Thursday, February 22, 2018

Still Alive and hitting the ball!

Nearing the end of the 2017-2018 Racquetball season.
I am incredibly thankful to be able to play this game. 
* End of Summer - Kicking off the season (with a concussion :( )
* Fall Festival
* US Open National Championships - playing with an injury - tough times, disappointment.
* Holiday Classic - Christmas Cheer everywhere 
* Rochester Doubles - Fun times in Open with Dan!
* Hall of Fame
* Lewis Drug 40th Annual Pro-Am - 1st - Men's B Doubles w/ Ron
* National Doubles - 2nd - Mixed C w/ Cindy
Iowa Championships
Minnesota State Singles - Hope springs eternal
Iowa State Doubles
A couple of 1-days and Saturday shootouts

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Saturday, July 11, 2015

BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!?

AWESOME! 

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

We can rebuild him


The 2014-15 Racquetball season was not the season I had hoped for in terms of results.  I did have a lot fun playing at the tournaments and with my doubles partner, Ron "Dance, Dance" Denler.  All the tournament play took its toll on this body though.  My right knee which was not in the best condition anyway, finally gave out.  I'm taking into the body shop to have it replaced tomorrow.  There will be more posts after surgery and how I progress towards my goal of returning to competitive racquetball.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.

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Friday, March 6, 2015

Breaking Barriors

When this blog started way back when, I didn't want my posts to be about weight and diets.  However, behind the posts, it was about weight and diets.

An recent email exchange between me, Scoundrel, Galan and Lard brought this post about.  When this blog started in late 2007 I weighed in the mid 280s. (My high school graduation weight was 180lbs and  I peaked at 290 in 2006)  I had been playing racquetball for about 9 months (restarted after a 15 year layoff) and Scoundrel had just introduced me to world of kettlebells.  You would have thought with all this activity my weight would just melt off. (A least I did) Well it didn't.  Recently though, I am at my lowest weight in 29 years - 234lbs.  My body fat % has gone from 37+% to 27.5% This lead Galan to ask, "How did you hold onto the 275+ lbs?"

I believe there were several factors on why I was holding onto the weight.
1 – Diet: Chocolate milk (NesQuik), eggos w/peanut butter & Dew and second lunches at work ;) – changed late ’09. No Dew, No eggos, NesQuik as a treat.
2 – Inactivity – once a week softball in the summer wasn’t going to do it ;) – started playing racquetball in ‘07
3 – Undiagnosed diabetes. – treated late ’09 – dropped 20lbs in 6 months to 260.  And stayed there! (see #1)
4 – Hormone imbalance. – Thyroid and testosterone.  As these were brought back into the normal range, I began to lose weight. Thyroid in ’12, Testosterone late ‘14

The last 3 years have been heavy on the exercise: kettlebells twice a week (sometimes 1, sometimes 3). Racquetball: moving from recreational to competitive and playing 4-5 times a week, plus tournaments.  However, my weight stayed fairly consistent around 260. I had nudged it down ~10lbs to 255/250 late this summer.  Starting in November '14, from the advice of my trainer, I started taking a Thyroid supplement, DHEA & D136.  I lost 18lbs since January 1 and 31lbs Since July.  An interesting note, my thyroid (TSH) went from 4.02 (Sep) to 0.0 1(Feb) and testosterone went from 233 (Sep) to 544 (Feb)!  Without any real diet change, I started losing 1.5lbs a week.

Carrying that extra weight around did do some damage though. I have bone on bone medial osteoarthritis and knee cap on my right knee.  However, I knew my knee wasn’t the best, playing racquetball on it at 280lbs didn’t help.  I needed to manage it better after my meniscus surgery in August of ‘10.  It was never right after that.  I got it wrapped in ice right now and I’m wearing a copper sleeve and have capsaicin cream on it too.  Taking voltaren and ibuprofen/aspirin/Tylenol to supplement.  It only hurts when my heart beats and I can't straighten it fully.  At the end of the month, I am being evaluated for knee replacement :(.   

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Thursday, August 21, 2014

My Racquetball Forehand

One part of my game has plagued me throughout my racquetball playing has been my forehand.  (No it is not because I am left-handed)  The flaws in my forehand show up in two areas of my game. 

1: Power – as compared to other players at my level or higher, my forehand lacks the “snap” that other players have in their forehand shots. 

2: Hitting down the line.  Because of the ‘hitch’ that is in my forehand stroke and timing of hitting, when I attempt a down-the-line shot.  (Note: For a lefty, the forehand side matches up with a right-handers backhand, generally the weaker stroke) my shot hits the side wall, the front wall and then the opposite side wall leaving a set-up for my opponent.  Frustrating to say the least!  This was a primary reason for my loss in the State Finals two years ago.     

One of the keys to the forehand stroke is the hips.  One coach had me wear a long sleeved jacket with my left arm out of the sleeve.  Using just my hip and should rotation (my arm at my side) get the sleeve of the jacket to move forward.  Another area is getting my butt down and not bending at the waist.  Kinda like a goblet squat.   Hip flex mobility is one area I am working on in hopes to fix this problem. 

Undoing 35 years of bad form is not going to be easy though.  Here is Ben Croft and a text-book example of the forehand stroke.





Being left-handed is being in good company. 
Left-handed Racquetball Champions
Kane Waselenchuk – Current #1 ranked player and was undefeated from January 2009 through September 2013 - 4+ years!
Cliff Swain - #1 Ranked Player 1990, 93, 94, 95, 98, 02. Best serve of all time
Mike Ray - #1 Ranked Player in the World 1992. Voted by his fellow pros as having the best forehand ever.

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Friday, August 8, 2014

It's been a month

The good: I have averaged 2 kettlebell workouts a week for July.  I think I am seeing results from the workouts; however I have been struggling with my back cramping up. I started jumping rope before and after morning racquetball.  I could barely make 60 jumps without my legs feeling like they were on fire and breathing like a charging rhinoceros.  Now, I’m at 90 seconds and looking to move to two minutes.  I started a very effective hamstring/hip stretch using stairs. 
 

The bad: No real appreciable weight loss during the month.  I really don’t count weight loss unless its 5lbs down for a week.  I was hoping to be 5 to 7lbs down for the month.  Some good news though.  I am starting a 6 week fitness challenge at G365 Fitness. The challenge is a combination of nutrition and exercise goals. 
 

The ugly: I’m playing morning racquetball and started the Monday night league however I have not dedicated any time to practice specific drills.  I thought I would have 30 minutes in the morning before racquetball, but so far I haven’t made it.  Hopefully I can make some headway here.  Here is one drill I want to start, the Star Drill.  It is designed to help with movement. I did wear my HRM and recorded 674 calories burned for 58 minutes.  

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