Water Polo - 7/24/16

Water polo has been part of every Olympics except the very first.  Although the men started in 1900, the women didn't get their chance until 100 years later!  European and Russian teams dominate the men's international play, while the US and Australian women have been the only ones to win multiple Olympic medals.


The sport is one of endurance more than speed or agility, though there are some players whose fast swimming skills are put to good use.  The game consists of 4 quarters, 7 minutes each.  An athlete can swim up to around 16 MILES in one game!  It is an incredibly physical game with constant battles for position.


We were lucky enough to have George Fenton of the Dallas Water Polo Club welcome us to one of their practices.  We first started in the shallow end of the pool to get some basic info on the rules and start working on passing techniques.  Teams play with one goaltender plus 6 swimmers.  In general, you can never have two hands on the ball, instead "flicking" or passing from hand to hand.  "Dribbling" is accomplished by touching the ball with the inside of your arms as you swim down the pool.  A quick shot might be made by then flicking the ball out of the water, only by about 2", then slapping the ball for a shot.  Or even a quick partial dunk of the ball to buoy it out of the water, a quick grab and back swing, then full on shot.  Defense is constant, both on the ball and off the ball.  In fact, a LOT of contact is allowed away from the ball, with less allowed where the ball actually is.  Dunking, pushing, nudging, pulling is all pretty much legal - possibly because it would be too difficult for the referees to police.  (We went to a USA Women's tournament earlier this year in our area and one woman even had to leave the game to change suits because hers got torn.)


We then moved to the deep end of the pool to work on our treading water (same motion as we used in synchronized swimming!) and on getting lift out of the water for passes and shots.

In the deep end!

We quickly found that it took a lot of energy and concentration just to try basic skills while staying afloat - much less above the water for shots and passes!
Next we moved in front of goal to take turns taking shots.  We also each took a turn playing goaltender, which was quite exhausting.  The timing for when to try and launch yourself either upwards or sideways was very difficult to gauge.

L2 takes a shot on goal

We finally moved back to the shallow end and asked some more questions about the sport.  Then we took some time to watch the experienced players play their pick-up game.  There are so many little details with this game that would be hard to master even on dry land - kind of like putting soccer, basketball and handball together - it has to take so much longer to get in the water!
One last note as we donned some caps for our group photo...  George mentioned the caps were introduced not for the "player number" aspect, but really for safety.  Competition can get brutal and some players were known for popping ear drums of their opponents from behind!  The caps have build in plastic covers to protect ears from such blows.

Water polo complete!

Tennis (Again) - 6/3/16

A couple of years ago, a few of us played tennis on our own at a local court.  We decided to revisit this sport with the help of a coach and make sure we could all be there this time.  So we headed out to meet Craig Smith, director of TCU's Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center for a private lesson.


The facility is beautiful - built on what once was a city owned golf course.  We first received our demo racquets (much lighter than the ones I remember my parents having when I was young) and then we headed down to a court.  J had taken lessons when she was younger and the basics we covered came back quite naturally for her.  Some of the footwork and follow-throughs took a bit of practice for the rest of us, but by the end of our lesson, we were doing pretty well.


We started off stationary, hitting forehands that Craig bounced to us from up close, then further and further out.  Then he added in some footwork and we hit multiple shots, moving along the baseline.

J's smooth and accurate forehand shot

Next, we moved to backhands.  The motion is bit less natural but we started to pick it up after a few shots.  Having two hands on the racquet helped me to remember that's what your "ready position" should be when holding the racquet in front of you, waiting for your opponent's next shot.  That way you can transition easily to forehand or backhand.

L2 follows through on a backhand

It was fun getting started with the basics from a very knowledgeable and fun coach.  A few of us agreed this is something we plan to pursue, either in group lesson form and/or meeting up for a match from time to time.

Tennis complete!

10,000 Metres - 5/29/16

The 10,000 metre race is the longest running event at the Olympics.  It has been part of the competition since 1912 for the men and since 1988 for the women.  Thirty of the world's best race head-to-head in this 25 lap event.  Ethiopia is the most successful country in this race, for both the men and women, and hold the current Olympic records - the women's record is 29 minutes, 54.66 seconds.


It was also our final "big" run that we'd have to complete!  We met at our trusty middle school track on an overcast Sunday and started our laps.  J had been working up to the distance in her daily running, L2 and R both decided to do what they could running/walking.  J's husband and daughter (in a stroller) also ran some laps to keep us company.


