Victory at Homecoming

Last Saturday was homecoming at Leavitt, so I had a soccer game then. On our team we have two captains that our team voted for and remain captains for the entire season. We also have a captain picked weekly by our coach who is captain for a week. One of our main captains was not there Saturday, so coach chose two captains for the game. The captains were Christian and I. It was pretty epic to be a captain on homecoming, so I was pumped.

The game was in horrible weather, but horrible weather can be fun: It was pouring rain off and on and sprinkling in between. The junior varsity played first, so by the time my game started the field was soaked. The weather made it pretty fun, but hard. I play more of a defensive position, and playing in wet weather makes it harder for the defense than the offense. The way it makes it harder for the defense is that all the offensive player has to do is make the defensive player go one way and the offensive player just goes the other way because it's extremely difficult to switch directions on a soaked field.

A few things happened our game which made me quite nervous. The biggest thing was that our best sweeper and defender was hurt with around 10 or 15 minutes in the game. That made me a little nervous, but the thing that made it worse was that coach put me as sweeper. Sweeper to me is pretty nerve racking because you're the last defense besides the goal keeper. Luckily I didn't do too bad and we didn't let any goals in.

Over all my team played very hard and well. Because of that, we won 2-0.

After all that us Clarkes visited our friends the Estes. I had a great evening with them and filled with awesome fellowship, great games, and grand pizza.

One more thing we did this past weekend was have the older Kidd kids over. We played a few board and card games and snacked most of the Sunday afternoon. One game we played was Catan: Cites and Knights. I'd try and explain Catan to you, but that would take forever and you still probably won't get it. Catan is one of few board game that competes with chess for me. It probably would beat chess if it were a faster paced and had a little less "luck" involved. It's a great game to play with friends though. In chess you can't talk as much, while in Catan you are required to talk. I ended up winning that of Catan game with Shannon right behind me.

Weird Dog.....

In case you, the reader does not know, I have a pet pug. His name is Doug. He is a bit taller and more fit than your average pug. Because of that we think he's not fully pug. He has a nice soft fawn colored coat. His favorite thing in the whole world is food, then humans, then car rides. He also has some pretty weird perks: licking for no reason for more than two minutes straight, being afraid of anything that is small and moves when he gets close (then sometimes he tries to eat it), chases cars, and many other strange things. One thing he always loved was cars and car rides. He even knows what the word "ride" means (along with "food", "treat" and "walk").

So usually he would love to go for a car ride, but today our van is in the car shop. So my dad is borrowing a small red car until the van is fixed up. He brought the car home and usually Doug would run out there, say hi to who ever was in the car and then try and get in to go for a ride. This time he ran away from the car, and acted as if he were scared of it. Dad noticed this and decided to slam the trunk shut after getting his stuff out. This made Doug even more scared, and it made the scene for us who were watching even more hilarious. Doug would try and get close, then suddenly run away again. This went on for a little while, and occasionally he would run up the driveway in fear of the car. I then tried to bring him back in by his leash because I had to continue my school. He wouldn't let me. I had to drag him. So instead of wasting my time I had to pick him up. He was terrified so he clung to me. Once we were inside I put him down and he ran away from the door and started barking.

In a few minutes, Dad then picked him up brought him to the car to go for a little ride. At first he didn't even go in. After about a minute or so he decided to try it. He went in for a second and turned tail and ran out. Then after Dad got in he decided to try again. He got in and Dad closed the door. He was a little scared, but ended up not minding. That concludes the story of my weird dog!

My Chess History

I've wrote a lot of posts about working out, but I not much about the nerdy part of being a nerdy-jock. That may be because I am more of a jock than a nerd, and know more about working out than..... nerdy stuff.

