Ladder style circuit. Pull-Up Progression was 1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1. Between each set of Pull Ups PAX completed 10 Merkins, 10 Squats, and 10 American Hammers, totaling 100 reps each. 30 reps of Pull-Ups were completed in total.
Third F Message: Excerpt from “Extreme Ownership” -Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
Mosey back to AO Bball Court
The Thang 2: Court Corners
PAX Lt. Dan from 1st Corner to 2nd. Completed 10 Box Cutters IC. PAX then bear crawled to 3rd Corner, completed 10 Box Cutters in opposite direction IC. PAX Nur’d to 4th Corner and did 10 clockwise outlaws OYO. PAX crawl beared back to 1st Corner and completed 10 counter clockwise outlaws OYO.
Mosey to HOB Aiken Legs: 2 Rounds of 20 Squats 20 Box Jumps 20 Lunges (10 each leg) 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward) Brief discussion about HOB, Q’s elemetary school.
Mosey to Rogers Signs, 10 Burpees, brief discussion about Q spending time as kid at old sign shop.
Mosey to Big Johns 20 Hand Release Merkins 20 Werkins 20 Merkins 10 Diamond Merkins 10 Ranger Merkins. Brief discussion about passing of John Megee and Q spending lot time as kid between John’s house, Q’s Mom Mom’s house, and Far (fire) House.
Mosey to Bodies. Brief discussion about Q’s baby sitter at corner Magnolia and Mulberry Street. Toy Soldier set: 35 LBCs 25 E2Ks 15 Big Boys
Mosey back to CHOP.
Number-O-Rama & Name-O-Rama. Circle of Trust with prayers for Semi’s field trip to DC and Chayanne ad her baby.
20 Seal jacks. I/c 22 Cherry picker. I/c Capri lap 22 Seal wave. I/c 22 Windmill I/c Capri lap 20 Ssh. I/c
THE THANG
Mosey to bridge
Bear crawl up to bridge, side shuffle over bridge, lunge down to corner. Cross over, backwards lunge up to bridge, side shuffle over bridge, crawl bear to corner.
Mosey to grassy hill along water south of bridge
Crawl bear down hill, 5 burpees Bear crawl up hill, 5 burpees
X 2
Mosey to parking lot by bridge
3rd F
Seeing this unit in action is really impressive. You can see the hard work and trust they have in each other.
We as HIM strive to do the same thing. We beat the fartsack and sharpen each other mentally and physically. We develop a trust with one another that we can hold each other accountable and lift each other up.
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
Cha cha slide plank
Mosey back to AO
6 HIM showed – semi, Chairman, Wildwing, leatherman, Ruxpin, Chappie
First off, a super huge shout out to Leatherman who posted, even though his hand was shredded by a bus yesterday. Way to push through brother! A bridge workout seemed apropos since YHC wanted to design a workout to keep Troy Haynes in mind. People often say, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Well, this young man has come to a bridge that he is crossing, with his family and the Woodbridge School District community by his side. Troy is an outstanding young man at his high school, a great student, and a senior quarterback for his state championship team. The bridge he is crossing, not by choice but because life has dictated that he cross it, is cancer. The community continues to rally around he and his family with the widely adopted mantra #fightlike4. 4 is his high school jersey number. We don’t have answers for why anyone faces these kinds of battles–bridges to cross–especially young, strong, and healthy. But we can certainly pray for them and rally around them as best we can when they’re crossing such bridges. That way they’re not crossing it alone. #fightlike4
So the workout included aspects of both “4” and of crossing the bridge and just plain old hard-stuff suffering. In the words of Summit,it was, “A great reminder that we are all fighting something, but sometimes what we are fighting pales in comparison to another’s battle. Stay positive and thankful.”
It went a ‘lil sum like this:
WARM-O-RAMA
SSH – 18 IC
CRAB FLIPPERS – 20 IC (It’s that season, flip ’em!)
