I guess anyone could’ve told me that starting this journey in the winter wasn’t the best of ideas. Nonetheless, even with a few individuals warning me, I was eager to start and here we are. The snow has fallen, the outdoor fields are unplayable, the temperatures have dropped, and I’m left here itching for more training. Factor in the holidays, and you’ve just described the anti-thesis of any sort of physical endeavor. At first, this wasn’t very motivational. But then again, even pro-athletes take a little bit of down time over the holidays. Now, the positive side of all of this are that the holidays are over, I’ve enjoyed my rest and I’m ready to get at training like a bat out of hell. But one problem still exists… the lack of access to being able to practice my sport.
Like I mentioned, the holidays may have passed but the snow is still on the ground. Around here, that usually means that they take the netting off the goals for the soccer fields, making it difficult to play. I must admit, I am one of those crazy people that would attempt to play in the snow, or any condition for that matter, if given the opportunity. But with a lack of mesh for the nets, and only two soccer balls to my name, I would be spending more time chasing the ball than saving it. Slightly counter-productive. Factor in trying to find training partners to shoot on me that are just as crazy as me to play in the snow, and we are looking at some slim pickings. That being said, this limits me to drop-in times at the local field house and the games I can play at my university intramural league. That’s something at least right? Yet, the question always looms over my head that if elite players are practicing 2 hours + a day, how am I supposed to catch them by playing the sport maybe 2-4 hours a week?! For this, I have had to look at the bigger picture.
I’m a relatively new goalkeeper in terms of the game. I’ve racked up a total of 3 games played, and for that I have to rewind all the way back to elementary school. Personally, I don’t think that’s much of anything as I maybe had a total of 4 shots in 3 games. But to my surprise, this is to my benefit. Since I have a lot of time to make up, these winter months are actually perfect. Not only does it offer me a time period of getting my conditioning back up to par (I lost a lot of conditioning over the last 2 years due to inactivity and disease) as well as get my agility back up to when I was fighting.
While this is beneficial to me, it’s not the case for writing. Ya, sure I can write a few articles on your standard agility drills and 5am runs. But let’s be honest, after a while that stuff gets pretty boring. I’ve also thought of the unorthodox methods I’ve preferred to use in the past for other sporting endeavors, and I will definitely be giving a glimpse of that, but again, this only goes so far. So rather than hammer out the training articles week after week; the next little bit is going to be focused on the other half to this journey. That is, the next little bit I will focus on themes centered around disease, motivation, a little bit of psychology, and most importantly, defying the odds.
Don’t worry though if you come here for the sport and fitness articles, they will still be coming out, just not in the same frequency as lately. I want to take the next little bit and shift focus away from me and go towards a few principles while I catch up with training. After all, this whole thing isn’t about me in the end. I have a number of what I think are great articles coming up. There are so many ideas in my head. Stay tuned, keep checking back, and send some feedback. I don’t know if my stuff is boring, or not even useful, without feedback. Maybe I’m not talking about certain things that you have questions about, or talking too much about others. Don’t be shy, head over to the contact page and leave me a message. I’d love to hear from everyone!