Post; Force & Skill

When it came to playing in the post, Douglas and Roger knew what they were doing.

Both of them had a different approach to play the same position, but they got the job done, and till they were doing that, no one had any complaints.

Shun's experience with both of them was drastically different.

It was a competition of Force and Skill, two concepts clashed together, having equal yet different potential, and Shun was going to exploit both of them.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

In a practice session, Shun had his back to Antony in the post. Antony, Leonal, and Ming were the only ones that Shun could have a decent power post-matchup with, but Ming and Leonal rarely got into a post position.

Antony, too only posted when he was on defense, his attacks were fast-paced in nature, so posting was out of character for him.

Shun recalled what Douglas taught him.

-*-*-*-

Douglas was behind Shun, practicing posting. He instructed Shun.

Douglas: "Now, put your back into pushing me. Bend your knees properly, assume a stable form.

I know I talk about absolute strength, but I also know the importance of proper form and its benefits.

Yes, just like that. You're doing good, but..."

Douglas sighed and backed away from Shun. Shun turned towards him and asked.

Shun: "What happened?"

Douglas stared at Shun and responded.

Douglas: "Shun, you're form is correct, and if you tried, you could pull more force from that, but the problem is your intent."

Shun tilted his head and furrowed his brows.

Shun: "What do you mean by intent?"

Douglas crossed his arms and explained.

Douglas: "The you right now is wired to respond with speed and quickness. So, you always look for escaping your defender at a moment's notice.

You are not giving it all in a contact showdown because you don't want to participate in the said showdown.

You could be more aggressive in a post-up, but because you are always thinking of making space between your mark, you are not leaning into the match-up.

I know you said to teach you, but if you don't commit to my style of playing, then there is no real benefit in me teaching you."

-*-*-*-

Shun thought back to his talk with Douglas and understood that Shun's style of play has always been to make space, leave the defender behind, free to move style, but Douglas didn't play it like that.

Shun took a deep breath and got ready.

Shun: 'Don't run away from the contest.'

Shun got into the proper stance and pushed back without holding back and putting in all the strength in his push, straining himself.

Antony, who was defending Shun felt a might push from Shun, and was forced to back up a step.

Antony: "Uff! What?"

Shun gritted his teeth and pushed back once again. Antony braced himself, but he still ended up backing up.

Shun and Antony reached below the basket in the Dee and Shun, immediately did a drop step to the basket.

Antony was stunned as all his senses screamed at him that if he let Shun pass, he would end up scoring.

And, he saw the shadow of Douglas behind Shun. He sucked in a deep breath and instinctively fouled Shun.

Albert whistled to call a foul.

Antony stared at Shun, and he clearly saw Douglas's shadow behind Shun.

Antony: 'This is freaky.'

Douglas, on the other hand, shouted and laughed loudly.

Douglas: "Hahaha. Excellent, that is how you play in the post. Make them fear you so much that they foul you."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

On the other side of the spectrum, Roger played the position with skills.

If we were to compare Douglas and Roger, everyone would say that Roger was a more rounded player, and Roger's stats backed that claim.

Roger's nickname "Fundamental Genius" summed up his post-game pretty well.

He used the triple-threat position as the base for his post-game. Roger could flair out to the mid-range area, and receive a pass from his teammate, and turn and face his defender not having dribbled yet. From there, you might as well have marked up two points on the scoreboard.

Shun looked at him and examined Roger's form.

Shun: "He sets his feet slightly wider than his shoulder width, and slightly on the balls of his feet, his knees are flexed, and he has both hands on the basketball in front of him, almost resting on his thighs.

He presents to the defender with a stance that can go either direction. One foot is held as the pivot and the other slightly ahead."

After seeing it, he analyzed it.

Shun: "From this fundamentally sound position, Roger could employ, a series of jab steps and pump fakes, to get the defender off balance.

If the defender backed off a little too much, well then, the banks are open, and Roger would shoot his patented shot of the glass.

If the defender got to close, Roger would swing the ball to the inside and go by the defender for the running hook shot."

Shun sighed as he admired the graceful playstyle that Roger employed.

Shun: "Roger has a lot of fundamental post-moves in his arsenal and has mastered all of them.

He does not get a whole lot of attention because he is not the flashiest player in the world, but the players love to watch his footwork in the post and the way he embarrasses defenders with his array of post moves."

-*-*-*-

Fortunately for Shun, skill-based styles were easier for Shun to master than physique based styles.

The problem with mastering Roger's style wasn't the number of post-moves he knew. Shun could surpass him in the number of post-moves in a short time.

The problem was the experience and sense of the plays that Roger used.

Roger had much more experience with post plays, and his IQ for the post-play was at a terrifying level.

It was proving difficult for Shun to replace the required amount of experience in a short period of twenty days.

So, he decided to move where his reflexes told him to move. Usually, Shun would filter out his reflexes, and he was the one in control.

But, right now, Shun let his reflexes decide where to move, he surrendered to his reflexes.

The result? Results were embarrassing as Shun fell for a ton of fakes. With nothing to hold his reactions back, Shun was reacting to the first thing he saw.

But, on the offense side of the post-plays, Shun used every failure on the defensive side to build up his offense.

He learned from every mistake, and even if he was nowhere to Roger's level when it came to experience in the post, but he became adept in playing the post with Roger's moves.

-*-*-*-

Shun got the ball just outside of the post and dribbled forward a step.

Bruno, who was his defender, also closed in from the front, and Shun immediately shifted to post stance.

Bruno was now really close to Shun because he thought that Shun would be pushing him back, but that turned out to be wrong as Shun, who he thought was posting up, completed a 360-degree turn and was once again facing the basket.

Bruno was startled at the sudden full spin.

Shun looked directly at the basket and raised the ball a little to the left.

Bruno translated that as,

Bruno: 'He is going to shoot.'

So, he jumped, but Shun had once again faked him, as he pivoted behind Bruno and laid the ball in with a Bank shot.

The ball bounced from the backboard to the basket into the hoop without anyone to contest it.

Roger, who was on the different side of the basket, nodded and spoke.

Roger: "Perfect form, excellent placement, a job well done."

-*-*-*-

A player that had been watching Shun silently, but hadn't approached him even once, decided to approach him.

???: 'He is wasting it. His efficiency is so low. I just can't watch it anymore.'

The person walked towards Shun with the intention to properly teach Shun in an aspect that he was quite familiar with.