I guess one thing that makes me nerdy is the game of chess. I love chess. I started playing about 8-10 years ago. I never really cared about chess back then, it was just a thing my dad taught me so that I played once in awhile. I had almost no logic then. All I wanted to do is use my rooks to destroy the other player. My dad had at least some strategy and beat me every time. I got frustrated with that and decided to play my siblings. They all beat me, but Colleen and I were pretty even, and I soon became better than her. After getting frustrated with losing to Shannon, Abbey and Tim I tried playing Dad again. I lost most of the games, but was starting to get a basic idea how to play. After a couple years of playing like that I kind of gave up and didn't play much. I just took time off of chess and worked on school, sports and other easier games. I also got some more logic in my head through math (which I loved).

I then started playing again and was pretty even with my dad. We played after supper many times and eventually I started beating him more than he was beating me. Soon after that I was beating everyone in my family relatively easily. I then started challenging my friends in chess. The two friends I challenged most were Tucker and Richard. Tucker slowly became easier to beat and then I stopped playing with him and mainly did sports with him. Richard was still a challenge. He was very good with his knights and queens, while I was good with my bishops, pawns and rooks. There was a time when we both became busier and we couldn't play as much. During that time I played elders and our pastor in our church. I usually lost because I was still quite ignorant in the game. They taught me alot, and I applied it. I then started playing Richard again and was winning more games than losing against him. After practicing with him and beating him almost every time I challenged the elders again. I lasted much longer, but still lost.

So now I had people I was better than, and people who were much better than me. So I then looked into online chess. I played off and on there. It improved my game for sure. I also read a little about chess and then went back to the elders in my church. I lost and won games then. After about a year of going back and forth, I ended up winning almost every game.

We later moved to a different church and I played the leaders in that church as well. I ended up beating them as well. So now no one I knew was challenging me very much... but then I my uncle came to visit. He showed me up. He moved at almost twice my speed and played better. I lost games to him all the time. He then went back down after his visit with us and I was determined to beat him.

I played online a lot and learned quite a bit. One of the reasons I got so good was because in 8th grade I got some pretty bad shin splints and didn't even want to walk. So I played online chess all the time, and sometimes read about chess.

After a year or two I met a guy who was really good at chess. He ran a chess club in Lewiston and I played with him alot. I went to a local tournament with him and I was pretty darn nervous so I played quite badly and lost games I should have won. After awhile the chess club kind of fell apart and we went to a different chess club with MUCH better players. Like one of the players can 'own' another player who could 'own' me. Around this time I was helping Shannon babysit some kids. One of the kids was extremely smart for his age. I played him (and still do). I usually win, but he improved tremendously over a short time. He then started going to the chess club with me and Eric (the guy that I was going to the chess club with before). Eric ended up not coming much more and I only went with Mitchell (the guy I helped babysit) until that chess club faded out.

With in the past year or so my uncle came to visit again. This time I was a well trained chess player. I won 3 out of 4 games. I had finally become slightly better than him. I was satisfied with that and started playing less and less. Just recently I started playing again and realized I was getting rusty. Now that I shook off most of that rust I'm playing online again and loving it.

There were many other people I played that challenged me or I helped them with their chess skills, but I didn't really feel like mentioning every chess game I've played. 

Bad Game and a Funny Result.

Yesterday I had a game in Belfast. Belfast is about 2 hours away, so that was kind of a pain. Also, some guys fell asleep on the bus, which made them less alert in the game. We started off the game quite badly. We barely talked and had bad touches. In the second half we did much better with our touches, but still didn't gel as a team and talk. We lost that game, a close score though. Which also showed that we should have owned the field and won.

In the game, I played pretty well (but was guilty of not talking alot), I won a lot of balls out of  the air, some of which were drilled. I won most of them with headers, but I still got quite a few on my chest and my gut. I had the wind knocked out of me twice that game from drilled balls. One was on my gut, so it gave in, and knocked the wind out of me that way. The other was at the side of my ribs, just under my right peck (chest muscle). Ribs don't give way, so it took more power to knock the wind out of me. I didn't realize until I got home and took my shirt off for my shower that I had a soccer ball imprint right under my chest. I thought it was funny that it was still there five hours after the game. I find it even more funny that I still have it 18 hours after the game! I guess that guy kind of drilled the ball.

