2008 NASC Day 1 – West U23s

Oh the journey to Pittsburgh…what fun! The east coast was being slammed with bad weather and the Atlanta airport was shut down. Once I arrived in Atlanta and realized that nothing was flying out, I bunked down to watch a movie on my laptop. Then the real fun began, they changed our gate three times and delayed us two hours. Moving gates isn’t usually a big deal, but when they are in different terminals in a HUGE airport…it makes a difference. To top all this off I was carrying two bags since Delta charges 25 bucks for a second bag now. Oh the joys of traveling! Once we finally took off, the lightening and storm was amazing to watch though.

The next morning we had practice at 7am, so we gathered the last of the West U23 players at the airport and finally got into bed at 2am. Late night! While it was hard to get out of bed for practice in the morning, it was worth it. I am traveling with the West U23 team as their trainer and was really excited to hang out with the team. The girls are still so young and vibrant, and their energy is definitely contagious.

The first practice started out with the coaches testing the fitness waters. No, the coaches didn’t make them run the bleep or anything, but wanted to make sure they had been working out like they should. Most of the practice was spent split with the forwards working in a small drill on rucking and poaching, while the backs did plenty of passing drills. We were interrupted for about twenty minutes when a storm opened up right on top of us. Lightening, thunder and downpour in the blink of an eye! Luckily there is a clubhouse with some shelter, so we were able to find cover pretty quickly. Check out the pic to the right, this is after the storm left and the park was kind of foggy. Very beautiful!

Towards the end of practice Angie asked me to spend some time working with the scrumhalves, and I jumped at the chance to work with them. I love coaching scrumhalfs and answering the questions that they have. Since most scrumhalfs have never really been “trained” per say (someone just told them to work on their pass), it is fun to answer their more technical questions. We worked on their long passes and I gave them some new drills to work on. My new favorite drill is the line out bounce drill (really needs a cooler name!). Basically you find a rugby pole, soccer goal, light pole or whatever and stand in front of it. Simply bounce the ball off the pole and then get to work on your footwork, or your long pass. Bouncing it off the pole makes it kind of crazy just like a line out might be, and then if you have a friend you can really work on your feet and or your long pass.

After practice we had lunch and then had a break before our next practice at 2pm. Most of the girls had a late night (everyone seemed to have airline delays) so most people took naps for this break. Practice at 2pm was much more physical and had more continuity built into it. It was great to see the backs running their plays and really starting to work together. The forwards did some line out work and then the team did 13 on 13 full contact and it looked pretty good. Everyone is excited to be here and is working hard, so hopefully the wins will follow the hard work.

Later that night after dinner we headed out to a MLB baseball game (thanks for organizing Brea!) and had a good time. The game was close and there were 6 or 7 home runs, so we saw plenty of pitching changes and excitement! Upon entering the park we noticed that almost everyone was eating ice cream, so pretty quickly everyone had an ice cream cone, nachos or a large drink…it was a good team bonding event. After the game on the way out there was a huge bronze statue that the girls were having some fun with…here’s a shout out to A-train Potter the newest rookie to have the West Horse.

Links to Day 1 NASC – West U23s, Day 2 NASC – West U23s, Day 3 NASC – West U23s and Seniors, 2008 NASC Day 4 – West U23s & Seniors, 2008 NASC Day 5 – West U23s & Seniors, 2008 NASC Day 6 – West U23s & Seniors and the 2008 NASC Full Results.