Sunday 5.29.11

Compound Coaches' kids learning their new sport

Unofficially, the summer season is upon us beginning this Memorial Day Weekend.  We have spent a lot of time indoors getting stronger, faster, and fitter and developing skills.  I have seen or heard of so many PR's lately, it's hard to keep track of them all!

So with the start of summer, it's getting nicer outside and it's an opportune time to:

”Regularly learn and play new sports”.

My son is learning Karate, I have participated on an indoor soccer team with many Compound members, (Kevin has done some ground fighting), I'm going to dabble in some Highland Games Events.  When the weather gets nice, it's time to let loose and show what we can do with our developing fitness.

We encourage and expect our children to play sports and participate in physical activities. I know several Compound members who have their kids playing and excelling in a multitude of sporting events.  We understand that athletic development is vital to start our kids on a pathway of a healthy lifestyle. But we shouldn't forget to participate in our own sports endeavors.

Sport should play a role in our fitness. Sport is the application of fitness in a fantastic atmosphere of competition and mastery. Training efforts in the gym typically include relatively predictable repetitive movements and provide limited opportunity for the essential combination of our ten general physical skills.  Sports and games like soccer, martial arts, baseball, and basketball, in contrast to our training workouts, have more varied and less predictable movements. But, where sports develop and require all ten general skills simultaneously, they do so slowly compared to our strength and conditioning regimen. Therefore, sport is better at expression and testing of skills, than it is at developing them. Both expression and development are crucial to our fitness. Sport in many respects, more closely mimics the demands of nature than does our training.

We encourage all you athletes to engage in  regular sports efforts in addition to all of your strength and conditioning work.  If you've done your loops, halfs, and full marathons, try something different.  I have an official Frisbee ready to used in a game of Ultimate (In the Donetsk, Ukraine Missionary circle, let's just say I never got picked last for a game of Ultimate.  In the Collins Extreme Garage Ping Pong League, I often brought home the championship belt from family birthday parties.  In the Vacaville area LDS Church Basketball world, I would probably be an All-Star.....over 30 Division....You define the parameters small enough and I kicked butt at any sport). 

So go out and learn a new sport, no matter how you might look doing it.  And get your gym training partners involved too!  cc