Thursday, February 28, 2013

RGIII Bionic Man Or Bust?



So they rebuilt RGIII but they can't make him faster than he was because he was already super fast.
Adidas provides the edgy comeback narrative reminiscent of Nike commercials; "All in for week one".
Chances are he'll be just a little bit slower recovering from his knee surgery but will work to make himself a better overall player in time IF his knee holds up.  By having the pressure of the hype to be good to go in week one he may be setting himself up. Now you would think if anyone can do it RGIII can.  The autograft from his non-injured patellar tendon is stronger than his previous graft and the word is that the surgery went well and he is ahead of schedule.  RGIII is not a comic book hero, however, and is only too human when it comes to vulnerability in his knee as  we saw at the end of last year.  There are some adjustment after knee surgery and sometimes the donor side can have irritation.  Secondary fibrosis  healing can take well over a year even though that is not he main healing.  Let's hope for the sake of his career that Dr. Andrews is not pushed by the franchise, RGIII's own exuberance and the pressure of the hype to play before he is ready.

For more on this and other injury advice check out Sports Talk on News 8 with Glenn Harris and me as his guest 9pm Friday March 1.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Yoga and the Zen Of Ski


Owning a skill is not an easy thing. I taught skiing at Whitetail and  once had a clinic with an instructor named Mark Goodman and he told me that practice does not make perfect, perfect practice does. The thing about yoga with a class is that you get the corrective feedback from the instructor and the energy from practicing with a group.   I had trouble  with standing tall and Mark used a bamboo stick to give me the feedback where I was standing by pacing it underneath the back of my jacket.  That was an excellent self discovery exercise but to really own that posture I had to go to yoga practice to unwind and develop the core and back muscles to stand tall which gives you more leverage skiing.  To really improve once a week does not cut it- particularly if you are not that naturally flexible like me.  You can supplement the classes with your own practice a few times a week .  It is also a great way to relax and   yoga masters don't make it to 100 years by accident.