Wilson Pro Staff 97S 2018

Disclaimer: I am sponsored and I was given permission to release this picture.

For the last 12 years I have been looking to replace my Wilson Pro Staff 6.1 Stretch Hyper Carbon. I have tried countless racquets: Dunlop 200 and 200 Stretch, Dunlop 300 Microgel, Babolat Pure Control (first generation) PS 6.1 Ncode, BLX, Head Prestige (PT57A) to name a few. I always went back to my Hyper Carbons. The feel was perfect, balance suited my aggressive game perfectly and I could never find a racquet that came remotely close to giving me the same feeling on the court until the Six.One 95S. That racquet brought me right back to Wilson and for the first time in about 8 years I got new frames. I followed that up with what I thought was a beautiful racquet in the 97S. First time I hit with it my training partner immediately said he could tell I was married to it. Needless to say I got off the court and got a hold of my Wilson rep for some immediate frames. I played with that racquet for the last 9 months. I even customized one with RPNY to make it 27.5 inches and a balance of 30.2, only .6 off the Hyper Carbon. It still wasn't perfect and then last week I got a gift from Wilson!

 

I have had the racquets less than a week. I have 3 hours of play time and I can tell you that if you are looking for a racquet that is a bit more on the grip heavy side then this is your stick! 6pts head light is very noticeable especially if you have a one handed backhand like me or love to be at the net. Its very easy to maneuver and it definitely makes it easier to accelerate more. I will probably experiment by adding a bit of lead tape to the grip but so far the racquet feels fantastic. I am playing with a mix of Ytex Cuandro Twist on the mains at 52lbs and Babolat VS Touch on the crosses at 49lbs. I will probably go up to 55/52 once I break the string and replace VS Touch with Sensation 15g.  The paint job is SWEET!!!! Its smooth and not slippery at all and gets a lot of attention from people passing by. It definitely is a set up from the current 97S, the laser etched Pro Staff is bad ass as well. I will post an update after a couple weeks but so far this racquet has been fantastic!

Every Day is Game Day

Ever since I started playing tennis people had high expectations for me. Considering my family background in tennis the question wasn't, will I be a professional tennis player but when and how good will I be. The amount of pressure I experienced was unbearable and I probably enjoyed tennis less as a junior because of it. I can't say I was miserable because I loved to compete and play the sport but tournaments I definitely didn't enjoy until I was 16 when I decided to do things on my own. I found that having a constant reminder of how high the expectations were and how disappointed people were when I didn't perform that it took the fun out of the sport and life in general. I enjoyed playing football and Madden with my friends more than I did going to a tournament. Don't get me wrong, I thrive under pressure and have goals of my own but being constantly reminded of others expectations of me is a drag and an unnecessary extra pressure to feel I know what I have to do and will succeed!! (Rant Over!)

I have been reading Mark Verstegens book Every Day is Game Day for the last 3 weeks. Its an absolutely phenomenal book not just for an athlete or a coach but for a corporate or 9-5 worker as well. It will change not only the way you live but the way you work and do every day things. It has helped me reset my mind and make me more task oriented, highly efficient worker and it keeps my priorities and goals in mind even as I wear down throughout the day. I am not a big reader but this has been a book that I am unable to put down and highly recommend it.

A training update. After 5 weeks of Base 1 gym work I gained 20lbs on all my lifts, this is pretty good considering I lost about 40-50lbs on some of my lifts from earlier this year when life changes occurred in March. I am starting a Build 1 phase in the gym and I am going to mix it in with the the cardio Build 1 phase of Every Day is Game Day. my current split is 3 days in the gym and 3 days of Running/speed work/agility.

Gym work looks something like this and is all 5x5

Power/Explosive Exercises - Power Cleans, Weighted Jump Squats, Hang Cleans, Clapping Push Ups

Main Set Exercises - Back Squat, Front Squat, Dead Lift, Good Morning, Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Pull Ups, Cable Rows and Lat Pulldowns, Military Press

Secondary Exercises - Leg Extensions (Single and Double Leg), Single Leg Squats, Tricep Rope Pushdown and Overhead Extension, Bicep and Hammer Curls, Front and Side Shoulder Raises, Abs,

I'll post a gym update in 2 weeks time as I am making this a 6 week Build before going into Base 2.

