Acclimating myself into the “real world”—the world of beating traffic, packing lunches, motorists who haven’t yet mastered the proper direction of their turn signals, deadlines, lazy cashiers, high school kids at the gym who have spatial awareness problems—after a camp or event has usually been an unsettling process.
When you’re in that rugby world—the world of physical exertion, proper recovery, team meetings, ice baths, drills—every action seems to be calculated for the specific purpose of meeting a goal, whether it be improvement, performance or anything else. Your world seems to be circumscribed by your schedule, your commitment to the team, your commitment to performing and improving and the sport in general. In a manner of speaking, you’re tightly wound by the strings of rugby (or that’s how it is for me).
When you return to the real world, outside factors—factors that don’t touch you in a training facility, a rugby pitch or a hotel room—have the tendency to unwind those strings. Things like paying bills, dealing with the morning and afternoon rushes, grocery shopping, job stresses and the like take precedence, once again, and you have to reshuffle yourself so that you can deal with these factors that were only vestiges of a far off life while you were in training or competition.
When I was in college, I was on an athletic scholarship for basketball. I am familiar with the balancing act of “athletic performance meets day-to-day life.” However in college, basketball (my old flame) was always in the forefront. I was under contract (the scholarship) for four years, and practices and competition were year-round parts of my life. I didn’t have to shift gears, so to speak, from athletic mode and “real life” mode. I was a student-athlete—it was my job to be that. This shifting gears is new to me, and though I’m becoming better at it, I still yearn for those student-athlete days, when the high-performance life was, by the default of the title itself, ingrained into the “real world.”
For those eight women, who don’t have to do the shifting anymore—those eight rugby players who are now professional athletes—I am happy. I hope that we, the rugby world, can continue the progression of relieving financial burden for our hard-working players, and so make competing and training easier.
We are working on integrating the high-performance rugby lifestyle in our respective “real worlds,” by exchanging information, staying as close to our teammates as possible and getting together to train and compete whenever possible. As far as our own daily lives go, it is up to us to keep the high-performance mindset and to eliminate distracting factors, or at least live with them. Personally, I’ve managed to utilize small things and resources to help me do this, and I would like to share.
Calendars and planners—I have several calendars and planners for various aspects of my life. I have a workout calendar, a daily planner and a sort-of outside-projects-personal-livelihood planner. I have all of these in journal medium, and I have put them on my computer. It takes me about 5 minutes total, per day, to jot down tasks and check them off, and it probably saves me hours by keeping me more organized and less distracted.
Goals/Progress Journals—I’ve always had a workout journal, in which I record my workouts so that I can keep track of my progress. Recently, I’ve incorporated a “Goals” journal for my training, and have been reflecting in each of my various planners on how/if/when I’ve completed different tasks (after all to-do lists are just goals). This setting goals and reflecting on them works to get you closer to those goals and (if you have one) closer to your ultimate goal, whatever that may be.
Positive People—It’s so important to surround yourself with people who share your work-ethic/values/goals. I’m not saying that the occasional challenge isn’t welcome, just as long as it’s a positive challenge. More than that, I’ve found that getting others excited about being more healthy, getting in better physical shape, becoming better rugby players, etc keeps you on the right track as well.
These are just a few ways I’ve dealt with, not only, the transition from camps/competitions back to real life, but also employing a high-performance mindset and practice in daily life. Granted, I’m not an expert at this…just yet, but I thought I’d at least share what I’ve learned. I think what it all boils down to—at the very core of accomplishing anything—is becoming closer to your work. I say, embrace it, and use every resource/medium to get as close as you can.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
End of Camp and Truth About Tigertown
To Do List: 1) Sign up for frequent flyer programs, 2) Get new/second, better paying job, 3) Develop a system of packing that allows a person to stuff 80lbs of clothes/Gatorade products into a duffle bag without busting a zipper, 4) Patent said packing system and make lots of money off of it, 5) Develop a line of comfortable, functional, fashionable traveling clothes, 6) Make lots of money off of said line, 7) Invest a great portion of money from 4 and 6 in USA Rugby.
