2017 Blog 8 Motivation

Hera one of our hit ballers had a birthday this week so happy birthday from all of us Hera. There will be a lot of additional stuff to Hit Ball in this blog, all roads lead to Hit Ball but I will need to mention two other influences in the course of this blog.

My gym, CrossFit Northern Adelaide (yes shameless plug) ran some sessions on improving yourself. They tackled the body, mind and nutrition. In the course of this program they got me onto motivational dvds and cds and my goodness the results have been amazing. Now I got onto Zig Ziglar and I want to give him credit for the ideas that I will discuss but you have to appreciate as you read this blog that you are getting my interpretation of his ideas. If you want more direct information go check him out if you have a mind to but I will give you fair warning that he’s into God (or at least he was he’s not with us now) and he had some crazy ideas about homosexuality. I was almost tempted to dismiss his work because of that but I decided not to throw the baby out with the bath water. I would like to think that if I had a chance to talk to him I may have got him to think differently, who knows?

The first way Zig helped with Saturday’s game was that he actually got me to go to the game. I am in the middle of doing the crossfit open, we do it on a Friday night and by Saturday I am stiff and sore and sorry for myself. Saturday morning I was tempted to ring up and say hey I can’t make it but I had already said that I was going to go. Now Zig puts trustworthiness high on his list of qualities of success. It’s not like the animals were crook or the car didn’t work, there wasn’t a real reason for me not to go I just felt too stiff and sore. I thought about this and I thought I want to be someone who if she says she’s going to do something she does it, so I got to training. This made me feel good about myself because I had kept my word, I said I would go to training and I did go to training. The second effect is a little interesting, in social situations, if I now accept that if I say I’m going to do something then I will do that thing I’m going to be dam careful what I say yes to. I think previously I have said yes to be polite and then backed out or gone and haven’t wanted to. I am now going to work on, thank you for the invite but no thank you. Allrighty back to Hit Ball.

Zig had some things to say about how you approach your matches and what he had to say resounded with me. When you walk out onto that court what thoughts are in your head? I was looking at players on opposing teams and thinking, they hit really hard, they’re too fast for me. I’m too slow to block their shots and because I thought this most of the time I was right, they were too fast and I didn’t get to their shots in time. Zig says and I’m paraphrasing, you move to the strongest impression in your mind. So do you want to win or do you want to not lose. Do you see the difference in focus? If you think that the opposing team will probably score against you then they probably will. Now what I wanted was that ball to not go in the goal when I was supposed to be stopping it so that’s all I thought about. See the ball, get to the ball. This didn’t stop me working as a team and passing and receiving shots but every time that ball came towards the goal I was there and most times I blocked it. It was very very satisfying, I certainly blocked much more than previous games. You still have to be fit, you still have to train but your mindset will give you a much better chance of being successful. I am a huge fan of Zig’s words. Next time I play I will apply these strategies when aiming for the oppositions’ goal. I’ll let you know how I get on.

During the strength and conditioning Alessandro mentioned that we should do our wrist exercises at least three times a week to get the full benefit out of the exercise. You don’t need to warm up before you do them, they are the warm up. These exercises are great for strengthening your body and I only do them when we train but not anymore I shall be doing them at least three times a week. They are a little hard to explain but if you ever want to come and train with us we could show you how they are done.

We also moved onto a side plank this week and then when you’re in position you dip down and up while still sideways. I recommend you try it, it’s awesome for your side obliques.

Our drills were practising the side strike and bowling ball shot. People feeling confident could do the front strike. We finished with practising looking at the ball, taking our eyes off the ball and looking at where we wanted the ball to go and then shooting. It’s tricky but it’s so good to practise in a drill rather than in the hub bub of the game. It does wonders for your aiming.

That’s my lot for this blog thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog. If you would like to come and try Hit Ball you would be very welcome. We play Saturday mornings at the Seacliff Primary School gym 10am.