CALF RAISES – 30 in/30 out OYO
MERKINS (selections by PAX)
Wide Arm – 4 IC #fightlike4
Diamond – 4 IC #fightlike4
Regular – 4 IC #fightlike4
Prison Cell – 4 IC #fightlike4
BUTT-KICKERS
TOY SOLDIERS
THE THANG:
Mosey to the far side of the canal bridge, i.e. the corner of Anglers Road & East Savannah Road. PAX ran past 2 deposits of sandbags. Ironic. However, as tempting as they were, they didn’t belong to F3. Yet, there was a fine stack of sandbags coupons to choose from at the aforementioned corner–deposited there by YHC. Each PAX grabbed a 40lb bag, and the beatdown commenced by performing a coupon exercise, then crossing that bridge:
Shoulder-to-shoulder – 20x
Lung/Mosey/Lung to other side of bridge (.1 mile)
Sandbag High Pulls – 20 x
Mosey to other side of bridge (.1 mile)
Brief Breather for 3rdF:
If I were to ask ‘What is the most famous prayer of all time?’ probably ALL of you guys would say it is the Lord’s Prayer. Most of you might even be able to recite it; and your only question might be whether to say trespasses, debts, or sins. It was the prayer pattern the Lord taught His disciples after they’d requested, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
It goes like this: OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME. THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. AND FORGIVE US DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOREVER. AMEN. (Matt. 6:9-13)
Alot of people, men especially, struggle with prayer. But in its simplest form, prayer can be defined as talking with God. This one happens to give a pattern. It teaches: We are to start with worship, getting our minds on who He is. Acknowledging that He is above all things; that His will is our priority; that all things come from Him and we’re dependent upon Him. We acknowledge, again, the importance of keeping our relationships with others in order (forgiveness) so that we may have an unhindered relationship with Him (forgiven). It’s a prayer pattern that also expresses that we lean on Him daily as our best and only resource against the onslaught of temptation and evil in this world. And that even while in this world, we recognize we belong to another, over which He is Sovereign.
When it comes to prayer and God’s will, one illustration that is especially appropriate in this setting, is to understand that prayer is a boat hook. When we put out the boat hook, we’re not actually pulling the land/dock to us. Instead we’re using it to pull ourselves to the land/dock. I.e. we use prayer to align ourselves with God and His will.
Too often we call on God ONLY if we think we need Him or find ourselves in a tight spot (“foxhole faith”), but He wants us to call upon Him, He wants us to depend on Him, and He wants us to trust Him daily. The reason He’s given us this gift is that He wants each of us to have a relationship with Him. Personally. Not as Sky-Q but as Soul-Q.
When I joined the 28th I.D. of the PA ARNG, I was sent off to what they called “pre-basic.” While I lay in my rack after lights out on that first night wondering what I’d gotten myself into, it dawned on me to recite the Lord’s Prayer out-loud. I wanted to be a good witness to the men in my platoon, but I also went back and forth in my mind on whether I could do it. I doubted… What if I forget the words? What if nobody joins me? What if…? Finally, there in the dark barracks, I started…and from the way it sounded, EVERYONE FOLLOWED! And we all, in that moment of fear and uncertainty declared our dependence upon God; we declared that we trusted Him with the direction that each our enlistments would take us. And we found comfort both in knowing that we could call out to Him (and He’d hear), and in the esprit de corps of that experience of the Lord’s Prayer being recited in unison.
That moment also began to impress an important leadership principle into my heart and soul: “ALL IT TAKES IS FOR YOU TO LEAD.” And THAT is what HIM do. Lead!
Back at it…
Sandbag Thrusters – 20x
Lt. Dan to other side of bridge (.1 mile)
Sandbag Deadlifts – 20x
Leave sandbag on corner, prison break to start point and back, rubber legs and all! (Total = .4 miles #fightlike4)
Upon returning to the corner, each PAX grabbed his sandbag coupon for the final stretch: Wosey return to the AO, Sandbag had to be overhead. If sandbag was down, PAX had to stop. Sandbag back up overhead, PAX could keep moving. The idea was to move as far and as long as possible between breaks. Tried to go in the backdoor, but Chairman wouldn’t have it. Way to push us brother!
06:00 hrs., time!
Number-Rama/Name-O-Rama
COT:
Announcements: YHC is going to try to find some time to organize the Memorial Day Mini (CSAUP) and push thoughts on to Site-Q’s
Prayers: Troy, Zane, Wildwing’s friend, an another that YHC apparently forgets. No worries, however, our Father in Heaven remembers
BOM
Always love trying to get creative at this AO. Thanks to all the PAX who posted and got their fill of sandbags and sand. As always it was a privilege to Q! Btw, don’t forget #fightlike4
Here’s the truth…QIC hit snooze and was late to his own beatdown. So, truth be told, the on-time PAX lead the Warm-O-Rama and I don’t have a clue what they did! Shoutout to the dozen PAX who extended grace for my tardiness and still followed my lead upon arrival!
Once QIC arrived, we got right to it w/ a “Friendly” Patriot Run to Milton Memorial Park
The Thang: Monkey-A-Round
PAX rotated between 5 stations doing as many reps as possible for as many rounds as possible. Rotation happened when PAX running at station 5 completed their loop.