Camp is officially over. Now, I am cheating on my nutrition plan (it’s okay to cheat 10% of the time), with a handful of Runts and a Diet Pepsi, at the Philadelphia airport. U.S. Airways was kind enough to get me on a slightly earlier flight through Philly, instead of Charlotte, and I’ll get back into Richmond around 10:30 or so, rather than 11:20 (I’ll take the extra 50 minutes of sleep). Tomorrow, I’ll take it easy. I’ll go to work, maybe a walk or a light jog afterward and then lots of sleep (and I will not be cheating on my nutrition plan).
Camp ended on some positive notes. Our last session, this morning, consisted of a team picture and video of drills that we had done throughout the week, which will be posted on the Eagle 365 website (I don’t think the site is up just yet). We then had a team meeting that provided us with some closure as we reflected on camp, what we had accomplished, and some of our favorite moments. I’m sure Jenny Lui will have these moments and others recorded and will regale us with them via email at a later date (Jenny, if you didn’t have your quote book handy this trip, then I will print a retraction in a later blog).
I always go through a bit of withdrawal when I return to “real-life” after one of these camps/events/tours. I’m sure a lot of players do. You see, us freaks (again, see earlier blogs for context) like the company of other freaks, and these camps/events/tours are like one big freak convention.
The good news is that Tigertown is not actually a black hole, so all of us will be able to return home from the freak convention. It turns out it’s the “Florida home of the Detroit Tigers.” I suppose that, like geese and the elderly, the Tigers like to travel south for the winter. It’s too bad that I didn’t get a chance to meet any of them. I would have like to have gotten Mayor Cecil Fielder’s autograph.
Camp is officially over. Now, I am cheating on my nutrition plan (it’s okay to cheat 10% of the time), with a handful of Runts and a Diet Pepsi, at the Philadelphia airport. U.S. Airways was kind enough to get me on a slightly earlier flight through Philly, instead of Charlotte, and I’ll get back into Richmond around 10:30 or so, rather than 11:20 (I’ll take the extra 50 minutes of sleep). Tomorrow, I’ll take it easy. I’ll go to work, maybe a walk or a light jog afterward and then lots of sleep (and I will not be cheating on my nutrition plan).
Camp ended on some positive notes. Our last session, this morning, consisted of a team picture and video of drills that we had done throughout the week, which will be posted on the Eagle 365 website (I don’t think the site is up just yet). We then had a team meeting that provided us with some closure as we reflected on camp, what we had accomplished, and some of our favorite moments. I’m sure Jenny Lui will have these moments and others recorded and will regale us with them via email at a later date (Jenny, if you didn’t have your quote book handy this trip, then I will print a retraction in a later blog).
I always go through a bit of withdrawal when I return to “real-life” after one of these camps/events/tours. I’m sure a lot of players do. You see, us freaks (again, see earlier blogs for context) like the company of other freaks, and these camps/events/tours are like one big freak convention.
The good news is that Tigertown is not actually a black hole, so all of us will be able to return home from the freak convention. It turns out it’s the “Florida home of the Detroit Tigers.” I suppose that, like geese and the elderly, the Tigers like to travel south for the winter. It’s too bad that I didn’t get a chance to meet any of them. I would have like to have gotten Mayor Cecil Fielder’s autograph.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Final Scrimmage and the "Sarcastic Clap"
The weather this morning reminded me of home for the first time since I’ve been here. Some of the girls from the Midwest even said that it was no warmer than their home, only in the Midwest, snow would probably be accompanying the cold (actually, I think JoJo, from Grand Rapids, said that they have snow now).
Despite the cold, we had a productive morning session. We worked a lot in our respective units doing positional drills and working on our attack. In one of our attacking drills we learned about the “sarcastic clap.” It’s slower than a “fast clap,” faster than a “slow clap,” more rhythmic than a “golf clap,” and can be used to measure the proper speed of the ball moving quickly down an offensive line.
Lunch here at camp has been consistent. Usually, there is something on the menu that is pretty tasty, especially for food that has been prepared in bulk. Today it was the chicken kabobs. Of course, the staples are always the same—the salad, fruit, veggies—but, I have to say that the food here has been good.
