Tournament Time

This week is the south-central regional tournament and this year it is right here in Kansas City. Besides the emotional excitement and butterflies that can be associated with multi-day, multi-game tournaments, there is the obvious physical strain. There are a few things that you may want to keep in mind as you enter into tournament play that could help out substantially. First off, all of your heavy lifting so to speak should already be behind you. At this point you are going to reap the benefits of the preparation you have put into your workout for the past year. This should come as a relief to most of you as your hardest of workouts should be behind you for the most part. Secondly, while you don't necessarily want to over exert yourself this week, it does not mean that you should take the time just for relaxing. Keep yourself moving as much as possible in light to moderate activity for the next few days, including the day of a game and your results will be far greater. Third thing: keep your muscles as fresh as possible. A roller derby game is a battle for your body and most of you have the bruises to prove it. Take care of your body and it will take much better care of you when you need it. I am personally a big fan of an ice bath the night before a game, followed by a hot bath with epsom salts. This promotes regrowth of muscle tissue by first reducing swelling and then promoting blood flow. Other than that don't forget to eat and sleep well and best of luck!

5 min warm up
Stretch
20 push ups
20 inverted rows
4x 30 sec planks
10 meters of lunges
20 min. light jog
5 min cool down
Stretch

Get Over Yourself And Other Pieces Of Advice

Every now and then it is necessary to stop relying on our own infinite wisdom and take some advice from someone else. It5 has been my personal experience that roller girls can be excellent sources of advice that is mostly worth following. The following are my observations and pearls of wisdom that have been given to me by women on roller skates. Here are a few things that I have picked up along the way while spending time with my favorite roller girls!

1: Everything is easier to handle as a team- having a group of people at your side that you can trust and are working toward a common goal makes everything a lot more manageable. No matter how difficult an issue can be or, for that matter, how amazing, a team can make it better.

2: Communication is key- being able to express yourself in whatever means you need to is vital as is being able to listen to someone else in there self expression. doing this effectively and remaining open to what anyone has to say no matter how you feel about it helps.

3: Forgive- sometimes we all fuck up. The important thing is to move past an issue by taking responsibility for your part and forgiving whomever needs it. More often than not this means being able to forgive ourselves for both our action and reactions to a situation. This isn't always easy but it certainly makes life run smoother.

4: Know when to step up and when to step back- there will be times that your team, as well as yourself, will need you to step up and offer your best performance. Be ready to do that. There are also times when no matter how bad you wish you perform at your best, you are not the best option for the team. recognize this, step aside, and rally behind whoever is doing the best job for the team. Self sacrifice is not easy but it can help you grow as a human and aa player exponentially.

5: Get over yourself- We all have ego's and at times they can get out of control. Ego can present itself in a number of ways but almost always leads back to some sort of insecurity and when left unchecked can cause any number of obsessive behaviors that will leave us weaker than we were initially. I know this because I tend to be one of the most arrogant bastards you could ever meet. Thank God that I am surrounded by people with different strengths and perspectives that are not afraid to put me in check. Recently I had a conversation with a friend when I was on the verge of driving myself and everyone around me crazy. She listened patiently, cut through my bull shit and told me to get over myself. She let me know that I wasn't special in the fact that I had problems and less than desirable circumstances happen in life and it was time to stop focusing on them and move on. It was a tough conversation but one that needed to be had and she wasn't afraid to tell me the truth.

6: Find people who will tell you the truth whether it is what you want to hear or not- The people you surround yourself with will have a dramatic influence on your outcomes. Make sure that you are spending time with people whose respect you wish to have and who can help you to grow.

7: Don't worry about who gets the credit- It is amazing what can be accomplished when you don't care who gets the credit. This is the essence of being a player on a great team, one where the team is always paramount to any one individual or their contribution. This is the best way I have observed to get to where you really will want to be.

Now let's go to work!


5 min warm up
Stretch
2x 10 push ups (wide grip)
2x 20 burpees
2x 10 lunge to overhead press (each leg)
2x 20 rockstar jump kicks
2x Set of 21's (7 front raises, 7 lateral raises, 7 overhead raises or delt flys)
2x 20 med. ball soccer throws
2x 10 inverted rows
2x 20 lawn mower pulls
2x 25 straight arm twists
2x 25 side swishies
2x 25 floor bridges
5 min cool down
Stretch

And We're Back

Sorry for the lapse in posting. To be quite honest I needed a break from writing to get my thoughts back into some semblance of reason or meaning. While this will probably prove to have been ineffective and I will more than likely still ramble on endlessly, the break was nice and it's good to be back here musing about a sport we love and how best to prepare for it. Tomorrow I will be sharing just a few of the things that the women of roller derby have taught me over the course of having worked with them but for today let's just get to work!

