文章连结 https://t.co/ZHGoYPqPTq (这篇可能需要subscribe才能看到)
这篇是在几个礼拜前在华尔街日报介绍Harden的文章
被这文章的动图给吸引住了 简直就像是灌篮高手的漫画一样 所以想在这边分享
顺便翻译一下这篇文章
动图的连结在这边
https://tinyurl.com/jhy6rnq
James Harden's Secret Talent Is Slowing Down
Most players in the NBA are more intimidating than Houston Rockets guard James
Harden. He isn't uncommonly tall, doesn't jump especially high and can't run
all that quickly. His wingspan is ridiculous for a normal human being but only
barely above average in his profession. There is almost nothing about his
physical makeup that seems exceptional.
大部分NBA球员的外表看起来都比火箭队的Harden更吓人,Harden并没有特别高,而且跳不高
也没也跑的那么快. 他的臂展对于正常人来说是荒谬的长, 但相对于NBA球员仅是比平均
在高一点而已, Harden的体测几乎没有一项可以算是特优
"By all these traditional performance metrics that we track, he's pretty
pedestrian," said Marcus Elliott, the founder and director of the Peak
Performance Project, which has analyzed the biomechanics of hundreds of NBA
players.
Marcus Elliot, Peak Performance Project的创办人和总裁说 "根据我们测的所有传统
的体能测量, Harden就像是路人一样" (他们已经分析过上百个NBA球员分的生理机制)
But something unexpected happened when Harden came here for a closer
examination last spring. There were actually several areas in which Harden
was an outlier-not only among basketball players, but among thousands of
athletes Elliott's lab has studied. And they were all related to the same
underlying trait.
但是当Harden去年春天到这边进行更进一步的检查后, 他们有了意想不到的发现, Harden
的确有一些领域是属于异于常人的 (不只是相对于篮球员而已, 而是相对于Elliot实验室
所研究过的上千个运动员), 而这些领域都有相同的特征,
Harden has a hidden advantage: deceleration. His braking system is the best in
sports. Harden is the fastest at slowing down.
Harden有一个隐藏的优势 " 减速"!! 他的煞车系统是所有运动员中最佳的, Harden是所
有人当中可以最快减速的人
Once you notice his ability to stop, you start to understand his entire game.
This is the skill that allows Harden to improvise off the dribble. It's why
he can screech to a halt when he's driving, swerve in the lane as other players
skate past him and step-back with enough separation to sneak off a jumper.
当你注意到他停止的能力, 你才能开始了解到胡子是如何打球的, 这个技巧让胡子可以
在运球的时候即兴演出, 这是为什么他可以在切入时紧急煞车, 变换方向, 并在其他球
员被晃过之后, 制造出足够的空间完成一个后撇步的跳投
Houston is good this year because Harden is great, and Harden is great
because of this obscure, imperceptible edge that even he didn't recognize
until recently.
火箭今年的好表现完全是因为胡子的伟大, 而胡子的伟大正是因为这个令人难以察觉的
技巧, 而胡子自己本身也直到最近才认知到
"You can tell on the court," Harden said. "Athleticism, for me, is not being
able to jump the highest or run the fastest. It's being able to control it.
If you're not able to control it, you're just a loose cannon. I'm athletic
in my own way."
胡子说 "在球场上你可也分辨, 对于我来说, 运动能力不是跳的高或跑最快, 而是你能
够控制你的运动能力, 如果你不能控制他, 你就只像个乱射的大砲一样, 而我有我自己
的一招"
What he's doing has distinguished Harden even in a season of superlative NBA
performances. Kevin Durant has never been such an efficient scorer. Stephen
Curry is starting to resemble the supernova of last year. Isaiah Thomas is
better in the fourth quarter than anyone in decades, Russell Westbrook is
averaging a triple-double and LeBron James is still LeBron James.
尽管本季NBA有很多球员有夸张的表现, Durant 从来没有像本季这样高效过, Curry也渐
渐地回到去年那爆炸级的表现, Isaiah Thomas 在第四节的表现是10年来没人可以做到,
Westbrook更是场均大三元, 而LBJ 还是那个LBJ, 但是Harden的表现还是更高一级
But the frontrunner to win the NBA's most valuable player award is Harden.
He's averaging 28.9 points per game while also somehow leading the league
with 11.4 assists per game. His efficiency and usage have never been higher.
And the Rockets have emerged as the NBA's surprise contender with a 38-17
record that puts them behind only the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio
Spurs in their conference.
Harden目前是本季NBA MVP的领先者, 他每场可以拿到28.9分, 同时有着全联盟第一的
11.4个助攻, 他的效率从来没有这个高过, 而火箭队本季也成为意外的争冠者, 他们有
著38胜17败的纪录(现在是40-18), 在西区只落后勇士和马刺
The question is how Harden plays the way he does when everyone on the court
knows exactly what he's trying to do. The answer can be found by coming to
an old, converted music venue in this sleepy town near the ocean.
问题是所有人都知道Harden在球场上要做什么, 但他仍然可以按照他自己的方式打球,
解答这个问题必须来到 Peak Performance Project的总部
(他的总部是以前是一个旧的音乐厅, 在Santa Barbara 的海边)
For the last decade, NBA players have been making the pilgrimage here to the
headquarters of P3, a warehouse-like space where they see a hanging print of
Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" when they walk in. They strap reflective
markers on their key joints-the same way videogames are made-and perform a
series of movements on the force plates embedded into the gym's floor. The
entire battery of tests can last about two hours, and the athletes leave
with an incredible trove of biometric data. There is no
basketball hoop in the entire building.
