From the category archives:

Potpourri

Saturday Potpourri: Muay Thai Kickboxing is Exercise for Geeks

by John on July 26, 2008

<gross overgeneralizations>

Your typical geek has difficulty finding an exercise regimen that manages to keep his interest.

</gross overgeneralizations>

The gym never worked for me. Not that I gave it much of a chance, but a treadmill is some boring shit even if I’ve got a DVD to watch. Ditto rowing, elipticals, and weight-lifting. Don’t even get me started on jogging… No, for me to work up a sweat and not complain about it, my brain needs to be engaged. Which is where Muay Thai Kickboxing comes in. For starters, I was surprised to find out just how much I enjoyed hitting stuff. I’m not trying to embrace the cult of Chuck Palahniuk or anything, but actually DOING something takes my mind off the drudgery of getting my heart rate up. Plus, working on a vast array of techniques and maneuvers keeps classes from ever getting old. From a game-player’s perspective, I suspect any martial art is going to beat your typical aerobics routine, but what I like about Muay Thai in particular is that you start working with “live ammo” pretty quickly; you don’t have to learn how to break your fall, or where your threshhold for tapping out is, or anything like that.

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Saturday Potpourri: University of Washington Football

by John on July 19, 2008

UGH

UW football is going to be not-good for awhile longer. Sorry, Huskies fans. As an avid Georgia Bulldog who atteded in the 90s, let me tell you that I recognize exactly what you’re going through. National prominence, if not dominance, stretches of excellence, then the wheels come off.

Unfortunately, nothing solves this but the right pieces coming together. Your current lack of stature KILLS recruiting. The 16 year olds you’re recruiting today have seen bad Huskie football since before they were teenagers; the majority of them could care less what UW did in the early 90s, they were in diapers at the time. Their parents might be alums, and they’ll be happy if their sons choose the U, but without a prestige program there they won’t be nearly as pushy about it.

Having seen the same thing at Georgia, let me paint you a picture for success: a good young coach looking for a break (sorry, Ty Willingham is a fine upstanding man but I don’t think he’s the coach you need), a couple of homer recruits NOT disuaded by what I said above, and a couple more who turn out to be 5-stars but only rated 2-stars at the time. This happens all the time, you’ve just got to be the program that catches the lightning in a bottle.

Until this happens, you’ll get a little better and a little worse, year after year after year. It’s no fun, but it doesn’t have to last forever.

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