Pull Ups
Swerkins w/ Tuck (Complete a merkin with feet in swing then pull feet in for a tuck – BRUTAL!)
Box Jump to Incline Merkin
Forearm Plank
Run loop around gazebo
PAX completed 6 rounds in 20 minutes.
3rd F Message: Excerpt from “Finishing Strong” by Steve Farrar on Vision
A great morning for some HIM to gather for a nice nice little circuit course beatdown
QIC- Chattahoochee
WARMUP- 20 SSH, 20Cherry pickers, 20MNC, 15 Sealjacks 15 Merkins all IC followed by a short mosey out back entrance of the AO around to the front
13 pax showed up so I set up 13 stations with a couple stations on standby in case more pax showed up
Weighted run with 20 lb vest for our timer to switch stations
Bench dips
Box jumps
WWII sit ups
Slosh pipe squats
Burpees
Flutter kicks
Bear crawl
The rowing merkin with choice of 25 lb or 15 lb dumbbells
Abyss merkins
Coupon squats with concrete block
E2Ks
Crab cakes. Almost 1 complete round completed and stopped for a quick 3rd F about leadership. Leadership is not about being the best leadership is about making everyone else bette. Philippians 2:4 Not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interest of others
25 Seal jacks. I/c 20 Cherry picker. I/c Capri lap 25 Seal wave. I/c 20 Windmill I/c Capri lap 25 Ssh. I/c
THE THANG
Mosey to alley by bank
10 chicken peckers i/c
10 derkins i/c
Mosey to grassy hill along water south of bridge
Crawl bear down hill, 5 burpees Bear crawl up hill, 5 burpees
X 2
Mosey to parking lot by bridge
Danger lt. Half way across lot, jailbreak back to start. Nur full length of lot mosey back to start Side shuffle across lot, 25 lbcs, side shuffle back to start
Mosey back to AO
3rd F
From True Competitor, #50, Don’t believe everything you believe. Train your brain.
9 PAX posted this morning for too much Mary! Waterfall on Q.
The Warm Up: 20 SSH IC, 20 Moroccan Night Club IC, 20 Cherry Pickers IC, Bolt 45 (AKA zoo keeper special)
The Thang: PAX teamed up in pairs of two. Half shuffled with their ruck sacks around the church. The other half did Mary. Then they swapped. We did Mary off of this sheet provided by Waterfall’s M, “Flamingo.” See the sheet here: https://darebee.com/ab-exercises.html We got through the “side jack knives” before we ran out of time.
The Message: Q read from the Easter story, John chapter 20. Waterfall commented that he is like Peter because he is always getting outrun.
We had a String of Pearls style workout this beautiful Gloom!!!! So we moseyed around Lewes and stopped for the exercises.
Mosey
25 E2Ks each leg
Mosey
20 War Hammers
Mosey
10 Marionettes
Mosey
10 Outlaws L and R
Mosey
Protractors all different angles because well because the Q struggles with some stuff but the PAX is always so graceful anyway back to it.
Mosey
20 – BBSU-UPS
Mosey back to the A/O
3rd F
We did 3rd F back at the A/O and I took a quote from Stan Lee
THAT PERSON WHO HELPS OTHERS SIMPLY BECAUSE IT SHOULD OR MUST BE DONE, AND BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, IS INDEED WITHOUT A DOUBT, A REAL SUPERHERO. – Stan Lee
This quote speaks for it self and for all of us HIM that are F3. The men in F3 are true Superheros in our Homes, Community and Workplace.
Bolt 45’s…er…Bolt 51’s – IC (4 Count) – 17 squats to halfway down. 17 squats halfway to full down. 17 full squats.
Windmills – 17 IC
Moroccan Night Clubs – 18 IC – Q was Daydreaming
The Thang – Q had provided this beat-down about a year ago, and with Baseball season underway, felt it appropriate to bring it back.
Mosey to open lot at Shipbuilders. PAX counted off and paired up. As one PAX worked on each leg of the Cycle, the other PAX worked on the Super 21 routine rotating after each base of the Cycle was completed.
Super 21 Routine – 1 Merkin & 1 Big Boy Sit up, 2 Merkins & 2 Big Boy’s, 3 Merkins & 3 Big Boy’s, repeat until reaching 21 of both. Equals 231 of each exercise.
The Cycle – From home plate, bear crawl to 1st base, 3 burpees, crawl bear back to home…. from home plate, bear crawl around the bases to 2nd base, 6 burpees, crawl bear back to home…. from home plate, bear crawl around the bases to third base, 9 burpees, crawl bear back to home…. from home plate, bear crawl around the bases to home plate. FYI…bases are 90 ft. apart.
