talent, the skill levels of the other players on the reserve team weren’t much different.
Over the course of more than a month, Zhang Yang noticed changes in his teammates.
Tatum had moved from relying solely on his physicality and breakthroughs to enduring daily technical training.
Talent is a cruel thing; despite Tatum’s efforts, not only had the gap with DeRozan not narrowed, but it had even widened incrementally because DeRozan was not only more talented but also worked harder than Tatum.
However, Tatum was not discouraged but instead became more determined, spending more and more time on the training court.
Such a person, even if he ultimately doesn’t become a professional player, switching to another industry, he would not fare badly.
But not everyone was as resilient as Tatum.
Some reserve team players realized after the new season that they were no longer the stars of the team like in junior high.
They accepted reality but still harbored a passion for basketball.
Others couldn’t accept the reality of becoming secondary players, and without the courage to compete with the top players like Tatum, their training grew increasingly sloppy…
Zhang Yang saw shadows of Jones, Mels, and their cohort in these players.
Zhang Yang did not think about “correcting” his teammates’ mindsets.
How many high school players ultimately become professional?
For most in the school team, basketball was just a hobby, similar to regular players of “League of Legends” — continue striving if you love it; stop if you don’t want to play anymore.
Days passed, filled with classes, training, and a game every week.
Zhang Yang lived a monotonous but fulfilling life, and within a blink, a month had passed, bringing them to October 12, Sunday.
Last weekend, on the 5th, the reserve team played their last exhibition game; today, they would enter the league phase of the competition.
The Southern California league consisted of 20 rounds, with one game played each week, either on Saturday or Sunday.
Compton High School’s reserve team’s first opponent in the league was the same Redondo Beach City’s Dock High School they had encountered in an exhibition game.
At 10 am, both teams met at the Allen Gymnasium for the showdown.
Compton High School’s reserve team surprised the Dock High School players with their improved strength, catching them off guard in the opening phases.
Compton High School’s team coordination had improved significantly since a month ago, particularly the synergy between DeRozan and Tatum, with DeRozan playing from a high position and Tatum cutting in from the side after a block to receive the ball and attack or pass it off, creating shooting opportunities almost every time.
This move, which Tatum learned from Zhang Yang, performed even better than Zhang Yang currently could.
The personal skill improvement speed of Compton High’s fourteen- and fifteen-year-old players also turned their seventeen- and eighteen-year-old counterparts from Dock High green with envy.
However, Dock High managed a fierce comeback later in the game and successfully turned the tables on the score.
Compton High fought hard but ultimately failed to secure their first victory of the league, losing to Dock High with a score of 104 to 111.
The team was not willing to accept this.
Johnson was quite satisfied though; in the exhibition game, Dock High hadn’t played as earnestly, resulting in a more lopsided defeat for Compton High, with the biggest point difference reaching 30.
A daring play during garbage time had only reduced the deficit to 18 points.
This time, the improvement was significant, very significant.
There was still a gap from the top 10 teams in the Southern California league, but they already had the capability to win against mid-tier teams.
Zhang Yang, for his part, was also using ‘improvement’ to comfort a morose DeRozan after losing their first official high school game.
The consolation wasn’t very effective, and Zhang Yang did not continue to console him.
He was frustrated with the loss himself and chose not to absorb more negative energy from DeRozan, believing that DeRozan would adjust well.
Today, he played for 21 minutes, the same as before, maintaining a stable appearance as the team’s third perimeter player, scoring 15 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 2 blocked shots.
As his offensive role was straightforward and his skills enhanced, he played more comfortably, hence he began focusing more on defense during the games.
Currently without much technique, his main strategy was to aggressively intercept and block shots — not recklessly, but rather learning through competitions.
He wasn’t in a rush to expand his techniques; he wanted to learn to do ‘better’.
Before Christmas, he planned to continue his rigorous practice on ball-handling basics, shooting, and fast breaks, with a focus on mid-range shots.
In this game, he took 13 shots, made 7, scoring on 4 layups, 2 dunks, and 1 mid-range shot, plus a free throw, securing a shooting value of 165.
He checked the Gate of Trials, adding up this game’s 165 shooting value, accumulating a total shooting value of 27,129.
Today marked the 30th day of the task, and over this month, his shooting value accumulation rate had nearly improved by 40% compared to last month, with 2 months and 13 days left.
Keep on shooting, keep on missing!
Zhang Yang went over to the training court to continue practicing shooting, and teammates like DeRozan, Tatum, Aboya, Miller, and Keith also returned for extra training.
Seeing these people, Zhang Yang still held a lot of confidence in his high school career, with a goal set for this phase — to become number one in California High School!
Asking for monthly tickets, asking for recommendation tickets!