Posted in anime, Art, Hobbies, tagged anime, Badminton, Basketball, Blue Box, Coming of Age, Drawing, Kouji Miura on July 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The manga Blue Box ended after five years. This coming of age story may be simple, but I enjoyed it. The characters are likeable, each with their own distinct personalities, dreams, and struggles. As someone whose favourite sports are basketball and badminton, the series resonated with me even more. Here’s a video about the anime (with spoilers).
Posted in Daily Life, Health and wellness, Hobbies, Relationship, tagged Basketball, competition, Family, Parent-Child Relationship, Primary School, Sports on July 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This year, the school allowed parents to watch the primary inter-school basketball competition for the first time. According to his teacher, Link kept asking whether I had arrived because he was worried I wouldn’t make it in time. I think he had been looking forward to competing in front of his dad. Likewise, I was glad to watch him play.
Link scored 14 points and helped lead his team to a 20–2 victory. He has good individual skills for his age. His playing style reminds me of Rukawa from Slam Dunk, relying heavily on isolation plays. To reach the next level, he’ll need to bring out the best in his teammates, improve his basketball IQ, and better manage his emotions.
The primary school rims were lower than standard ones. After the games, I casually jumped up and hung on one with both hands. Some of Link’s teammates saw it, causing a small ruckus as the boys took turns trying to touch the backboard. Later that day, Link told me I had become popular among the boys because of it.
I usually don’t care much about how others perceive me and prefer to judge myself by my own standards. Still, it felt good to be seen as cool by my son’s peers. I suppose we all want to be someone our loved ones can be proud of.
I should cherish this period while he still looks up to me. In a few years, he’ll probably surpass me in basketball, be less impressed by what I know, and perhaps even find me old-fashioned or embarrassing. Until then, I’m grateful to have a place in this chapter of his life.
Posted in Art, Health and wellness, Hobbies, Relationship, tagged acrylic, Art, Basketball, painting, parenting on July 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I received a free acrylic painting session after dining at an art-themed restaurant. The restaurant has an art room that provides canvases, paints, and brushes, but unfortunately, it does not offer instruction.
This was my first time trying acrylic painting. I did some quick research to get a sense of how best to proceed. Partly due to time constraints, and partly my lack of patience, the result was not as good as I had envisioned. But it was a good experience. It captures my first attempt at acrylic painting and the many hours I have spent with my boy on the basketball court.
Posted in Daily Life, Happiness, Health and wellness, Relationship, tagged affordable tickets, Asia, Basketball, boys' semi-finals, courtside seats, free-throw game, girls' semi-finals, high school teams, Hornets cap, Jeremy Lin, NBA Rising Stars Invitational on July 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Link and I went to the NBA Rising Stars Invitational, which featured top high school teams from across Asia. Tickets for the weekday games were affordable, even for courtside seats, and we managed to watch both the girls’ and boys’ semi-finals.
Although we didn’t get a chance to take a selfie with Jeremy Lin, we did win a Hornets cap by taking part in a free-throw game, and also grabbed a free towel and T-shirt during the halftime toss.
It was a good experience for Link to see players not much older than him competing with that level of skill, physicality, and effort. If Link continues to improve, maybe one day I’ll be watching him play at an event like this.
Posted in Daily Life, Happiness, Health and wellness, Hobbies, Relationship, Travel, tagged Badminton, Basketball, culture, Health on June 16, 2026| 2 Comments »
Our family went to Bangkok for a one week trip. Since I lived there when I was young, I still have many friends in the city, and my nephew is studying there. My aim was simply to have a relaxed trip catching up with friends and family.
One predictable challenge in Thailand is overeating. The cost of living is lower, the food is good, and most of our meals were at restaurants with people we wanted to see. To avoid gaining too much weight, we brought our badminton gear and a basketball with us. That allowed us to stay active by playing sports, both on our own and with friends. Bangkok turned out to be convenient for this. Badminton courts were easy to book, and we found several basketball courts near where we stayed.
