Session 3 of ASA Baseball's May MVP class

Started off with ladders. Good warmups, they are. The usual LR-RL-RL-RL; scissors L first, R first; L-in L-out; R-in R-out; two footed hop in, R outside, in, L outside, continue; rip R foot in, two outside, rip L foot in, two outside. Might have been a few more in there, I don't recall.

We had hurdles next: 5 6" hurdles followed by 5 12" hurdles. We did each run three times. The first run was two footed hops. The second was sideways hops with left foot first, then sideways hops with right foot first. The next set of runs were each foot between the hurdles, left foot first; then the same with the right foot first. The last run was one foot between each hurdle, keep knees high (so that the foot comes through straight and not cocked to the side.

The next exercise was jumping box drills. We jumped onto the 24" box with a weighted ball in hand. I did 8 jumps onto the box with the ball in hands, then 8 more jumps sans ball. Next we jumped up onto the box facing sideways, 8 with a ball, then 8 without a ball. With these sideways jumps, we landed on the box sideways. We did these with the left foot near the box, then the right foot near the box. The last set was a 180° jump onto the boxes without the weighted ball. I did the 10 from a 90° instead. I did do one from a 180°.

With our legs partially tired, we did the box sprint. Given a box with corners numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 counter-clockwise from 1, start at 4. Run to 3, turn 90° with the left foot swinging outside, facing back to the 1-4 side, shuffle sideways back to 2. From 3, pump the arms and sprint back to 4. At 4, pump the arms really fast and shuffle from 4 to 1. Run backwards to 2. At 2, pump the arms really fast and sprint diagonally back to 4. We did three of these box sprints - Kris did four, the last one for time.

I thought the next drill was ultimate specific, but I saw the next class doing it, too, so I guess it wasn't. Four cones were set up in a zig-zag pattern: the first cone was 4 yards away, the next three 2 yards apart in about 90° angles if you zig-zag. The drill was sprint to a cone, pump the arms really fast and drop the waist and accelerate to the next cone, facing the forward wall the whole time. I'm not sure how many we did. I pushed myself as hard as I could. Not sure if I did well or not.

The next two drills were medicine-ball based. The first was a sideways shot put, R foot first, then left foot first. 10 throws each. Then we did the ball pass (twisting L to get the ball low, passing it to the R, repeat for 10). Reverse passing the ball R to L. Then pass from L low to R high, then R low then L high. Each was for 10 times. Fairly simple.

The next exercise was Chasing the Chicken. I can't stand that one. Kris chased me the first time. Ryan chased Kris the second time. Then I chased Ryan the last time. I didn't give Ryan any rest, which worked well. Then I chased Kris. I was so tired after that! Once again, Ryan didn't do too well. Kris totally kicked Ryan's butt. Or, as he says, "They don't call him Mr. Squirrelly for nothing!" Kris faked left, Ryan bit, and Kris sprinted right. Kris was really good. I tried really hard, but couldn't quite keep up. I did pretty well with Kris until he broke past me and sprinted to the opposite corner.

The last exercise was abs, of course. Bicycles, V ups, Russian crunches, side-to-side with weighted ball, rollups with the large exercise ball, partner pushdowns, partner leg tosses and finally, 6" leg lifts (with karate chops!).

We went to play ultimate afterward. It was exhausting. I'm happy to say I played hard. I was quite hungry, too. I was able to sprint the last point of the last game, so I think I did well. I'm mostly pleased with my play.