velocitysports

VS newsletter: Confidence and Comparisons sermon

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 19:25 on 20 March 2008

Velocity Sports sends out a newsletter on a semi-regular basis. Today's sermon was about confidence:

Confidence and Comparisons

Hey everybody! I love this subject. I am passionate about it, and if I could teach
anyone anything, it would be this. Confidence is there for the taking. You can't
order it on-line, but if you have the courage you can find it. That's right, I
said courage. The number one enemy of confidence is fear. Oftentimes we are afraid
of failure, embarrassment, inadequacy, harm, and at the end of it all we are often
afraid that we just aren't good enough. So, how do we protect ourselves from these
fears?

Confidence is a passionate belief that one can be successful. I cannot stress enough
that confidence is a belief.

Begin with a commitment, a commitment to confidence. Decide that you truthfully
want to be confident. This is harder than you think. It feels good to get angry,
be afraid, and to lose control. In fact, it is a lot easier than being confident.
Confidence is hard work.

Let's first start to feel confident right now. Think about your greatest accomplishments.
Remember your greatest plays or moments. Seriously, stop reading this, close your
eyes, and watch the ESPN highlights of your greatest moments. Can you feel that?
If you are anything like me, you heart rate just sped up. I can feel energy coursing
through my body. I am literally excited right now. I want to run out and do something.
You can use this process to build your confidence. It is called visualization. You
can do it before a game, or at night when you put your head on the pillow.

To build the strength of your confidence, learn what you need to know to become
and expert at your sport. Then, commit to becoming better at those things. Learning
builds energy and confidence. Make an action plan to become better. If you are reading
this, you have likely already made one action plan. You have become one of the thousands
of Velocity Sports Performance athletes across the country. You are putting in hard
work on a regular basis to become more athletic. Good for you. Give yourself credit.

What else can you do? Come up with plans for the things you want to accomplish.
As you are doing these things you are taking responsibility for yourself. That is
empowering! Also give yourself credit for all that you do. Are you a good brother
or sister? Are you a good son or daughter? What could you do to be a better one?
You laugh, but it feels good. It will also let you answer that question with a
yes. What question? Am I good enough? It is the question we are all battling with.
The answer is yes, and we've got to get better at giving ourselves credit. You can
apply it to sports and to life. When you answer that question with a yes you are
building your belief in yourself.

Trust the hard work that you do. When faced with the nerves of an event or game.
Understand that that nervousness is your body getting ready. It is supplying you
with so much energy it is tough to sit still. Sometimes it feels like butterflies
in your stomach. This is a good thing! It means your body is ready to give its best.
Now that your body is ready, rely on the work that you have done. Trust that you
are as ready as you can be at that moment and go for it. There is no more time
to worry about "Am I ready? Am I good enough?" Have faith in yourself! Answer the
questions with a yes. Believe that you can be successful, and you give yourself
the best chance to be just that.

Finally, don't compare yourself to others, or wait for success to make you confident.
Simply strive to be better always and give yourself credit for that. If you compare
yourself to those around you, you can get lazy or depressed. Remember that whether
you are the best or the worst, get better! You can't always win. If you wait for
success to give you confidence, then what will you do when you lose? What will
you do when you are not in first place? How will you become confident in the face
of the biggest odds? Michael Jordan missed more last minute shots than he hit, but
all we can remember are the ones that he hit! Be the same way! Be confident always.
It feels good.

My Looft moment

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 09:35 on 18 January 2008

Back in sixth grade, we had to do presentations about South and Latin American countries. The presentations were to be fairly elaborate: each pair of students presenting on one country would have a six foot table, from which they were expected to dress up in locally culturally appropriate garb, and present the highlights of the country's unique culture.

At that time, I was fascinated about Costa Rica, and incredibly excited about the assignment. I was one of the very first people to sign up, without any hesitation.

At the end of the day, I went back to the sign up sheet to see if anyone had signed up with me, finding my classmate Kimberly Looft was my partner. Kimberly was one of the cool kids, so hey, this was great!

