STS 10-26-07 & Sectionals/Regionals

-Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.

-Winning is a by-product. Focus on the product: EFFORT.

-The teams that compete at the highest level love the thrill of the contest, They may have winning in their heads, but they have a love for the struggle in their hearts.

-Intensity makes you stronger. Emotionalism makes you weaker." -John Wooden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-KDhVwD0UA

Some great quotes from one of the greatest coaches ever. I had the chance to meet John Wooden and hear him speak at a charity event when I was in High School, and I even got to shake his hand and tell him how great it was to meet him. It wasn't I got a little older that I realized how lucky I was to be able to meet and listen to such an impactful coach. Easily one of the top 5 most influental coaches ever.

Put Rocky in there because pump-up montages are meant for the days before tourneys. Man Law. Special note: The original script was written by Stallone in 3 days and had Rocky throwing the fight at the end. Kinda adds a whole new perspective on the movie had they kept that in.

Sectionals was last weekend and unfortunately didn't bring the matchup I was so fired up for, as Monster forgot to close out their semi's game and lost to SD United. I was curious to see how the PBR split would work out for San Diego, but they surpised Monster by showing up strong and putting it to them 15-11. My initial thoughts were that SD would be weaker than last year as I depth would be an issue, but SD United is most definitely better than last year's PBR squad. They still play the split offense with two downfield receivers on each sideline and the middle of the field open, and depend on big breaks from their handlers to their always-active cutters. Finals was an ugly, scrappy game with the old condor/pbr/tide/squid bad blood spilling over onto the field. The first half was simply terrible, too many stupid turns to write about, but we managed to cleaned it up a bit in the second half. Our offense was clicking and moving the ball fast, and our D had some great marks, held up their offensive flow and kept their main guys in check. Bad calls and bad vibes were unfortunately the order of the day, and it left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but so it goes. SD does play hard the entire game and have some athletic dudes who made some athletic plays, so I respect them for that, even if neither side showed each other much respect during the game. I guess I just much rather like playing tough, physical, athletic ultimate with my opponent and then be able to look each other in the eye and acknowledge our mutual heart & hustle vs. having them talk shit after we shake hands. Luckily my football background is one of nothing but shit-talk and showboating, so it's an environment I'm used to and quite comfortable in. There's more shit-talking and mental games in one of my flag-football league games than in an entire Ultimate tournament. For a game that requires so much communication between opponents (contested calls...etc) it's a cakewalk in the shit-talk department. Thank god. But I will give SD mad props for beating Monster early and supplying me with an endless amount of jokes for all my LA buddies. :)

Workout:

Movement Prep: Same bat time, same bat channel. Added the usual quick-drops also.

Functional Lifts:

I sprained my right pinky this weekend, nothing serious, but it's swelled up something fierce which means I can't hold a bar in my hand so it meant I had to alter things up a bit. No hang cleans makes me a sad panda.

Front squats 4 sets @ 8 reps

1 leg step-ups 3 sets @ 8 reps each leg

Backwards lunges with bar overhead 3 sets @ 8 reps. Gnarly mofos.

Cable twists while in squat position 3 sets @ 8 reps each side

Box Jumps 3 sets @ 12 reps

Core Circuit:

Couldn't hold anything so that meant no pullups, dips, or medicine ball work

GHD's

Sit-ups

Side twists

Plyo push-ups

Windshield wipers while holding 135lbs with locked arms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNGCG2L0OA Those KILLED me. Did mine on a bench instead of on the floor.

Repeated circuit 3x's with no rest.

Regionals this weekend in San Bernadino. Time to do what I've been in the weight room and on the grass 10 months for...get back to Nationals. Playing Monster last game of pool play on Saturday, and if things go as planned, Bravo on Sunday. Time to go to WORK.

http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=124&id=3871

STS 9-19-07 & The Sectionals Beatdown

Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." -Mike Singletary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy2ElkOuNF0

Posted that again because it's just so awesome to watch. Imagine training so that each time is different than the last time and each session pushes a new threshold of fatigue. Now stop imagining it and make it a reality. Seriously.

With Sectionals under way it's crunch time for everyone. While this is the point to fine tune the high-level concepts of your game, don't fool yourself into thinking that where you're at physically now can't be improved in time for The Show. We are a month & change away from Nationals and if you've been working hard consistently then there is still time to make significant strength, speed, and recovery gains. Time for another check-in to make sure you're doing what it takes to get you where you want.

