Ping Pong

There were four of us out tonight which made for lots of match play. I won my first ever best of 5 doubles match, which basically means I'm slightly better for my partner than towing an anchor. The consistency is coming along, poco a poco.

Running + Burpees

I finally got off my a$$ and put in some work today. Started out raking some leaves and cleaning out the garage (every time I passed the pull-up bar I did at least one dead-hang pull-up). After that I decided to go for a run.

7:10 Run

20 x Burpees

2:00 Run

5 x Burpees

2:00 Run

5 x Burpees

2:00 Run

5 x Burpees

1:12 Run

20 x Burpees

Ping Pong

With four folks in attendance tonight, it was all match play. As usual, I got my a$$ handed to me. I'll take some small consolation in that they don't take it as easy on me these days (I got close in the 1st game of a couple of best-of-three singles matches before my opponent decided enough was enough and blew me out). My smash is consistent enough that I can string 4 or 5 together before launching one into the left field bleachers and if you hit me a flat ball, I can attack fairly well. Too bad nobody there has any trouble handling my smashes and nobody there hits two straight balls with the same spin unless they're being nice to me. Again, it's all about the footwork. And mine still sucks.

Footwork demo by killerspin.

Hiking

Mel, JR, and I headed off to Riddell park for some nice fall hiking. We didn't realize until later that it might not have been the best idea, considering today was opening day of deer season. Fortunately, it's state land and I was wearing my orange Guyota sweatshirt so we didn't have any trouble. The park is beautiful and the hike is pretty tame, maybe 2 miles long, so we took our time and enjoyed a bit of nature. Afterwards, we took Jamie to the playground since she was feeling kinda duped by the whole "Let's go to the park!" bit.

Ping Pong

There were only three of us out tonight, which meant lots of drills. Again, this is exactly what I need and enjoy; perfecting technique through repetition in controlled situations. For me, it's all about learning proper form right now. I need to re-learn everything from proper grip, to arm swing, and footwork.

From experience with other sports, I know how essential this stuff is and I love that I get to work with a real coach and get some immediate feedback. Anyone who's been a student of Ultimate and done without can appreciate how valuable someone like that can be. And I absolutely love learning the strategies behind the game. Not to mention that ping pong, when played with proper form and footwork, is definitely an aerobic activity. Nothing compared to ultimate, but you spend the entire time in a squat position, quickly shuffling from form to form. It's definitely enough to get a sweat going.

I spent much of my time drilling on my forehand loop, underspin serves, and the backhand block. My biggest challenge right now is the footwork. I need to get out of the Ultimate-based, pivot foot mind-set and work to move and set up each shot. Everything comes from the legs and proper weight transfer; spin, accuracy, and power all originate from the lower body. I have my moments where I get it right and the ball effortlessly explodes off of my paddle, but those moments are too few and far between. Still, I'm already twice the player I was 3 weeks ago.

Hold it.

Before bed, I did a few isometric exercises inspired by Crossfit's workout of the day. It's amazing how tiring, standing still can be.

4 rounds of:

:30 holding a handstand

:30 holding a deep squat

:30 hanging from a pull-up, holding a tuck position

:30 holding chin above pull-up bar (this one's especially nasty)

Ping Pong

2 hours of Tuesday night Ping Pong. 5 of us were there tonight, including 2 Koreans using the pencil grip - awesome! I still can't win any matches, but I'm getting closer. My footwork is what's killing me. Years of ultimate make it difficult for my mind to accept that I don't have a pivot foot and need to shuffle around and not lunge. When I can remember to move my feet, things go much better for me.

Out on the Farmstead

We headed out to rural Alfred, NY to visit the grandparents and I made sure to bring my work boots. Grandpappy had a lot of chores to do on the ole 37 acre farmstead and we set out a little after lunch to see if we couldn't make a dent in a few of 'em. We hung some lights on the front porch, adjusted the hose on the gravity-fed well (gotta keep the water flowing year 'round so's it don't freeze), laid out the extension cords for the flood light, weeded around the blackberry bushes, welded a leg back on an old steel stand, took a walking tour of the scrap-metal graveyard out back (key points of interest include an old Airstream trailer, a James Bond era snow mobile, and one of those strong-man games from the fair where you smash the button with the hammer and try to ring the bell at the top of the pole), looked into irrigating the blue berry bushes, fixed up and ran the log splitter and split a few logs, suited up in chaps, masks and ear-protectors and drove the tractors off into the woods to chainsaw up the tree tops the loggers left behind, dragged said trees back out of the woods using said tractors, sawed said dragged trees into 18" sections to be split, and drove said tractors back to the homestead by the light of the moon, where we feasted on roast beef with all the trimmings.

Wow. Take away all that useful punctuation and that sentence is _almost_ long and rambling enough to appear a David Foster Wallace novel.

DB Swings, Push-press, Pull-ups

Warm-up:

3/4 mile run @ 9mph, 1/4 mile @ 11mph

Active Stretching

CFWoD for 11/8/10:

3 rounds for time of:

40 x 33lb DB swings

30 x Push-press, 45lb bar

20 x Pull-ups

Total time: 21:30

6:00 Exercise Bike

Ping Pong

There were only 3 of us out tonight, which was great or me. We ended up spending a good hour and a half just doing drills which meant I got to woodshed my form and footwork. Man, the learning curve is steep when you jump in way over your head!

On the plus side, my conditioning is way out of their league even as their skill level is way out of mine. After an hour and a half of drilling, I'm about warmed up, ready to take my Pike R1 off. They're all sweating and tired. Someday, this will pay off. Right now, I'm still too far behind in skill to win any games. That said, I did take a few games to 11-9, although they still take it easy on me.

PADA Mosh, Day 2

Sunday at Mosh is always fun. We played two great games in the Quarters and Semis to make it to the finals against our nemesis, Horned Melons. After a very sloppy first half, we ran out of gas and they cruised to a comfortable victory, but not before I managed to cleat Chicken, Trey, and Evel Keven. Unintentionally, of course. Sorry guys!!

More importantly, it was great to catch up with a lot of good friends from a past life. Not sure how much more I'll see of those folks, which is sad thought considering how much of the past 15 years was spent in and around an ultimate field.

PADA Mosh, Day 1

Johnny Handblock took the fields one more time, sporting a MCUDL only look this year. We rolled through Saturday with no one scoring more than 3 on us. It felt good to get out and run again and to scrape some of the rust off.

My favorite point of the weekend was my first point on the field. The pull got bricked, I lined up on the backhand center position in a ho stack. The disc gets checked in and I make a jab step deep and spin around underneath. My defender yells "Spin move! You really tried a spin move on me? That never works!" and his sideline erupts in taunting and heckles. They continued to heckle and harass and chant "Spin move! Spin move!" well after I planted, ran deep, caught the goal uncontested by 28 yards on a 30 yard cut, put the disc down and walked to the sideline. Yep, spin moves never work. They're way too obvious. Let that be a lesson to all you kids at home.

Ping Pong

Headed back to the garage to continue my schooling at ping pong. While I did a lot better, I still got schooled. 2+ hours of doubles and singles.