Gotta make free throws when you’re tired

Last week at Floyd and Blackies, Orangeman detailed his ruck route through the Cramerton neighborhood between the railroad tracks and the river.  When he casually mentioned the basketball court, it sparked an idea… 

0530, let’s go:  Brief disclaimer, quick warmup of 10x SSH in cadence, then mosey toward the fire station and back up the hill towards the railroad tracks, stopping at every streetlight and rotating through the following exercises:
5 hand-release merkins
10 jump squats
15 mountain climbers
20 flutter kicks

Continued under the RR tracks, past the row of houses, then crossed the street where the basketball court was lit up as if they knew we were coming.  Hey, look at that, there are basketballs on the court!  After a count-off, PAX split up to opposite sides of the court (evens & odds). 

So here’s the deal for today, fortunately for some PAX a significant deviation from my past experiences:  Every PAX has to make one free throw.  The collective number of shots it takes determines the number of reps for the following routine.  That was the plan, at least.  Watts Up took too many shots to count, so we maxed out at 30 and it went like this:

At one end of the court, do 15 reps of one of the following: hand-release merkins, jump squats, mountain climbers, flutter kicks.
Run a “Suicide” (run to foul line and back, midcourt and back, opposite foul line and back, opposite baseline and back).
Do 15 more reps of the same exercise.  Rinse and repeat for all 4 exercises, except double reps (30 and 30) for the flutter kicks.

Round 2:  Clean slate, shoot free throws again!  Same plan, same result:  Watts Up easily took us back to a max of 30 reps.  Round 2 routine was same as Round 1 but with a Nur one way on the “Suicide,” plus mountain climbers and flutters were combined at the end in the interest of time.

Mosey back close to the flag (street in front of post office) for 4.5 minutes of Mary featuring six-shooters, Hello Dollys, and yet more flutter kicks among other PAX chosen exercises.

Announcements:
F3 dads in Folsom 8/21, check website for start time.
Sandlot and Mt. Hollywood will combine in McAdenville on Labor Day Sept. 6.

Prayers:
Watts Up’s M
Whoopee’s daughter
Turtleman
PAX on IR
PAX searching for jobs

Lagniappe:  Back in the old days, my basketball coaches taught me that free throws often make the difference between winning and losing.  And, while it’s hardest to make free throws at the end of the game when you’re tired, that’s when they’re needed the most.  Our end-of-practice routine was that each player had to make 2 out of 2 free throws.  If you miss, run a “suicide” and try again, repeating until you make 2 in a row.  I distinctly recall running many, many suicides.  But the point extends beyond basketball – it’s critical that we’re strong enough to do hard things, especially when we’re tired. 

Thanks for the privilege to lead and to help make us all stronger!
– Nutria