"They're beginning to believe...."

Game two of the Moth Ball's season was last night, at St. Luke's Gym, a school where I've played at least a dozen times before. It's a good size gym, but as it always is, it was pretty damn warm. We were playing the somewhat panicked sounding DUCK!.

We won 10-7, even though DUCK! staged a small comeback in the late quarter of the hour.

I definitely had a stronger game then the previous week, where I felt I was struggling with my throws and with my dodging. I was still very rusty. However, with the first week of dodgeball under my belt, I had shook off the rust and was performing much better. My throws were much stronger and I had better control. Throws I'd missed in the first week were connecting. All this was despite the fact that in the very first round my shoulder had made a fantastic snap-crackle-pop sound. I stuck to throwing my sidearm pitch, except at close range or against guys who'd proven that they were strong catchers. In particular, I had to use an overhand fast ball or a curve against their best player, a guy who was throwing pretty hard and could catch.

Given how shitacular my dodging had been the week before, it was an easy step to improve this time around. Last week I'd been making brutal rookie mistakes like turning my back to the centre-line to pick up walls bouncing off the wall. I had also developed the habit of staying still when someone called a barrage down on me. That is no way to avoid a ball. I made a mental note of these mistakes last week, and made a point of keeping more active and being more conservative in my approach to the game.

The highlight of the game though, was not my play (as pleased as I am with my performance) but with the play of my teammates. Our first game, all of our offensive production was limited to just a few players. In our second week, everyone on our team got at least two people out. Everyone was throwing well, and everyone was catching. I felt like Morpheus in the Matrix. "They're starting to believe."

At this point, I have been keeping my mouth shut about tactics and strategies and the different philosophies of dodgeball because I don't want to come off as pedantic or arrogant. All this progress is of their own doing, a natural step as everyone gets used to the speed of the game. It is not just a dodgeball thing either - - the most important step in developing skill at any competitive level of sport is getting used to the pace of it. As soon as you're accustomed to the speed of a game, you can make better decisions and you can see the play unfold. It helps with your timing, and timing, as they say is everything.

Miyamoto Musashi says: "The way to win in a battle according to military science is to know the rhythms of the specific opponents, and use rhythms that your opponents do not expect, producing formless rhythms from rhythms of wisdom." (The Earth Scroll)

As we learn about the speed and pacing of the game, we learn about its timing and, as Musashi says, we learn how to use that timing against our opponents.

The best example of this was a round that my line played last night where we were consistently able to counter-strike DUCK! and make them play on their heels. It was easily the fastest round of the game, and although I was on the court, I actually didn't even touch a ball. It was all Jellybean, Lefty, and our teammates just getting in touch with the flow of the sport.

It was an excellent game.