Tuesday 29 January 2013

Plan for this week

My shoulder was aggravated at training on Sunday, but it's gone back to not hurting, with just occasional stiffness. Still taking ibuprofen, but feel that I can go back to doing some training this week.

It's not like I was idle last week, I was still cycling 3 miles a day Monday-Friday.
This week I will be cycling 3 miles a day again Monday-Friday, like every week.
I felt perfectly fine sprinting/running at the weekend so I will hit the track on Wednesday.
Yoga shouldn't be too hard on my shoulder so I'll head to that on Thursday.
Then this weekend, I've got a weekend of Frisbee on Saturday and Flag Football on Sunday.
I'm still not sure about doing arm workouts, so if I hit the gym on Friday I'll just work my core.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Kapow weekend

White city's tiger turf was the third different 3g pitch that kapow had found themselves trading at in three weeks and it was also the third time in three weeks that we had a good turnout of people willing to put in the effort and focus on improving and learning.


We had a few goals for what we wanted to get out of the weekend which were related to how we want our offense to run, and also what we'd struggled with offensively in our first season. These included throwing techniques, handler movement to reset the disc from a position near the sideline including continuation passing, quick movement of the disc including break throw to break throw continuation of the disc and fast break disc movement after a turnover, cutting patterns, pulling and other skills as well as game situations.

It was a really productive weekend, but I still think that as a squad we've got a lot of work to do until the Open season.

After training on Saturday we headed to a Thai restaurant for a meal and a bit of a cheeky social in a pub in Clapham. Was a fun night.

Overall, I'm very excited about this season having seen the amount of talent we've got in the squad and the amount that the team wants to improve.

I thought I played well on Saturday but was frustrated with how stiff my muscles had got during the session when it came down to playing defense during the game at the end of the session as again I struggled containing a handler who was running a lot of give-go movement. I was pretty pleased with my offensive play though this week, which was my source of frustration in the game against DED last week, so that's something.
Sunday I was frustrated with my hands, I had far too many dropped disc during the drills. My throws were fine and my cuts I thought were pretty good during the drills as well, but my hands weren't working like I wanted them too. I also twinged my shoulder again whilst forcing during a drill on Sunday. Whilst it was just a momentary pain and after that it didn't hurt again all session, I didn't want to risk it again so I sat out the games.

I really hope that I'm just out of practice as I'm still not happy that I haven't put together a good performance for an entire session. Still, it's January and I, like the rest of the team, have plenty of work to do.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Shoulder Watch: Day 5

My shoulder is feeling better every day, and there's now no pain for 99% of the time, though it is still slightly stiff and achey.
Though I haven't been to the gym or track this week I have still been active with 3 miles cycling per day, and I've always thought the Boris bikes provide a better restrictive workout than a regular bike due to the fact that they're made of lead and lubricated with tar.

On a side note, it feels weird applying the ibuprofen gel to my shoulder at work as, to get to my shoulder, I need to unbutton my shirt and bare my left pec as if I was about to start breastfeeding...
Maybe I shouldn't be doing it sat at my desk in an open plan office....

#jokes

Monday 21 January 2013

Shoulder watch: Day 2

My shoulder doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as it did on Saturday and it's mobility is improving as well.
It no longer hurts all the time but there are moments when there are small tinges, mostly when raising my arms above my head.
Won't be going to the gym this week and probably won't do Yoga or track. This weekend is a Ka-Pow full roster training weekend so I'd like to play at that but I'm not going to rush it back. Saturday evening is going to be a Kapow AGM of sorts. I'm not sure what will happen at it, but I'm sure Pichler has some grand scheme.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Saturday Ka-Pow training

Because of the snow, our regular training venue had been cancelled for yesterday. Luckily DED had invited us to play an early season scrimmage against them at the fantastic indoor 3g pitches that they had managed to book.
We turned up and warmed up, doing some drills separate to DED.
We started with the same drill we'd done last week focussing on footwork going into/out of cuts, and then moved on to a hucking drill.
We finished our pre-game session with some 'hellbox' (4 v 4 in a small square with the aim being for the offense to complete 10 passes and the defense to create a turnover).

We went into the game fast and built up a small lead quickly. We were playing solid offense and DED had started slowly allowing us to generate some blocks.
DED scored their first point off a huck to make it 3-1 to us. Our gameplan was to mark their cutters under and let them take the long throws so this wasn't too disappointing for our defense. They played zone on us once and we beat it pretty easily, and I don't remember them playing zone against us again.
A couple of points later and I had caught a long throw, and proceeded to throw it away on the end zone line. I had to make up for a poor throw so I then caught a callaghan goal from marking the dump. Unfortunately I layed out and landed awkwardly (on my chest and left arm but with my left arm extended) which jarred my left shoulder which has been hurting since. I will be resting it until it feels better so I might not go to the gym this week. I'll see how it goes but it's still quite painful. I played the rest of the game but it made forcing with my left arm difficult and I couldn't have thrown with it if I had wanted to.
We took the half 8-3 (I think) and had a team talk which was reiterating the importance of not losing focus. Unfortunately, we lost a bit of focus coming into the second half.
There were two points in a row with about 4-5 turns per team before the goal was scored, each with a timeout, and that slowed the game down. DED came into the second half more fired up than us, and their handler movement based offense started to click and gain the yards. They brought the score level at one point, but we hung on to take the win 13-11.
It was a good game for so early in the season and we looked good on defense for the most part.