For the first time in our time here at camp, we got a mid-day break. Our coaches cancelled the 1pm meeting and gave us time to rest and recover before the evening session at 3pm. I feel like it was a good decision, because our evening session included a real 15v15 abridged (20min halves) game.
I think everyone here had been looking forward to the game and we all played like it. Our coach, Pete Steinberg, commented, after the game, that it was hard to analyze players, because he got caught up in watching a good rugby game. The red team (yours truly played fullback and outside center for red) won the match. For a majority of the first 20mins, blue dominated the breakdowns, and red played defense. However, when red got the ball they were very efficient on offense. This carried over to the second half and that efficiency translated into several tries. Blue also got into a rhythm, but theirs came later in the second 20mins, but did put them on the board.
After the long awaited scrimmage, we had dinner and our evening meeting, where we discussed our future, the future of the program, what we did well at camp and what we need to improve. We also got a chance to “bedazzle” our Eagles Notebooks (I was a “sticker-kid,” so mine is, well, covered in stickers). Tomorrow, we’ll have meetings and a skills session, but the meat of the physical activity in camp is done. It feels good.
An update on Tigertown: I was informed today that Tigertown isn’t an actual place. There is a place in Florida called Lakeland, but Tigertown isn’t a town or a place in Florida. From this knowledge, and some rather mysterious happenings here at camp, I have deduced that Tigertown is, in fact, a black hole. These mysterious happenings include virtually no gravity during the vertical test (for some players), the high-energy collisions demonstrated by Jamie Burke, The Kug, and Captain Turley, and the time warp that happens when players step into the ice bath (time actually stops sometimes). Apparently, it is impossible to escape a black hole, so here’s to hoping that modern science comes up with something in the next 14 or so hours.
Despite the cold, we had a productive morning session. We worked a lot in our respective units doing positional drills and working on our attack. In one of our attacking drills we learned about the “sarcastic clap.” It’s slower than a “fast clap,” faster than a “slow clap,” more rhythmic than a “golf clap,” and can be used to measure the proper speed of the ball moving quickly down an offensive line.
Lunch here at camp has been consistent. Usually, there is something on the menu that is pretty tasty, especially for food that has been prepared in bulk. Today it was the chicken kabobs. Of course, the staples are always the same—the salad, fruit, veggies—but, I have to say that the food here has been good.
For the first time in our time here at camp, we got a mid-day break. Our coaches cancelled the 1pm meeting and gave us time to rest and recover before the evening session at 3pm. I feel like it was a good decision, because our evening session included a real 15v15 abridged (20min halves) game.
I think everyone here had been looking forward to the game and we all played like it. Our coach, Pete Steinberg, commented, after the game, that it was hard to analyze players, because he got caught up in watching a good rugby game. The red team (yours truly played fullback and outside center for red) won the match. For a majority of the first 20mins, blue dominated the breakdowns, and red played defense. However, when red got the ball they were very efficient on offense. This carried over to the second half and that efficiency translated into several tries. Blue also got into a rhythm, but theirs came later in the second 20mins, but did put them on the board.
After the long awaited scrimmage, we had dinner and our evening meeting, where we discussed our future, the future of the program, what we did well at camp and what we need to improve. We also got a chance to “bedazzle” our Eagles Notebooks (I was a “sticker-kid,” so mine is, well, covered in stickers). Tomorrow, we’ll have meetings and a skills session, but the meat of the physical activity in camp is done. It feels good.
An update on Tigertown: I was informed today that Tigertown isn’t an actual place. There is a place in Florida called Lakeland, but Tigertown isn’t a town or a place in Florida. From this knowledge, and some rather mysterious happenings here at camp, I have deduced that Tigertown is, in fact, a black hole. These mysterious happenings include virtually no gravity during the vertical test (for some players), the high-energy collisions demonstrated by Jamie Burke, The Kug, and Captain Turley, and the time warp that happens when players step into the ice bath (time actually stops sometimes). Apparently, it is impossible to escape a black hole, so here’s to hoping that modern science comes up with something in the next 14 or so hours.