It took us more like 1 hour and 45 minutes (I just can't imagine the pace to complete this in less than 30 minutes - probably more like my "sprint"!) but we all completed the event successfully!

10,000m complete!

Golf (Again) - 4/22/16

In our ongoing attempt to get all of us together for events at the same time, and to add on to our previous outing, we headed out to a beautiful local golf course, Tierra Verde, to meet up with Coach Amy Fox.  Amy is a well known instructor and she was excited for the chance to work with us on this project.


Golf was held in the 1900 Olympic games for both men and women.  It held a men's event and team event in 1904, but was subsequently not played until the IOC voted in 2009 to reinstate it for the Rio games in 2016.


We met on a Friday morning at the clubhouse.  Coach Fox and a couple of her helpers greeted us with a Team USA banner and mini torch, then escorted us out to the driving range complete with Olympics music!

Team USA? With Coach Fox

We first stretched some while Coach Fox learned our assorted histories with the sport.  J had taken lessons when she was younger and still has her own set of clubs.  L2 and R both have very limited experience (if you want to call putt-putt "experience").  We then moved on to proper grip technique and the general motion of a follow-through.  I never realized the grip was an overlapping one, where your dominant hand covers the opposite hand's thumb on the club.  The follow through has your non-dominate hand cocked like you are ready to hit a nail with a hammer and elbow flexed to a 90 degree angle.  Once Coach liked what she saw, she gave us each an iron to practice swing at tees.  She set up three tees, a couple of inches apart from each other and we were to attempt to hit only the middle one.  After that, we actually added a ball.  There were surprisingly few complete misses!  Not surprisingly, a number of sharp slices...  We also tried our hand with some woods - very light for their size.

At the driving range

After we learned how to tee off, we headed over to a practice hole to work on putting.  I will say, there is much more to putting than I thought - including a form I had NOT been using all of these years in putt-putt!  We practiced short putting, with feet putter-head distance apart, medium putting in a slightly wider stance, then long putting with the widest stance.

Putting on the green

Finally, we played the par 3 hole.  We each teed off, then hit a middle shot to get onto the green, then putted.  We all did better than expected - 5 or 6 strokes.  Coach even added to our confidence with teaching us some etiquette and confirming we may actually be of some value on a "scramble" type tournament team.  We were each awarded our own gold medal from Coach!

L2 tees off

J chips it onto the green

R's first putt

We headed back to the clubhouse to wrap up.  We talked about Olympics golf and how disappointing it is that the world's best players aren't choosing to represent their countries at the upcoming Rio games.  The idea of giving amateurs the right to represent their country proudly was one we all agreed with.  It was a great beginner lesson and one that has us all planning to head out to a local par 3 course to see how we'd handle 9 holes...

Golf complete!

Basketball (Again) - 3/26/16

So some people in our group had already done basketball.  Twice.  The first time was just more of a pick-up game in a park and the second time was with a youth coach.  Both times, a couple of people weren't able to make it for one reason or another.  We decided we'd try once more, getting some instruction from a student from R's church, who holds basketball clinics for kids.


We met as his house one nice Saturday morning and got to work on warming up and stretching, then we went straight into some dribbling drills.  We made sure to work with both hands, both standing and sitting.  Then we moved on to some passing and shooting drills, just between two of us, no basket.  Next up was jump shots, then layups.  We wrapped up with a couple of games.  The first was where two people would shoot at the same time and the first to get a basket would knock out the other, only for the next person up to join in.  The second was everyone with their own ball in a small square.  We had to maintain a dribble and control of our own ball, while trying to knock the balls of the opponents out of the square.


We had a fun time and finally all got to work on basketball together.

J working on her jump shot

L2 hitting a layup

R and L1 looking to score first

Still not one picture with all of us - J had to leave early!  But basketball is complete!

Equestrian (Again) - 3/25/16

Earlier in our quest, we scheduled a few events when not all of us could go.  We've decided that a priority is now going to be to do the last of these events all together, as much as we possibly can.


In order to catch up R & L2 took a riding lesson to satisfy our equestrian events.  These are again something that would take much training (and cash!) to get far enough along in that we could actually do the "real" events.  Eventing and jumping trainers require riders be much more familiar with basics before allowing you to get some air on the horse.  Even dressage takes quite some time for horse and rider to "connect" and really show their stuff.