My goals at the end of Build 2 are:

Squat - 300lbs (Current PR is 275 for 5)
Bench 200lbs (Current PR is 170)
Deadlift - 315 (Current PR is a 245 Stiff Leg Deadlift)
Incline Bench - 185 (Current PR is 150)
Pull Ups - 20 reps (Current PR is 10 but I suspect I can do 12-15)

How to Overcome A Fear of Failing in Order to Succeed

Fear is defined as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger. As human beings we have a certain control of what we fear and what we don't. Fear is actually a learned behavior. We learned it when we were young either from our parents, movies, friends, television etc. I have been afraid of spiders ever since I watched the movie Arachnophobia. I used to be the one who would walk out to the opposite end of the room away from where ever the spider was until it was killed.

I grew up being afraid of losing. There were high expectations of me and I feared the consequences of failing. I also hated disappointing my parents and questioned whether I was even good enough to succeed inside or outside of sports. I made the decision to learn on my own at 16 years young. I taught myself to find ways to succeed whether in practice, tournaments, or even playing Madden against my friends. I hated to lose, bottom line. I began to study patterns and percentages on the practice court, I would break down defensive coverages on paper in order to find any advantage possible to beat my friends in Madden, and I began to study my opponents during the warm up and the first 4 games of each set. By doing this I was able to identify any changes in their strategy or game play at any point and I would adjust accordingly in order to succeed. Eventually I won over 70% of my matches and was nearly unbeatable in Madden with my friends. A bit competitive huh!?

Fear paralyzes us. It prevents us from moving forward and succeeding, from analyzing our failures, from seeing what is possible and what can be reached. Some of us are born to succeed and some of us are born with the work and grind mentality. For me things came easy to me but winning did not, I was paralyzed by fear. It takes hard work, patience, and support in order to overcome fear and succeed.

Three things that helped me learn to succeed were:

1. Hard work - whether I won or lost I was analyzing what I could improve for the next time. I shortened practices but made them more intense and focused on perfection. It worked for me, it may or may not for you.

2. Have fun - its easy to get lost searching for success, I got lost a few times myself and it was because I forgot how to have fun doing what I was doing.

3. Be patient - overcoming fears will not happen overnight. Three years later I still pause when I see a spider but I no longer fear them, I let them do their own thing as I am not on their list of preferred foods!

I no longer fear failure. The greatest champions failed many many times before becoming who they are. Failure only makes us stronger. Yes it hurts, it sucks and can really mess you up but at the end of the day it won't kill you. My motto is simple: "What you call pain, I call freedom"


  

ADHD in Children and Adolescents

DISCLAIMER: The following is my personal views and experience working in the field over the last 3 years.

According to many ADHD is the most over diagnosed disorder in the country. I would have to agree with this. Now a days it seems that any child who is unable to sit still or focus on a single task at hand has an attention problem. Instead of figuring out the problem educators are sending parents to doctors to get medication in order to "calm" the child down. I think this is absolute crap and laziness on their part. 

Did you know that 9% of kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication? While in France only .5% of the kids diagnosed with ADHD are given medication. Here is the article I got those statistics from Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD. After reading that article I went back and changed my way of working and studying the population I work with. I made a case study out of one of my patients at the time. I discussed with his parents my idea and what the goals were for the new direction of therapy, they agreed to comply and so for one month we ONLY did family therapy in which we focused solely on the parents problems while having the child sit in during the therapy sessions. At the beginning the child was uncomfortable and would try a variety of distraction methods to throw us off. After 2 weeks and him being allowed to participate and express himself the results were very visible. He stopped bouncing off the walls, he improved his relationship with his father, and he was able to start the first 2 months of the school year without going back to his medication (nearly 5 months off his medication). After 4 weeks even the child's tone of voice was lower and he was able to sit through a therapy session with minimal interruptions.

ADHD is not an illness that needs to be medicated, its a problem within the family itself. It can be a lack of communication with the parents and siblings, could be lack of a male or female figure, abuse or trauma or something going on within their own lives that they do not feel comfortable sharing with their families in fear of what may be said or thought of them. Children keep this stuff inside and then are completely unable to focus when in school. Allowing children to express themselves is the quickest way to "fix" attention problems.

Take time to listen and teach them some coping skills, not only will they appreciate you helping them outside of school, the parents will appreciate you helping them in school. Also take time to talk to the parents, if you are not a therapist then offer for them to see the school psychologist or counselor or refer them to someone you may know who specializes in children and adolescents. Sometimes the kids you think are the worst are that way because they are the ones calling out for the most help.

My advice to parents if you notice your child appears distracted, avoidant (unless he's a teenager!) avoids arguments or discussions that may get heated, is to look inward and consider what's going on within your own relationships that may be causing this behavior. I'm not saying it's always your fault but from experience at least 70-75% of the time it is. By working on yourselves and improving your own relationships you will also improve your relationship with your child. 

