Monday, February 27, 2012

Off Season

Although the title is Off Season, I want to say congratulations to an in season team.  Softball had a very good first weekend.  One game short of a great weekend.  There were many positive signs.  One of the good signs this weekend was a noticeable increase in strength and power.  These ladies spend a lot of their off season in the weight room.  They stuck together and worked hard and have gotten stronger.  Good job ladies.

Now let's talk about the title, Off Season.  Most of our Fighting Squirrels are now in the off season.  This is the time when many athletes and coaches will tell you championships are made.  What are those of you who are in the off season doing today to win tomorrow?  I urge you to get in the weight room.  There are two folders at the desk, one for soccer and one for volleyball.  I will be putting another folder in there for basketball soon.  If you want to jump higher, hit harder and run faster, get in the weight room.  There is NO TRUTH to the myth that weight training makes you slow or musclebound.  Studies show a direct correlation between leg strength and speed.

Your coaches can not help you in the weight room, but I can.  I am the athletic trainer and the strength and conditioning coach.  Please talk to the softball girls.  Find out what we did in the weight room and how they feel about their new found strength.  I can tell you what you need to do, but you must do it.

If you want to win, start today.  Get strong for next season.  Volleyball and soccer, you must come to the first practice in good condition so that your coaches can work on skills not fitness.  I guarantee that you will feel stronger and more confident if you start the season ready to go.  The best way to have a good season is to have a great off season.  Come on squirrels, lets pump it up!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Don't be a False Friend

I hope you had a chance to read yesterdays blog.  Some of you may wonder what does this statement by Mother Teresa have to do with fitness.  I believe in fitness of the mind, the body and the soul.  There is one stanza that really stands out to me:

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

I had a discussion with a young lady this week that really struck me.  She was upset that she feels like she is doing too much for herself and not enough for others.  She has had success in many areas and yet she feels that she is not doing well.  I think our society has skewed our views of success.  If one earns a lot of money they are looked at as being greedy and the conventional wisdom says the rich are evil.  Isn't that what to OWS crowd is all about?  I certainly agree that your worth should not be measured by how much money you make; however, there is nothing wrong with being successful and making a lot of money.  Think of the number of people you can help with your wealth.  Why do some people think they deserve what others have earned?  Success comes in many forms.

Your personal success often does help others.  If you have a successful business, you hire workers.  If you create a new product, you improve peoples lives.  Don't be afraid of success.  If you work hard and do well, you earned it. 

Isn't this what we try to teach with sports?  Those with talent don't always win.  Those who work hard don't always win.  Those with a little talent and who work hard don't win all the time, but they will have their fare share of success.  I see a disturbing trend on some of our sports teams.  We have had teams get defeated by a large margin and our girls will say that the other team, "Wasn't that good."  Think about what you are really saying.  This team hammered you and you can not accept the simple truth that they are better.  I don't expect you to be happy about this, but instead of dismissing the lose with a silly comment, think about what made them better.  Analyze their strengths and your weaknesses.  Improve.

I have seen teammates rip other team mates because the other person is getting more playing time.  Have you looked at yourself?  Is that person working harder than you?  Is that person more talented than you?  Are you really doing your best at every practice and every game?  If you are not as talented or you don't work as hard; don't rip the other player, make yourself better.  Too often the answer for some of our girls is, "I quit."

Doesn't the successful athlete help the team?  Doesn't the successful athlete help recruit better players to our school?  If we are honest with ourselves don't we want to be the successful athlete?  If you are working hard, but you are not as talented, you need to face that fact.  Work hard to get better and know your role on the team.  You may be a practice player and you need to accept that.  Your contribution to the team is to practice hard everyday to make the starters better. 

If you are that "better" player, what's your attitude?  Do you try to offer help to your fellow players? Do you recognize that they might not be as talented, but they are working hard?  Do you appreciate their hard work at practice?  We are a team.  We need to accept our roles, continue to seek self improvement and enjoy the victory or accept the lose with a determination to help each other get better.  Don't be a false friend or a genuine enemy.  Be a teammate, work together and succeed.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Do it Anyway

Last week at Mass the deacon read a prayer that is attributed to Mother Teresa.  I thought I would pass it on  to you.

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

My only comment: Amen.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

How can I run faster?

Charlie, how can I run faster?  I get this question from many of the fighting squirrels.  The VWIL ladies want to increase their times for their military fitness tests and the athletes want more sprint speed so they can compete at a higher level.  We can talk about a lot of different ways to increase speed.  In this article I will discuss one important step to take.  Are you ready?  RUN FASTER. 

The next question I get is, "I know that, but how?"  Most of us like to stay in our comfort zones.  I have talked about this in previous blogs.  To run faster you must, well, run faster.  If you want to increase your time for the 1.5 or 2 mile military run you should not just keep adding miles to your runs.  Too many VWIL ladies keep adding miles to their runs, but they plod along at the same slow pace.  One way to decrease your run times is to increase your run tempo.  To do this is to get a stop watch and time your runs.  I often tell the VWIL ladies.  Get on our track and jog .5 miles to warm up.  Take a few minutes to stretch and then get ready to work.  Run a 1/4 mile as hard as you can, time the run.  Walk the straight away.  Jog around the corner and the next straight away.  Walk the next corner.  When you get to your start point, run another 1/4 and try to beat your last time.  Run 4 quarters in this way.  Jog another .5 miles to cool down and then stretch.  Do this speed work 2 or 3 times a week with easy longer runs in between.  Please remember to get a day of rest also.