These activities cost almost nothing, but for one of my boys, they were the highlights of the trip. This reminded me that travel does not have to revolve around sightseeing. Bringing some of our normal routines with us, especially sports, made the trip healthier and more memorable. It allowed us to enjoy good food without feeling too guilty, while also creating simple moments of bonding through activities. I think this is something we will do more often in future trips.
Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Hobbies, tagged Achievement, Basketball, Bet, challenge, dreams, Dunk Journey, Jump training, Motivation, Progress, training on May 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Like many basketball players, I’ve dreamed of being able to dunk. But when I was younger, I never took that dream seriously. At 180 cm, it felt unrealistic. I wasn’t particularly athletic, and I couldn’t even touch the rim.
In recent years, as I became fitter, I started seeing videos of people shorter than me jumping high enough to dunk. Most were younger, but they showed me it was possible. So I made a bet with my boys that I would dunk a small ball within five years, before turning 45. They both bet against me, which only made me more motivated.
My first recorded attempt was in May 2023, when I still couldn’t touch the rim. From there, I added strength training, plyometrics, sprinting, and jump-specific work to my routine. It took about half a year to touch the rim, another year to dunk a small massage ball, and then I plateaued.
Training in my 40s has been tough. Work, travel, sickness, poor sleep, and life events all interrupted my progress. Recovery takes longer, and pushing too hard usually leads to knee pain. Progress was slow, uneven, and sometimes frustrating.
But this year, almost three years after I started, I finally dunked a size 1 basketball, and eventually a size 3 basketball. While it is not as cool as dunking a proper basketball in a game, it is good enough for me. I don’t want to risk injury chasing too much more, though a size 5 alley-oop dunk remains an optional next challenge.
My boys treated me to ice cream, and we also celebrated together at one of our go-to izakayas. This goal has little practical value for most people, but it gave me tremendous satisfaction. I’m happy to have finally fulfilled a childhood dream.
Posted in Daily Life, Health and wellness, Hobbies, tagged Basketball, Family, life, Parent child team, Rivalry, Slam Dunk Sawakita, Sports, Travel on December 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Playing sports with my boys has been a wonderful way to bond. We’ve taken lessons, watched videos, and practiced together. I didn’t have much formal training as a child and didn’t train efficiently, so I’m glad I can now relive some of my childhood dreams. Though I’m no longer young and need more recovery time, I’ve become more conscientious and train in a more productive way, and there are far more resources available today.
My ten year old son is already better at basketball than I was at his age. One of our rituals is playing one-on-one at the end of practice. Like Sawakita from Slam Dunk, we want to see at what age he can beat me when I’m playing seriously. I think he’ll feel the same satisfaction and joy like Sawakita did the first time he wins. This motivates me to stay fit and keep improving so I can be a worthy opponent.
One of this year’s most satisfying moments was winning a two-on-two pickup game against two middle/high school teenagers. While my son struggled on defense because of the height difference, he made his shots and held his own on offense. That experience inspired me to look for more parent–child team competitions so we can train and improve together.
Our family also started learning badminton together, and I’m considering integrating sports training into some of our trips. It seems like a great way to meet like-minded people and have fun while traveling.
Recent one-on-one games (I called it the Sawakita challenge):
Game 1:
Game 2:
Posted in Books, Hobbies, tagged Basketball, Book notes, Book review, NBA, Shot Ready, Stephen Curry on November 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Curry’s book delivers. It offers valuable advice and insights into his journey from childhood to NBA veteran. On first read, I may have enjoyed it even more than Kobe’s Mamba Mentality.
From the back of the book: “Shot Ready is a powerful distillation of Stephen Curry’s transformative philosophy of success — centred on preparation, constant improvement, creativity, connection, mindfulness and joy — delivered in his incomparable voice and style. Stunning designed and illustrated with more than 100 gorgeous photographs, Shot Ready is an intimate narrative and a practical blueprint for any reader who wants to unlock their own potential.