 

2017 Blog 3 Chaos and Order

This week our drills started with us trying to get a cannon ball shot through the gap made by two lined up chairs. You had to keep your shot low and the chairs were make believe players. To begin with the chairs were side by side and they represented two players about to come together for a back block. At one point I thought the safest place to be was sitting on the chairs. My balls were going everywhere except where I wanted them to go. Then Alessandro staggered the chairs so that you had to get the ball “past two players backing each other up for the block” and that added to the difficulty of the drill quite a bit. Still it was all most enjoyable and by the end of the drill I was getting some beautiful shots with both left and right arms. One of the main goals of this drill was to develop a middle area shot. You wanted your ball to be not so high that your opponent could easily reach it with their hand and you wanted the ball to be not so low that they could easily get the ball with their foot. I guess the philosophy might be “make them work for the ball don’t just give it to them”.

We played an extremely fun game this week and I want to share it in case you are a teacher or coach and want to try it with your students. The game is called Chaos and Order and you need those small disc cones, I hope you know the ones I mean. You can play this game with two people, or two teams or divide a class in half. There’s probably heaps of variations once you’ve tried the game. Spread the cones out in an area that you choose. The bigger the area and the more cones you use the harder the game. Tip half the cones over and they are Chaos, leave the remaining half of the cones right side up and they represent Order. Give your players thirty seconds or the time you choose. Decide which side is Order and which side is Chaos. The game begins and Chaos has to run around and tip all of the cones over. Order has to run around and put all of the cones right side up. It would be quicker if the players could stay low while they are tipping cones over or putting them right side up. At the end of the time if there are more cones tipped over Chaos wins and if more cones are right side up then Order wins. It’s a hoot and a half – try it you won’t be disappointed. To be honest some of these games would be brilliant at parties for adults and kids.

The game itself was fantastic. I was just totally in the mood for it and I was playing with people that I enjoy playing with. That’s always a good combination. I was exhausted at the end of it so I know that I didn’t ‘leave anything on the court’ which is always good to know.

The first tournament of the year is on this Saturday and it sounds like we are expecting a good turnout for it. I get as nervous as hell about these things so this time round I’m going to work on keeping a calm head space and just doing my best. I think your performance in the game starts way before you even set foot on the court. How well did you sleep? Did you get a good breakfast? Are you tuning out any comments that will distract you from the game? Sport is a fascinating beast there is a lot more to it than just the physical.

If you would like to come and watch the tournament this Saturday and see some Hit Ball in action you would be very welcome. We are holding it in the same place that we train at, the Seacliff OHSC gym. We will be starting at 10.00 and I guess we finish when we get a champion. Also please remember that if you would like to come and try Hit Ball we play on Saturday mornings at the Seacliff OHSC gym from 10.00 to 11.30. You will have fun and improve your fitness, I guarantee it.

That’s my lot for this blog thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

 

2016 Blog 39 Summer Goals

Well without any preamble, prevarication or procrastination (yes I’m playing with the google synonyms again and I’ve added just a soupcon of alliteration) the Hit Ball session with my gym didn’t happen. I have to say I was gutted, disappointed, dismayed and distraught. It is really difficult mobilizing people. Here is what I have learnt from the experience however because that is what Hit Ball teaches you, shit may happen but can you learn anything from it, my words not the coach’s I don’t think he swears as much as me.

1) If someone offers you a free hall still ask people to contribute money because the hall people may change their minds and decide to charge you anyway. You can always refund people if the hall honours it’s original promise. Mental note go and blow up hall hirers over the Christmas holidays. (To any secret squirrel government blog watchers out there I’m kidding).

2) Get a hall organized now so you can play the next time the subject comes up, find out how much it costs to hire and then you will know what to charge people.

3) This is very important, do not under any circumstances get your hopes up when someone says I’d like to try your sport. The moment your hopes start to rise squish em on down otherwise you’re heading for a world of hurt.

