inkedleo88
08-30-2010, 06:58 PM
I think this will be a good read if you like sports. I sure love to try them. But I don't like to watch a whole lot of sports or participate in them, I like to compete and at the highest level I can. Maybe I like to feel like an under achiever, but I love to compete against the "big dogs".
I grew up a shy fat kid, sitting in the corner of the room and trying to go un-noticed. I was the kid with the big t-shirt on in the pool and I hated it. I walked the laps at P.E. and I only ate junk food.
Then the summer before 9th grade something amazing happened. I got my braces off. Okay, that and I grew 5 whole inches and boy did it hurt. I spent most of my summer in bed. So the first day of high school was here and it was my chance to be some one else. What do I do? Try out for football. I can remember the first day of practice. The head coach calls everybody to the field. A bunch of kids wrapped around the coach with assistant coaches standing to the side. He welcomed us to football, introduced himself and his coaches. We were told to split up and go with the coach for your position. Positions? I knew right then and there that I was in over my head. I asked the head coach, sheepishly what position he thought I should play. Good god, that sounds dumb as I type this.
I sucked at football that year and I only got to play 3 games. Not even real games, they were called Gumby Games. They were during the day on Saturday and it was just the kids that didn't get to play in the regular games. Any other place on Earth, we would all be laughed off the field. Somebody told me that I should run track to work on my speed if I wanted to play next year. It just so happened that my favorite football coach was also the Hurdle coach, so guess which event I chose.
3 years of hard work, getting a gym membership and hitting the weights, and busting my ass all of the time. I actually listen to what coaches were saying and I watched how the good kids did it. I wanted to be the kid scoring the touchdown. I wanted the crowd to cheer my name. My senior year in high school, I played pretty good football, but I was undefeated in 3 events in Track and Field. I had my name in news papers and I even competed in the state meet. I knew what I wanted to do.....Run more track.
I went to 2 colleges and spent 3 years again before I was reaching that new competitive level. My new event? Decathlon. And finally I qualified for Nationals. I was an All-American athlete at the end of that year and it was perfect timing. Over the next 2 years, I have my final season and the olympic trials. Unfortunately for me, I might have taxed my body in those past few years. I was spending every morning in therapy and every day after practice icing. I had a knee surgery and a disc problem in my back. I was 205 lbs of lean mean athletic machine.
The year was 2005. No trials and not much to show for dedicating my life to an Amatuer sport. That was it for me. I was done with sports. I started eating normal and working out a few times a week. I don't think I can ever fall out of shape completely ever again after all that training. But I was getting bored with just being normal again. I was working out one day and started jump roping in the cardio room. I had to take out my ear buds when I notice a 6' 250 lbs black guy doing a crazy jump rope workout. This guy ends up being an Arena Football player and one hell of a guy. We would workout together every now and then, chatting about my old days. He asked me if I ever wanted to play a different sport. I had never really thought about it. I bled track and couldn't see myself competing at a lower level for a different sport. I said, what do you mean, like play on a softball team? He told me about some tryout he could get me but it was in 3 weeks. Get paid to play a sport? Like a dream come true.
I organized the weeks focusing on building up for the 3rd week. I changed my training methods, went back to explosive work. I researched the rate of force development and how to increase the amount of force I can build while decreasing the amount of time it takes my muscles to build it. I designed a series of jumps and movements that got me back to my old self or at least as close as I could get.
I had everybody fooled in the first half of the tryout. Measured and weighed at 6'4 and 215 lbs. Bench press 225/22times. Vert 37.6" 40 y - 4.64. We ran some drills and threw the ball around. Then came the playing. They invited back a few of us back to play with the team. I had no idea whether I would be better at reciever or db. I hadn't caugh a football in this setting for over 8 years. But I had never played db either. I tried out for a little of both. Dropped a few balls and batted a few down. But at the end of the day, the coaches said I needed more work. But all in all not bad for 3 weeks of work. I had a slim chance at being paid for being an athlete and I got to come out and practice with an Arena Football team. I know that I failed, but at the same time, it was awesome.