Excerpts:
We practice not until I get the shot right, but until I can’t get it wrong.
I fell in love with the grind. You have to. With the sacrifices that it takes to be great, you have to find joy in the work you do when no else is around…But when I talk about “the grind,” I’m simply describing the most important hours in any pursuit, the ones we invest in ourselves. I do this work in the gym in isolation—there’s no defense, no live action—but, even alone, I practice with a shot-ready mentality, training as if the stakes are high and the clock is low, so that I can rehearse finding balance in the midst of great intensity.
Being shot ready requires practice, training, and repetition, but it rewards that work with an unmatchable feeling of transcendence. My peak experience of joy is when I can lose myself in the poetry and rhythm of a fast-paced game—when there’s no time to think, and there are nine other guys flying around me, but I have the ball in my hands and somehow know exactly where it is going to go. This joy is only possible because of what I do in this gym, the hours I invested in practice and watching film. And then when the moment of truth arrives, I can let go. It is the ultimate freedom.
When the season’s over and I come back to a small gym like this, I refresh and return to my basic love of the game. And a key part of that love of the game—my love of play—is the pleasure I get in finding ways to play better.
We all have an off-season, a time to retreat for a while from the main action of our lives…this gift of time offers us the chance to either stay where we are or create new possibilities for the next season of life. In my off-season I put myself in a quiet gym and break my game down to its basics. Working on my fundamentals allows me to see—with clarity and honesty—where I need to grow.
Making life harder in practice makes things easier in life.
I keep talking about joy in the work for a reason. There are 450 NBA players who suit up to play a regular season, every single one of them chasing the same thing: the championship trophy. We each take our own path to that goal, but there is a common oath the best of those players share: We will do our best to outwork everyone else. When you’re playing at this level, when everyone is keeping the same promise to themselves, or trying to, what can set you apart is joy. The ups and downs of any job can steal joy from you—whether it’s a day-to-day pilfering or one big disappointment that leaves you wiped out. Protect your passion. It is joy that will sustain your commitment to greatness and the work it requires. But joy is more than a great motivator. It is both the means—that things that drives your effort—and the end, the glorious payoff of all that work.
No matter how long they’d been playing, the great ones had the confidence that they were the best, but they all wanted to get better.
If something is handed to you or a task comes easy, you won’t get the chance to develop the drive you need to sustain excellence…Be comfortable with who you are as a player, but relentlessly build on those strengths.
…success usually has a lot of failure wrapped up in it…we only truly fail when we shrink away from challenges to stay in a comfort zone.
But he taught me that you have to rigorously train your body in the proper form on close shots before you move out the arc. The repetition is how you lock in your mechanics…consistency at the point of release is the key to great shooting.
…obsessing over failure is just a distraction from the work of improvement.
It’s never about proving other people wrong. It’s about proving yourself right.
I play with joy because that’s who I am, but deep down I have an intense competitive fire. Behind the playfulness is a killer instinct that not many people recognize. But Kobe did.
As a player you have to constantly evolve.
But I want to be remembered as somebody who worked hard.
You become who you think you are. Be the best in your mind and don’t apologize for it.
Surround yourself with harder-working people…All of us always watching the others to keep pace we were going at and the intensity that we had. Constantly leveling up. It was such a healthy environment to just get better.
Success will never come without stress, but controlled breathing can help you train your response to that stress.
It’s important to make the most of obstacles and setbacks, no matter when they come. Adversity reveals who you have become and who have yet to become. What a gift to find at the back end of your career—another chance to discover who you are and who you can be.
As I move into the tail end of my career, I have confidence that I can continue to thrive. But the questions come: “Are you thinking about retirement?” I do think about it, but perhaps not in the way they think I do. There is a timeline, but it’s not a source of dread. It’s a gift. The gift is that the timeline gives me more motivation for the now. To take advantage of every opportunity and edge that I have. Because of course I know the ball will stop bouncing eventually. But not yet. The gift of the timeline is that it keeps me in the moment.