4) When someone says they would like to try your sport nod very politely, let them know if they can organize a team you have a hall and it will cost such and such and then remove the conversation from your mind unless they come back. Refer back to item 3.

5) Probably best not to organize it over Christmas when every man and his dog and his cockatoo are going to Christmas parties

That my friends is what I learned from this experience.

Now stretched before me is a long dry summer of no Hit Ball until January. I knew this was coming so I have made preparations to keep me busy. My boss very kindly purchased some new balls for my class  to use at school. This means I have two more weeks of playing Hit Ball with the kids and when school is finished I have come up with some summer goals. here they are;

1. Don’t go insane because there is no Hit Ball.
2. I’m going to find a hall I can use because my gym may try Hit Ball after Christmas and I’d like to be ready.
3. I’m going to work on my fitness so that I am a machine when we go back.
4. I’m going to work on my aim so that I am an exocet missile when we go back.
5. I’m going to work on the drill book which I have been talking about all year.

Now all of that combined with my annual yearly wrap up of ‘Hit Ball the Year that Was’ should keep me out of mischief until January.

Thanks for reading and I hope your holiday season is going well. Catch you next week.

2016 Blog 38 Walk Tall

I was looking for some gender neutral synonyms for Man Up for today’s blog title. Google gave me Suck It Up which is an expression I use quite a bit but I didn’t fancy it being a blog title. They did have ‘leap into the breach’ which may be a tad too dramatic. Probably that good old standby of Carpe Diem would do the job I wish I had thought of that when the situation happened. I should probably get a Carpe Diem T- shirt for just such occasions as happened for today’s match but I’m willing to bet that a buzillion blog titles would include Carpe Diem so I’m going for Walk Tall.

First things first however; I had an injury today so for the last game of the year at SeaCliff I wasn’t able to play Hit Ball. D you think I took it on the chin or was a complete sook about it. Since I’m writing this blog I shall nominate somewhere between the two. I share this information though because I am fascinated how the human body comes back from injuries.

So the coach came up with some exercises that I could do while the other players worked on more arduous drills. My exercises even though they were very low impact were great for stretching and mobilisation. I could feel my body becoming less tense and coiled up. When I have had injuries before I have followed the keep moving philosophy and I’ve gotten good results. The trick is to progress and not go backwards. Hit Ball has enough different drills and exercises for you to be able to select ones appropriate for working through an injury. To keep playing when injured definitely keeps you sane and aids your recovery. This excerpt is from a Crossfit Norwest blog post;

“Staying active while nursing an injury will ACCELERATE recovery, already being engaged in regular training, compared to a couch potato, means our bodies already have the ability to heal faster. There are a number of other reasons to continue training while injured; (a) through training non-injured parts of the body the other side will become stronger, (b) you will continue to strengthen joints and muscles that are working to support the injury, (c) maintain your lean muscle mass, so you don’t lose what you’ve worked to achieve, (d) increase blood flow to the injured area to promote healing, and (e) for some, continuing to train will ensure mental sanity!! Training around an injury WILL help you to maintain your fitness and get you back to where you were as quickly as possible!” – Crossfit Norwest

However with an injury, while I was able to do modified drills, warm up, stretches and conditioning, I wasn’t able to play a game and that meant I was nominated for, dun dun daaaah – Umpiring. Did I leap at this opportunity with gleeful abandon and yell yes pick me I’ll do it! I’d love to make decisions at a moment’s notice and call out across a court and then oh my goodness blow a whistle and have people look at me. Yes that’s just my forte. When Alessandro said Trish you umpire for this game I actually for a moment thought I saw the ground open up and swallow me whole. Now here’s the thing. There are two sides to my nature and they are always in conflict with one another. Usually one wins in any decision making process. One part of me does not like talking to people, interacting or being a public presence in any way. The other part of me wants to climb Everest and do something new every day, mmm umpiring is something I have not mastered yet.

