New Blood

Since October, i've been weight training with Steve Hosfelt, preparing for my first season of semi-pro football. Steve and I both continue to progress.  I am down to 173lbs, and my body fat has dropped 4% since I started training (according to my Omnitron Body fat tester).  This week, we added a new training partner, Matt Erhard.  He has decided to work towards playing with the Outagamie Outlaws as well.  With Matt, he has the drive necessary to work hard, and achieve his goals.  He is starting fast, and has momentum, and hopefully we can keep that momentum going, even through the rough patches, because there will be rough patches.  Life gets in the way a lot, when it comes to training, and as long as you acknowledge, accept, and embrace those rough patches, you will be fine.
I've had plenty of ups and downs, but I wouldn't change anything.  I have enjoyed training, and really look forward to the next year, and beyond.  It really has been a lifestyle change for me, and hopefully it continues to enrich my life, and therefore influence those people who are part of my life.  There is no final destination to this lifestyle change, other than death.  For this to be a success, I have to be all in.

Monthly progress report

I have decided to keep monthly progress photos, so here is my latest photo.  From the photo, there isn't much change, but I have dropped about 7 pounds, about 1% body fat, and added strength.  So things are moving in the right direction.

10/3/2011

2/23/2012

3/28/2012

Post Flag Season Training

So, my first flag football season in years has come to a close, after last night.  We made the playoffs, and ended up playing against the number one seed last night.  They completely handed us our asses, and walked into the championship, right over the top of us.  I really had a great time, and learned a lot about some of the guys I am going to be playing with this fall, and about myself.  I think I did some things really well, and I know I have a lot of work to do in other areas, mainly my hands.  I dropped the easiest pass of my life last night, and I know "everybody" drops passes, but at the same time, it was a pass nobody should drop.  I catch that same pass 100's of times, but for some reason, last night, I dropped it, and it got into my head. I proceeded to drop 2 other passes which I should always catch, but again, I let it get the best of me.  I did manage to catch 4 other passes, and a touchdown, but all of that gets trumped by the fact that I let down my teammates by not coming through when they needed me to.  So, as I always do, I over analyzed the hell out of it, and I have come up with a training routine that will not only improve my hand eye coordination, but will also improve my hand and forearm strength.  In addition to my current workout, and skill training, the following exercises will get worked into the mix.

Every other day: 100 finger tip push-ups.
3 sets (each hand) of 90 second tennis ball squeezes.
Tennis ball drills (bouncing 1 or multiple tennis balls of a wall and catching them)
Weight pinch drills (Pinching and holding plates together (weight plates)).
Towel Grip and plate grip farmer walks.
Newspaper balls (crumpling up newspaper, 1 page at a time, switching hands)
Static barbell hold

So, in addition to getting out and catching as many passes as humanly possible, I am adding those exercises to my routine.  I feel confident that I will fix what is broken, and be ready for the season.  I know I will improve, and hopefully it will show on the field.  As I had told my QB, I need him to be confident when he throws me the ball, but I need to build that confidence.  I am a believer in hard work, and practice, and even through there are those with natural ability, I believe you can learn anything through hard work and dedication.