Still Playing?

I thought it might be time to come back and revisit this blog to see where I'm at today.  Last summer was AWESOME!  However, I am not finding inspiration so far for this summer.  It will come hopefully.

So what am I still playing?

Basketball, kayaking, swimming, strength training, trail running, and I have developed a great love for paddleboarding.  Looking forward to that again this summer.

OVERTIME GAMES: GEOCACHING (Sept. 4)

Well, it certainly did not take me long to come back to this challenge.  I have a few contacts that were not able to meet with me during the summer, so I have decided to do some OVERTIME GAMES in which I will be adding periodically.  Today, I took my boys GEOCACHING.  A friend from church instructed me on this new sport where you use a GPS system to find treasures.  Today, we ventured out to find two treasures in a local park.  If you have boys, then this is a perfect way to get them out on trails and hiking.  Just tell them you are looking for treasure!  And that we found, according to them.  At one location, we found a metal box with pencils and notepads.  At the next location, we found a can of toy cars and other dollar store items.  They thought that was cool!  In order to learn about this sport, I went to  www.geocaching.com and logged in as well as used a GPS system.  

FINISHED!!

Well I made it believe it or not!  This challenge in some ways was everything I thought it would be and in other ways, evolved into things that I never expected.  I want to thank many people who when I asked to "Play" said absolutely and welcomed me in.  First of all a huge thanks to Doug Little, who is a part of the SCOG's Lacrosse League.  He alone upped my game big time when he threw me into a real lacrosse game.  He was the first guy to really get behind this challenge and push me along.  

 Also a big THANKS to:

-Jason, who went along with me on several sports and supported me along the way

-Kyle and Scott, my neighbors

-The guys playing Ultimate

-Piper Glen Ballroom Dancing

-Rob at My Aloha Paddle Sports and Fitness

-Master Singh at Sangrock Black Belt World

-Adam at Carolina Kayak Polo

-Adam at Matthews Ruby Club

-Coach Vaught at the UNCC Carolinas Track and Field Club

-Everyone at Inner Peaks

-Moe and Brenda and Dennis at Extreme Ice Center

-The Whitewater Center

-My good friend Rob who always beats me in golf

-Geoff and Warren at the Charlotte International Cricket Club

-MY WIFE for putting up with this challenge!

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT ADVENTURE!!

EVENT # 30 1,000 ROPE JUMPS

Friday, I FINISHED MY CHALLENGE all alone in my little elementary gym where I teach.  I concluded this challenge with a sport that I actually have been coaching for the better part of 11 years:  Rope Jumping.  I have been the jump rope coach at my schools and have actually become a decent jumper myself over the years as I have learned different tricks and skills of my own.  Friday I took the challenge of attempting 1,000 jumps in a row.  My goal was to jump 100 single jumps at a time and then slow down to a double side swing jump for 10-15 jumps and then back to another set of 100 singles until I reached 1,000.  I only missed on about 12 occasions, from what I can count.  Not too bad and it definitely gave a great little 15 minute workout.  As I was approaching the 800 mark it began to hit me that I was about to end this challenge for the summer and I was taken back to that day in early June when I decided to do these events.  I started out kind of slow and have ended on a slower note but the the middle of my challenge was pretty sweet.  I am incredibly impressed with ALL of the people who have helped me make this journey a great one!  Thank you to everyone who was a part of this.  I am truly blessed to have been healthy enough to start and finish this challenge.  What a cool summer 2011!

EVENT # 29 RECESS!

Now that I am back to work teaching again, it has obviously been much harder to schedule any events, so I decided to include my students at my elementary school in my challenge.  This week I joined them during their recess outside to see what they like to play and of course SOCCER is very popular at our school.  I started to mix in with the forth and fifth graders on a small dirt field with trees and roots coming out of the ground.  It is not the most prestige soccer playing field but it works for these kids.  As I started to play, more and more students began to come and ask my famous question, "CAN I PLAY", in which I of course  replied "YES" until we eventually ended up with probably 35 or 40 kids chasing ONE ball around trees and roots.  At that point, I had to put aside any ambition to score and dominate and put my PE teacher hat on to make sure everyone was safe.  I did more refereeing than anything but eventually decided to break away and start my own game of KICKBALL.  Enough kids left the soccer field so that it became a little safer and we ventured over to the kickball field.  I quickly divided the teams up and began pitching the ball to my opponents.  As we took turns kicking, we all questioned what and where exactly is first, second, and third base.  We ended up making a few dirt spots and rocks as bases, which is exactly what kids need to do by being creative.  They don't need fancy sporting facilities.  They just need to PLAY!  After several minutes of playing, the teachers began to blow their whistles for students to go inside, so I never really got my opportunity to kick that home run that I was envisioning, but nonetheless, I was sweaty and my shirt had become a new color of dirt as I walked back into the school myself.  Hey kids, don't forget my motto:  WORK UP A SWEAT!!

EVENT # 28 CRICKET (August 24)

http://thecicc.org/

Cricket.  Do you know what it is? Is it similar to baseball?  Well lets just say that Cricket came before baseball.  In fact, it was one of the favorite sports played by George Washington.  And now we are beginning to try to teach this to our students in Charlotte in PE classes.   I got connected with some great guys from the Charlotte International Cricket Club on Wednesday night and was able to practice with them.  I practiced BOWLING, not bowling but bowling like pitching a ball in baseball.  You see the guy in the above picture bowling the ball to me with an overhand straight arm.  He was trying to hit the wicket behind me while I tried to protect it by striking the ball away with the bat, which is mostly flat on the striking side.  The ball is allowed to bounce off the ground before I hit it.  And by the way, I can hit is anywhere....forward, sideways, behind me but I have to be careful to protect the wicket.  I learned a lot of information about this game during the course of a two hour practice.  The CICC guys spent a lot of time coaching me and helping me get in position to strike the ball.  I practice  bowling on my own for a while and realized that I was a somewhat of an accurate bowler but did not have the speed behind it.  I hit a few wickets but did not get up the 80 or 90 mile an hour speed some of the bowler have.  Finally, we took field practice and worked on catching what you would call pop ups in baseball.  By the way, do you know what they use in Cricket to catch a ball which is as hard as a baseball?  NOTHING but the hands!  So I got a few stingers but I caught most of the hits.  This was a great night and I look forward to teaching this sport to my students as well as hopefully playing this again soon.  And there is a saying on their website that pretty much sums up my whole 30 sport challenge so far:

"We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old if we stop playing"

EVENT # 27 GOLF (August 16)

We had some beautiful summer weather tonight for 18 holes of golf.  I was back from a two year hiatus of golf.  I didn't start playing this sport until I was in college as you can tell.  So tonight I joined my good friend Rob and a few other guys for a five hour adventure on the golf course and I do mean adventure.  During the course of this game tonight, I decided to go on the scenic route.  I saw the woods, water, mud, sand pits and occasionally the green and the hole.  If you listen close enough, you can hear my golf ball bounce off the trees on my drive.   I'm sure I ended up with a double bogey or more on this shot.  I put together a few good holes tonight but for the most part I was hitting that ball all over the place.  I just kept telling myself that "golf is fun, golf is fun".  It WAS fun on that Par 3 when I hit the ball right at the green on my drive!