Day 13 - Hazy Morning, Lunchtime Nap, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Treatment
Today I was in a bit if a haze - I woke up and felt like my head was in the clouds. It must have been the combination of acupuncture and benadryl; each on their own is enough to knock anyone out, but both in the same night just threw me for a loop. I could have easily slept until noon.
I finally forced myself to breakfast and thankfully our morning session was a video session back at the Druids practice facility. We watched the France vs. Australia match from a few days ago to assess our upcoming opponents (although they published their roster for Friday and have made a number of changes to their starting line-up).
After the video, the team went to Subway for lunch. I was still feeling drowsy, so I gave my order to KTP and took a nap on the couch. An hour nap did the trick, and I felt much better eating my sandwich and talking to Alex Williams (one of our fwds coaches) about some of the new USA rugby initiatives - getting colleges to elevate their club rugby to be varsity and have NCAA eligibility, the iRB supposedly wanting to sponsor more women's rugby to improve their chances at being an olympic sport (which needs equal M/F representation to qualify), and a few other things. It was time for her baby Quinn to eat and it was time to get cleated up.
We scrumhalves (is it scrumhalfs or scrumhalves...in a light syrup sauce?) started the afternoon passing to these targets they had at their facility. Basically it's like those carnival games where you throw the football into the clown's mouth...but it's a lot less fun when you have the coach standing over you. It was good that I hit 5 in a row with Kathy watching and we ended our mini-session with that.
Overall, this afternoon we sharpened up our set pieces and worked with Dana Teagarden, a US ref, to help us better understand what we need to improve at the breakdown, since that's what we were so heavily penalized for in the game vs. Ireland. The training session wasn't as crisp as we had wanted, so hopefully we'll get it together tomorrow.
Btw, those practice fields are my allergy-nemesis. Everytime I go out there, I think "Maybe today will be different, maybe today I won't get welts on my arms and legs or watery eyes. Maybe the grass-gods will show me mercy just this once and let me breathe easy." This afternoon I almost beat the system...we didn't do any sliding or drills on the ground, and all through the practice I was fine. The second I sit down to take my cleats off, I become a Claritin commercial. Doc gives me some medicine (cleared on the drug list) and I blow my nose for 20 minutes as it kicks in.
We returned to the hotel, showered, took ice baths, and ate dinner (yummy chicken, shishkebab veggie skewers, tomato salad, and strawberry ice cream!). After dinner, the backs had a "fun" meeting where we played games from the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway". One of the best ones was where Baja was doing the arms for Pam as she was giving a presentation with her assistant Patty Jervey. We were in stitches.
The evenings are reserved for "treatment" with Doctor Bartoli or Sarah Percy, the masseus (Abby the chiropractor left a few days ago). Every night there's a sign-up sheet at their door and within a few seconds of it being posted, it's already filled. Everyone has something that's giving them trouble and it's hard to get healthier when we're playing rugby so frequently. Thankfully we get enough sleep and the coaches are good about not running us ragged, but I know that my "Heather Hale" quad contusion (from a knee in the Ireland match) will take some time to feel 100% better (Heather has been plagued by this injury more than once). I'm icing, rubbing on arnica, taking arnica pills, and epsom salt baths.
A lot of us have some body part in a somewhat-tentative-condition that we're working through. As long as it doesn't affect our performance, we prefer not to emphasize it, lest the coaches think we're not 100% able. However, I think our bodies are holding up considerably well, with some diligent TLC.
I finally forced myself to breakfast and thankfully our morning session was a video session back at the Druids practice facility. We watched the France vs. Australia match from a few days ago to assess our upcoming opponents (although they published their roster for Friday and have made a number of changes to their starting line-up).
After the video, the team went to Subway for lunch. I was still feeling drowsy, so I gave my order to KTP and took a nap on the couch. An hour nap did the trick, and I felt much better eating my sandwich and talking to Alex Williams (one of our fwds coaches) about some of the new USA rugby initiatives - getting colleges to elevate their club rugby to be varsity and have NCAA eligibility, the iRB supposedly wanting to sponsor more women's rugby to improve their chances at being an olympic sport (which needs equal M/F representation to qualify), and a few other things. It was time for her baby Quinn to eat and it was time to get cleated up.
We scrumhalves (is it scrumhalfs or scrumhalves...in a light syrup sauce?) started the afternoon passing to these targets they had at their facility. Basically it's like those carnival games where you throw the football into the clown's mouth...but it's a lot less fun when you have the coach standing over you. It was good that I hit 5 in a row with Kathy watching and we ended our mini-session with that.
Overall, this afternoon we sharpened up our set pieces and worked with Dana Teagarden, a US ref, to help us better understand what we need to improve at the breakdown, since that's what we were so heavily penalized for in the game vs. Ireland. The training session wasn't as crisp as we had wanted, so hopefully we'll get it together tomorrow.
Btw, those practice fields are my allergy-nemesis. Everytime I go out there, I think "Maybe today will be different, maybe today I won't get welts on my arms and legs or watery eyes. Maybe the grass-gods will show me mercy just this once and let me breathe easy." This afternoon I almost beat the system...we didn't do any sliding or drills on the ground, and all through the practice I was fine. The second I sit down to take my cleats off, I become a Claritin commercial. Doc gives me some medicine (cleared on the drug list) and I blow my nose for 20 minutes as it kicks in.
We returned to the hotel, showered, took ice baths, and ate dinner (yummy chicken, shishkebab veggie skewers, tomato salad, and strawberry ice cream!). After dinner, the backs had a "fun" meeting where we played games from the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway". One of the best ones was where Baja was doing the arms for Pam as she was giving a presentation with her assistant Patty Jervey. We were in stitches.
The evenings are reserved for "treatment" with Doctor Bartoli or Sarah Percy, the masseus (Abby the chiropractor left a few days ago). Every night there's a sign-up sheet at their door and within a few seconds of it being posted, it's already filled. Everyone has something that's giving them trouble and it's hard to get healthier when we're playing rugby so frequently. Thankfully we get enough sleep and the coaches are good about not running us ragged, but I know that my "Heather Hale" quad contusion (from a knee in the Ireland match) will take some time to feel 100% better (Heather has been plagued by this injury more than once). I'm icing, rubbing on arnica, taking arnica pills, and epsom salt baths.
A lot of us have some body part in a somewhat-tentative-condition that we're working through. As long as it doesn't affect our performance, we prefer not to emphasize it, lest the coaches think we're not 100% able. However, I think our bodies are holding up considerably well, with some diligent TLC.
posted by Lee Knight at 10:32 PM
2 Comments:
Other fun improv games (whose line is it...) that I learned at summer camp --in case you are bored....
Bus Stop - One person is the "normal" person waiting for the bus. The other person must get the 'normal' person to leave the bus stop without actually touching them. The 'normal' person must be realistic about when they leave.
(Audie and Kyla did this and it was very FUNNY!).
Party - Some is the 'host' of a party. Everyone else arrives with some kind of 'problem', perhaps they think they are the Queen of England. The 'host' of the party must guess what is wrong with her guests. The 'host' may ask everyone to sit for dinner or dance, etc...to get more clues.
Sounds complicated when I wrote it but easy and a funny waste of time!
Love it. I'll give the suggestions to Keenya who has been *surprisingly* the coordinator of these skits ;)
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