Yesterday's workout:

Movement Prep: same ol' story. Added 2 sets of overhead squats with the bar and 3 sets of quick-drops. Btw...if you're still not jump-roping as either part of your MP or workout then you should feel real guilty right now. Have I taught you nothing!?!? You're killing me smalls.

Functional Lifts:

5 sets of Hang-cleans. Last two sets were hang-clean to push press. Just cuz.

3 sets of Jump-shrugs- did 6 jump-shrugs then finished with 4 regular deadlifts. Coretastic!

3 sets of Front-squats @ 8 reps

2 sets of 1 leg step-ups @ 8 reps...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXngKlZhqiQ

Interval Training:

For this I did a set of 10 push-presses at 135lbs then immediately did 12 box jumps, rest 30 seconds and repeat for 3 sets.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

This superset was awesome because of the progression/regression involved. The push press is hip-initiated and requires the body to enter a 1/4 squat to begin movement and generate power. And the box jump obviously uses the entire legs & core to generate the vertical leap. So you'd go from small (but equally powerful) squat to 3/4 squat for box jump back to 1/4 squat movement. Filthy. And really, really effective.

Finished with core & upper-body circuit that consisted of:

Pull-ups TF to hanging leg-raises TF
GHD's sets of 20
Plyometric push-ups- both feet & hands off the ground TF, then hands-only TF
Medicine ball twists
Sit-ups w/weight

Went through circuit 3 times w/no rest. Finished in 1 hour and 5 minutes and did more work in 1 hour than all the meatheads at my gym could do in 3 hours. Suckers. But their curls and bench press did look sick. Seriously. Sick.

SW Sectionals this weekend. That means a beatdowns a' coming. Condors are Back in Black and will be putting some people on notice that they might have made the wrong decision a couple months ago. Frosty-frost has been waiting for a specific game against a specific team and is so fired up for it that he's now speaking in the third person.

Showtime.

#40

STS- 9-13-07 & Your Ego

"Do not let your ego get in the way of your speed potential"- Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKayGh7LTg

Little dude with BIG hops.

I was training with a new client for the first time this morning and I realized how much easier it is to train women than men because of the ego factor. No guy (especially an athletic one) likes hearing that they have imbalances or weaknesses that need to be addressed before they can reach their full potential. But all truly intelligent athletes know that once you have a solid strength base and aerobic capacity your main focus needs to be on recognizing and addressing any and all weaknesses. Because an imbalance or weakness during speed movement translates over to an energy leak, and that means you're now working harder to move slower.

The problem is that addressing a weakness correctly sometimes means that you have to move back down levels of regression to a very basic movement and build up from there. Something guys with egos hate to do, myself included. I still remember how much I fought the simple routines when I was learning Athlete's Performance (http://www.athletesperformance.com/) until my trainer showed me how ridiculously deficient I was in some areas, and then it fully hit me how much I had to learn and re-teach myself about movement efficiency and form. Because a lot of it isn't innate principles and has to be cognitively recognized and applied, and bad techniques have been reinforced throughout the years with muscle memory and movement patterns. And it can take a long time to un-learn incorrect technique if you're fighting it the whole way and think you're too cool for school. News flash Walter Cronkrite: you aren't.

So in summary:

1. Drop. Your. Ego. and recognize that you have weaknesses and imbalances that need to be addressed before you can reach your speed/strength/agility/vertical leap potential. And recognize that some of those imbalances might mean that you might have to start at the basic moves and build up from there. How do you expect to be able to jump your highest if you can't even squat correctly?

2. Recognize that exercise science has evolved significantly in the past few years and that the routines and techniques you were taught in High School or Jr. High may not necessarily be the most effective or even correct way to acheive the results you're looking for. Recognize that you DON'T know everything about exercise science and be open and willing to learn new things. You might just surprise yourself.

3. Variety is the spice of life. There are too many activities out there for you to keep doing the same routine over and over. Change it up constantly so that you're always keeping your body guessing and ready for anything. Running stairs exactly how you've run them since college is not only f'ing boring, but also means you're getting 1/2 the bang for your buck. If you're going to commit the time to training you might as well get the most out of it.

Onto the training:

Movement Prep- usual nonsense. Also did 3 sets of quick drops and 3 sets of overhead quats. Steadily improving at those.

