STS Oct. 3rd & The Show.

Well, SW regionals is over and the dust has settled. Condors have once again secured a spot to The Show and took Bravo down to the wire for the #1 seed.

Recap:

Saturday- Things in the Inland Empire started out screwy, as they normally do in the IE, or as I like to call it, SoCal's armpit. I've been in LA for most of my life and have only been to the IE maybe 4 times. It's everything you don't like about LA (unbearable traffic, smog, intense desert heat, plus the always comical white trash population) without any of the good stuff. I made sure to remind Calle the RC of my disdain for his field choices throughout the entire weekend. The morning started off with a helpful phone call from a friend that the main freeway to the armpit was completely closed at one section...sweeet. Luckily us roadwarrior badasses knew an alternate route and jumped the 10 and made it out there lickety-split. Thank god, because the only thing worse than going to the IE is sitting in traffic going to the IE.

Games 1-3 were against Anomaly, Sunburn, and some other team I can't remember. We were firing on all cylinders and rolled through the games 13-4 or 5ish. Nothing especially spectacular to report.

Game 4 was against Monster, and we finally got the SoCal Showdown I had been looking forward to all year. Playing against a former team is always emotionally intense, especially when you're still good friends with the majority of the team. They came out fired up and ready to play, and we did too. A decent crowd had gathered and created an exciting atmosphere. Unfortunately for Monster it was business as usual for the Condors as our Zone D was looking SICK and played some of the best team defense I'd seen all year. They jammed up the Monster O, forced quick turns with great field position and scored even quicker. We took half at 8-5 and rolled from there. I somehow managed to match up on Ben Spears the majority of the game on both sides of the ball, and we ran each other silly. He was unquestionably the best player on their roster this year and it was so much fun battling with him. We each got each other good a couple of times, I caught a nice score on a great huck from Geoff Buhl, and he got a good D on me on a huck that fell short. I thought it was mine all the way till his hand knocked it out of the way...so it goes. We rolled through the second half with fierce efficiency all the way until the final point, which also happened to be the longest point of the game. 4 turns on each side (one of them mine) till I caught a caught a filthy IO forehand break from Rory and hit Robbie G in stride with the only IO huck I've thrown this season for the score and the win. 13-4, no 2nd half points for Monster. Mission: accomplished. Message: delivered.

Sunday:

Semi's: Yet another game against SDU. This one was much more clean and much more fun. We jumped out to a 4-0 lead with more aggressive Zone D and transition work, kept our marks sharp and capitalized on turns. Ran away with it 15-6.

Finals: 'Dors vs. Bravo. The excitement in the air was palpable. So thick you could cut it with a knife. We played at 11am and it was mothaf'ing HOT. The crowd had grown and everybody came to see some entertainment. I can't even describe how exciting it was to be a part of that game, it was one of the most intense and emotional games I've ever been in. It was exactly as I thought it would be: a battle of athleticism. We threw a grip of zone transition at them and tried to slow their offense down as best as possible. They went mostly man on us. The 1st half was pretty standard, we each got a couple breaks, and mostly traded to half, which Bravo took 8-6. Don't remember much specifics, but we did open our deep game up and had some nice huck scores on them. Lorenz the Swiss Air Force was droppin' bombs! Bravo did their usual bravoness and made some athletic plays. Second half was equally as tight and we took it down to the wire, getting to Universe Point, but unable to get the score and the win. Beau was unfortunately the hero of the day with the most athletic rundown of a huck I've ever seen on a full-field backhand from Dugan, and also scored the game-winner with yet-another iso play to him to take it 17-16. I don't remember much else of the specifics, but there's a video that should be floating around soon enough. One thing I did notice was the concept of "Big Game" players though. Some players have the ability to raise their level of play according to the impact of the game and we sure had some guys that proved their Big Game ability this weekend. Seeing guys play their absolute best when it matters most was truly inspiring. That's really what this is all about, competition and athleticisim at it's highest, and players rising up to meet that level and exceed it. You can't write drama like how sports have the ability to play themselves out (just ask Box & Rare). We had some guys step up huge, but these 3 come to mind first: Alex "A-bomb" Roedel played the best game I've ever seen him play. Dude had 5 D blocks on Bravo, including the filthiest game-saving layout D on Universe Point on an up-the-line throw to rabbit for the score. He was everywhere on the field and played a truly complete game. Jimmy Chu was another Big Gamer with super solid D on some of Bravo's best, and had the sickest layout score when we really needed it. He loves those trailing-edge grabs. Always a crowd pleaser. Tim Paymaster showed his old team how much they miss him with some of the best D on Beau I've ever seen and had some great grabs and hucks.

After the finals we saw ourselves emotionally and physically spent. But we also saw what kind of team we are, and what we are capable of. I'd say we learned a LOT about ourselves from that game and from this weekend. I think we also really became a team for the first time this weekend, and that's a great thing. We played the best team defense we've played all season and the emotional and mental connections with the guys have never been better.

Backdoor Finals saw us with SDU again. 4 times in 7 days. We made a decision to not let our finals heartbreaker affect our backdoor game, as John Wooden says "the best athletes have no short-term memory" and we had to learn to move on to the next game real quick. Same story as the morning, we jumped out to a lead and kept it to grab the #2 seed. I will say that that wormser guy on SD is a hell of a runner and never quit the entire game. Real respects real.

So we accomplished 1 of 2 goals for the weekend. We made it back to The Show, but didn't beat Bravo. But what I didn't expect was what we learned from it and how close it brought us together as a team. And it reminded me (again) how much I love team sports.

Now, there's still tons of work to be done. Florida is going to be a dogfight...and the Condors are comin' to rumble.

My focus for today's session was on explosiveness.

MP: same story, but I included 2-inch runs and added more jump-roping in between the quick drops.

Functional Lifts Supersets:

Overhead squats w/weight 3 sets @ 1o reps immediately followed by plyo-pushups TF

Overhead backwards lunges w/weight 3 sets @ 10 reps immediately followed by pullups TF

Deadlifts 3 sets @ 8 reps immediately followed by box jumps 12 reps

Cable explosions: starting with the cable down low at my right side I face outward holding the handle in my arm in a karate punch-ready position. I perform a squat and explode up switching my feet in the air so that I land facing my left with my feet still underneath me now pointed to the left while throwing a punch across my body. Resume regular athletic stance facing forward and repeat. 3 sets @ 10 reps each arm.

1 arm-snatches 3 sets @ 10 reps

Lateral box-jumps 3 sets TF http://www.exrx.net/Plyometrics/BoxLateralJump.html

Finished with some abs and a bit more jump-roping.

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