We at least got an intro to dressage from Julie at Trinity River Farms.  It was a beautiful Friday afternoon when Julie introduced us to our horses - Cool and Kodiak.  Both are trained in dressage so they had a good idea of what we were asking them to do even though we were newbies.  Cool is also a retired race horse who apparently takes retirement seriously...  The smaller Kodiak moved much quicker and even when Kodiak was in front of Cool in the ring, he still caught up!

RA on Kodiak

L on Cool

We worked on starting, stopping and turns - a basic first lesson.  The idea of dressage is for the rider to be as "quiet" as possible - very little movement of hands or feet.  The small pulls and nudges to communicate with the horse are critical for this event.  Turns are considered difficult because horses can't bend much in the middle, like a car.  So the smaller circle you can make, the better it shows off your ability.  We worked on tight circles where we keep the horse's rear legs as close to the center of the circle as possible, essentially "pivoting", and also on a larger walking circle.  We slalomed through cones that were set up, trying to keep the horses as close as possible to the cones without knocking them down.


Both of us had been on horses before - much longer ago for me.  I realized that this is really the only set of events that depends heavily on another living creature - and one that may not necessarily feel like being controlled.  It was a bit daunting once there and realizing that we were at the mercy of these gentle, but giant beasts!  Luckily, a simple introductory lesson was fine by them and I think they appreciated the attention they got before and after our ride with the brushing and chit-chat!


Another 3 events checked off for R and L2...  Though L2 is leaving this one open to possible future lessons!

Equestrian complete!

Modern Pentathlon - 2/27/16

The original Olympic games featured a pentathlon that consisted of mostly track and field events.  The 1912 Olympics first held the "Modern pentathlon", which still exists in a similar format and consists of a 200m freestyle swim, horse show jumping, fencing (epee), target shooting and a 3200m run.  All events were based on things a modern cavalry soldier must be able to do to behind enemy lines - run, swim, shoot, sword fight and ride an unfamiliar horse.


The event is now held as a single day competition and in most cases, athletes do not compete directly against one another, but rather are awarded points for their performance in each event.


We knew it would be difficult to try and find a facility in which we could compete all of these events in one day, so we again took a little creative latitude and did our own version of a pentathlon.  Plus, by the end of our adventure, we will have done each of these events "for real", just at different times!


We started inside a local YMCA to do our 200m swim.  8 laps of the pool and then we headed outside.

R, L1 and J in the pool

Even when some of us did our equestrian events, we were not able to do show jumping - it takes a lot more training than we planned time and money for - so we knew we wouldn't be able to do this portion in the traditional sense.  Instead, R mapped out an obstacle course on the awesome playground outside the YMCA.  We would be doing the obstacles instead of the horse!  Typically, the path consists of 12-15 obstacles over a 350-450m stretch.  Our path was shorter, but consisted of 14 obstacles.  I must add that the few kids that were out that early were rather amused by our antics!

L1 on the obstacle course

After we ran the obstacle course (a couple of times because it was fun!), we set up our target shooting.  In 2009, the shooting and running was actually combined into one event, similar to the Winter Games' biathlon.  The distance of the run has changed over the years, but since 2013, it has been 3200m.  As it is today, the women use a laser pistol that stays at the shooting station.  They must hit 5 targets over a maximum of 50 seconds.  After either 5 hits or 50 seconds, they run their first lap of 800m.  Then they do 5 more shots/50 seconds, then run, etc.  They will do four rounds of this to equal 20 targets and 3200m.


Again, laser pistols and appropriate targets weren't available at the Y, so R suggested using her Nerf N-Strike Jolt Blaster pistol and foam darts.  They actually did a great job of replicating the "must load after each shot" format and flew pretty well, even with the cross wind we were dealing with, although we did have to move in a little closer than planned.  We set up water bottles (with a bit of water to keep the wind from knocking them over) to target, with a sheet and towel behind to keep our darts from flying too far.  There was a 1/3 mile track right there as well, so we set up to do our 50 seconds of shooting, then ran a lap, then shot again.  My best round was hitting 3 bottles in 50 seconds.

R and J take aim

Finally, we wrapped up with our fencing.  We used foam swords instead of the real foils - we figured we had done real epee before, so this would be sufficient!  This is the only event in the pentathlon where the athletes compete directly against one another - and it's round-robin format where they all compete against each other.  It is very fast paced and each match lasts up to one minute.  The first woman to score a touch wins the point.  If no one scores in that one minute, both lose.

L1 and L2 in round-robin fencing play

We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our FWDtO version of the modern pentathlon.  Another event complete!

The pentathletes!