STS 7-25-08 & Wednesday Night Lights

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia." -Charles M. Schultz

Photo from the Condor vs. Dingos Scrimmage

Some cool links:

- This guy is the mothaf'ing man. IOC tells him he can't compete, and he responds by breaking his personal best. That's what I'm talking about.

- From the perform better seminar

- barefoot running

- What it's like to workout with Alwyn Cosgrove. Great article. And you thought my workouts were tough.

- The A-11 offense that's got every football coach on it's ear right now. Smart stuff, lots of options. Again proves how much innovation is possible within a set system of rules.

- sprint training for endurance competitions

- Lessons from Mike Boyle

- Dingos in the news

Wednesday night we had the excellent opportunity to scrimmage the Aussie National Team. We managed to get the sweet, sweet synthetic fields at Occidental College in LA, and it was a great night for SoCal Ultimate. Playing under the lights always get me fired up and we had a great crowd come out to see the action. I still can't get over how fast the fieldturf surface is...too much fun. The Dingos are tall, athletic, disciplined, and seemed to be all clicked in with each other as they've been practicing & playing together for a while now. We started off slow, had trouble adjusting to their physical underneath man D and had some defensive miscues, spotting them a 9-4 lead at half. Definitely not how we wanted to start things out. But we maintained our poise like true Condors, we knew we still had a lot of game left and just focused on making some key adjustments. We finally busted the deep game wide open in the beginning of the 2nd half, and also started playing some sick Team D, tightened our marks, and forced some turns. Went a nice 11-5 run where our offense was really clicking & moving with flow, and some of our rookies stepped up huge and made big plays on D to bring it to 15's. We traded to 17's (game to 19) and had the ball to take the lead for the first time but turned it on a huck. They marched it back up patiently for the score, then closed it out on the next point after a lay-out drop to take the W. The game was extremely well-spirited, clean, and one of the most fun experiences I've had playing disc. We took over a sweet LA bar afterwards with the crowd and showed 'em a good time droppin' carbombs like rain. Funny post-game story: A group of the aussies stopped at the Taco Truck outside the bar for some food and they ordered one of the guys (the captain I think) a tongue taco which he devoured without knowing. They still hadn't told him by the end of the night, hope he's finally figured out that that wasn't carne asada...

Workout

Movement Prep- Same story, see previous posts if you need details.

Med-ball

30 1-arm front-squat vertical tosses (each arm)

20 side-twists throw against wall w/catch (each side)

Plyos Skills & Drills

1. Sitting box jumps

2. Split-squat jumps

3. Box lateral shuffle with weight overhead (locked arms)

Functional Lifts

1. Split-squats w/weight- as fast as possible for 30 seconds with proper form. rest 1 minute, repeat alternating leg. Twice through

2. Hang Snatches- 3 sets

3. RDL's- 3 sets

Core Sequence

Moved from swiss-ball pikes, side plank, leg lifts w/med ball between leg, and standard plank. 3 times through, each exercise to failure. Resting only when necessary.

#40

STS 7-14-08

"You ever see a cheetah stretch?" - Deion Sanders

You know you miss primetime

This makes me so f'ing happy. Ultimate being shown for what is really is: athletic, especially on an industry-recognized website. Also some great information on jumpability.

- Vern Gambetta on athleticism

- Decent video on acceleration

- Good ideas for mini-band training

- Breaking down the nervous system

- Muscle fatigue: it's all in your head

- Good information on Tabata Intervals

Workout

Movement Prep- same shizzle, different dizzle

Med-ball- 3-throw sequence

Throw 1: sumo-squat vertical toss
Throw 2: Overhead slam
Throw 3: front-squat vertical toss

5x's through the sequence with no rest between throws. Moved immediately from there to mini-band shuffles & high-knees. Repeat 3x's.

Plyos Skills & Drills

1A: Cable Punches
1B: Outside-in Stepups- stand over small plyo box with legs on the outside. Step up explosively with left leg onto box followed by right, then back down to floor in same sequence. Focus is on landing everytime with no noise (minimal ground contact time + explosive fast-twitch movement). Alternate starting leg 2nd time through.

2x's through resting only when necessary

2A: Split-squat jumps
2B: depth push-ups

2x's through resting only when necessary

Functional Lifts

1A: Crossover Step-ups
1B: Jumping tuck pull-ups

2x's through resting only when necessary

2: Overhead Squats (30 seconds focusing on moving as fast as possible with absolute pure form)

3 sets, with 1 minute rest in between.

3: 1 arm snatches

1 set each arm

Core Circuit

A: GHD's w/swandive
B: Hanging leg raises
C: Standing twists w/weight
D: Side Plank

2x's through with no rest

This Week:

Monday: Workout above (AM); throwing workout (PM)
Tuesday: Field work w/agility emphasis
Wednesday: Basketball (AM); throwing workout followed by heavybag work (PM)
Thursday: Strength Training
Friday: Recovery
Saturday: Surfing & beach sprints
Sunday: Field work with plyometric emphasis

Hit it hard this week!