Did The BEAR today, and...well...it was quite unbearable. The BEAR consists of a hang clean to front-squat to push-press, then back down for another front-squat to push-press. That's 1 rep. 6 sets of 6 reps. Yeah, that's right. 72 front-squats to push-press in one setting...with 36 hang-cleans. Note: the regular BEAR calls for the 2nd squat to be a back squat but I keep both front-squats as I'm really trying to improve my front squat. And it's harder.

Next I did an core-circuit consisting of hanging-leg raises, medicine ball twists, sit-ups, & GHD's (glute-ham developers- awesome exercise). Went through circuit 3 times with 45 second rest between circuit, no rest between exercises.

After core-circuit I did box-jumps and row machine intervals. 30 seconds on/30 seconds rest for 4 sets to hit that lactate threshold even more. Legs. Were. Spent. Along with the rest of me.

Tonight will be medicine ball throws, speed & agility work, and throwing. Love September in LA, it's sunny and 78 degrees till 8pm 7 days a week. Say what you want about the traffic, smog, and flaky people but I'll take that weather any day o' the week!... along with the saucy girls that walk their silly little dogs at Studio City park in their silly little skirts. God bless that park.

CF

STS 9-9-07 and Rollin' with Nolan

"I wouldn't ever set out to hurt anyone deliberately unless it was, you know, important —like a league game or something."

-Dick Butkus, former Chicago Bears linebacker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5pWMP6HdXc

Yeah that's right kids. It's that time again. It's time for some mothaf'ing football!

I've been waiting 7 months for this. 49ers on tonight and back in the hunt. We're winning 10+ games this year. I'm calling it now.

Football has always been my first true love. The only good thing about Nationals being over is that I get to play Flag Football with my boys again with the Sandlot All-stars. 6 of us on the team have been playing together for 7 years now. In honor of the season finally here I ran a bunch of routes with QB Chris this week intermixed with our speed workout. We also did some 2 and 3 ball drills. For The 2 ball drill we would run a 12-yard out, catch the ball, then immediately drop it and explode into a post-corner route as ball #2 was coming over the shoulder. The 3 ball drill consisted of a slant across the field, catch & drop, immediately change direction to a 15 yard out across to the opposite side of the field, catch & drop and immediately turn upfield for a streak and a long-bomb ball #3. The focus is obviously on changing direction at maximum speed and catching every ball. Both of the drills felt VERY ultimate-specific as it was 5 cuts in a row. Oh yeah, and it's fucking sweet to catch 3 balls in a row from a guy who's got a collegiate-level arm. Dude throws darts.

On to the workout:

Movement Prep- Same stuff as before. See previous posts if ya don't know. One change though as I started incorporating more overhead squats and quick drops into my workout. Quick drops have officially taken place as my new Hot Exercise of the Moment. An unbelievable disassociation & explosive exercise. In a single explosive move the arms move up, the legs move down into a squat, and the core stays stable. Simply phenomenal. And amazingly difficult to get your arms and legs to move in opposite directions with fluidity. Took me 3 seperate sessions before I felt mildly comfortable, so don't worry if they don't automatically click the first time you try them. Remember, the point is that you're trying them. Because I guarantee the guy you cover at the next tournament isn't...well, unless you cover me.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/QuickDrop.html

Functional lifts:

Hang-Cleans 4 sets: 6,6,4,4 increasing weight

Front Squats 4 sets @ 8 reps increasing weight

Jump Shrugs: 3 sets of 6, then immediately transitioned into 6 deadlifts after each set. Those rocked.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/JumpShrug.html

Push-Press: 3 sets @ 10 reps

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

Russian Dead-lifts: 2 sets @ 10 reps, wasn't planning on doing these but felt like hitting the hamstrings a bit extra today so I only did 2 sets. I'm such a wimp.

Next was a core circuit that consisted of twists on a swiss-medicine ball w/weight, weighted situps on a decline bench, glute-ham developers (SICK exercise), swiss-ball planks- improved at those to the point where I can balance on two swiss-balls, one on my feet, one on my hands in push-up position. Really fun to balance on those, even though I don't think people like it when I take up two of six swiss balls we have available. :)

Finished with Box Lateral Shuffles while holding a 10lb medicine ball overhead. This strengthens your core at it's weakest point (hands overhead). Remember the longer your body is the more your core is forced to stabilize it.

Two words to think about this week: Pillar. Strength.

What are you doing to improve your pillar strength?

CF