When I went over to talk to her, I overheard her saying to someone else, "I signed up with Kitty. I'm going to get an A!"

I don't know if I walked away, or continued to walk up to talk to her, but I do remember becoming very annoyed at Kimberly.

I kept the annoyance throughout the project. Instead of leading the project development, I followed. What do you want done? I'd do the minimum effort needed for the task athand. If she wants an A, I thought, she'll earn it.

The only serious effort I put into the project was to research (before the Intarweb™, people!) and prepare local, mid-millenium, interesting foods. I made a strange corn tortilla-like pancake, and an interestingly tasty bitter chocolate drink (this, when it wasn't uncommon for me to eat two pounds of chocolate in one sitting).

The food may have been the only thing that saved our grade, as our table was disappointingly empty, as I didn't decorate it. Especially compared to the Mexico table next to us, which had flags and music, and food and maps and colors colors colors.

We earned a B on the project, which affected my overall grade of an A not at all. I don't know if it adversely affected Kimberly's grade.

Today's workout at Velocity Sports made me feel like Kimberly.

The workout was:

16 runs
100 pullups
16 runs
200 pushups
16 runs
300 situps
16 runs
400 squats

This workout was done with a partner. Each activity could be divided in any way the partners wanted, 50/50, 60/40, etc.

When the workout was described, Kris immediately called out, "I'm partnering with Breanne!" We all laughed. I figured I'd partner with someone else, but Kris surprised me and asked if I would be his partner. "Keep it in the family!" he says.

So, we started out. Sixteen runs, 400m each, no problem. 100 pullups? Uh, okay. I did 10, Kris did 10. I did 10, Kris did 10. I was doing my pullups assisted, with a band. Kris did pullups for real. A real man.

I barely squeaked out my 50 total.

Sixteen runs, I did my eight, though more slowly than Kris did his eight.

Two hundred pushups. That's 100 each, if we go 50/50. Oooooookaaaaaaay.... 10 for me. 20 for Kris. Oh, yeah? 20 for me, 20 for Kris. I tried upping my numbers from 20, but it just wasn't happening. I dropped back down to 15, then 13, then 12. Kris stayed strong, letting us split at about 47/53.

Sixteen runs, with Kris' fitness kicking in. He did nine, and I did eight, before I realized he said, "meet you down there," and not "mumble you down there."

Whoops.

300 situps? 150 situps for me? No problem. I started with 20, to which Kris answered with 30. Oh yeah? I did 35, and Kris answered with 35 back. We were flying through this exercise.

For the first 100.

Fatigue set in and we started slowing. Around 160 I was feeling Monday's abs workout. Around 220, I was back down to 15 situps, not stopping even though I was really slowing down. I wanted to give Kris as much rest as I could, which was easy (just keep going) and hard (just keep going) at the same time.

When I stood up to run my eight laps, nausea rolled over me and I almost sat back down. Kris must have sensed my wooziness (yes, a real word), as he ran 10 of the laps, for my 6. The knot in my knee didn't help.

Neither did the hamstrings, which were strung tighter than a bow string.

Kris and I threw down the gauntlet on the squats, being the last partner sets, and determined to jump up to finish second. 30 squats for me, 30 squats for Kris, 30 squats for me, 40 squats for Kris. Down. Up. Down. Up. Keeping form but going fast, 35 squats for me, 40 squats for Kris, 30 squats for me, 50 squats for Kris. 35 squats for me, more for Kris. We cranked them out, finishing the workout only 3 minutes late, and second overall (not that it was a contest or anything, but the workout was supposed to be done as fast as possible without losing form).

My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My stomach hurts. My head is starting to hurt. I have a train ride and a 45 minute walk home left to do before I can rest.

Maybe that walk will make up for my Kimberly moment earlier.

Monday's workout

Blog Instead of being asleep at 20:20 on 14 January 2008, kitt created this:

Somehow I managed to wake up this morning to go to class with Kris. I think it's the first time in about a month I've managed to go. Given how much I hurt this afternoon, I'd have to say I shouldn't have waited so long.

