STS 8-5-08 Head Games & The 'wood

"A dog is forever in the push-up position"- Mitch Hedberg

Cool Links:

- The man himself on flow. The Theory of Flow is really, really interesting as it extends much further than the field and into all facets of life. Like a jazz musician in his element, flow is so f'ing beautiful to see on the field. Most people can't articulate it, but everyone knows it when they see it.

- it's all in your head.

- suspension training

- agility techniques

- these dudes= mad athletic. That's hip mobility/stability at it's finest.

- Cool study on the "hot hand" of basketball. Pretty applicable to ultimate, especially given how streaky our sport can be.

- interesting article on the validity of recovery methods.

Workout:

I just moved from the Eastside back to Hollyhood again. Among the many, many awesome things about living in the 'wood (if you don't the others you really should come visit here. Trust me.) is that I'm back to being a couple blocks away from Runyon Canyon. RC is simply awesome, yoga in the grass every evening, tons & tons of trails to hike, and at the top you're standing at the same height as the Hollywood sign (just one hill to the west) looking out in the basin below. After the rain when the smog is cleared out you can see from Pasadena to Catalina. Not too shabby of a view. the city looks okay too. :)

I started off the workout with a full-body circuit consisting of:

- 1 arm kettlebell swings (w/dumbbell)
- plyo-pushups
- pullups
- 1 leg squats
- ab wheel

4x's through resting only when necessary. Did this in my living room for all you i-hate-going-to-the-gym excuse people.

Jogged up the canyon till I got a to a part I call Hurdler Hill. It's about 40 yards with soft dirt/sand at the bottom and two seperate 2-foot "walls" of hillside near the top that you have to hurdle over to keep going, with every step uneven. In 1 40-yard sprint you get sand training, hurdling, and uneven ground work for proprioception skills & foot/ankle stability. SICK. Did 7 sprints up, resting at the top, then "sprinting" down working on minimal ground contact time and quick feet (which is pretty much the only way to do it without falling down the hill).

Jogged up a bit further till I got the start of the trail that leads up to the top. This trail is soft sand all the way, with steep uneven stairs, chunks of concrete mixed in from when it was paved long ago, and wood 4x4's barriers that make for either great hurdles, or steps to spring off of for some sprint-to-jumps. Just tons of cool terrain to creatively challenge your legs, every single step is a new one. The trail to the top is easily 3/4's of a mile, so I broke it up, sprinting as far as I possibly muster, resting till my lungs stopped burning, then off again. My focus was on making every step explosive & minimal ground contact time while keeping a proper uphill forward lean with explosive arm drive through the shoulders.

The best part is the run back down. There's a couple great not-too steep sections that are about 100 yards long and you can just fly running downhill in the soft dirt, hurdling over the 4 x 4's. Overspeed training is the sh*t. Just fluid through the hips, leading with the core. I did the hill twice, then sprinted all the way down running as fast I possibly could downhill. My lower abs were straight burning at the end from stabilizing out in front.

So yeah, training uphill running (which forces proper running form), ankle/foot stability, leg/foot proprioception, plyometrics, and downhill (overspeed) training all at the same place. As it should be.

Med-Ball Field Workout

Only had a quick 1/2 hour at the park to get in a workout today. The medicine ball is the best way to kill yourself metabolically in a short amount of time.

Movement Prep

Standard plyos

Throws

- 30 sumo squat-to-toss throwing the ball backwards w/jump, then turn n' sprint to catch on 1st bounce.

- 40 overhead slams w/jump. Arms & ball slam down, body jumps up, core stays stable. Dissasociation at it's finest.

- 30 front-squat vertical tosses w/180 jumps. Stand with med ball in front squat position, jump squat and do a 180 in the air, land in a squat, explode out with toss, catch on 1st bounce, repeat. SO sweet for training proper landing mechanics.

- 20 side tosses to 15 yard sprint (each side). Don't fight the energy of the ball, harness it to propel you into your sprint.

- 25 chest-passes to 15 yard sprint

Finished with med-ball burpees to failure.

This week:

Monday: Recovery
Tuesday: Runyon Canyon
Wednesday: Med-ball field workout above
Thursday: Summer League
Friday: weights
Saturday: field workout w/agility emphasis
Sunday: beach workout

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