Friday, January 13, 2012
The "Calming-Long-Pulse-Sounding" Test and More
Schedule for today: 7am breakfast, 8:30am-12pm meeting into beep test into morning session 1 into reflection into morning session 2, 12pm lunch, 1pm-5:30pm meeting into evening games into evening session, 5:30-7:30 ice baths into shower into dinner, 7:30-8:45 meeting…and done. Twas a busy day, but a very productive one.
The beep test turned out to be more like the “soothing-voice-even-tone” test, which was difficult to hear sometimes. I would have preferred some cacophonous noise that would have disrupted the air quality and perhaps have given the test an urgent quality. The CD that we had seemed to be saying, “Good job, you’re on level 2.4. Now it’s okay to run again.” I would have preferred something like, “You ain’t even halfway done, now get your ass to that line!” However, we all got through it and all agreed that it wasn’t as bad as our anxiousness and the wait made it seem. And, a big cheers to Kit Kat, who made the “semi-audible-tonally-pleasing” test her bitch.
The morning sessions involved a good amount of contact. I think my right knee absorbed the majority of my share of the contact. I promise I’m not whining (rugby players never whine). We worked on our rucking, defense and offense, and though we worked right up until lunch, we never dropped in our intensity levels. Lunch was short and sweet…sweet as in Sweet Baby Ray’s. Yeah, that’s right, we had BBQ smothered in Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce. Though I would have liked a little more time for finger licking, we had a nutrition meeting at 1pm, so we all had to slam our food and rush off.
In our nutrition meeting, we learned that we could be a Nutrition Kung Fu Panda, a Nutrition Ninja or a Nutrition Chuck Norris and we were all given some of the information and tools that would help us achieve Chuck Norris status. We then took to trying to improve our rugby game to the level of Chuck Norrisism.
The evenings have been the best part of our days thus far, mostly because they start with games. This evening some of the 7’s players switched with some of our players. In our games this evening, the field was shortened, so that we could work a lot on ball in contact skills and rucking and because the 7’s players specially requested more contact (kidding).
The long day concluded with ice baths, dinner and a meeting on Life Management, which emphasized the point I made in an earlier blog about USA rugby players literally paying for their chance to represent their country. Ladies and gentlemen, these are special women. These women (and there are many more, who aren’t at this camp) aren’t the millions arguing with the billions for thousands more, like our pro athletes. These women are the epitome of dedication and the purity of sport. They play and are dedicated, despite the cost (the literal cost and the physical cost). I suppose that’s what love is—that sometimes irrational, sometimes painful, always beautiful emotion that most of us hold as one of our supreme life goals.
Enough grandstanding. I was informed today, during our 9-minute lunch break that my story of Tigertown’s history may not be entirely true. There is another, far more bawdy, legend of Tigertown’s origins. As most of you history buffs know, Georgia was originally established as a debtor’s colony—a place where the “worthy poor” of Britain could work their way back into good financial standing. One such debtor, Wadsworth Tiggreson, found that the work was too demanding for the pittance he received at the day’s end. Feeling the excitement of the untethered possibilities that came with moving to a new place, he decided that dirt-under-the-nails work was not for him and slipped away one cloudless night.
For months he foraged along the gulf until, one day, he emerged in what seemed to be a clearing, but what he soon found to be a nearly deserted town. The only inhabitants were descendants of marooned sailors from the crew of the fountain-of-youth-seeking Ponce de Leon. No one really knows what exactly happened next or how he did it, but Tiggreson and the de Leon descendants managed to revive the town, with the help of one establishment in particular. The employees of this ill-reputed establishment became well known in nearby towns as Wadsworth’s Tigers and later as just the Tigers. Eventually, folks began calling the thriving town Tigertown, after the establishment that had given it economic CPR.
The beep test turned out to be more like the “soothing-voice-even-tone” test, which was difficult to hear sometimes. I would have preferred some cacophonous noise that would have disrupted the air quality and perhaps have given the test an urgent quality. The CD that we had seemed to be saying, “Good job, you’re on level 2.4. Now it’s okay to run again.” I would have preferred something like, “You ain’t even halfway done, now get your ass to that line!” However, we all got through it and all agreed that it wasn’t as bad as our anxiousness and the wait made it seem. And, a big cheers to Kit Kat, who made the “semi-audible-tonally-pleasing” test her bitch.
