Rugby Double Duty!

Last weekend I finished up all my double duty for the season. This isn't the first season I have done double duty but year four of the player/coach experiment is perhaps the busiest.

After two falls of spending too little time with La Salle (coaching) and then last year spending too little time with Philly (playing) I approached this season with the ambitious plan of making it to as many Philly events and La Salle events as possible. The process was decidedly one sided because I have more input into the La Salle schedule than the Philly one.

Thankfully the girls were very flexible about playing on Friday and Sunday. From a practical stand point we knew that previous La Salle teams had difficulty adjusting to playing games at strange times or on days that were not Saturday. So not only was it flexible for me but it was also developmental for the current team. Playing on Friday night adds the cool factor of being under lights and when playing at home the bonus of drawing a larger crowd.

It started with the mother of all rugby weekends, Pumkinfest. Friday night we hosted Luke Gross at La Salle (after I ran a short in door forwards practice.) The next morning I got up, helped line the fields and then booted up to play Atlanta. After the game Philly game I went with La Salle. The following weekend was "just" a La Salle game. Weekend three saw me coaching La Salle on Friday night at the University of Delaware before driving up to Boston on Saturday for our game on Sunday. Then there was the Saturday doubleheader, the La Salle game kicked off at 9:30 and I drove off at half time to make the 1pm game versus NOVA. Finally last weekend I decided to up the degree of difficulty and flew down to Orlando on Friday night, played Saturday, flex back on Saturday night and ended my weekend with La Salle traveling to Happy Valley for a match.

And who could forget what the weeks look like:

Monday

7:00-3:00 Work

4:30-5:00 Conditioning (La Salle and Me)

6:00-7:00 La Salle Office Hour

7:30-9:00 Strength Training (Me)

Tuesday and Thursday

7:00-3:00 Work

3:50-4:20 Conditioning (La Salle and Me)

4:30-6:00 La Salle Practice

7:15-9:00 Philly Practice

Wednesday

7:00-3:00 Work

3:50-4:20 Conditioning (La Salle and Me)

4:30-6:00 La Salle Practice

6:30-8:00 Strength Training (Me)

Friday (If La Salle game on Saturday/Sunday)

7:00-3:00 Work

4:30-6:00 La Salle Practice

7:00-8:00 La Salle Team Dinner

So....lets just say that things can be hectic. I do my best to lay out my clothes for the entire week in my little wire shelf cubbies. I have meals prepackaged for the entire month, at least for lunch. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce the time it takes to do anything routine at night, because doing more at night means sleeping less. I record heroes/house/whatever else I want to watch and hope I can watch it on Friday night or while traveling. Because all I am watching is La Salle and Philly game tape on Sunday, Monday and probably Tuesday.

I look like shit right now.

Seriously, I look fatigued, maybe a little sick and I find myself unconsciously rubbing my shoulder or my ankle or stretching on one leg.

But it's worth it, I love playing, I love coaching, I love the road trips, I love the ups and downs. And on the heels of our Olympic success I keep hearing the phrase, "many of the people who will play in the 2016 Olympics are still in middle school and have never seen a rugby ball before." Maybe the Olympic dream will get a ball in their hands but I can tell you this, someone will need to show them how to pass and someone will have to keep their games from becoming sloppy disasters. That someone is probably going to be too old to play in 2016 (at least at that level) and if you're reading this blog it might be you.

So I dare you to do some double duty, 2016 (and beyond) will thank you.

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USA "A" vs Canada "A" now available on USA Rugby Web Site

With Wendy taking a much deserved vacation I thought someone should mention that the USA "A" match is now online for our viewing pleasure:

http://usarugby1.tampadigital.com/mediamanager/


And yes I'll give you more to read while wasting time at work tomorrow :)

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Combined Camp

With all of the excitement of the 7's World Cup the combined camp last weekend kind of came and went. Unless you were there of course!

This camp was different than last April's in Philly or the previous April's in Chula Vista. The previous two experiences had been combined in the sense that everyone worked together, regardless of their current affiliation (Eagle vs Dev/A.) This time around we were together for fitness testing, meals and some forward and back specific sessions. The rest of the time we were with our Eagle and "A" squads respectively. I am not entirely sure what the theme for the Eagles was but USA "A" was focusing on a similar set of skills as last February, skills and decision making near the point of contact on offense. In addition we worked with Peter Baggeta, as did the Eagles. These sessions definitely drewfrom similar material as last April's camp.

