More Weird Athletic Observations

Despite my ordinarily overactive powers of observation, I failed to notice some very important attributes of British athletics last week. This Friday, as I ran around the gymnasium with the U. Sussex women’s basketball team, I couldn’t stop looking at the floor. Something was very wrong with it. Every time I wanted to make sure I was outside the key—to avoid a three-second call or to line for a shot in case I received the ball—I kept looking down and finding the black line just slightly past my feet. I swear, it was like an optical illusion! Finally, as I stood at the baseline in order to pass the ball inbounds, I realized what the problem was: the key was not rectangular. Instead, the lines forming its sides were slanted outward from the foul line at forty-five (okay, maybe slightly smaller) degree angles until they met with baseline. I was flabbergasted.

My first inclination was that this was a setup for some other sport and that another marking on the court—perhaps one less obvious to they—must have been the key. These courts had so many lines for so many sports—basketball, volleyball, netball, and who knows what else—that it was quite possible I was mistaking the key markings for some sort of bizarre netball goal boundary or other such thing. However, upon asking one girl what those lines were for, she gave me an Are you stupid? look and said, “Those are they key.” I said I knew that, but were they for sure for basketball, and why were they slanted? After a big more back-and-forth, she finally explained that the key is different in America—the lines forming it are straight (i.e. parallel). She also pointed out that our three-point line is different: in America, the three point line meets the half-semicircle crowning the top of the key. However, on the British court, there is a gap between the three-point line and the top of the key. I couldn’t believe I had played an hour-and-a-half of basketball with these girls last week and never noticed.

At 8pm, it was on to volleyball. There, I discovered another deviation from American sports: the net was definitely lower. Last week, I had noticed that my hitting seemed marginally more successful than in that past. However, I attributed that to having taken a break from volleyball and a bit of luck. However, this week my percentage of successful hits remained consistent, and I even managed to block another girl’s hit all by myself. Now, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

At home, if I stand next to the net and raise my arm extended straight above my head, the tips of my fingers barely reach the top of the net. In fact, if an observer were to stand behind me, he/she may claim that I cannot actually reach the very top of the net. Last night, however, I raised my arm and found my fingers extending almost a knuckle over the net.

So much for miraculously gaining volleyball skills on my flight overseas.