I wasn't too happy with my play though. My defense was alright and I caught the callaghan which was reassuring, though after my shoulder started hurting I was noticeably finding forcing more difficult. I also struggled late in the game to react to the quick go after the throw from the handlers for a couple of passes but managed to get that in check after a few plays. I also completely messed up a zone defense point.
My main problem though was with offense. My cutting was alright and I was happy with the speed in my muscles. I just felt out of practice whilst playing as I was making bad throws and bad decisions. I'm hoping I can attribute this to it being the pre-season because I was happy with my play last season on the offensive side.
Overall though, I think we deserved the win and I was impressed with the athleticism of our players this early   and with the desire in our defense to generate the turnovers. We did lose focus on the offense but with no work at trainings so far in teaching our systems it was always going to be tough to play a perfect offensive game. Good start to the season.

Friday 18 January 2013

Friday Gym

The snow is no reason to skip workouts. Got to work unaffected (pretty much) and was told I would be able to go home early. This means that I just got to go to the gym earlier in the day than usual.

Mixed winter league is cancelled on Sunday because of the snow, training may be on (as we're using a 3G pitch) but if it's cancelled the plan may be to go scrimmage against our rivals from last year (DED) who are training indoors.

Next couple of weeks I've got some good plans with next weekend being a full two days Ka-Pow training weekend, and the weekend after that I'll have Herd training on the Saturday and I finally get to play some more flag football on the Sunday. The Basingstoke team have two friendly scrimmages organised against teams from Chichester and Reading in Basingstoke on SUPERBOWL SUNDAY, so I'm going to have an american football themed day! Still need to organise superbowl plans though.

Anyway, Gym workout:

Warm up:

1 * 15 Internal Shoulder Rotations per arm (9kg)
1 * 15 External Shoulder Rotations per arm (9kg)
1 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM per leg
1 * 12 Press up holds (4s)
1 * Single Leg Balance per leg (60s)
+ foam rolling

Main part:
1 * 5 Squats (40kg)
1 * 5 Squats (60kg)
3 * 5 Squats (90kg)
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 press ups with toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups (12kg KB)
3 * 10 Bench Press (60kg)
3 * 10 Captains chair leg raises (piked legs)

Warm down:
Stretching + Foam rolling

Thursday 17 January 2013

Thursday Yoga

Headed to yoga again today. Pretty good session. There was a bit more work on the arms today than usual which was good. Also did a couple of variations on some of the normal poses by crossing legs including a hamstring stretch and some spinal twisting poses.
Overall was a good session and it didn't feel as difficult, which was good.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Wednesday Track

Pretty chilly track session tonight, but layered up and headed out.

400m jog + stretching + muscle rolling to warm up

Then (with 1 minute rest between each set) on a 100m straight:

4 * jog 50m -> run back to 0m
2 * run to 100m -> run back to 10m -> walk to 0m
2 * run to 50m -> sprint to 100m -> jog back to 10m -> walk to 0m
3 * walk to 10m -> sprint back to 0m -> sprint to 50m -> jog back to 0m
3 * jog to 50m -> sprint to 100m -> jog back to 50m -> walk back to 0m

400m jog + stretching + muscle rolling to warm down

Still working up after christmas, and will increase intensity in the coming weeks.

Ultiworld

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed my tease included in the bottom of my Recent Developments blog in December.
Now I can elaborate on that tease by presenting my first article written as a contributor to Ultiworld.

I have been following Ultiworlds coverage of the changes to the US ultimate scene and it's become one of my most visited websites. They have interesting and well written articles and some good podcasts featuring interviews with some influential players concerned with all the changes the US scene is going through. Moreover, they have started providing quality video coverage from various tournaments.

Last year they advertised they were looking for writers and I sent an application. I didn't expect to be picked as I don't live in the US, but they were impressed by my application and asked me to be a contributor.

In the future I will be submitting various pieces on whatever takes my fancy, and they have said that they may want me to provide coverage/roundups of UK tournaments in the future.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about this and hope everyone enjoys my articles.
What are you waiting for? Go read it!

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Tuesday Gym

Altered the GB Beach Open programme a bit to avoid the overlapping areas with my regular routine and changed the sets/reps counts for some areas as well.

Warm up:
1 * 15 Internal Shoulder Rotations per arm (9kg)
1 * 15 External Shoulder Rotations per arm (9kg)
1 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM per leg
1 * 12 Press up holds (4s)
1 * Single Leg Balance per leg (60s)
+ foam rolling

Main:
3 * 10 Single Leg Squats (40kg)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (35kg *increase*)
3 * 10 Seated Narrow Row (55kg)
3 * 10 Full range of motion calf raises (6kg kettle bell)
3 * 10 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls
3 * 10 Hanging knee raises
3 * 10 Split squats (60kg *increase*)

Warm down:
Foam rolling + stretching

Monday 14 January 2013

First Ka-Pow! session of 2013

The new squad gathered at the 3G fields we had chosen as our base for the pre-season. There was a buzz about it, and it was transferred into the practice. It was the first time we had trained as a new squad with some players who had already made the squad and other who were still fighting for a space.

