From age 16 to 20 from Spring through Fall a buddy and I practically whenever we hung out would play “the game”.
“The game” – a rather odd one for Americans but worthwhile none the less.
See, the contrarian that I am always got into sports more out there.
Whether I played them organized or not, I’d practice with the intent to ALWAYS be better than at least most of those on the team.
At the time I wanted to be the guy who is extremely all around, and underestimated at everything athletic.
Distance running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, calisthenics, a few sports.
I did a good job of getting there too.
All around.
Having thrown the shot, and ran the 400m spring season as a sophomore I planned on playing lacrosse the next year instead.
I bought a net, short stick, and a long stick.
(You mean teenagers don’t only spend money on weights and sports equipment?)
Till the next winter I was constantly playing wall ball, tossing with a buddy, grounded ball pickup drills, shots on net (usually alone, but sometimes with my school’s goalie). I was getting good, and schooled my school’s players during occasional pickup game situations.
Self teaching can work. Especially when you always go for more.
I did the same with rugby. This leads me to “the game”.
I bought a ball, affectionately known as “Gilbert”, and used it with that buddy a lot as well as on my own.
Passing drills, precise punts, punts for distance, precise punts for distance (Once on a bet with an uncle I dropped the ball into his hands from 75-80 yards from middle of the street over power lines into the yard)…and “the game”.
We played this at a playground, on the high school’s football field, but mostly in the yard.
A 20-25 yard length of yard, slightly
narrower in width.
Punts & returns. Sometimes tackle, sometimes touch. The goal to either stop or out juke the other. Try line the driveway, “don’t smash into the car”.
We’d play for hours.
Sore from the weight room, after track practice, before school started, we’d even played in the dark the streetlights barely letting us see the incoming ball.
We’d play anytime.
Hours.
That’s a lot of reps of 20yd sprints and jukes.
Moderate speed… incoming, cut hard, BOOM!
Another point.
My buddy sucked at juking. I got better at it due to the narrow confines.
Me? I was building skill for rugby which I did play later, and making sure I’d get the starting running back or full back slot if I went out for football senior year (which I didn’t).
I should also note this buddy and I often raced 400m and 800m distances damn near nightly at points.
Both of us were building some work capacity.
Similar was preseason for wrestling:
In addition to whatever PT and weights I’d done…EVERY night for about a month prior to the first practice I’d :
•Jump Rope 5-10 minutes
•40yd dashes 15-30 reps
•longer sprints (occasionally, anywhere from 60m-200m)
•400m or 800m ALL OUT (sometimes hard 300m)
•Walk rest of mile
•Jump Rope more + another ½ mile walk (Optional: if I jump roped again I always walked another ½ mile).
This got me decent cardio, and frankly I think I had better work capacity when I was still running hard on a regular basis be it anywhere from 400m to 2 mile distances.
All these years later, now I’m doing burpees. Bring them far enough, especially bouncing between reps, and it’ll have the same effect (among others).
Persistence & Tenacity