The morning sessions involved a good amount of contact. I think my right knee absorbed the majority of my share of the contact. I promise I’m not whining (rugby players never whine). We worked on our rucking, defense and offense, and though we worked right up until lunch, we never dropped in our intensity levels. Lunch was short and sweet…sweet as in Sweet Baby Ray’s. Yeah, that’s right, we had BBQ smothered in Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce. Though I would have liked a little more time for finger licking, we had a nutrition meeting at 1pm, so we all had to slam our food and rush off.
In our nutrition meeting, we learned that we could be a Nutrition Kung Fu Panda, a Nutrition Ninja or a Nutrition Chuck Norris and we were all given some of the information and tools that would help us achieve Chuck Norris status. We then took to trying to improve our rugby game to the level of Chuck Norrisism.
The evenings have been the best part of our days thus far, mostly because they start with games. This evening some of the 7’s players switched with some of our players. In our games this evening, the field was shortened, so that we could work a lot on ball in contact skills and rucking and because the 7’s players specially requested more contact (kidding).
The long day concluded with ice baths, dinner and a meeting on Life Management, which emphasized the point I made in an earlier blog about USA rugby players literally paying for their chance to represent their country. Ladies and gentlemen, these are special women. These women (and there are many more, who aren’t at this camp) aren’t the millions arguing with the billions for thousands more, like our pro athletes. These women are the epitome of dedication and the purity of sport. They play and are dedicated, despite the cost (the literal cost and the physical cost). I suppose that’s what love is—that sometimes irrational, sometimes painful, always beautiful emotion that most of us hold as one of our supreme life goals.
Enough grandstanding. I was informed today, during our 9-minute lunch break that my story of Tigertown’s history may not be entirely true. There is another, far more bawdy, legend of Tigertown’s origins. As most of you history buffs know, Georgia was originally established as a debtor’s colony—a place where the “worthy poor” of Britain could work their way back into good financial standing. One such debtor, Wadsworth Tiggreson, found that the work was too demanding for the pittance he received at the day’s end. Feeling the excitement of the untethered possibilities that came with moving to a new place, he decided that dirt-under-the-nails work was not for him and slipped away one cloudless night.
For months he foraged along the gulf until, one day, he emerged in what seemed to be a clearing, but what he soon found to be a nearly deserted town. The only inhabitants were descendants of marooned sailors from the crew of the fountain-of-youth-seeking Ponce de Leon. No one really knows what exactly happened next or how he did it, but Tiggreson and the de Leon descendants managed to revive the town, with the help of one establishment in particular. The employees of this ill-reputed establishment became well known in nearby towns as Wadsworth’s Tigers and later as just the Tigers. Eventually, folks began calling the thriving town Tigertown, after the establishment that had given it economic CPR.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Fitness Testing and a Correction to the Last Blog
“No beep test this morning!” You can imagine how suspiciously excited we were upon hearing this. However, breaking news that the beep test would be tomorrow morning quickly routed the evanescent excitement.
Actually, none of us had any hope of the beep test disappearing from our itinerary, and really none of us were scared or too worried about it. The fact that it’s an assessment has awoken the competitive part of our brain, and we are all just anxious to get it done and get our results.
We did do a vertical test (thank you, years of basketball, you surely did pay off once again) and a 70m shuttle test (6 70m shuttles in 3 minutes), which will be used to assess our fatigue level/recovery rate/all that technical jazz. We also played rugby…well, not an actual game, but rugby with no set positions, less numbers, no scrums or lineouts and an abbreviated field. We’ll get to play tomorrow as well and again on Saturday. That makes all of the fitness assessments worthwhile.
The 7’s ladies and the collegiate all-Americans did some fitness of their own—the Death Flop. If you’re unfamiliar with the Death Flop, I’ll sum it up with this: sprints, flopping onto the ground, rolling and more sprints…nearly throwing up, lactate buildup and lightheadedness.
Speaking of the 7’s ladies, some of them are moving to San Diego, in the very near future, to begin new careers as professional athletes. I’ve had a chance to chat with a couple of the pros, and they are very excited at having this opportunity. I’m excited for them and for the game of rugby. Hopefully, with the efforts of our great coaching staffs and our dedicated players, the sport will gain some popularity here in the States and more of the women who have, for years, paid (both monetarily and physically) for their chance to represent their country in international competition will get rewarded for their efforts.