Light vs. Heavy

Once again, you find me blogging about working out. This time it's not going to be about how to do workouts and what muscle groups they work. This time it's going to be about light and heavy weights.

To start it off, your muscles have two kinds of muscle fibers: slow twitch, and fast twitch.

Slow twitch are the muscle fibers you get from high repetition with light weights, and jogging. Slow twitch muscles are good for enduring things, such as long runs, repetitive light work, some body weight workouts, and burning fat. Working your slow twitch muscle will also make you defined, and build a little muscle. Cardio workouts often work slow twitch muscle because they always keep you moving. Cardio burns fat (and help your cardio), hence why I said working your slow twitch muscles burns fat. An example of a slow twitch workout is when I was curling 20 pounds. I could curl them a ton of times, like around 30. Maybe more. That's high repetition.


Fast twitch muscle fibers are the fibers that make you faster, bulk up, get stronger, and increase explosiveness. The way you build fast twitch muscle fibers is by lifting heavy weights, or doing something you can only do 1-15 times. 2-10 is best because that way your aren't only doing it once, and you're still working your fast twitch muscles fibers. For example, I'm curling 40 pounds right now. I can only curl them 4-5 times per arm, so those are working my fast twitch muscles.

As you might be able to guess guess, I want to lift heavy weights because they will help me with my speed, and I'm already quite defined, but not that strong. Sprinters need fast twitch fibers to become faster. That's one of the reasons I bought the weighted vest and I want to get ankle weights. With those I can work fast twitch and slow twitch fibers with body weight workouts.

Victory.

Last Friday I had a soccer game against Oak Hill. We lost to them last time we played them, even though we controlled the ball most of the time. Between the game we lost to them and our game on Friday we practiced finishing. We played very hard for the entire game on Friday, and turned it into a win. It was quite an intense game, with a score of 2-3. I didn't score, though I got close. One of the reasons I didn't score though was because I had to cover Oak Hill's best player again. Overall, it was a great game and our first victory of the season! It felt awesome to win.

The evening after my game I received my hand-gripper in the mail. It's weighted 150 pounds. It's quite hard to close. I can only do it 1-2 times with my left, and 2-3 with my right.

Later that evening us Clarkes went to benefit concert. There was a bunch of SMASHers at the concert. Colleen, Dad, Mom and I missed most of the concert because of soccer, but it was great to see some SMASH friends there!

Arms

I've talked a little bit about working out your core and a tad about weight lifting. Because I could spend hours writing about how to workout different muscles, I think I will start off with body parts. Judging from my title you've probably already guessed that I'm going to talk about arms.

I'll start at the shoulder and chest and work my way down to the hand. First off to work on your chest you could do bench press, which is probably the best for building chest muscles. If you go to a gym or lift weights, you probably already know what that is, and if you don't go to a gym and don't know what it is you probably can't do it. It's the same with a chest press. A chest press is a little easier and a little safer than the bench press, but that's usually only at gyms as well. There are many other chest workouts that require a gym, and I don't really feel like listing them all, partly because I don't know all the names of the workouts. Anyway, I think I will stick to workouts you can do at home. That will make this post much more simple.

One thing you could do to work your chest is flies. With flies you lay on the ground with you arms straight out on the ground while holding weights. Then bending slightly at the elbows, bring the weights in your hands together straight above you chest. Then put them back slowly so that you get a workout on the way down, and so you don't hurt your joints. Once your hands are almost to the ground, repeat.

Another workout is the push-up. The push-up is a great workout. Partly because you can do so many different kinds of push-ups. The push-up works your chest, shoulders, triceps, back, abs, Gluteus Maximus, and a little bicep. If you do the 'basic push-up', it works your chest the most. To start, place your hands under your shoulders (or a little closer to you torso), and get in the plank position. The plank position is the up-right position of a push-up. Your body should be as straight as possible. Then bring your body down until your arms are at a 90 degree position, then push-up and repeat. If you want learn some other push-ups, just comment on here.