过去十年来, 许多NBA的球员都来过Peak Performance Project (这里简称P3)的总部
朝圣过, 当他们走进这个像仓库一样的建筑会先看到达文西的画作"威特鲁威人"挂在
那边, 他们会在所有的关节上穿上感应器, 如同制作电动游戏一样, 然后他们会在健
身房地板上的压力版上做着一系列的动作, 整个测试的时间长达两个小时, 而这些运
动员离开时会留下难以置信的生理测量资料, 这个地方甚至没有任何的篮框
It's places likes P3 that have used a richer understanding of the human body
to redefine athleticism in recent years, and the NBA has embraced its
approach more than any other league. There are fewer players on each team,
they work on guaranteed contracts that give their employers incentives to
keep them healthy, and they're in a league with younger owners who made their
fortunes using information to find edges. That explains why 46% of players
on NBA opening-day rosters had been scrutinized by P3, according to the
company
P3近年来使用着对人类身体更丰富的了解来重新定义运动能力, 而NBA比其他的联盟更
是拥抱这个方法, 相对于其他的运动联盟, NBA每队的球员都比较少, 而且球队希望每
个球员都能保持健康, 因为这些球员的合约都是保证合约, 而且NBA的老板都比较年轻,
比较愿意运用这些资讯来挖掘球员的潜能, 这就是为什么有百分之46的NBA球员都曾
经被P3详细研究过
Harden became the latest NBA player to be tested not long after the Rockets
lost in last season's playoffs. Elliott didn't know what to expect. He
doesn't watch much basketball and had never seen Harden on the court. He
also thought Harden seemed bashful for a player of his caliber.
Harden在去年火箭输掉季后赛之后来到这边测试, Elliot不知道他会得到什么结果,
他并没有看过太多篮球,也从没有看过Harden打球, 他也认为Harden看起来有点腼腆
"Some of the guys show up and want to show us what freaks they are," he said.
"Harden was the opposite of that. It was almost like he was apologetic about
the fact that he wasn't going to blow us away."
他说"有些家伙来到这边想向我们展现他们是怎样的怪物, 而Harden则是正好相反,
感觉就像是他想要跟我们说抱歉, 因为他的表现并没有让我们大吃一惊
And he didn't blow them away. At least not in the way that NBA players have
always been evaluated. Harden's lateral acceleration placed him in the 36th
percentile and his vertical acceleration in the 54th percentile of players
studied by P3. "He's basically at the NBA norms in most acceleration metrics
," Elliott said. "But his deceleration metrics are off the charts."
的确Harden并没有令他们大吃一惊, 他的横向加速只有在所有球员中占前百分之36,
直向加速更只有前百分之54, Harden基本上在加速这个项目就是处于NBA的平均, 但是
他在减速这个项目却是异于常人
They were surprised when they saw those numbers. Harden's "eccentric force"
-which sounds like it should be the name of his next Adidas sneaker but is
actually the force he generates when he stops his downward momentum-ranked
in the 98th percentile. And his "rate of eccentric-force development" was
in the 99th percentile.
当他们看到这些数据的时候吓了一跳, Harden的离心力 (eccentric force, 就是当他
向下停下来的力量) 占所有球员的前百分之98, 而且他增加离心力更是占所有球员的前
百分之99 (注 这边很多他们测验的术语 有点难翻译 请见谅)
"I didn't know before I was tested, but I can feel the difference," Harden
said. "I know what I'm great at and what I'm not great at-and I use it to my
advantage."
Harden说 "在我测试之前我并不知道, 但我可以感觉到有所不同, 我知道我的优点和缺点
, 而我将这些变成我的优势
That's apparent in the way he plays. Harden relies on the stepback jumper
more than anyone in the NBA, and his ability to decelerate is what frees him
for the split-second he requires to get a shot off. That's why it's basically
unstoppable
Harden打球的方式在明显也不过了, 他比其他NBA球员更依靠着后撇步跳投,而他减速的
能力更是让他可以在瞬间得到出手的空档,这也是为什么别人无法守住他
This is an underappreciated part of playing basketball. There are people
around the sport, in fact, who believe that changing speeds is the single
most important characteristic in the game today. "You look at the best
players in the NBA, and they can go full speed with a dribble and all of a
sudden-stop," said Rockets forward Ryan Anderson. "It's impossible to guard."
这个是对打篮球的人来说比较不被理解的部分,很多人相信篮球这个运动最关键的部分
在于变换速度, 火箭的前锋Ryan Anderson说 "你看NBA最佳的球员可以在全速的运球的
时候,突然之间就停下来 , 这几乎是不可能防守的"
Harden vexes his defenders when he drives, too. But it's not because he blows
past them. It's because he stops before the guy stuck guarding him can react
, leaving him no choice but to foul Harden, who has led the NBA in free throws
for the last three years.
防守的人在Harden切入时感到相当困扰, 但并不是因为他能快速地过人, 而是因为当
Harden停下来的时候, 他们卡住了并且来不及反应, 这让防守者不得不对Harden犯规,
这也让他成为这三年来NBA罚球最多的人
To play this way requires an extraordinary amount of body control. It's more
common to see players who are better at the exact opposite: accelerating
quickly and decelerating slowly. But there's a reason they don't start in the
All-Star Game. "Those systems aren't built to survive," Elliott said. "It's
like a Ferrari with a Volkswagen's braking system."
要能够这样打球需要异于常人的身体控制能力, 对于一般球员来说他们可以迅速的加速,
但是只能慢慢地减速, 这也是为什么这些球员无法在全明星赛先发,就好像在法拉利的跑
车上装上大众汽车的煞车系统