That’s all the rugby talk I have in me for the night. On a bit of an unrelated note, Tigertown FL was not, in fact, founded by rogue Detroit Tigers (as I mentioned in my earlier blog). I must have gotten confused with all of the Detroit memorabilia around here (I’m still not certain as to whether or not Cecil Fielder was the mayor at one time).
Actually, in the late 18th century, the import of exotic animals by American aristocracy was on the rise. A New Orleans gentleman, Mr. Dwayne Devereaux, had shipped to his home in the French Quarter a litter of tiger cubs from the Royal Essex Exotic Animal Company, in 1797. Six of the seven cubs survived the trip, and Mr Devereaux was a kind and loving pet owner to the survivors. However, Nature has the habit of rearing its head in the untamed. The tigers, Sissy, Missy, Muffy, Buffy and Carl, escaped from Mr. Devereaux’s home, after destroying his collection of stuffed wild game, and migrated along the Gulf of Mexico on into Florida.
Carl proved to be very virile, and Sissy, Missy, Muffy and Buffy proved to be very fertile. When settlers arrived a few years later, they found the forests of what is now Lakeland, teeming with tigers. Of course, tiger maulings soon became very unpopular among the settlers and so they immediately began a tiger-eradication process, but not before dubbing the little hamlet Tigertown.
Actually, none of us had any hope of the beep test disappearing from our itinerary, and really none of us were scared or too worried about it. The fact that it’s an assessment has awoken the competitive part of our brain, and we are all just anxious to get it done and get our results.
We did do a vertical test (thank you, years of basketball, you surely did pay off once again) and a 70m shuttle test (6 70m shuttles in 3 minutes), which will be used to assess our fatigue level/recovery rate/all that technical jazz. We also played rugby…well, not an actual game, but rugby with no set positions, less numbers, no scrums or lineouts and an abbreviated field. We’ll get to play tomorrow as well and again on Saturday. That makes all of the fitness assessments worthwhile.
The 7’s ladies and the collegiate all-Americans did some fitness of their own—the Death Flop. If you’re unfamiliar with the Death Flop, I’ll sum it up with this: sprints, flopping onto the ground, rolling and more sprints…nearly throwing up, lactate buildup and lightheadedness.
Speaking of the 7’s ladies, some of them are moving to San Diego, in the very near future, to begin new careers as professional athletes. I’ve had a chance to chat with a couple of the pros, and they are very excited at having this opportunity. I’m excited for them and for the game of rugby. Hopefully, with the efforts of our great coaching staffs and our dedicated players, the sport will gain some popularity here in the States and more of the women who have, for years, paid (both monetarily and physically) for their chance to represent their country in international competition will get rewarded for their efforts.
That’s all the rugby talk I have in me for the night. On a bit of an unrelated note, Tigertown FL was not, in fact, founded by rogue Detroit Tigers (as I mentioned in my earlier blog). I must have gotten confused with all of the Detroit memorabilia around here (I’m still not certain as to whether or not Cecil Fielder was the mayor at one time).
Actually, in the late 18th century, the import of exotic animals by American aristocracy was on the rise. A New Orleans gentleman, Mr. Dwayne Devereaux, had shipped to his home in the French Quarter a litter of tiger cubs from the Royal Essex Exotic Animal Company, in 1797. Six of the seven cubs survived the trip, and Mr Devereaux was a kind and loving pet owner to the survivors. However, Nature has the habit of rearing its head in the untamed. The tigers, Sissy, Missy, Muffy, Buffy and Carl, escaped from Mr. Devereaux’s home, after destroying his collection of stuffed wild game, and migrated along the Gulf of Mexico on into Florida.