J

5 min warm up
Stretch
2x 10 push ups
2x 20 med ball chest passes
2x 10 step ups (each leg)
2x 20 rockstar jump kicks
2x 10 over head presses
2x Set of 21's (7 front raises, 7 lateral raises, 7 overhead raises or delt flys)
2x 10 inverted rows
2x 20 lawn mower pulls
2x 25 straight arm twists
4x 30 sec planks
5 min cool down
Stretch

Till The Wheels Fall Off

Let me speak candidly. I have a tendency to go with a situation until it is firmly run into the ground. There is a tenacity in my nature that prefers not to quit, and from time to time, will revisit past wreckage just to make sure that there isn't some breath of life left in an adventure. This may be why I was drawn to the women who play roller derby. They always seem up for a good bout no matter the outcome. We also seem to share a passion for whatever we are doing and I dig that as well. From time to time though, this can be to our own detriment. I am speaking here of both life and sport. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes your losses feel better than winning and occasionally winning hurts more than the toughest beating that you have ever taken. The question is how do you meet the next moment? Whether ahead or behind, can you put your nose back to the grindstone, regain your focus and clarity, maintain your patience long enough to see the next opportunity or for that matter the next wall to trap you? These are questions that I believe cannot be answered by words but must be proven with action alone. I can tell you this: these are some of the questions that still resound in my head daily and some for which I do not have all of the answers. The only thing I can hope is that the intensity holds out until the wheels fall off before we think of quitting!

Have a great week!

J

5 min. warmup
Stretch
4x 100 meter sprints
2x 200 meter sprints
4x 50 meters lunges
2x 10 push ups
2x 20 chest passes w/ med ball
2x 10 inverted rows
2x 20 burpees
2x 25 squat to overhead presses
2x 20 tuck jumps
4x 25 reg crunches
4x 25 neg. crunches
2x 25 straight leg crunches
5 min. cool down
Stretch

Scars, Beautiful Scars

I am looking down at my arm in disgust as I notice that the scar on my forearm is fading. Truth be told, I have no idea where I picked this one up but I am sorry to see it go. This may seem like a strange sentiment given that scars are not typically held in high regard but I absolutely love them. For the past twenty eight years I have collected them like little badges of honor from adventures lived and battles fought. My shins are riddled with more than I have counted from cleats being dug into flesh and my hands are covered with traces of fists hitting various faces. My palm has a few nasty ones from being drug over a reef while surfing as a child and my thumb carries the remnants of a shark that left his mark while getting off my hook. The rest of my body tells stories of bike wrecks and surgeries to repair torn ligaments, each one unique and totally worth the effort. Stitches, butterfly bandages, band aides, and super glue have assisted in securing all of these little trophies to me but the nature of their origin is somewhere much deeper. Most of these originate from an unwillingness to yield to reason or terra firma and in my mind measure the heart that life has been met with. With any luck, I will leave this world with little left but ghosts of adventure and challenges met, the evidence of a life lived to it's fullest.

Have a great day!

J

5 min warm up
Stretch
3x 10 pushups with rotation
3x 20 chest passes with med ball
3x 10 step up to overhead presses
3x 20 volleyball set with med ball
3x 10 deadlifts
3x 20 box jumps
3x 10 inverted rows
3x 20 back flys
2x 25 stab ball crunches
2x 15 stab ball plank crunches
5 min cool down
Stretch

This Is Just A Workout

5 min. warmup
Stretch
4x 100 meter sprints
2x 200 meter sprints
4x 50 meters lunges
3x 10 push ups
3x 10 inverted rows
2x 25 squat to overhead presses (each leg)
4x 25 reg crunches
4x 25 neg. crunches
2x 25 straight leg crunches
5 min. cool down
Stretch

Welcome Back

Two things I figured out real quick as my schedule got crazy this week: 1) It is really easy to get out of the rhythm of something and 2) When I don't write the shit that is in my head down I am a fucking mess to deal with in a conversation. The latter may be true even if I am writing but who's keeping track anyway. On a note that has nothing to do with anything, I picked up the book "This Is Gonna Hurt" by Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and it blew my mind. Basically it is a book of beautiful images that evoke less than beautiful emotions from within the viewer, as well as what has become his life philosophy. Never thought I would agree so much with a bass player from a hairband but I absolutely love it. Definitely worth picking up! Now let's workout...


J


5 min. warmup
Stretch
4x 100 meter sprints
2x 25 meters karaoke step(each side)
2x 20 rockstar jumps
3x 10 push ups
3x 10 inverted rows
2x 25 step up to overhead presses (each leg)
4x 25 reg crunches
4x 25 neg. crunches
2x 25 straight leg crunches
5 min. cool down
Stretch