Fall testing results, birthdays, and Clint Eastwood is a bad dude

It was such a great week that this blog wasn’t able to be completed until Monday.  Sunday was used to nap, eat and watch the Bengals miss a chip shot field goal to win the game.  Well I guess the entire week wasn’t perfect.

Fall testing and what it means for the Shockers

On Wednesday and Thursday we did our annual fall training with our sprinters, jumpers, vaulters, hurdlers, and multi’s.  I explained what our fall testing was last week so check out that blog if you need the background info.  A lot of people have asked me how I thought our fall testing went and I would say it went pretty well with a few exceptions, but all it really means is that we’ve done a good job of training during the summer and first six weeks of practice.  They don’t give out any championships in October.

Without getting into crazy detail about who did what this is what I feel like our fall testing told us:  Our men are very good and our women are talented and young.

First for the men, we had very good testing in our 30m fly’s.  I tend to lean towards this test as one of the most important of the seven tests we do and, as a group, our guys performed very well.  And it wasn’t just the sprinters.  We had some very good 30m times from our jumpers, hurdlers and multi’s too.  Where did we not test very well?  Probably some of the second day plyometrics for my sprint group, which isn’t uncommon, but it does tell me we have to concentrate on our explosive actions during our next phase of training.  But like I said I think our coaches were very happy with the men – so far so good.

It’s a little different for our women although not in a bad way.  We have a lot of newcomers to the sprint group this year and we’ll need to be patient although several of those newcomers showed flashes of great potential.  When you have a younger group some of the things in testing seem pretty foreign to them (like overhead back shot put throw or hang clean) and they don’t perform like they will one year from now.  I think this group can be good but they will take longer to come around than the guys.  I’m sure some of our early season meets will be inconsistent but I do believe this group will be scoring good points when it counts at the MVC Championships.  On top of having that young group, we have a few of our studs that we held out of testing for precautionary reasons with aches and pains.  I like this group – they will be fun to coach and watch grow over the next 7 months.

Someone turned the big 4-0

Even though I have really enjoyed my 30’s I couldn’t hold back the inevitability of turning 40 on Saturday.  I got a lot of the “do you feel older now” type questions and this is what I tell folks:  I feel great, my 30’s were much better than my 20’s so I am assuming that my 40’s will be better than my 30’s.  And I totally believe that!  I think the experience you gain with age outperforms the struggle you might start to have physically and if you can pay a little bit of attention to your health you should feel pretty good by 40.  Now the other side of that is I’m not married and don’t have any kids so the level of stress in my life is probably lower than most, so you tell me?  I’m excited for the next decade and hopefully I can say the same when I turn 50!

As for the weekend, me and fellow coach (and new 40 year old) Pat Wilson hosted a gathering of friends.  It was a great time and I wanted to thank everyone who wished me well in my new old age!

Someone else is having a birthday too and he might be crazy

Our head coach Steve Rainbolt is turning 57 soon.  When Bolt has a birthday he doesn’t mess around.  Some of you may remember when he turned 50 he did a one-man 50k jog-a-thon (about 31 miles) on our indoor track for a WSU Track and Field fundraiser.  Five years later he did 55k (34 miles) on our outdoor track for the same reason.  After that 55k, which he admitted he hadn’t prepared well for, he said he’ll never do that again (it took over 9 hours).  So this year Bolt, an avid golfer, has decided to play 57 holes of golf in one day for another fundraiser.

While that is a lot of golf most people might not think of it as a huge challenge, but here’s the tough part – Bolt will walk the entire way which will end up being around 24 miles.  There is only about 12 hours of daylight so he will need to hustle.  If anyone is around Willowbend Country Club on Wednesday, stop and walk nine holes with Bolt – it should be an interesting event!

“G” Movies

This is the seventh of a 24 part series (if I don’t bore you all to death) where I list movies I own by letter (I don’t have any movies that begin with Q, X or Z but I do have some that start with numbers).  I currently own a small collection of 159 movies (and growing most weeks) on DVD.

Most of the movies I own I had previously seen and enjoyed immensely.  Some are movies that I had not seen but was curious about.  Some were gifts from people with bad tastes in movies.

For some reason I don’t own many movies that begin with G so here is the short list from best to worst …..

Movie Name (year made, length, MPAA rating, IMDB rating, Box office)

Gran Torino (2008, 116 min, R, 8.2, $269m) – I’ve grown up watching Clint Eastwood in movies like Dirty Harry, Heartbreak Ridge, and Million Dollar Baby and this may be one of my favorites. Some like to think this character might be and retired version of Dirty Harry.  It’s classic Eastwood, darkly funny and dramatic throughout.  I doubt he will make many more movies so it’s great to see him act and direct such a great movie at the age of 78!  “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t mess with?  That’s me.”

The Grudge (2004, 92 min, PG-13, 5.8, $187m) – This is the American remake of the original Japanese movie Ju-on: The Grudge.  I’ve actually seen both movies and it gives an interesting perspective on what the differences are in what Japan likes and what Hollywood thinks we like.  Both were directed by Takashi Shimizu and the Japanese version is a little more subtle and realistic while the American version is more of a horror movie.  Both are well made and, in some places, identical shot for shot.  If you’re a horror fan you can’t go wrong either way but I like the original a little more.

Next week

I’ll be talking about our first week of “specific preparation” as well as letting you know how Coach Rainbolt’s golf-a-thon went.  I have five movies that begin with H – and all of them are very interesting and unique!

Until then … go Shocks!