Toy Soldier Set – 50 LBC’s, 25 E2K’s x2, 25 Big Boys OYO. If PAX completed the Super 21 prior to their partner completing the natural cycle, then a toy soldier set would fill the down time.
Wosey back to AO with F3 Message en-route as time was a factor.
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayer.
Chris Sperry is a baseball consultant who develops players and amateur coaches, assists professional scouts, and counsels families of prospective college-bound student-athletes. He holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from the University of Portland, the same institution at which he served as head baseball coach for 18 years. His key interests are in player and personal development as they pertain to a life in and beyond sports.
In Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA convention. Nineteen times since, many of the same professional, college, high school, youth, and a slew of international coaches from passionate and developing baseball nations have gathered at various convention hotels across the country for two-and-half days of clinic presentations and industry exhibits. Sure, many members of the American Baseball Coaches Association have come and gone in those years; the leadership has been passed, nepotistically, from Dave Keilitz to his son, Craig; and the association — and baseball, in general — has lost some of its greatest coaches, including Rod Dedeaux, Gordie Gillespie, and Chuck “Bobo” Brayton. I have attended all but three conventions in those nineteen years, and I have enjoyed and benefited from each of them. But ’96 was special — not just because it was held in the home of country music, a town I’d always wanted to visit. And not because I was attending my very first convention. Nashville in ’96 was special because it was there and then that I learned that baseball — the thing that had brought 4,000 of us together — was merely a metaphor for my own life and those of the players I hoped to impact. While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh man, worth every penny of my airfare.” Who the hell is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter, I was just happy to be there. Having sensed the size of the group during check-in, I woke early the next morning in order to ensure myself a good seat near the stage — first chair on the right side of the center isle, third row back — where I sat, alone, for an hour until the audio-visual techs arrived to fine-tune their equipment. The proverbial bee bee in a boxcar, I was surrounded by empty chairs in a room as large as a football field. Eventually, I was joined by other, slightly less eager, coaches until the room was filled to capacity. By the time Augie Garrido was introduced to deliver the traditional first presentation from the previous season’s College World Series winner, there wasn’t an empty chair in the room. ABCA conventions have a certain party-like quality to them. They provide a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with old friends from a fraternal game that often spreads its coaches all over the country. As such, it is common for coaches to bail out of afternoon clinic sessions in favor of old friends and the bar. As a result, I discovered, the crowd is comparatively sparse after lunch, and I had no trouble getting my seat back, even after grabbing a plastic-wrapped sandwich off the shelf at the Opryland gift shop. I woke early the next morning and once again found myself alone in the massive convention hall, reviewing my notes from the day before: pitching mechanics, hitting philosophy, team practice drills. All technical and typical — important stuff for a young coach, and I was in Heaven. At the end of the morning session, certain that I had accurately scouted the group dynamic and that my seat would again be waiting for me after lunch, I allowed myself a few extra minutes to sit down and enjoy an overpriced sandwich in one of the hotel restaurants. But when I returned to the convention hall thirty minutes before the lunch break ended, not only was my seat not available, barely any seats were available! I managed to find one between two high school coaches, both proudly adorned in their respective team caps and jackets. Disappointed in myself for losing my seat up front, I wondered what had pried all these coaches from their barstools. I found the clinic schedule in my bag: “1 PM John Scolinos, Cal Poly Pomona.” It was the man whose name I had heard buzzing around the lobby two days earlier. Could he be the reason that all 4,000 coaches had returned, early, to the convention hall? Wow, I thought, this guy must really be good. I had no idea. In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate. Seriously, I wondered, who in the hell is this guy. After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally. “You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck. Or maybe you think I escaped from Camarillo State Hospital,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “No,” he continued, “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.” Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches,” more question than answer. “That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause. “Seventeen inches?”came a guess from another reluctant coach. “That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?” “Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident. “You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?” “Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison. “Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?” “Seventeen inches!” “RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?” “Seventeen inches!” “SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello!” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. You can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches, or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’” Pause. “Coaches …” Pause. ” … what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? When our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him, do we widen home plate? The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We widen the plate!” Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?” Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate!” I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curveballs and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path. “If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: if we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools and churches and our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …” With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside. “… dark days ahead.” Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players — no matter how good they are — your own children, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.” He was, indeed, worth the airfare.
Proverb 22:6 New King James Version (NKJV) – 6 Train up a child in the way he should go, [a]And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Matthew 7: 13-14 New King James Version (NKJV) – 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.14 [a]Because narrow is the gate and [b]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