Alessandro says you won’t get a better opportunity than this. We have the nicest players present, an easy low key game, come on!. So I thought ok, give it a burl and see what happens. I think we can all safely guess that I buggered it up and ran away but I did at least last the set and hold my ground. Now I’m sharing this tale of woe for a reason.

I buggered the job up and ran away and thought ok umpiring is not for me but Hit Ball teaches you to look at something you can’t do and figure out why. So rather than just wah I can’t do this I actually broke down the elements that were defeating me. I started the set strong. I was concentrating as hard as I could. Alessandro had taken out some of the elements of umpiring so I only had to worry about burns, invasions and scoring. Here’s the problem as far as I can figure it out. I find it incredibly hard to call something out and I get distracted by the game, someone does something speccy and I forget all about scores and burns and stuff. Now this is still a move forward, I can just go away and practise these two things then I can start adding the other elements in like counting the five seconds.

One of the major reasons why I kept getting distracted was because the playing was so darned good. I wish I had a camera and could show you how good it looks when people play. Since I wasn’t playing myself and was watching the other players I got a chance to really watch how people play.  Hera for example puts her whole body into her hits and it looks strong and graceful at the same time it’s amazing to watch and it’s no wonder that she can really hit that ball. Then to watch Kit’s expression when she hits the ball is phenomenal. She is totally in the moment you can tell that she is not thinking about anything else.

So that’s the last session at Seacliff for 2016 yowza I need to come up with an alternative Saturday activity quick smart.

Next week we are inviting some of the members of my crossfit gym to come and try Hit Ball. I’m expecting it to be an epic session. We will be bringing our hit ballness to the North for this event and running the session at the Ingle Farm recreation centre rather than our usual SeaCliff OHSC gym. I’m really looking forward to it. Stay tuned for a report on how we faired next week.

That’s my lot for this blog please remember that if you’d like to come and join us on Saturday mornings you would be very welcome. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

http://www.crossfitnorwest.com/training-through-injury/

2016 Blog 26 It’s Snowing in Spring

It was almost a private session of training today with the Hoopers and myself being the only attendees. This means you get an amazing workout and judging by how sore I am today it must have been an amazing workout. I said no to another activity I could have been doing that morning and Alessandro said it was a shame I was missing out on it but I said Hit Ball keeps me sane I really need my once a week session. He said we should put “Hit Ball keeps You Sane” on a T Shirt and I have to agree it’s catchy.

When we started, the weather was wet and cold, so say hello to spring in Adelaide. Fortunately it did not take us very long to warm up by running around the court bouncing balls and we all had a lot of fun doing the stretches and conditioning. Our old friend the Table Top came back with a vengeance during this session.

With fewer players we had a ‘Go Back to the Basics session’ and I always enjoy them, you can really sharpen up your skills. We worked on the bowling ball shot and we worked on the whole package. So; Where are your knees? Where are your feet? As one hand comes down for the strike is the other arm loading the spring? Have you timed your breath? Are you looking at the ball or the wall? We all went off and found a spot of wall just to co-ordinate all of those factors and you know what? I used this over and over in this week’s game.

The game was brilliant and it was exhausting. With fewer players there is a lot more court to cover and by the third set I had nothing left in the tank. This is usually when I get good at blocking because I can’t get out of the way in time. Now you get that that’s a joke right? I’m supposed to move in for the block not run away from the missiles that get lobbed from the opposing side. Ryan takes block after block and never flinches, I flinch a lot. During one of my attempted blocks a ball went whizzing past my ear and I checked to make sure I still had my earring. I thought maybe I shouldn’t wear earrings to the game if the hits are going to be that precise.

I named another shot this week and the name is something I am a bit proud of. I call it the Hit Ball Drop Shot and it’s when the ball goes high and then drops onto the goal. It’s extremely irritating when that one gets past you but it’s equally cool when you are able to do the shot against the other side.