This morning's workout was three rounds of:

10 squats with weight
20 each leg of inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance
30 GHG situps
8 x 50 runs

The 10 squats with weight were standard squats with a weighted barbell across the shoulders. I managed just the barbell in my squats. At least it was the heavy barbell. The squats were lower than Kris normally goes, but my normal depth, with hamstrings parallel to the ground.

I should have realized when Breanne emphasized the hamstrings in the first exercise this was going to be a hamstring focused workout.

I couldn't really figure out how to name the inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance exercise. Start standing on one leg, bend over at the waist, keeping the upper body straight, to touch a cone, forming a T with the outstretched arm and the backward leg. Then, stand up, staying balanced on one foot, bringing as the back leg forward, knee up high. The stance is very much like a sprinter's running stance with the high knee and opposite arm up. That's one. Do 20 on one leg, then 20 on the other leg.

Phew!

The 30 GHG situps where on the back extension machine, but face up. The situps are supposed to be from way low (Breanne does a backbend to where she's nearly looking over backward at the floor), all the way up. The closer the two machine pieces are together, the harder the situps are. I moved the two pieces close. The situps were hard.

My only thought on the 8 x 50 runs was, "Thank goodness they weren't supposed to be 8 x 50 meter sprints." My legs were tired after the third round.

Kris managed four rounds during my three rounds, but I was happy to finish the three rounds in the class time.

I took the train back south to Sunnyvale after class. I had breakfast/brunch/lunch in downtown Sunnyvale, and spent some time working in the morning at a cafe. I couldn't justify staying longer than an hour or two, though. I felt I should buy more food to use the wifi longer. I was probably fine, as I've seen people site at that cafe all day before, and there were other people there before and after me. I didn't feel comfortable with it, though. Maybe I'll check out the library later this week.

I did see one of my city's councilwomen meeting with various men at the cafe, listening to them for over an hour. I was impressed.

After a while, I decided to head home. I packed up my bag and headed home. The walk home is only 2.4 miles, but my bag was way too heavy. I had reduced the weight before leaving this morning, but just didn't take enough weight out. I'll need to reduce even more. Maybe carry 2 magazines or a tech book, not both?

Walky walk

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 14:21 on 11 January 2008

I dashed up to Velocity Sports today. Last week's migraine, coupled with Wednesday's flu, knocked me out sufficiently that my 12th new year's resolution of exercising 30 minutes six times weekly was in serious danger. I didn't want to go this morning and have my butt handed to me by Breanne, but I still wanted to go to something. Lunchtime seemed better than the evening, so, off I went.

I'd like to say I try to keep an open mind with instructors who aren't Breanne. I do try. But, darn it, the classes just aren't the same with the other instructors.

We started with an abbreviated, short distance warmup. Instead of lots of jumping jacks, followed by 40 yard sprints of various, increasing speeds, alternating with dynamic walking stretches, we did shorter distance (15 yard) skips and jumps. It didn't feel as thorough as our normal warmups, but we also didn't have any all-out sprints, so the warmup seemed okay.

The workout was 2 rounds of

One legged squats with weighted ball toss, which the instructor called get-ups.
With a partner, each of us would do one legged squats onto a jump box, alternating throwing and receiving a medicine ball at the top of the squat. So, holding a medicine ball, do a one-legged squat, stand up, throw the medicine ball sideways to your partner, do an unweighted one-legged squat, stand up, receive the medicine ball back from your partner. We did one leg for a minute, then the other leg for a minute.
Farmer walks
With weight plates, one in each hand, walk 30 yards, set the plates down and do 5 push ups. Pick up the weight plates again, walk back 30 yards, set the plates down and do 5 burpies (stand, squat, hands on floor, thrust legs out behind into a push up position, do a pushup, pull legs back up to a squating position, spring up into a jump, repeat). Pick up the weight plates again, walk back 30 yards and do 5 V situps.
Squat throws to bear crawls
For the length of time another group was doing the farmer walks, take a weighted, non-bouncy ball and, from a squat position, push up and throw the ball as far as you can. Then, squat down, putting your hands on the ground, crawl hands and feet to the ball. When you get to it, stand up, pick up the ball, and do it again.

