Good training is the key to success!
It's impossible to play any better than you practice. I'm committed to training harder this season than I ever have in the past. The practices will help my physical game, but the mental game is just as important. With my mind in mind, I decided to start tracking some things. I will use this thread all season to record stats from each practice. When I'm down in Game 3, and I need a win to get out of my pool, I'm going to think about the numbers on this thread and know that I have run more hills and spent more time on practice than my opponent, and I will remind myself of that fact as I pull it together in my head to get my body to do what's necessary to overcome and win the match.
So, here's where I'm at so far:
3/29/08 2 hour practice in Aurora, all fundamentals. Did we play any games? I don't recall.
4/13/08 2 hours inside at Navy Pier, all fundaments with 4 people! No room for a net.
4/15/08 1.25 hours in Aurora. All fundamentals. I played like shit.
4/18/08 2 hours at The Hill. 31 hills (ouch). One game (CC 11-9). GREAT workout.
4/19/08 1.25 hours at a yoga class.
4/21/08 Ran a little less than a mile in the morning before work.
4/22/08 2 hours at The Hill. 16 hills. Two games (CC 11-2, 11-9). Another great one.
10.5 hours so far.
46 hills so far.
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4/23/08 2 hours of fundamentals and rallying in Aurora. B Nellie makes his return to the court. Not very intense, but a good practice nonetheless.
4/25/08 1 hour of fundamentals and rallying. Had to stop due to lightning and severe rain. Ran 7 hills before we had to call it. Great while it lasted.
4/28/08 Ran a mile before work this morning.
13.5 hours of work, 54 hills. Feeling good!
4/30/08 Ran a mile before work again. Played for 2.5 hours after work with CC and Ted Martin. We played 6 games of singles vs. doubles. I finished at 3-3, CC was 5-1, and Ted was 1-5. Good day.
5/4/08 3 hours at Welles Park with CC, Zeke, Tom, Vince, and myself. 5-person rotation of doubles games. Highlight (or lowlight) of the day was the last game: Zeke and Tommy over CC and me 15-6. What happened??? Cory wanted revenge but I had to go. Plus I think it might be good for us to have a little anger built up the next time we get on the rectangle.
Totals so far:
19 hours, 53 hills (misprinted earlier)
5/6/08 Ran a mile before work and played for 2 hours at the Hill. Ran 26 hills and played one game (CC 11-5). Good spiking drills to end the session.
21 hours, 79 hills to date.
5/7/08 Drilled basic kicks and spikes against a wall at Welles Park before hooking up with Tommy. Trying to add frontbacks, sunbacks and toe reverse to my arsenal. Power kicked with Tommy then volleyed over the net in the rain. We had to quit early when it started to pour down. Cold & wet ride home but I'm still glad I kicked a little.
5/9/08 Played for 2 hours in Aurora. Ran 8 "tree sprints" (equilvalent to about 12 hills. What is a tree sprint? You see that tree over there? No, not that one right there, the other one way over there. Sprint to that tree and jog back.) Played one match (CC 11-2, 11-8).
5/12/08 Ran a little over a mile before work. I'm finally figuring the whole running thing out. I think I can run a lot more if I give myself the time.
Totals:
24 hours, 91 hills, 5 miles so far!
5/13/08 1.75 miles before work.
5/14/08 1.75 miles before work and 2.5 hours of double vs. singles with CC and Ted Martin. Ted was on fire. My right outside only cooperated about 50% of the time, and CC missed more spikes than I've ever seen him miss. It was a decent workout, but not the most productive session. I don't recall the overall records, and that's probably a good thing.
5/16/08 Ran 1.75 miles before work. Played for 2.5 hours after work with CC at the Hill. Ran 21 hills and played three games (CC 11-6, 11-0, 15-8) But never mind the scores: I thought we both played well. CC was drilling the pull-down like I haven't seen.
5/19/08 Ran about 2 miles before work. I'll have to drive it tonight to see exactly how long it was. I found out last night that I am now training for a 5K run on June 7th as well. I'll be running it with my 10-year-old daughter, Delaney. I hope I can keep up with her.
Totals:
30 Hours
8 Tree Sprints
About 10 Miles and exactly
100 Hills
(Note that I took off the credits for the Tree Sprints and seperated them out of the Hills.)
One more session before the Green Cup.
5/20/08 Ran 2.2 miles before work. The day before ended up measuring out at 1.9. Played for 2 hours at good ol' Rob Roy Park in Aurora with CC and Steve Smith. Steve played well as usual, even though it was his first time out in a LONG time. CC and I played doubles and pretty muched smoked him after serving out a million times in the first game. Scores were something like 11-15, 15-10, 11-3. Cory had to leave early and Steve and I finished with two games of singles (SS 15-3, 15-11).
5/23/08 to 5/27/08 Green Cup in Oakland/San Francisco, CA. Played countless amounts of games with tons of people. Cory and I didn't finish as high as we would have liked to, but we had a great time nonetheless. We'll get our revenge at the Windy City Cup. Highlight of the tournament: CC and I over Manu Bouchard and Randy Mulder in a pick-up game on Friday 11-8. I can think of no greater reason to keep up with the training.
