Harden的秘密能力:慢下來! - NBA

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這篇是在幾個禮拜前在華爾街日報介紹Harden的文章

被這文章的動圖給吸引住了 簡直就像是灌籃高手的漫畫一樣 所以想在這邊分享

順便翻譯一下這篇文章

動圖的連結在這邊

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球員的外表看起來都比火箭隊的Harden更嚇人,Harden並沒有特別高,而且跳不高
也沒也跑的那麼快. 他的臂展對於正常人來說是荒謬的長, 但相對於NBA球員僅是比平均
在高一點而已, Harden的體測幾乎沒有一項可以算是特優

"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的創辦人和總裁說 "根據我們測的所有傳統
的體能測量, Harden就像是路人一樣" (他們已經分析過上百個NBA球員分的生理機制)

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.

但是當Harden去年春天到這邊進行更進一步的檢查後, 他們有了意想不到的發現, Harden
的確有一些領域是屬於異於常人的 (不只是相對於籃球員而已, 而是相對於Elliot實驗室
所研究過的上千個運動員), 而這些領域都有相同的特徵,

Harden has a hidden advantage: deceleration. His braking system is the best in
sports. Harden is the fastest at slowing down.

Harden有一個隱藏的優勢 " 減速"!! 他的煞車系統是所有運動員中最佳的, Harden是所
有人當中可以最快減速的人

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.

當你注意到他停止的能力, 你才能開始了解到鬍子是如何打球的, 這個技巧讓鬍子可以
在運球的時候即興演出, 這是為什麼他可以在切入時緊急煞車, 變換方向, 並在其他球
員被晃過之後, 製造出足夠的空間完成一個後撇步的跳投

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.

火箭今年的好表現完全是因為鬍子的偉大, 而鬍子的偉大正是因為這個令人難以察覺的
技巧, 而鬍子自己本身也直到最近才認知到

"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."

鬍子說 "在球場上你可也分辨, 對於我來說, 運動能力不是跳的高或跑最快, 而是你能
夠控制你的運動能力, 如果你不能控制他, 你就只像個亂射的大砲一樣, 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.

盡管本季NBA有很多球員有誇張的表現, Durant 從來沒有像本季這樣高效過, Curry也漸
漸地回到去年那爆炸級的表現, Isaiah Thomas 在第四節的表現是10年來沒人可以做到,
Westbrook更是場均大三元, 而LBJ 還是那個LBJ, 但是Harden的表現還是更高一級

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的領先者, 他每場可以拿到28.9分, 同時有著全聯盟第一的
11.4個助攻, 他的效率從來沒有這個高過, 而火箭隊本季也成為意外的爭冠者, 他們有
著38勝17敗的紀錄(現在是40-18), 在西區只落後勇士和馬刺

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.

問題是所有人都知道Harden在球場上要做什麼, 但他仍然可以按照他自己的方式打球,
解答這個問題必須來到 Peak Performance Project的總部
(他的總部是以前是一個舊的音樂廳, 在Santa Barbara 的海邊)

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.

過去十年來, 許多NBA的球員都來過Peak Performance Project (這裡簡稱P3)的總部
朝聖過, 當他們走進這個像倉庫一樣的建築會先看到達文西的畫作"威特魯威人"掛在
那邊, 他們會在所有的關節上穿上感應器, 如同製作電動遊戲一樣, 然後他們會在健
身房地板上的壓力版上做著一系列的動作, 整個測試的時間長達兩個小時, 而這些運
動員離開時會留下難以置信的生理測量資料, 這個地方甚至沒有任何的籃框

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近年來使用著對人類身體更豐富的了解來重新定義運動能力, 而NBA比其他的聯盟更
是擁抱這個方法, 相對於其他的運動聯盟, NBA每隊的球員都比較少, 而且球隊希望每
個球員都能保持健康, 因為這些球員的合約都是保證合約, 而且NBA的老闆都比較年輕,
比較願意運用這些資訊來挖掘球員的潛能, 這就是為什麼有百分之46的NBA球員都曾
經被P3詳細研究過

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在去年火箭輸掉季後賽之後來到這邊測試, Elliot不知道他會得到什麼結果,
他並沒有看過太多籃球,也從沒有看過Harden打球, 他也認為Harden看起來有點靦腆

"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."

他說"有些傢伙來到這邊想向我們展現他們是怎樣的怪物, 而Harden則是正好相反,
感覺就像是他想要跟我們說抱歉, 因為他的表現並沒有讓我們大吃一驚

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."

的確Harden並沒有令他們大吃一驚, 他的橫向加速只有在所有球員中佔前百分之36,
直向加速更只有前百分之54, Harden基本上在加速這個項目就是處於NBA的平均, 但是
他在減速這個項目卻是異於常人

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.

當他們看到這些數據的時候嚇了一跳, Harden的離心力 (eccentric force, 就是當他
向下停下來的力量) 佔所有球員的前百分之98, 而且他增加離心力更是佔所有球員的前
百分之99 (註 這邊很多他們測驗的術語 有點難翻譯 請見諒)

"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說 "在我測試之前我並不知道, 但我可以感覺到有所不同, 我知道我的優點和缺點
, 而我將這些變成我的優勢

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打球的方式在明顯也不過了, 他比其他NBA球員更依靠著後撇步跳投,而他減速的
能力更是讓他可以在瞬間得到出手的空檔,這也是為什麼別人無法守住他

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."

這個是對打籃球的人來說比較不被理解的部分,很多人相信籃球這個運動最關鍵的部分
在於變換速度, 火箭的前鋒Ryan Anderson說 "你看NBA最佳的球員可以在全速的運球的
時候,突然之間就停下來 , 這幾乎是不可能防守的"

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切入時感到相當困擾, 但並不是因為他能快速地過人, 而是因為當
Harden停下來的時候, 他們卡住了並且來不及反應, 這讓防守者不得不對Harden犯規,
這也讓他成為這三年來NBA罰球最多的人

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."

要能夠這樣打球需要異於常人的身體控制能力, 對於一般球員來說他們可以迅速的加速,
但是只能慢慢地減速, 這也是為什麼這些球員無法在全明星賽先發,就好像在法拉利的跑
車上裝上福斯汽車的煞車系統


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