After the two rounds, we also had bungee cord sprints, where we ran forward 10 yards with a bungee cord strapped to our back, touched a cone, and ran backward to the starting point. We sprinted forward and backward for a minute each.

Because we had an extra minute, we also did wall squats, while singing happy birthday to another person in the class. I tried to have everyone "sing" a shreekenade, but everyone sang in key.

Except me.

I should be embarrassed.

I wasn't.

I stopped by Kris' work on the way home and "convinced" him to head out for a coffee, while I had a hot chocolate. It was pretty wonderful, seeing him during the day.

Run jump throw push

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 12:53 on 17 December 2007

Today's velocity workout started out looking painful, and finished feeling painful. We went to the later morning class so that we could stop by Starbucken for breakfast, Kris being out of the nectar fiber of the gods food: oatmeal.

The workout was five rounds of:

60 vertical jumps
30 ball tosses
30 pushups
6 runs

The vertical jumps started with a single jump to place a bit of tape on the wall. After that, they were stand facing the wall and jump to touch the tape. I didn't realize that we could do these plyometrically, springing up as soon as we landed, bounce bounce bounce, and ended up pausing between each jump.

60 vertical jumps using all muscle and no physics = much much harder.

The ball tosses were also done facing the wall. WIth a medicine ball held at the chest, squat, then stand quickly, throwing the ball up against the wall, then catching it when it comes back down and returning to a squat position.

Pushups were normal. The runs were down and back, each length of 50 yards.

Kris managed to finish the workout. I managed three rounds. Three rounds of side stitches and near puking.

I'm going have to try to finish the workout tonight at the local school. Tossing a ball onto our house walls doesn't seem too smart from a structural integrity point of view.

Finished!

Blog kitt decided around 15:09 on 12 December 2007 to publish this:

I managed to finish today's Velocity workout, even after Kris expressed hesitation and being able to complete the workout on time, before we started.

The workout was four sets of decreasing reps of:

Waiter walks 4 lengths
Ball slams
GHG situps
Ball up throws
Run 8 lengths

The middle three exercises had the decreasing reps, not the first or last. The reps were 21-18-15-12.

The waiter walks started with a weighted barbell push press to lift the bar overhead. With arms wide and elbows locked, we walked with the barbell overhead down the length of the turf and back twice, for four lengths. The walking length was 20 yards.

The only hard part of the waiter walks is the turning part. Well, no, not the turning part, per se, more like the stop turning part. Once the bar starts turning, the momentum carries it, making stopping the turn to start walking difficult.

Ball slams are done with a weighted, non-bouncing medicine ball. Breanne calls them D Balls, most likely from the D-Ball brand name. Start with the ball overhead and pull down on the ball as hard as possible. Continue the downward motion of the ball, while pulling then pushing down, into a squat. When the ball hits the ground, it'll bounce less than 6". When it does bounce, catch it (you'll be in a deep squat position, still), and stand up. Press the ball overhead and repeat.

GHG situps were done on a back extension machine. I have no idea what the second G stands for. The first one is Glutes. The H is hamstring. You anchor your feet pointing up, bar along the top of the feet, another (padded) bar under your butt. Lean back. Farther. Farther. Faaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrther. Great! Now sit up.

I did my first three sets on the machine to the right. Kris told me I should try the one on the left, it's harder. So, like a fool, I did so on the last set. The padded butt bar was about 2/3 of the way down my leg, on my hamstring, and, daaaaang, those situps were HARDER.

Ball up throws (or throw ups, as we called them) were done with a weighted ball, using only the arms. We stood straight up and threw them up into the air. The most simple of exercises.

Running 8 lengths was as normal. Not sprinting, thank goodness. I ran most of them with good form, but not all of them at top speed. I had a couple lengths that were just so hard.

Until I saw a classmate catching up. Then good form and quicker speed caught up and I ran more quickly.

I managed to complete the workout at 8:05, and make the 8:13 train to boot. Yay!