5/22/08 Ran 2 miles before work.
5/31/08 Ran 2 miles again. Played for about 3 hours in Aurora with CC and Steve Smith and Greg Grandy (recently relocated from southern CA). Played 10 games. I finished at 3-7, CC was 4-6, GG was 5-5, and SS was 8-2. I must play better!
6/2/08 Ran 2 miles before work again.
6/3/08 Ran 2 miles with my daughter after work. She kicked my ass. I guess that's what young legs and clean lungs will do for you.
6/4/08 Played for 2 hours with Zeke up at Welles Park. Two games (SH 11-8, 11-8) and lots of rallying and simple drills.
6/5/08 Ran 2 miles after work in 92 degree weather. It was tough.
Running a tournament really takes a toll on playing time. I haven't had a chance to play in almost a week, and I'm not sure that I'll get a chance before the Windy City Cup. In the meantime...
6/7/08 Ran a 5K with my daughter. We finished in just a few seconds under 28 minutes. She was complaining of shin splints and couldn't run the whole time. We slowed to a walk for about 30 seconds at a time three different times throughout the race. It was a lot of fun.
6/9/09 Swam 25 laps at the Sports Center. I haven't swam in about 3 months. It felt nice.
Didn't get to play again until the Cup. Played a bunch of games with Cory and a few with Vince on Friday. Had a great time all day. I think we won every game except one to Yves and PT. I only played doubles on Saturday and no pick-up games except one right after the competition. CC and I finished in 6th, which is where we were seeded. Ben and Walt were seeded 5th, and we beat them 4 times in pick-up games but lost to them when it mattered. Hammer and Mirken finished in 4th, and we beat them in pick-up as well, but didn't play them in the tournament. I had an awesome time at the tournament regardless of the outcome, and I'm looking forward to working with this same group of guys next year. We make a damn good team.
6/18/08 Ran a little over 2 miles after work. 27 miles run so far this summer: not bad for a guy that never ran more than a mile before in his life.
6/19/08 Played for 2 hours with CC in Aurora. I played like ass, and Cory wasn't much better. Why???
6/23/08 Ran 2.5 miles after work.
6/25/08 Played for 2 hours with CC in Naperville. Much better day overall. We developed a cool little way to keep score during rally play that was a lot of fun. Cory ended up winning 11 games to 6.
6/29/08 Played for about 3 hours at Union Park with Tommy and Zeke. Singles vs doubles all day. We played 9 games altogether. It was a good day, but it would have been nice to have a fourth.
7/1/08 Played for 2.5 hours in Aurora with Steve, CC, and Bryan Nelson. A good time was had by all.
7/2/08 Ran 2.2 miles after work.
7/4/08 Ran 2.2 miles in the morning.
7/6/08 Played for a few hours at the Taste of Chicago. We had 7 people at one point and only enough room for 1 court, but it was REALLY hot and no one was complaining about sitting out from time to time.
Let's see some totals...
48 hours (not including tournaments)
100 hills ran
34.3 miles ran
25 laps swam
8 tree sprints
Countless push-ups
7/7/08 Ran 2 miles after work.
7/8/08 Played for about 2 hours at Busse Woods with CC, Ted Martin, and Greg "The Scorpion" Grandy. It was a very fun doubles session.
7/13/08 I was sick for the last few days, so no work-outs at all until 7/13. Played for about 3 hours with Zeke, Tom, Vince, and Bryan at the CIC b-day jam.
7/15/08 Played at Busse Woods for 3 hours with Ted, Steve, Cory, Bryan, Tom, and Greg. It was the most fun day of net so far this year.
7/17/08 Ran 1.5 miles after work in 92 degree weather (with humidity!)
7/19/08 1.25-hour Yoga class. I think the teacher must also play net, because she takes the class through the most absolutely appropriate stretches. I gotta start getting there far more consistently.
7/22/08 Played for about 2.5 hours out at Busse Woods with Bryan, CC, and Ted. We played 8 good games. CC was undefeated, and I think I ended at 3-5.
7/24/08 Ran 2 miles after work.
7/25/08 Played for 2 hours in Aurora with CC and B Nellie. We did drills almost exclusively. It was a great practice.
7/27/08 Played for 3 hours at Union Park with CC, Bryan, Tom, Zeke, Vince, and the twins. I think it was a good session for all. We may try to focus more on drills during these Sunday sessions to get a better base of players. The newer guys might not like it too much, but it's necessary.
7/29/08 Played for 2.5 hours at Busse Woods with CC, Ted, and the Scorpion. I believe that I played the best net of my life. I was KILLING sweeps and toe reverses and playing far more aggressive than I normally do. I even blocked CC once and poached one of Ted's serves (which I never even attempt to to typically). We played 4 doubles games before Greg had to leave and the most lopsided one was 15-11.
I love playing net!!
I stopped posting my training here at the beginning of August because it's time to get serious. No more insights into what I'm doing for the general public to read. I haven't stopped training, I just started training harder and I don't want to give away anything to anyone else anymore.
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