You may be wondering where the title has come from for this week’s blog. We had time after the match and I thought oh we’ll do another run through with one player against the others. Alessandro gets up and says I’m going to play against you three. I thought Oh Oh and felt the first few flakes of snow. I only have one good arm he says, the snow gets heavier, I can pretty much only use one side of my body he says, there’s enough snow to make a snow man now. You should be able to get two points for my every one point I’m thinking bring out the snow mobile we need to cut a trail. I could see Steve and Ryan nodding away thinking sure no problem we got this and I didn’t bother to tell them they were being snowed they would find out soon enough. We may have got one or two points off of Alessandro but it was the usual massacre, this time I was just mentally prepared for it. I did want at least one goal and we got that.

It was a great Hit Ball session and I am paying for it today but I don’t care I’m sore but happy. That’s my lot for this blog please remember that if you’d like to come and join us you would be very welcome. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

 

2016 Blog 18 T Rex Arms

Training was brilliant today. I was completely stuffed at the finish so I knew I had truly flogged it while playing. As I’m typing this blog up I have T Rex arms which means my arms hurt so much I can’t extend them I can just poke the forearms and hands out like some demented T Rex. That’s what I call training!

It was a really cold Adelaide winter’s morning. People overseas would probably laugh at that but for Adelaide folk it was cold. We ran around the gym to warm up then we ran around backwards. We stretched and did conditioning and this time I didn’t even pray for it to finish early so I must have had some beans.

We did a cool drill that had several stages to it, each more tricky than the previous one. First you faced the wall, threw the ball into the wall and then returned the ball as quickly as possible from the angle you received it. It was all about deal with the shot you have rather than do the hit you want. When the ball comes towards you are you choosing your shot based on the ball or are you doing the shot you want regardless of what the ball is doing.

The next stage was standing really close to each other while we did the drill and trying not to get in each other’s way. That really threw me. I did not like having people so close while I was trying to deal with the ball. So the obvious solution then was to bring people even closer. Maybe a metre separated Kit and I maybe a half I’m absolutely rubbish at guessing distances. We had to face each other and then still throw the ball to the wall and we had to do it with right arms then left arms and still try not to hit each other. It definitely kept you on your toes.

I may call the next stage of this drill, “Be The Wall’ but I’m not sure yet. You partner up. First I was the wall and I thought this was pretty funny. If the ‘wall’ missed the ball well you knew you were in trouble. That’s when I nearly got hit in the face by Kit’s ball because I wasn’t concentrating. The ‘wall’ may not miss the ball but the ‘wall’ can definitely get smooshed by the ball.

Ok so I had partnered up with Kit. As the wall, I lobbed the ball gently back to her and she returned the ball to me as quickly as possible. This was fantastic for reflexes because we were not far away from each other and if I didn’t intercept the ball? Well, smoosh to the face. I did that cool reflex thing again when I got the ball without consciously thinking about it and I have to tell you that trick is not getting old anytime soon.

Then we did the one person turns around, the other person bounces the ball, when you hear the bounce you whip around and intercept the ball. I tell you it’s a little like Pavlov’s dogs when I hear that bounce I think quick jump and turn now!

We also got time for some corner work and I found that quite warm. Why you ask? Mm? Because it was 90 degrees?? I’m giving you gold people. All jokes aside it was a great drill because you threw the ball on one side of the corner than hit the ball on the fly as it came back. This drill was good for aiming, reflexes and placing yourself in a good spot to hit the ball. We definitely used that in the game this week.

The game was brilliant. The only problem was that the session was over before you knew it. I knew I had an uber training session after the Hit Ball session and I toyed with the idea of taking it easier for the Hit Ball session but you can’t. You get on the court, you know you’ve got five seconds to return the ball and you just go hell for simulated leather. It was a great session and even with my poor little T Rex arms I had a ball, A HIT BALL – boom boom! Gold I tell you. 