Pichler started the training with the explanations of the two principles of Kapow as a squad and then we went to work.

We started off with some fundamentals. Cutting and footwork training is something that a lot of players can use to improve their game and so that's what we did.

Our second area of attention was handler movement switching defense. This is a strong defensive idea which is heavily used by the Buzz Bullets. We trained this last year, but didn't implement it too much during the season. It's an effective technique to aid the stifling of the offense's flow, but it may not be one of our principle defensive strategies during the season.

After this, we started work on our handler/dumping offense, which hadn't been one of our strengths last year. It's a good idea to work on this early considering our struggles with this last year.

We then moved on to playing some practice games.

The attitude and effort being put in by all players this early in the season was very impressive and the atmosphere difference between this and last season. We may not have talked tactics yet, or even finalised our roster, but going into our second season as a club, I already feel it could be very special.

Friday 11 January 2013

Friday Gym and Saturday training #Hype!

Gym session today:

Warm up:

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling

Main Part:

3 * 10 press ups (toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball)
3 * 10 sit ups (12kg kettle bell on chest)
3 * 10 full range calf raises (6kg kettle bell)
3 * 10 seated upright row (55kg *increase*)
3 * 10 body weight squats (balanced on spherical wobble board)

Foam rolling to warm down


Then headed to a job interview. It went super well, and I really want the job.
That plus listening to Radio 1's Dance Anthems on the way home means I'm overhyped currently!
Shame I've got nowhere to go tonight, but Ka-Pow! training is on tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited right now to get back to Ultimate after a christmas and post-nationals break that has lasted FAR TOO LONG!

Thursday 10 January 2013

Thursday Yoga

First time back in the Studio for Yoga in 2013. Didn't expect it to be as difficult to get back into as it was. Not that it was as tough as my gym or track sessions, but it was more difficult than I remember Yoga being, especially considering there was a new batch of people in there for the start of the year.

Did some good stuff focussing on back and core muscles, but including hamstring/calf exercises and arm exercises as well.

I think I've got the hang of the format of the sessions now, it goes:

New weekly activity usually focussed on legs

3 rounds of Sun Salutes

New weekly activity usually focussed on core/arms

Exercises/poses usually using the Bridge pose as a base

Final Relaxation

Wednesday 9 January 2013

First track of 2013

400m warmup plus stretching

5 * 50m sprint and walk back (no break between reps)

1 minute break

4 * 200m run (90%) and walk back (no break between reps)

1 minute break

5 * 50m sprint + jog back 45m + 5m sprint to quick turn (no break between reps

1 minute break

400m warm down plus stretching

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Tuesday Gym

Despite the glut of Resolution fitness gym goers today, I still managed to get most of what I wanted done. I didn't get to do pull ups so I substituted lat pull downs. Easy-ish weights today for first gym session of the new year.

Warm up:

5 minute run +
1 * 12 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm +
1 * 12 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm +
stretching +
foam rolling

Main part:

3 * 5 squats (90kg)
3 * 10 bench press (50kg)
3 * 10 press ups with toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 12kg kettle bell on chest
3 * 10 captain's chair hanging leg raises (piked legs)
3 * 10 lateral pull downs (39kg)

Stretching + foam rolling to warm down

Hoping the gym will calm down soon, though it is good to see people doing fitness.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Saturday Workout

Winter League was cancelled tomorrow, so no Ultimate until next week :-(

Did a pretty similar workout to Thursday with a couple of tweaks:

2 mile run + stretching to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 hanging sit ups (*increase*)
3 * 10 press ups

Then on the stair set (2 * 12 steps):

12 * running up the stairs
6 * two footed jumps up the stairs
6 * one footed jumps up the stairs
6 * running up the stairs 2 steps at a time (*new*)

2 mile jog + stretching + muscle rolling to warm down

*running with my wrist weights*

Next week I'll be back to work so I'll also be back to the gym, and I'll also head back to the track on Wednesday.

Thursday 3 January 2013

Thursday workout

2 mile run + stretching to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 5 hanging sit ups
3 * 10 press ups

then found a stair set (2 sets of 12 stairs)

12 * running up the stairs
6 * two footed jumps up the stairs
6 * one footed jumps up the stairs

2 mile jog to warm down + stretching + muscle rolling

Forgot to mention, the last two runs (and this one) were done using my wrist weights (1.25 kg), though I only used them during the runs today.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

First workout of the year

Start as you mean to go on:

0.5 mile jog + stretching to warmup

1 mile run

and I found a chin up bar!!! :-)

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 5 Hanging sit ups (on a bar - info)

1 mile run

0.5 mile jog + muscle rolling to warm down