Now for the shoulders. To it's a little harder to work your shoulders without a gym, but I'll give you a few workouts, starting with the shoulder press. With the shoulder press you grab two weights put them even with your head (while standing). Your arms should be to your sides, kind of making a W with your arms and head. Now that you have that position, push the weights until you arms are straight, and let them down to the W position. Repeat. When you're doing this, make sure your back is straight and your feet are slightly wider than shoulder width apart. You can strain, pull or pinch your back if your back is not straight.

You can also do handstand push-ups to work you shoulders. This is very hard and I would not recommend doing it without someone there who knows how to do it. If you live near me, I could help you. If you have no one around you that knows how to do this, don't do it.

Now, on to biceps. Biceps are one of my favorite muscles groups to workout. Probably because they make me feel stronger than I actually am. When I was younger I hated push-ups, but loved pull-ups and climbing trees, so I pretty much only did those. Because of that, my biceps are strong compared to my chest and other muscle groups (besides my triceps). The easiest way to work your bicep is to curl weights. Curling is quite simple. First, grab a weight (while standing) and relax you arm so your arm is straight. Then curl your arm until the weight just about reaches your shoulder. Then let it down slowly so you don't snap your elbow. Repeat.

Now for my favorite. The pull-up. The pull workout pretty much every part of you body besides your legs. You can do a variation of a pull which works you legs though. But the main muscle it works is your bicep. To do a pull-up just grab a pull-up bar (a strong tree branch or door frame would work), with your palms facing away from your body and hands about shoulder width apart. Starting with you arms straight, pull yourself up. You should try and bring your nose or chin over the bar. Don't jolt your body up, that can hurt you and it doesn't work your biceps that much. Once you get up there, let you self down slowly until your arms are straight (don't touch the ground), and repeat.

Some people mix up a pull-up with a chin-up. A chin-up is the same thing except your palms are facing towards you. This is easier, but can hurt you joints if you do alot.

 Now for the triceps. There are many workouts you can do for these, just like the chest and biceps. I chose only my favorite, which happens to be a pretty basic one. To start, find something solid that you can grip about a foot off the ground. Higher then that can be better, but higher also can make your elbows feel weird, which is probably bad. Once you find that sit with your back to the solid object you found, about 3-6inches away, legs should be straight so you can't cheat and use those. Then place your hands on the object and lift your self up until your arms are straight. After that, 'dip' down until your bum is just off the ground, then push yourself back up. Repeat. You'll probably start shaking, and will feel the burn quickly. Try and go on as long as you can. Triceps can handle alot. I'm warning you though, doing a ton of these will leave you sore for a few days.

Last but not least, the forearm/wrist/hand area. One thing you can do that is really simple, but looks dumb. Start off with your your fingers being held back by your thumb, then flick them all out. Repeat. This is really easy, so do it for awhile.

Now for a better workout. The forearm roller. To do this you need a forearm roller. They cost a bit, so I made my own. To make your own find a smooth tree or tree branch you don't mind destroying. You should barely be able to fit your hand around it. Or so you can barely not fit your hand around it. When you find the right width, cut off about 2 feet of it. Then peel off the bark. You can then cut a small grove at the mid point of the piece of wood. Once you have that find a strong string and cut a little over 3 feet of it off, and tie it tight in/on the grove. I stapled it for extra strength. Once you have that tie a 3-8 pound weight to the other end of the string. Now that you have it, hold your hands close together on the piece of wood. Keeping your arms straight as possible, roll it up... and then roll it down (slowly), make sure the weigh doesn't touch the ground. Once you rolled it down, roll it back up the other way. Repeat until you can't.

Lastly, the the grip handle bar. This this is super simple. Just squeeze it together, and release. Repeat. Once you see on, it makes complete sense.

Now to conclude this post I must remind you that there are many other workouts for your arms, and if you're serious about working out, then you should probably refer to a more knowledgeable person. Also, right after your workout, stretch, and with in a half hour of your workout eat some protein. This will help you build muscle and make you less sore. If you still end up sore, bananas and apples are going to be your friends. They have a lot potassium. Another tip to help you remain non-sore is making sure you breathe while working out. Your body needs that oxygen.