Day one was made up of fitness testing and an afternoon session broken up as Eagles and "A." I wasn't psyched about doing the 40m or the agility test, I didn't do too badly in either but they were merely the appetizer. Now it's not to say that I don't care about the 40 or agility but I never seem to test well in those (regardless of much I work.) The main course from my perspective were the 300 meter shuttle and power clean max. This is a little masochistic but I was actually looking forward to them.

The rest of the camp was typical fare for the most part, leading up to the scrimmage.

Now the scrimmage...the tone surrounding the scrimmage was very different because of the distinction between Eagles and "A." This worked on multiple levels. The Eagles were preparing like they were going out to play a game against anybody (say England or Canada), or at least that's my assumption. The fire had been lit behind people's butts too. But there is a fine line between expecting a high performance from yourself and your teammates and underestimating your opponents.

"A" had a ton going for it. I thought so before I even headed to camp. I was excited to work with my fellow big girls, many of whom I have played with as part of USA "A" or otherwise had a lot of experience playing with or against. And as it became clearer that the Eagle forwards in particular would be looking to really dominate the set pieces and contact elements of the game I became more and more excited. I had a hunch the night before the scrimmage that the pieces were coming together for an upset.

So we didn't beat the Eagles but man it was very close (we could go into the iffiness of one of their tries and the non try on our end...but why?)

The womeneagles.com summary is pretty accurate. The weather was pretty ridiculous, there was even a little bit on hail at one point. "A" got the job done in the contact areas and the scrums were either a draw or a slight victory in our favor. The line-outs were in nobody's favor given the stormy day. Our backs did a great job of pressuring them on defense and the forwards did well to link up with the backs to snuff out some promising channel 2 opportunities. Our backs did great on both sides of the ball despite having a very interesting mix of players who were unfamiliar to each other.

I think we ended the camp on a high note, not only did we play well and push the Eagles, put we definitely used the point of contact/decision making skills and defensive shape pieces that Peter showed us.

P.S. Now that we're done with 7s for a while, it's time to get excited about the 15s world cup...it's only a little more than a year away now!

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Love/Hate and the Gym

I hate you red haired boy.

I hate that you refuse to be like the rest of the gym rats.

I hate that you say hi to me and look just little bit longer than normal.

I hate that shoot me lingering smiles without the required high fives, fist pumps and other typical signs that tell me exactly how little that smile means.

I hate your hand stand pushups and I hate that they kind of do impress me.

I hate that you don't call me by a nick name and when i can't even consistently remember yours (I'm trying to forget it.)

I hate wondering if maybe I should shave my legs in the middle of the winter before going to the gym.

I hate hoping you'll be there.

I hate having to dodge you with headphones/looking down/engaging someone else in conversation for fear of that damn smile.

Have you no decency red haired boy? The gym is suppose to be a special place where I can feel invincible or at least really strong. I hate that when I look down I feel powerless, I hate that I look down and kind of like it.

Damn you red haired boy.

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My New Old Running Buddy

I was bundling up to go outside a few weeks ago when I noticed Rocky curled up on his bed in my room. Ss I was getting ready to go out I noticed him tracking me with his eyes as I moved around the room. He's so good at looking pathetic. He proceeded to move into a position where he was stretched out, head on paws, still watching me with his eyes. I dragged my tired butt over to the computer to put on some psych up music. Rocky can be oddly quiet when he wants to be, or like herd of rhinos when he does not care. I only noticed him when he plopped down directly against the computer, escalating his pathetic factor.

The squinty eyes, down trodden face and low but very loud dog purring just got the best of me.

It's not that I am a bad parent, Rocky has a fenced in yard and get's two long walks a week. Rocky is high energy until you take him for a walk and then his tail goes down steadily over the course of three miles. By the end of those three miles you're glad he's home because he seems awfully tuckered out. The idea of taking rocky with me over a 1.87 mile sprint interval, hilly, road run was kind of iffy.

But his eyes, oh his cute eyes, they said "mom I am a natural sprinter, please take me out with you!"

And so the eyes won. I stuffed a plastic bag in my vest, got the leash and set out.

Immediately we had some issues. Rocky was n0t quite sure to make of me doing a dynamic warm up. He clearly thought we were playing a game as I was skipping and shuffling. But altogether he was pretty patient about it. But as we embarked on our journey he was very excited, thrilled even!

I had visions of needing to hoist rocky over both my shoulders and carry him home. But nothing could be further from the truth. Rocky struggled with the down hill segments a little bit, was fine on the up hill segments and schooled me on the flat areas. It was fun having a partner and more than anything else he was super happy. It makes sense, after all it's sports specific training for him too, since clearly fetching is also chase (sprint), retrieve (run) and throw (rest.)

My only remaining concern is whether he'll be able to do this in the heat.

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