That’s my lot for this blog please remember that if you’d like to come and join us you would be very welcome. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

 

 

 

Blog 12 Mano e Mano

I’m not sure if it was a blessing or a curse but Oscar and I got our own private Hit Ball session this week. When there are only two players at a session you get lots and lots of attention from the coach which is a good way to improve your skills but it’s a bad thing if you feel like slacking off. I am a seasoned veteran of these feats of endurance and I knew that the only way I was going to survive this training session was to pace myself. That being said the cool thing about these sessions is that Oscar and I got to nominate what area of our Hit Ball skills we would like to work on and we did just that. This meant that the session was invaluable to us both.

We started with these drills where you had to get on your knees, fall forward and use your hands to stop yourself from hitting the ground. It was a fun exercise and it’s the preliminary to doing this from your feet. I’m looking forward to trying that. Oscar tried it from his feet but I wasn’t game. We had to do this drill without making any noise and apparently Oscar made noise. Alessandro did the drill but didn’t make any noise and I told Oscar that’s because he’s a ninja. This started a whole conversation on ninja courses, ninja qualifications and Oscar came up with a face book ninja. A face book ninja would be able to message a hundred friends at once, post in blinding speed and he came up with all of these other face book skills a face book ninja could do all the while using this movie trailer voice over voice. It was a crack up.

We also did this killer push up after we did this drill. You had to go down into the push up position and hold the position at it‘s lowest point for ten seconds, it was murder. Just try it and see for yourself.

We did this lovely corner drill where you just hit the ball against one wall and then moved to get into position to hit it against the other wall of the corner. I really enjoyed it. I found myself using my feet to stop the ball and I never normally use my feet to control the ball. I realized that we had done enough foot drills for it to start to become instinctive to use my feet and that got me thinking. How many times must you do an exercise for it to become automatic? I wonder if anyone has done any research into that.

Finally it was time for Oscar and I to go mano e mano. My strategy was the hare and the tortoise. I obviously was the tortoise and I’m not sure Oscar has read this fable. He was doing a lot of running around and I was pacing myself. I was still completely stuffed by the finish but at least I got to the finish.

Oscar came up with a brand new shot. He said he wanted to work on this and during our game he did. He called it the Hurricane Shot and just like it’s name he spun around to increase the velocity of his shot and it worked. He needs to fine tune it but once he gets it down it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. He also experimented with a Hurricane jump shot but you really need to be good at your landings. I think he’s going to keep that one on the drawing board for a while.

So that got me thinking that maybe we could combine a little Aussie rules football with Hit Ball. If someone did a speccy off another person’s back they would either increase the height of their hit or their block, either way it’s winner winner tofu chicken dinner.

It was a great session, thank you Alessandro it’s very cool that you will still run the sessions when the rest of the team are away.

Remember if you’d like to come and join us you would be very welcome. That’s my lot, thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

 

 

Blog 11 2016 A Lot of Goals

 

2016   Blog 11 A lot of Goals

Do you recall the killer drill of last week? We had to control the ball without using our hands and we weren’t allowed to just roll the ball on the floor. Well this week Alessandro stepped it up a notch and said no hands and no feet. I thought he was joking at first but he said you’ve got many other parts of your body, experiment; control the ball without your hands or your feet. I had a lot of fun figuring out what other parts of the body I could use to control the ball. Knees, elbows, forearms figured prominently. I tried a couple of times head butting it but I didn’t enjoy that too much.

Our next drill was aiming practice and to aim better has long been a goal of mine. So to help with this goal Alessandro came up with two goals at either side of the usual goal and all of a sudden after some pretty intensive labouring of the word goal I have come up with this week’s title of “A Lot of Goals”. Phew, did you keep up with me there? I tell you a slavish devotion to making the title of each blog mean something can be a lonely path at times. Allrighty so back to the drill.