Carl proved to be very virile, and Sissy, Missy, Muffy and Buffy proved to be very fertile. When settlers arrived a few years later, they found the forests of what is now Lakeland, teeming with tigers. Of course, tiger maulings soon became very unpopular among the settlers and so they immediately began a tiger-eradication process, but not before dubbing the little hamlet Tigertown.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Off to Tigertown (Which was founded by Detroit Tigers seeking refuge after the 1967 riot)
It’s been a while since 1) I’ve blogged about rugby and 2) I’ve played high-level rugby. Since my last blog, I’ve been to San Diego and back again (for the third time in 2011) for the NASC 7’s championships. We (MARFU) were the defending champions, however NRU and Pac Coast bested us, and we ended up playing in the 5th place game, which we won (in dominating fashion against the South).
Immediately after returning to a wind-blown Richmond, post hurricane Irene, I jumped right into our club season. We (James River) only lost two matches this Fall and were in a three-way tie for second in our division. However, we failed to put up the points needed to give us that second-place seed and a trip to the playoffs, so we were left to cheer for Raleigh, who represented MARFU in the National Championships, and who eventually won it all.
A couple of free weekends and a Christmas 7’s tournament later, I’m now playing rugby again, only now I’m back with this group of freaks (see earlier blogs for proper context)—these women, who can’t get enough of rugby and who have dedicated a lot of their time and much of their effort to becoming the cream of the rugby crop (I think the rugby “crop” is like a cross between aloe and mango—hardy and able to heal itself, but delicious and a little exotic). It feels good. It feels like a vacation, despite the fact that we’ll have our noses to the rugby grindstone for the next four days with practices, skills sessions, meetings and of course physical assessments (including the beep test).
Tonight, we’ll have a dinner and a meeting and will try to prepare ourselves for the physical assessments tomorrow. There are about 120 women here (15s, 7s and collegiate players), so I’m wondering how the dining hall will accommodate us.
We’re staying at a training facility in Tigertown (Lakeland, FL). Apparently, and I’m just going on my eductions, this is a spring training facility for the Detroit Tigers. Of course, my brilliant eductions were based on the tiger paw prints everywhere, the Detroit Tigers logo on everything and the fact that the dining hall threw up Tigers baseball cards on all of the tables.
The rooms are a bit smaller than those at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, the bathrooms more sparse and apparently, there’s a random baseball player on our floor, with whom we may or may not be sharing a bathroom.
These details aside, we’re all anxious to start tomorrow—what I mean by anxious, is that we want to get the physical assessments done and play rugby. Breakfast at 7am…it’s time for me to sign off. Sweet rugby dreams.
Immediately after returning to a wind-blown Richmond, post hurricane Irene, I jumped right into our club season. We (James River) only lost two matches this Fall and were in a three-way tie for second in our division. However, we failed to put up the points needed to give us that second-place seed and a trip to the playoffs, so we were left to cheer for Raleigh, who represented MARFU in the National Championships, and who eventually won it all.
A couple of free weekends and a Christmas 7’s tournament later, I’m now playing rugby again, only now I’m back with this group of freaks (see earlier blogs for proper context)—these women, who can’t get enough of rugby and who have dedicated a lot of their time and much of their effort to becoming the cream of the rugby crop (I think the rugby “crop” is like a cross between aloe and mango—hardy and able to heal itself, but delicious and a little exotic). It feels good. It feels like a vacation, despite the fact that we’ll have our noses to the rugby grindstone for the next four days with practices, skills sessions, meetings and of course physical assessments (including the beep test).
Tonight, we’ll have a dinner and a meeting and will try to prepare ourselves for the physical assessments tomorrow. There are about 120 women here (15s, 7s and collegiate players), so I’m wondering how the dining hall will accommodate us.
We’re staying at a training facility in Tigertown (Lakeland, FL). Apparently, and I’m just going on my eductions, this is a spring training facility for the Detroit Tigers. Of course, my brilliant eductions were based on the tiger paw prints everywhere, the Detroit Tigers logo on everything and the fact that the dining hall threw up Tigers baseball cards on all of the tables.
The rooms are a bit smaller than those at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, the bathrooms more sparse and apparently, there’s a random baseball player on our floor, with whom we may or may not be sharing a bathroom.
These details aside, we’re all anxious to start tomorrow—what I mean by anxious, is that we want to get the physical assessments done and play rugby. Breakfast at 7am…it’s time for me to sign off. Sweet rugby dreams.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)