Thoughts.

Ironside vs. Chain, Semifinals, '09 Club Nationals. Photo taken by Keegan Uhl.

While the college season is picking up steam, a lot of club players are just getting in gear for the coming tryouts and season.

Ballometrics has been maintaining a fitness list for the past few months (tryouts start soon, if you’re interested in playing competitive mixed out of Boston, drop a line); people are starting to do track workouts now that the land is thawing.

I sent the following to the list about doing pre-season track workouts, which segued into a lot of thoughts on running form. As we still have the luxury of training without the constant performance demand of weekend tournaments and practices, it’s a great time to focus on technique and go into the season not only with a good base of strength and conditioning, but efficient form, as well.
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Xi Xua’s Huddle entries on Crossfit (a follow-up to his earlier article on play intervals in elite open ultimate) provide an informative look into what Crossfit is; however, he does not go in to much depth at all on how to go about how to incorporate it into ultimate training.

This is by design, I think; done verbatim, Crossfit is an extremely taxing regimen to adhere to.  3 on, 1 off, learning how to do technical lifts like the squat and deadlift and the Olympic lifts too can make things overwhelming (to say nothing of the renowned intensity of the workouts).

For me, there have always been two keys to keep in mind with incorporating Crossfit: Progression and Flexibility.
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Vertical jump testing is a lot of fun.

The Dartmouth men have an arrangement with the River Valley Club near Hanover; last Wednesday was our first session there.

After a good, dynamic warm-up (which your team should be doing, if it’s still static stretching), we met the trainer we’d be working with.

First thing he did with us? Took vertical and long jumps (best out of 3), and tested pull-ups (max reps) and push-ups (max reps in 60 seconds).

We also learned how to do a few exercises that we’ll be performing for the next 10 weeks or so.

What we didn’t do, in this first session of the season, was dive right in and get to work. Hard work IS important–the team has been busting their butts over winter break to come into our long winter training with a good base–but just as important as working hard is being able to track progress. What good is weeks and weeks of training, (even if you improve your lifts or what-have-you), if it doesn’t translate to increased explosiveness on the field?

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1. Renew your UPA membership.  With electonic waivers, you can do it all now and forget about last-minute scrambles come series time, plus you’re a member in time to get all the copies of USA Ultimate.  Apologies to international readers who aren’t beholden to the UPA.
2. Get your fitness in gear.  The Huddle has a nice piece by Xi Xia talking about Crossfit; longtime readers will know that I’m a huge proponent of Crossfit, and I highly recommend that you look to get into it if you want a comprhensive general physical preparedness routine for your off-season training.If you’re in season (ie college), you can definitely benefit from incorporating some strength work to your practice and other training routine.  A while back I posted the routine we used at Dartmouth several years ago; it’s a solid place to start from if you’ve never lifted before, or are otherwise looking to ease into in-season training.
3. Play ultimate.  Hopefully this is the easy one!  I’ve got coaching at Vegas and dominating in Hawaii to help me get my fix this winter (and a bit of training motivation for #2).  Hope you’re finding satisfying pursuits, too!

It always bears repeating that good goal-setting practices, keeping the process in mind as well as the end result, will help you achieve the ends you desire, ultimate or otherwise.  Best of luck with keeping your resolutions!

’tis a great season for reading, as students are about to go/are already on break…here’s what’s been on my tap of late.  Would love to hear your good stuff in the comments.

The Definitive Book of Body Language. Really easy to get in to, broken up into perusable chunks makes it a great bathroom/bedroom read. From the perspective of a neuroscience major, I find it fascinating, and from the perspective of a future physician, I find it a useful tool for reading my patients and evaluating their needs (and how they’re responding to my suggestions).  You never know, it could help make you a more persuasive call-arguer.
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A gem dropped in a Force Flick post, this Men’s Health piece about deep muscle fascia and the massive role it plays in posture and, by extension, body function, is well worth the read. Makes me want to turn the scalpel to the side and do my own fascia examinations in the dissection lab.

Great to see this stuff hitting “conventional” fitness sources like Men’s Health. If you don’t already, consider foam rolling and mobility work as part of your warm-up routine.

Via Jim Biancolo, interesting research claiming ibuprofen (taken chronically, for endurance athletes) paradoxically contributes to MORE inflammation.

I always view prescriptive articles based off of one study with skepticism, but it’s worth considering–I have heard before of ibuprofen’s disruptive effect on muscle rebuilding/recovery, and there are some health risks associated with (very high, sustained) usage, so be wary of treating it as a vitamin, despite the joking reference.

Been working hard lately, with the wonderful weather ¹ and the prospect of playing some good ultimate when I return to the states as motivation.

That said, there are still days where I’m not feeling it. I get home from work and my body says, “meh!” and my mind says, “ehhhh. Just take it easy today.”

In those situations, there are two things that keep me working:

1. Having a plan. This is essential to keep you from dogging it repeatedly–if you have at LEAST a general idea, some goal to strive towards, you’re more likely to get there. It’s easier to say “eh, today will be an off day” when you haven’t already planned it to be a workout day. Plan against your future apathy.
2. At least do the warm up! This is a rule I made for myself a couple years ago (I may have read about it somewhere); even if you don’t feel up for a full strength workout or conditioning set, etc, get your butt off the couch and into the gym. Do your warm-up (I’m fond of the Crossfit warm-up or similar derivation). Feel better? Do the workout. Still not feeling up for it? Take it easy.

At the very least, you’re boosting recovery by getting the blood flowing. Ideally the physical act of getting up and out will be enough to get you over your motivation hump and get you working, even if you opt to scale things back a bit–you’re better off doing something than nothing.

¹As I type this, of course, it’s pouring–rainy season here. Soon to be unbearably hot season.