I'll post more sports next time. Still to come.....Crossfit and Bodybuilding
I grew up a shy fat kid, sitting in the corner of the room and trying to go un-noticed. I was the kid with the big t-shirt on in the pool and I hated it. I walked the laps at P.E. and I only ate junk food.
Then the summer before 9th grade something amazing happened. I got my braces off. Okay, that and I grew 5 whole inches and boy did it hurt. I spent most of my summer in bed. So the first day of high school was here and it was my chance to be some one else. What do I do? Try out for football. I can remember the first day of practice. The head coach calls everybody to the field. A bunch of kids wrapped around the coach with assistant coaches standing to the side. He welcomed us to football, introduced himself and his coaches. We were told to split up and go with the coach for your position. Positions? I knew right then and there that I was in over my head. I asked the head coach, sheepishly what position he thought I should play. Good god, that sounds dumb as I type this.
I sucked at football that year and I only got to play 3 games. Not even real games, they were called Gumby Games. They were during the day on Saturday and it was just the kids that didn't get to play in the regular games. Any other place on Earth, we would all be laughed off the field. Somebody told me that I should run track to work on my speed if I wanted to play next year. It just so happened that my favorite football coach was also the Hurdle coach, so guess which event I chose.
3 years of hard work, getting a gym membership and hitting the weights, and busting my ass all of the time. I actually listen to what coaches were saying and I watched how the good kids did it. I wanted to be the kid scoring the touchdown. I wanted the crowd to cheer my name. My senior year in high school, I played pretty good football, but I was undefeated in 3 events in Track and Field. I had my name in news papers and I even competed in the state meet. I knew what I wanted to do.....Run more track.
I went to 2 colleges and spent 3 years again before I was reaching that new competitive level. My new event? Decathlon. And finally I qualified for Nationals. I was an All-American athlete at the end of that year and it was perfect timing. Over the next 2 years, I have my final season and the olympic trials. Unfortunately for me, I might have taxed my body in those past few years. I was spending every morning in therapy and every day after practice icing. I had a knee surgery and a disc problem in my back. I was 205 lbs of lean mean athletic machine.
The year was 2005. No trials and not much to show for dedicating my life to an Amatuer sport. That was it for me. I was done with sports. I started eating normal and working out a few times a week. I don't think I can ever fall out of shape completely ever again after all that training. But I was getting bored with just being normal again. I was working out one day and started jump roping in the cardio room. I had to take out my ear buds when I notice a 6' 250 lbs black guy doing a crazy jump rope workout. This guy ends up being an Arena Football player and one hell of a guy. We would workout together every now and then, chatting about my old days. He asked me if I ever wanted to play a different sport. I had never really thought about it. I bled track and couldn't see myself competing at a lower level for a different sport. I said, what do you mean, like play on a softball team? He told me about some tryout he could get me but it was in 3 weeks. Get paid to play a sport? Like a dream come true.
I organized the weeks focusing on building up for the 3rd week. I changed my training methods, went back to explosive work. I researched the rate of force development and how to increase the amount of force I can build while decreasing the amount of time it takes my muscles to build it. I designed a series of jumps and movements that got me back to my old self or at least as close as I could get.
I had everybody fooled in the first half of the tryout. Measured and weighed at 6'4 and 215 lbs. Bench press 225/22times. Vert 37.6" 40 y - 4.64. We ran some drills and threw the ball around. Then came the playing. They invited back a few of us back to play with the team. I had no idea whether I would be better at reciever or db. I hadn't caugh a football in this setting for over 8 years. But I had never played db either. I tried out for a little of both. Dropped a few balls and batted a few down. But at the end of the day, the coaches said I needed more work. But all in all not bad for 3 weeks of work. I had a slim chance at being paid for being an athlete and I got to come out and practice with an Arena Football team. I know that I failed, but at the same time, it was awesome.
I'll post more sports next time. Still to come.....Crossfit and Bodybuilding