You can’t slow down time, but you can value it. Make it purposeful.
Posted in Books, Hobbies, tagged Basketball, Book notes, chris bosh, Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, Letters to a Young Athlete, Marcus Thompson II on October 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“What’s hard isn’t just the work. What’s hard is giving everything you have with no guarantees but the love of the game. It takes what it takes. Every day. Of your whole life. And even then, it might not be enough.” – Chris Bosh
Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry is a biography of Curry. Somehow It didn’t leave much of an impression on me. But it prompted me to revisit Chris Bosh’s book: Letters to a Young Athlete, which I still enjoy. It’s full of good advice from someone who’s been through the journey. I hope Steph’s new book, Shot Ready, will offer more insights on his mindset.
Excerpts from Golden:
It’s not the time he puts in, or how gruelling the load. Housen is amazed at the ethical difficulty. Curry practices the difficult until it becomes normal. He sets the bar so high in practice that his dazzling is monotonous in the games…
He doesn’t work on 3-pointers, he works on 3-pointers from deep after three-pronged dribble moves. He doesn’t practice free throws. He practices left-handed floaters from the free throw line. And once the insane has become normalised, he turns up the heat. He’ll wear a mask to simulate altitude, tiring himself out faster–and saving the wear and tear on his body–so he can get comfortable shooting 3s while fatigued. After the stop-back became normal, as did the step-to-the-side 3, he worked incessantly until he got down the side-step-ping, around-the-back 3-pointers.
Excerpts from Letters to a Young Athlete:
How an athlete plays when they’re exhausted tells you everything about who they are as a competitor. The successful ones don’t even think about being exchanged. They’re so used to it that all they think about is performing.
You become capable of the grind by surviving the grind.
But I’ve always believed that how you do anything is how you do everything. If you make excuses or take shortcuts in one part of your life or your game, it’s very hard not to do it everywhere else.
Maybe the biggest difference between great athletes and mediocre ones is the learned ability to distrust that malfunctioning empty light in their brains.
Pain is temporary; glory is forever. If you want to excel, you have to get used to the pain. You have to get used to exhaustion. I can’t promise you that it will ever be a comfortable feeling, but I can guarantee you that you can become familiar enough with it that you can visit that mental and physical space on your path to getting better and not have to worry that you’ll crumple under the pressure.
Finding a reason for hunger when you have every reason to feel full–that’s what separates good from great.
You don’t get peak mental performance without taking care of your body. Sleeping right. Eating right. Exercising. Those investments in yourself don’t stop paying off when you stop playing the game–they will pay dividends for your whole life.
Criticism is a tax on success. If you’re getting criticised, even unfairly, take a second to appreciate it–it means you’re doing something right.
Criticism is easy. Putting in the work is hard. Anything you do to get better at your craft–one extra rep, one extra practice shot, one extra hour of film–is more important and more significant than a thousand pieces of criticism.
Winning and losing are both imposters, and I say that to you as someone who danced with both for four consecutive years. I’m not being flip. When you have real mental strength, you know that your worth and your deep-down happiness don’t depend on the scoreboard. Winning doesn’t give you that peace of mind, and losing doesn’t have to take it away.
What’s hard isn’t just the work. What’s hard is giving everything you have with no guarantees but the love of the game. It takes what it takes. Every day. Of your whole life. And even then, it might not be enough.
I love the way Jerry Seinfeld put it once: “Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with…it’s work, it’s exercise. Find the torture you’re comfortable with and you’ll do well.”
There’s no way of knowing exactly what it’s going to cost when you set out on the journey. Maybe that’s just why the journey is so hard–and so rewarding when you reach your destination. Maybe all you can say is: it takes what it takes.
Ryu's Blog 