Yes, today was the first official day of practice.
Let's just say, the coach is very intense, and I'm immensely grateful that the rules (from MWC or NCAA, I forget which) don't allow athletes to workout more than 8 hours a week in the off-season. But I'd better enjoy it while I can, because next Tuesday, the real schedule starts. Then I'll be clocking in 20 hours of workout a week.
If I thought I was sweaty during dryland last week, I'm very wrong to believe so. Our dryland today sounds simple, but it was really hard due to the heat and...yeah. We "jogged" downhill to the bookstore. Then we had to sprint uphill back to the pool. Then you find a partner and do wheelbarrowing to a certain point. Wheelbarrowing is hard, but even harder when your coach tells your partner to hold up only one foot... Then we did a bunch of crabwalking. It hurts the wrists more than anything else. We then went inside and did a bunch of core and abs. We did pushups the very last, and I kept slipping, that's how much my face and arms and legs were sweating! I was dripping everywhere. It was actually kind of frightening. I never realized just how much water and salt you can lose so quickly!
We then changed into our swimsuits quickly, and did a circuit workout in the water. I think the hardest two stages were: #3, you had to kick 300 yards with tennis shoes on. Then you jumped into the dive tank and kicked flutterkick vertically with hands out of the water (still wearing shoes). Stage #2 was also hard. It was 10 lengths (all from a start off the block) dolphin kick all the way underwater. Not bad, but there was a time limit that made you have to pretty much sprint around the pool back to the blocks only to go off again.
After working my butt off, the whole team huddled together to listen to the coach speak. From what I heard (which is not all of it), he was pretty much disappointed with our performance today. He started off with "Your first day of practice for this year is gone. You can't get it back. It's done." He told us that many of us didn't make the intervals or all the way underwater, or whatever, because we didn't set high enough standards for ourselves. The intervals he sets are the "bare minimum." You have to make those, if not exceed the expectation of you.
And he also explained that he's not going to put us in specialty groups for about 6-8 weeks. Everyone's going to be in every group eventually (e.g., the distance group, the sprint group, the butterfly group, the backstroke group, etc.).
His main focus of the first six weeks is to make our kicking excellent. Because, "if you can kick efficiently, you're going to be faster than ever." I'm nervous about that, because my kick is my weakest point. He expects us to focus on our kick more than anything else at this point. He proceeded to explain how we should be flutterkicking. I've been doing it wrong for...11 years. I didn't know your feet were really supposed to come out of the water! Dang it!
In inspirational sports movies (i.e. Remember the Titans, Miracle, etc.), you see the team working so hard, and the coach being hard and giving amazing little speeches all the time. It doesn't happen just in movies...the working hard part, anyway. J/k.
4 comments:
Think how wonderful your body will feel! well if it doesn't self distruct that is. The hardest part will be to keep your head saying "I CAN DO THIS" yah, kind of like the little engine. You are probably saying, oh mom how would you know? You are right I don't know except that I have seen you do more than you should be able to all your life. Keep being the best you can be and keep being my hero! Love Mom
Nedgie Wedgie--I will share one of my freshman football experiences--at least the result of it. Hot Aug day, two a day practices--a drill that most players handled 2 or 3 reps (hits). I stood in there for over 20 without getting knocked out of the box--anyway, the result was me, standing there sweating, snotting, tears running down (I was so tired I couldn't help it), completely out of gas--but still laying the hits on people running full speed at me. Coach had to stop because my shoulder pads broke (the laces). Anyway, I remember some of the extreme days. you'll be fine. you will be dog tired and sore and ..., but you will be OK.
Love you
keep talking to the serious athletes in our family and realize you have the heritage to do this. If you aren't smiling come to my place and we will hang and eat popcorn if you allow yourself to eat that sort of thing. Micah goes to sleep by 7:30 :-).
Oh man... just know that what you're doing would be impossible for me. You are a champion.
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