Will it ever stop? Yo! I don’t know!
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On a real roll now after finishing a speed based refereeing session. Early in the season we have a few of these sessions which are traditionally very poorly attended, but this year’s ones are a bit different from ones I’ve done before.
Usually they are very practically based with very specific refereeing exercises but this year we’ve been doing more general activities such as sprints, direction changes and agility. Apparently these are much like much like the regular training sessions which run throughout the season, I’ve never been to these but might have to start attending.
We started out playing touch, a game at which I am absolutely useless. Fortunately that only lasted ten minutes or so.
We then moved on to some training stations such as low hurdles, ladder runs and running in a harness. There was also an exercise where the goal was to lose contact with your partner, even in the slippery ground with running shoes on I was able to lose my partner every time.
After that we moved on to sprints where we would have to suddenly change direction. Again, tough in the conditions without boots but a worthwhile exercise.
Finally we moved on to some games, firstly invisible touch. This is like touch but without a ball, one player is nominated as the ball carrier and when he/she is touched, the player who touches them becomes the ball carrier, essentially you switch between attack and defense very quickly.
I’m not too good at this game but I try hard. At one stage I tried to run down a younger guy on a breakaway, maybe another ten meters or so I would have had him but he scored. Suddenly I realized the advertising signs at the side of the ground were rapidly approaching, I threw on the brakes but skidding along the turf, hit the boards and flipped over the top of them. Fortunately I tucked my head and shoulder and landed quite softly on the far side, but I’m told it looked good.
Finally we played a game called one touch. Sort of like touch but only two touches before the ball is turned over and only the first pass after a touch must go backwards. I spent some time in my twenties mucking around with American football and can throw a tight and accurate spiral pass so once I picked up the ball and threw a long forward pass to a teammate, the tactic suddenly became, get the ball to me then run for the goal line. My team won the game 5-0.
A fun session and I’d certainly like to make the regular Wednesday night but it clashes with my kickfit class which, to be brutally honest, is more fun.
Tomorrow is a scheduled gym day, I’m going to wait and see how I feel but right now I’m leaning towards going right now. Eight days in a row, why stop now?
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