My Afternoon with Mark Hendrickson’s Game (Sort Of)
So, today I decided to spend some time looking into Mark Hendrickson and his basketball. Not like, personally with him, you know? Just his game, his style, what I could pick up. I’ve always been a bit curious about guys who played multiple sports at a high level, and he was one of them, bouncing between the NBA and MLB. Figured there might be something to learn, or at least it’d be a different way to think about my own little practice session.
First thing, I just kinda loosened up. Didn’t want to pull anything. A bit of stretching, some light jogging in place. You gotta do that, right? Can’t just jump into things. Then I thought, okay, what would a guy like Hendrickson, a big dude, focus on? Probably not a lot of fancy dribbling out on the perimeter for him. More about presence, rebounding, and getting decent shots near the basket.
So, I started with some basic post-move footwork. Just simple stuff, you know? Drop steps, pivot turns. Man, even doing it slow, just focusing on the feet, it gets tiring. You see these guys on TV, and it looks so smooth, but getting your body to do it right, again and again, that’s the grind. I wasn’t trying to be Mark Hendrickson, obviously, just using the idea of a solid, fundamental big man as a guide for what to work on.
Then I moved on to some shooting. Close-range stuff mostly. Bank shots, little hooks. Trying to be consistent. It’s funny, you think shooting is just about your arm, but it’s everything. Legs, core, follow-through. I bricked a few, clanked a bunch off the rim. It’s humbling, for sure. You realize how much work goes into just being a reliable shooter, even if you’re not a star scorer.
- Focused on keeping my elbow in.
- Tried to get the same arc on every shot.
- Made myself do push-ups for really bad misses, just to keep it interesting.
I didn’t have anyone to pass to me or rebound, so it was a lot of chasing the ball. That’s a workout in itself! After a while, I was pretty gassed. My shots started getting worse, not better, ’cause I was tired. That’s always the tricky part, right? Maintaining form when you’re fatigued.
It kind of reminded me of this one time, years ago, I tried to learn a really complicated guitar solo. I thought, “How hard can it be?” Watched the video, looked easy enough. But then trying to get my fingers to actually do it, at speed, cleanly? Whole different story. Same thing with this basketball stuff. Watching pros makes it look effortless. Doing even a fraction of it, even badly, shows you the layers of skill involved.
So yeah, that was my “Mark Hendrickson basketball” inspired afternoon. Didn’t suddenly turn into an NBA player, shocker, I know. But it was good to get out there, move around, and just focus on some of those foundational things. Sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just practice the basics. It’s always harder than it looks, and there’s always something to improve. Next time, maybe I’ll try to focus more on defensive slides. My feet felt like lead by the end of this session!