Catching Up and Starting Fresh

So for the last nearly 2 years I have been MIA. Literally. I stopped training to finish my Masters in Psychology and then I began to work 80 hours a week to make ends meet. At one point I had 4 jobs and was still barely making ends meet. Welcome to the real world huh?

Last month I completed my first 30 Runs in 30 Days in over 2 years. I completed it while running in my SeeYa's which I absolutely love. I did a loading period with Power Bar High Intensity Beta Alanine and that combined with Mobility work and the Roller made me see Magnificent results. Within 2.5 weeks I had improved my 3.4 mile daily run by 90 seconds and by the end of the 30 days on my best run I managed to drop 2 minutes from when I started.

Total numbers were

28 runs in 30 days
96 miles
24 miles per week average.

I think of all my ventures over the last 2 years the 30 Runs in 30 Days was my most successful. I have been emotionally numb from the draining of the last year. The stress, emotionally and physically was brutal and its taking me some time to feel normal from a mental health point of view. The reality is that over the last year I failed like I never had in my life. I have lost big tennis matches, been robbed of them by umpires, I had pulled out of races because of injuries but I had never been exposed to the kind of failure I did over the last year. I nearly failed with maintaining my relationship with my gf, I had serious debt problems and I was working a job that showed one as much value as being a slave and there is no honour in doing that. I can honestly say that besides having met my gf and stolen her number, quitting everything I had and starting fresh in March of 2014 has to be the best decision I have made since I decided to go to school for a year at Northern Arizona. I have more financial stability, I have had some new doors open but I am still not quite doing what I love which is working with adolescent athletes and children. I have a lot of fixing to do and a lot of learning and accepting to do but I feel I am on the right track. Its about time I get back on here and write and help educate others.

Thanks for reading!

Coming Back

So its been a few months since I talked about starting to run with the SeeYas. I got so busy with my final semesters of grad school and work at the hospital that I pretty much dropped running and blogging up until today. Today I come with a Masters in Psychology and eager to work. No more stress of the hospital or having to take exams! WOOHOO!

Just got a new job and in the coming months I will be studying for my CSCS certification as well.

Since September 1st I have been training again. I strapped on my Polar FT80 about 3 weeks ago and started training again. Training plan is simple. Run 6 days a week lift 3 days. Mondays I do plyometrics and olympic lifting as well as speedwork on the track. Wednesday I do 5x5 strength work in the gym and on Friday I do high rep muscular endurance training. All my runs besides the track are in Zone 2 unless I feel tired in which I train in Zone 1.

On Monday I decided to start a 30 Runs in 30 Days challenge. I kicked it off with a 10 mile run with 4 miles of bridge work. I will post all stats from my workouts on Sundays unless I can link my polarpersonaltrainer.com profile straight on here for everyone to see.

As far as the SeeYa goes. I believe at this point I have about 200-300 miles before this challenge started and I am showing some signs of wear. I think 500 miles will be a good number but I am still working on 1000.

If anyone is interested and has a www.polarpersonaltrainer.com account I have created a challenge in the challenge section of the website. Feel free to join. I upload my workouts at the end of every night.

Thanks for reading! Pictures of the SeeYa will be up this sunday as well as my weekly stats.

SeeYa: First Impression

So its been 2 weeks now.  Apologies for the late post but I have only had internet for 6 days now.  I just completed a move into my new apartment and must say that it took me a few days to find a running route. 

I must say that the SeeYa's have to be the best production pair of running VFF's ever.  Not only does feel like you are barefoot but they weigh absolutely nothing! I ran over glass, rocks, and gravel and must say the protection is more than enough to run on the road. I would use them on a soft trail but definitely do not recommend them for anything more than road or grass running.  The ONLY negative I can find is the heel slips a tiny bit.  It feels weird at first but after about 2-3 miles you forget and keep on going.

So my 2 weeks mileage is as follows:

Monday 2/13 - 8 miles - Easy run, this was my longest run since Tough Mudder in December.  I felt strong throughout the run even when running 2 miles on the 104th bridge. The shoes felt fantastic and had me craving more running.

Thursday 2/16 - 10 miles - This run felt awesome.  No fatigue of any kind.  The SeeYa's held up great.  I felt no soreness of any kind on my feet afterwards or the following day.

Thursday 3/1 - 6 miles - So work and School kept me from doing much this week aside from going to the gym twice.  Easy run on the old route.  New route should begin tomorrow.

Totals
Distance - 24 miles
Time - 4 hrs.

Hopefully this week I can get 3 runs in instead of 2.  I am looking forward to running more but school and work has me all tied up.