wow

so today was by far the hardest i've ever worked in the month of january. it was AWESOME. Not only did I get the best workout of the year in, I had fun doing it. I think I can honestly say that every single Sideshow member that was Agility today gave 100% in every drill. Everyone was winded after the first exercise but we kept on pushing.

To ensure time for a little pick up time, we had a nice little game to 5 before finishing the agility session. The people that are here over winter and getting these games of pick up in have really been benefitting. I'm seeing improvements in so many peoples games from playing pick up these past weeks. Our rookies especially are making great strides, and so are our vets.

After playing the most physically competitive pick up game of the winter thus far, we finished the agility session on the frozen, shitty CSB field hardly able to see. We did our drill where we step over the cones like the football player drill(forget the name right now) and sprint after it. People were sprinting faster to the last cone than we did in pick up. It was incredible to see that kind of effort after such an exhausting workout. Those of you at home... I hope you realize how hard we're working here. It's gonna be real obvious who worked and who didnt.

Kyle B brought up a good point today. He said, "It's so much easier to cut when people can throw break throws."

SPOT ON.

This couldn't be more true. Imagine this situation: you're on the line and you see the 6 other people on the line with you and you realize to yourself "wow, all of these can break a mark pretty easily." Your last in the stack.. your defender starts poaching. You can run to the break side screaming poach and have the utmost confidence you're going to get the disc for a 30 yard breakside in cut, because we can all throw that. Offenses becomes virtually unstoppable when break throws are constantly an option. The cutters defender becomes helpless and lost.

It's time for us to get to that point. If you're just throwing around and there's 3 of you, practice your break throws. Practice throwing to the open side with a mark. It's entirely different. Similar to basketball, most people can hit open shots when they're just shooting around. But put a hand in their face, it becomes insanely more difficult. Good teams are going to pressure us(hell, shitty teams can put pressure on throwers,) and we need to be able move the disc despite this pressure. When you throw your around backhand, get low. Get *around* the mark. It's called an "around throw" because you have to literally get around your mark. Stop being lazy and throwing high release stuff thinking its gonna work. It's not, boys.

All that being said, today was awesome. At the end of the session, when everyone was huddled around, I felt proud. I felt happy. I absolutely love this sport: the training and practicing and playing tournaments and camaraderie; but most of all, I really love this team. I try to give everything I can to this team, whether it be with my effort, my knowledge, or my skill.. and today I felt like other people cared about this team in the same way i did and it made all the workouts so far seem worthwhile. If you see me taking a play off, not running my fastest, dogging it on a drill, CALL ME OUT. let me know you're working harder than me. I'll do the same to you and we'll be a better team for it.

Sorry this got so long, but between the announcement of the Queens City Schedule, and the increased difficulty of our training, I just needed to let everyone know how I felt and how excited I am for this season to truly begin. I hope you're in the same boat as me.

-Keegan

P.S. I saw an interview with Kevin Garnett today. He said "It's not hard to work hard. It's not hard to bring the effort every night. It's not hard to give everything I have. That's energy. That's effort."

I like that. It's not hard to work hard. Effort = Heart. This is what separates good teams from great teams.

IT'S NOT HARD TO WORK HARD.