04/05/2022 - The Launch Pad - LaunchPad – Football Tuesday
AO: The Launch Pad
When: 04/05/2022
PAX:
Number of Pax: 10
Pax Names:
DR Names:
Number of FNGS: 0
FNG Names:
QIC: BabyHands
Introduction
Bring yo turf shoes and get ready for spring practice. We’re going to test our agility, sling the football around and maybe even a little hand to hand combat. Make no mistake, Coach BabyHands is ready to see who worked in the off season and who didn’t.
Arrived around 5am and was feeling good, stiff but good. Strapped up the cleats and ready to rock and roll. @@ came through with another football, Goldberg with a pump and Dobak even went to the previous start X location to make sure PAX found their way over.
Warm-O-Rama
Ran over to the football field, circled up for SSHs and then to the goal line for a quick 25 yard football style warm up. High knees, butt kickers, karaoke, side shuffle, back pedals, bear crawl, all down and back. Then finished with a no break ladder. Run to the 20 and back, 40 and back, other 40 and back , other 20 and back and other goal line and back. The ladder was much harder than I anticipated.
The Thang
First thang: running back drills, hit the A gap or 1 hole, juke the line backer (cone) and bust up the middle to layout the safety coming down hill at you. Quite a few fumbles and slips but I saw enough to know whos got moves. Next drill, reminiscent of my glory days, the A gap was never open, so you had to make a quick lateral step in either direction and bust it outside! The lateral step is a hard move, especially without cleats ;).
Second thang: 1 pax played quarter back, 1 pax played tightend. QB would roll out and TE would drag across. Next time I’ll have the QB then move up to the be next TE. This one didn’t work as well as I planned and I’ll modify next time. We all need some work regarding throwing on the run, only a few catchable balls were tossed.
Third thang:
Lineman drill, 1 defensive lineman, 2 offensive linemen between 2 cones about 7 feet apart. DL had to get past the OL between the cones. This was a bit of a shock for most guys, asked everyone to be cool and keep the hands down. This was awesome, everyone, regardless of size and experience stepped up to get a taste. Most people tried to go right through the middle, most of them got pushed back or out. Doback and Shoeless made it through on the DL side, Smokey got smoked by a swim move as I went right, and Goldberg got pancaked by the two OL of Doback and Urban Cowboy. This would turn out to be theme for him. Search Party, Bjorn, Chazz and MiaHamm were all good sports as this might have been their first Oklahoma drill. Chazz took some lumps, slippery shoes and a few bad matchups resulted in a few highlight reals for the offensive linemen.
1 v 1, DL vs OL. OL had to protect the QB (cone) 5 yards behind them for 4 seconds. Urban Cowboy got things off to a hot start looking like Aaron Donald, pancaking Smokey (had a bad wheel and was clearly not 100%). Smokey then pulled a BJJ move and tried to launch UC over him as he flew back, rolling over his shoulders. Smokey then tried to argue that UC never touched the cone :), I explained it was still stuck to his back. Doback was a load, pancaking Goldberg and then whispering in his ear to just stay down. UC and Shoeless were very hard to get by. I would put @@ at nose guard, he’s hard to handle.
5 MoM was you call it route running, a few good tosses and catches to end the workout
Circle of Trust
Started a new book on 75 hard. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a translated compilation of his written stoic philosophy. I fumbled a bit in my COT, but I’ll try here. Stoic means a person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining. MA credits his grandfather, who adopted him after his father died, teaching him to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion, to be modest and endure labor. It seem to fit well with todays workout, no complaining, enduring pain, and not one mention of the glory days! Be nice, be humble and endure the hardships.
Naked Man Moleskin
Well, its been almost two years since we had guys line up for a little hand to hand combat per se. No injuries, always a good thing, a few tales of being popped in the lip, ear or catching an elbow this morning were shared over coffee. We all look forward to playing in the daylight and getting that 7 v 7 going this spring/summer! Thanks for playing along, was a great morning for myself and hopefully you as well.