We had two teeny tiny goals at either side of the usual goal. Do I exaggerate with how small they were? Probably but hey I’m writing the blog so you’re just gunna have to take my word for it. Into these teeny tiny goals we had to hit the ball into the corners of the goals to make it harder for the other side to block them. It was great practice, we just lined up, hit the ball, got the ball, ran back to the start and did it over and over again. It was really what I needed to just work on my aim. Which has long been one of my aims! Yes? Still with me? My aim is to work on my aim, by golly this is gold I’m giving you.

Once we had had our fill of the drills we started the game. I unfortunately had treacle foot- itis but my team mates fared a lot better. Oscar was thumping the balls in, Drew continued his reign as Mr Angles, Kit reminded us of how she got the name Blocks like a Boss and Kirsty was no slouch with her blocks either so all up it was a very cool very fast game.

It’s autumn in Adelaide now which means the mornings are cold but the afternoons warm up. Drew made a newbie mistake of wearing long pants to the game because of the cold morning and he was suffering by the time the game started. We really warm up when we play. I suggested that he buy those tracksuit pants that you used to unzip to become shorts. He thought I was suggesting that he buy the long pants the male strippers wear when they undress. He did the actions with the conversation and he was quite convincing. I opted to ask no further questions lest I should be afraid of the answers.

It was a wonderful training session I’m very fortunate to be able to train with a very funny group of people.

 

 

2016 Blog 9 “You’ve Got a Left Arm”

I knew when I got up singing the Hit Ball theme tune, “You’ve Got a Left Arm” (we do this to the tune of Who Let the Dogs out), that I was good and ready for my Hit Ball game this morning. Mind you if I thought I was pumped and ready to play when I arrived then you should have seen the Ames boys. I don’t know what they had for breakfast but as they were literally bouncing off the walls I wanted some of whatever it was they had. Kirsty and I tried to stay out of their way until they worked off some of their energy.

Did you know that a person who likes puns could be called a punsta or punster like a gansta or gangster. I had heard this in the week and casually mentioned it during the stretches and conditioning and my team mates took this information and they were off. We were doing hip exercises so we could have a hipster. Kirsty came up with a person who loves dad jokes could be a dadster and Drew came up with what a dumpster could describe and I thought we might just leave that thread there. Oscar mentioned that we now have a team that knows each other well enough to stretch, exercise and make jokes all at the same time. It makes training a lot of fun as well as good exercise and I for one am most grateful for it.

While I’m talking about the stretching and conditioning component of our session I couldn’t believe how much Drew has improved with his stretching. We do a squat move that is great for your joints but Drew previously has had trouble with this because of a knee problem. He did the proper squat yesterday and it was awesome. So your body can improve with just one session a week how amazing is that?

Drills were next and my team mates did the porcupine which is a roll that you can pretty much feel every vertebrae in your spine. Next we did the Wall is our Friend drills and the Floor is our Friend drills and I was very grateful that Alessandro hadn’t come up with the Ceiling is our Friend drills. We did some wall break falls and this is when Drew and Oscar were hitting the walls so hard that we thought they were going to move the whole gym. The jokes didn’t stop, to do the break falls we had to depress our shoulders – poor shoulders, engage our arms – congratulations, roll our shoulders back now they have no body. We did some corner work and I found that a little warm because it was 90 degrees? Yeah? Get that one? 90 degrees – a corner? I’m giving you gold here.

The match was next and during the game Kirsty did some fantastic blocking so congratulations to you Kirsty. Drew and Oscar spent their time pretty much trying to hammer holes in the walls with the luckless hit ball. I tell you that match was over in the blink of an eye this week but it was lots and lots of fun.

In May, Hit Ball Australia will be running Teacher Training sessions. This will show you how to teach Hit Ball to your students. Signing up for these sessions will entitle you to a discount when you purchase the class set of Hit Ball equipment. If you take Hit Ball Australia up on it’s offer of the discount you pretty much get your training paid for you. It’s quite a generous offer and it’s designed to encourage people to come and try the sport.

