Absolutely agreed on the fundamentals. A teammate once told me that I always looked like I was walking with a purpose when I was heading around campus–I was almost always, in fact, focusing on my glute activation/foot strike/etc, debugging my posture for all those hours I wan’t at practice. Same for running form in track workouts.

Big fan of Nike frees; I stopped having ankle trouble when I started wearing them full-time.

Re: jump rope, I’m a fan of using it for warming up–I’d usually include a minute of jump roping in my warm-up circuit (based off of the crossfit warm-up). It’s a good idea for here too…we’ll see.

As for “program” vs. “system,” absolutely a program right now. A “system” is what a coach or a trainer does for his athletes or clients. As this is just for myself, I’m largely going off of fuzzy stuff like “feel.”

@Stephen,

I love having control over what I do. I think you, like me, got the first rush when you got into crossfit–to know that hard work with the right methods can yield quick, good results is extremely empowering. (I’m getting pumped up just writing about it). Glad the links were helpful!

As far as teams out here, I’ll probably have a better idea after I’ve played in the Awaji Open at month’s end. I did play in a beach tourney in the fall, which had a bunch of Japanese college club teams and a couple more legit-looking ones, but I didn’t get a good look at them.

For now I’m picking up with a ragtag collection of expats from the larger area around southern Japan (though a handful seem to actually have some experience, which is a step above the pickup level I’ve known so far)…the legit club teams like the Tokyo Buzz Bullets or Osaka Natto are tough to crack as they’re largely, if not fully, native–my Japanese is good enough that I could probably get by (sport tends to need little translation), but that doesn’t mean they’d want to have me. And they’re much too far away from me. I had a contact and a potential in to check out Buzz Bullets practice before I got to Japan last year, but their season and my schedule didn’t mesh. Perhaps I’ll be able to catch them come summer.

Due back in the States late July/early August. DMS orientation starts August 10, which doesn’t give me a lot of down time before I’m back into it. As far as coaching, I’m still up in the air as to how much/which team and all that, but if I don’t go too in-depth talking about strategy I will at least be offering impressions here, life busyness permitting.

Boxers and Bruce Lee, MMA fighters and Olympic athletes cross-train with rope to develop conditioning and agility, for only minutes a day. If you think about it, landing + jumping on both feet reduces impact relative to running/sprinting, and if it hurts, it’s a sign of poor form or some orthopedic imbalance that should be addressed!

One thing to think about is, can you do fewer things better? Can you get most of the results with 20% of the exercises you mention?

175g goblet squats, 175g one-handed swings / one-legged DLs or pistols, intervals running, jump rope and the 175g TGU will get you hella far I’d say, and fit nicely into a women’s ultimate program.

Another thought I get from Gray Cook. Are you designing “a program” or “a system”? A system is robust, a program is just a program, without a guiding philosophy, architecture, or evolved design.

Power to you mmackey!

L2

One thing that I realize now, that comes through in your writing, is the unmatched pleasure of being in control of one’s training. It seems normal to you and me and others who’ve been at it for a while, but there are a lot of players who don’t/can’t break down fitness/athleticism like you do in this post and who are generally at a loss for what they should do to train. Sure its good to follow a team workout plan but I bet one gets a lot more out of a program of exercise he is in control of.
One that note, thanks for that collection of links in your “Interested in Training huh?” entry.

What team are you playing with currently? What is the club scene like in Japan (if you are indeed playing club)? And finally, when do you get back to the states – im real interested to here about your perspectives on coaching your old team.

http://tinyurl.com/smr-book

I started using a lacrosse ball and knobble to complement my foam roller work.

I think it’s also worth working on fundamentals–how do we walk, how do we run? Are you glidewalking, putting weight on your heels? Do you run the same barefoot on grass as you do with shoes?

Poor walking/running form can lead to ankle injuries in the women’s game, where anterior/posterior chain asymmetries (quad dominance, gluteal and sometimes hamm/calf amnesia too) can really add up on the ankle joints.

Me, I started free running this week on campus, Nike Frees on top of Patagonia endurance socks and having some fun while working on efficient/effective form!