The same type of training applies to sprint work.  Run your sprint with a stop watch.  Take a break walk back to your start point, take some time to recover and try to beat your last time on your next sprint.  Another way to improve your sprint speed is to downhill run.  Find a moderate hill, this should not be a problem in Staunton.  Run down the hill at a sprint.  This will force you to over-run; that is run at a faster pace than you are used to running.  Jog or walk back up the hill and get ready for your next sprint.

There a many other things that can improve your run time.  Increasing your strength through weight training and perfecting your form are ways to increase speed.  In this blog I wanted you to get the easiest way to increase your speed without getting too scientific or specific.  This type of training is hard work.  You will probably hate it at first, but you will get results.   I think the best and easiest way for you to increase your speed is; RUN FASTER.

Sprint on Squirrels.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Choices

As many of you already know, Whitney Houston died this weekend.  How can it be that a beautiful, talented, intelligent women winds up dead in her bathtub of an overdose of drugs and alcohol?  The answer is: Choices. 

We all make choices everyday.  Some of those choices are good and some are bad.  Some bad choices don't matter much.  If you don't brush your teeth today, you probably will not suffer any long term damage.  Your friends may not want to get very close to you, but once you brush your teeth they will be back.  If you never brush your teeth you may have some bigger issues to deal with. 

Some bad choices can be devastating.  Getting behind the wheel of your car after drinking can get you or someone else killed.  This bad choice changes many lives and will never go away.  If you're lucky as a drunk driver, you may live, but that bad choice will be with you forever.

We often think about the big choices we make, but what about the little choices.  Why do so many young, talented, intelligent women at Mary Baldwin College, "Home of the Fighting Squirrels", overeat, smoke cigarettes, binge drink and do drugs?  Again, the answer is:   Choices. 

You make most of the choices in your life.  Please think about your health.  Many young ladies are setting themselves up for long term health issues because of the choices they are making today.  Some of these choices will affect you right now; some of these choices will not affect you for many years.  Please evaluate your life.  If you are making poor choices, start by making a change.  If you need help making the right choices, there are many people on campus willing to help you.

Some of you may think, "It's my life, I'll do what I want."  You are correct, it is your life.  Please make it a happy and hopeful life.  Be honest with yourself.  If you need help, seek that help.  If one person can't help, seek out someone else.  You know the difference between right and wrong.  Wrong can sometimes be easy.  Do what is right, not what is easy.

Whitney Houston made some terrible choices.  She was in a bad relationship.  She partied too much.  She threw away great talent and an ability to help many other people.  I remember her rendition of the National Anthem many years ago.  It is still one of the greatest ever.  She was a great talent.  I hope you don't feel I am speaking ill of the dead.  I am not; but the truth is the truth.  I hope she will find the peace she could not find on earth, but she is no hero.  She is a fallen star.  Please look at her tragic end as lesson.  Make good choices.  Take care of yourself.  Reach your full potential.

Make good choices as you march on squirrels.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Can we build a dugout?

If you wander by the softball field today you will see the framing for the new dugouts.  A group of people got together and put these frames up on Saturday.  The frames were engineered and cut at VMI.  They were delivered here over the last week and constructed this weekend.  A lot of planning and work went into this operation.  Those dugouts did not magically appear.  An idea was formulated, people made a plan, rough cuts were made and the frames were erected.  The members of the softball team that helped with this project on Saturday did not question the engineers about the best way to put these plans together.  They listened to instructions.  Followed the instructions.  Worked hard.  The first dugout took a little time, but as the team learned and practiced the techniques the engineers gave them, their skills developed, and the second dugout went up more quickly.

I started to think about this process Sunday night.  It is a lot like building a winning team.  It takes a lot of people working together.  The coach devices a plan for the season, gathers the equipment required to play the game, and instructs the players on the proper way to put the plan into action.  This is where I some times see a disconnect at  Mary Baldwin College, "Home of the fighting Squirrels." 

The softball players on Saturday never questioned the engineers about how to put the plan into action.  If they had questions they asked, but they did not presume to know more than the engineers.  They realized that the best way to have a good dugout was to listen and do what they were told.  This in no way made them lesser people, only people with less knowledge who were smart enough to follow the instruction of the professionals.

Sometimes our athletes think they have a better way to win than the coach; they have their own plan.   If everyone on a team has their own plan, dugouts don't go up and teams don't win.  Please understand this does not pertain to the softball team or any other team here at Mary Baldwin College, "Home of the Fighting Squirrels."  This pertains to individuals on all of our fighting squirrel teams.

If you are on a team, the team comes first.  The coach runs the team.  The coach is the engineer; she or he has the plan.  You may not agree with the plan.  Maybe other people on your team don't like the plan.  However, I assure you that a team with many different plans will not succeed.  A team with one plan might.  There are no guarantees.  Can you put yourself second and fully devote yourself to the team and the coach?

I heard an interesting comment by a high school football coach a few months ago.  He won several state titles at his previous school, but decided to go to another bigger school as their new head coach.  At his first meeting with his players he told his players he could not guarantee a state championship even if they worked hard everyday,  hit the weight room and listened to what he said.  Then he said that there was a guarantee he could give them.  If they don't work hard, don't hit the weight room and don't listen to him they would never win a state championship.

Ladies it is time to get on board.  Join the team, not on paper, but in your heart.  Place the team above your self.  Listen to the coach and commit to the plan.  Does doing this guarantee a winning season?  No.  But without it we will continue to struggle.  I guarantee it.  Winning does not magically appear.  It takes work.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the dugouts a reality.  It's nice to have a home for the squirrels.