I had another go at doing one component of the refereeing. It was my job to count the five seconds each side gets to get the ball back over the other side. I have to say I did a horrible job but I learned a lot from trying to do it. I wanted to give a warning before the five seconds expires and if you do that that’s not how the game is played and it means you’ve gone over the five seconds anyway. It’s really daunting just to call out five seconds knowing that doing that stops the game. It’s quite possible that I am not referee material but I need to get a handle on this for when I want to play with the kids at school. They’re not so difficult because the game is a lot slower than when we play on Saturdays so I think I’ll be able to pull off refereeing in a class situation.

That’s my lot, thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.

Remember if you’d like to come and join us you would be very welcome.

2016 Blog 8 Select Session

The rest of the team were off following a variety of pursuits this week and Hera and I decided not to not let that stop us from playing. We received instead our own private Hit Ball session and it gave us the opportunity to really work on some of our skills.

After warm up and stretches we started with the drills and they were a lot of fun, apparently they were derived from basketball drills. First we bounced the ball on the ground and at the same time we had to watch Alessandro. When he put his hand up with one finger, two fingers, a thumb and so on we had to mirror what he was doing while keep on bouncing the ball. It meant you had to bounce the ball, keep watching Alessandro, figure out the right hand to put up but don’t lose concentration on the ball. It was great for thinking, reaction times, ball control and using your peripheral vision. The next progression was using the wall so now bounce on the floor, bounce off the wall and keep an eye on Alessandro. We used both arms for the drill and by the end of the drill Alessandro was doing fists, peace signs, a pistol, you could have got a whole story with his hand signals.

Once that drill was over we stood at one end of the court so that a court line stretched in front of us.  We put the ball a couple of steps in front of us and then we had to do this sort of jump step diagonal cross kind of move then when you got to the ball you had to throw it in front of you and run after it. That drill killed. Just totally killed.

The last drill for the day was Alessandro standing in the middle of the court while Hera and I was at either corner at the end of the court. Depending what hand he put up determined what side of him we had to hit the ball but you had to throw your ball in front of you first so that you had started your move. That meant, throw the ball start running towards it and keep an eye on Alessandro to figure out where to hit it. You had to use your inside arm so that as we swapped ends sometimes you were using your left and sometimes you would use your right. I had a heck of a time with this one. Just for chuckles Alessandro then started moving his position and you still had to figure out which side to hit the ball, tricky very tricky.

Then we started playing a match and it’s been a while since I’ve played one against one for most of the match. With only one player there’s a lot of court to cover and the devil of it was that with only two people there the coach had plenty of time to make suggestions as to how each player could improve their shots. It was fantastic for training but it was an extreme workout too.

There were some pretty funny jokes running around during the breaks. We’re always saying that some of the expressions should be put onto T Shirts like the Hit Ball – “We Got Balls” comment. Today’s comment started with if you breathe properly, your stamina will improve, it will happen. This statement started the thread of, T Shirt one will say, It will happen! T Shirt two will say It’s Happening! T Shirt three will say, It Happened! Did you miss it? Silly stuff but it is the manna that keeps me ticking.

For each break Hera and I were puffing like steam trains and that started Alessandro talking about how important it was to breathe properly while you played. Regular readers of the blog know that conversations about breathing happen frequently especially during the breaks when we’re dying or when we’re trying to stay conscious during the sets. Correct breathing is the cornerstone to playing. In Hit Ball we take a breath in when we line ourselves up to shoot and then breathe out as you hit the ball. If you are able to remember how to breathe properly when you play you shoot better, have greater stamina and you are not so tired at the end of each set. I used to really enjoy long distance running and we never discussed breathing in our training. It makes me wonder now whether I could have got better times in my runs if I had paid some attention to my breathing while running.

If Hera hadn’t agreed to come to training when everyone else was away we wouldn’t have had training today. She played so well and I am most grateful to her for being willing to train with just two of us. I’m exhausted now but it was well worth it.

Remember if you’d like to come and join us you would be very welcome.

That’s my lot, thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next blog.