#40

STS 7-8-08 & The Development of Power

"The season is not about maintenance; it's about manipulation"- Dr. Craig S Duncan

"The most effective way to boost power is to lift weights rapidly. This trains muscles to contract quickly and react appropriately when it is necessary to exert force.- Mike Boyle"

Back at it again after a quick break. Summer has been stacked n' packed in the best kind of way, with 2 weddings, birthday, vegas, the 4th, and a full training schedule. Too much fun. Hope your training is progressing solidly as the season ramps up.

Some awesomeness:

- Impossible is nothing

- Some sweet stairs action. Check out the jump-to-sprints, among other things. Landing mechanics with flow= where it's at.

- Switch kicks. My new favorites.

- more impossible is nothing. So dirrty.

- A great video to get you thinking about your field workouts. where could you go from here? how could you incorporate a disc into these?

- Cool article on athleticism. Obviously as subjective as it gets, but still smart.

- Titans gettin' in on some kettlebell action

- Vern on recovery

- Ross with some great reads

- Once again proving how little we really know about the human body. This is just Mind-boggling.

- Such a great article on power. Another must read for any athlete.

Power is the ability to exert great force in a short period of time and
results in being able to move quickly and explosively, says Mark Verstegen,
founder of Athletes’ Performance in Tempe, Ariz. His facility specializes in
training competitive athletes, teaching them, among other things, to accelerate
and change direction quickly. That ability is developed by lifting weights
rapidly and helps athletes move more explosively during games and
other competitions.

A significant degree of power is the efficiency with which your nerves
communicate and your muscles respond to the need to apply force.

Workout:

MP- standard, see previous posts for description.

Med-Ball

20 front-squat vertical tosses
20 sumo-squat backwards tosses (against wall w/catch)
25 side twists each side
20 chest throws in lunge position (against wall w/catch)

Plyo Skills & Drills

1A: sitting box jumps
1B: depth push-up

2A: Box jump march
2B: Jumping pullups w/tuck

Jump Shrug

2x's through resting only when necessary

Functional Lifts

1: Hang Clean

2: Split Drops- same as these, but into a split-squat instead of regular squat. Love these.

3A: Overhead Squat- as fast as possible with proper form for 30 seconds.
3B: Walking superman pushups- 8x's (stand, walk hands all the way to front, perform superman pushup, walk hands back to standing)
3C: 1-leg squats (use the bench like this video if necessary)

2x's through each one resting only when necessary.

Upperbody/Core Circuit

40 arm swings w/5lb each hand
GHD's
GHD sit-ups

2x's through no rest. Finished in just under 55 minutes.

Couple of off topic items:

- A teammate of mine just bought a 40lb sandbag at OSH for $2.50. Yeah, that's right. 100+ difference awesome exercises for $2.50. That whole $$$-excuse for not lifting just got tossed out the window.

- Something that bugs me about the top teams in Ultimate is their unwillingness to share pertinent information with each other. I'm not talking about set plays, specific strategies, or other proprietary information (of course that information stays in-house, as it should.) I'm talking about frameworks of smart drills or Energy System Development (work capacity) programs, etc. Concepts that make the sport better for everyone. But for teams & players to straight stonewall each other, (especially mutually-respectful teams & players) just makes no sense to me and shows a lack of athletic professionalism. It's a very different attitude in other sports. HS football coaches meet the week before and trade game films. (college and pro's don't because tape is already available for them. Unless of course, it's defensive play signals. :) They do this for the same reason I post my so-called "secrets" in full view of my competition. First, because there's a HUGE difference between knowing about something and actually incorporating it into a progressive comprehensive program. And then actually bringing those refined abilities and combining them with your throwing skillset and incorporating it into the actual game. Secondly, because it's silly to think you could keep anything a secret anyway, the information is going to get out there somehow, most likely by a teammate changing teams and bringing what they've learned with them. So you're really just delaying the inevitable. But mostly because my philosophy of preparation & competition runs a little different: You can have my training, you can know what I do; and it won't matter for a second. Because I'll still beat you with it. Because you won't train as intense as I train. And you won't put train in as many creative combinations as I do. Your drills won't be as mentally & physically demanding as mine are. So you can watch all the tape you want on me (I'll even give it to you) and think you know all my tendencies; I'll just beat you with my 2nd & 3rd options. Because it's not about what the other team does or knows; it's only about what my team does.

So don't stonewall. Show some professionalism and give a smart framework that promotes thinking so that that framework can eventually trickle down and be passed along to all the other college, league, & youth, etc teams in that area that that team influences. It's not going to hurt your team (if giving away a drill hurts your team, you've got much bigger issues than drill strategies) and it's the only effective way to advance the sport: from within. Props to The Huddle for recognizing this and doing an fantastic job of getting smart information to players and promoting the on-field advancement of the sport. Only good things can come from the sharing of information like this.

My strong makes your strong look like cottage cheese,
#40