And so it begins again. The 6:00 a.m. practices. The P90x Plus weight training. The suicides. The defensive slides. The Yoga. The Challenges. The individual practices. The teaching. The lessons.
At 6:00 this morning as the mist was settling in the valley hovering over the track, we had our first lesson on discipline. A player made a mistake over the weekend, breaking our rule which states honor yourself, your team and UC. In her desire to have fun, to enjoy Saturday night, to laugh, to let her hair down, she made a poor judgment and so the team got the opportunity to learn from her error.
We spent an extra 20 minutes running sprints, bear crawling, hopping, sprinting, skipping, plank running and just overall having a grand time. When their tongues were hanging out, the sweat was dripping off their brows and their legs were quivering with fatigue, when I was just about to let them start our 12 minute challenge run, a player threw out the "F" bomb. Bummer. So I tacked on a few more sprints.
When we had completed the fun portion of the workout, I was certain none of the players would make our 12 minute run which would mean they would have to run it again on Wednesday morning. Another bummer. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised when three freshmen despite their fatigue and inexperience found the mental toughness to kick butt and make their times. After a morning of disappointment, this put a smile on my face.
Afterwards we headed to the fitness center to do walkouts which are push-ups combined with walking the hands out from the feet, going to a plank position, executing 11 push-ups and then walking the hands back to the feet. The goal is to complete in descending order 71 push-ups beginning with 11 and going down to one with an additional set of five. This must be done on my command with their chests touching or closely touching a tennis ball placed beneath them. Much to my joy, most of the players completed this test.
Our final challenge was front core abs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds, something which is not too difficult if you haven't been running and doing push-ups for the past hour. What I loved was the determination to make the time--the yelling and encouragement of teammates, the total body shake of a player who refused to go down, and the atmosphere of desire to achieve.
I was amazed at the sophomores who were stronger, who had packed on muscle, who just a year ago couldn't keep their butts from rising up in the air or their trunks from bending to the mat during any plank position. They had worked hard and had muscles to prove it. I was also surprised by the strength and passion of our incoming class.
This could be a fun season if they learn their lessons quickly.
PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.
