Happy New Year, everyone!
I hope that your 2020 is off to a great start so far, and that you’re ready for more stuff from me as we kick off this next decade of fitness and fun.
Back when I started the blog, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a bunch of fitness posts. Yes, my goal is to share things that hope to be educational and informative, but I also want to share things that are entertaining and fun. This video definitely meets that criteria.
I hope you like it!
I love when celebrities use their fame and fortune for good! Whether it’s giving back to the communities they grew up in or live in today, providing opportunities to those less fortunate, or using their voice to support a cause that’s important to them, I have tons of respect for people who devote time to helping others.
By those standards, then, Bubba Watson is awesome!
He’s a great golfer, he’s really funny, and with all of the charitable work he does, it truly seems like it comes from his heart.
Click here and watch some of the good things he’s done for his community.
Then, watch some clips of Bubba just being Bubba!
Over the last few days, a 14-year old baseball player is making headlines across the country. His name is Luke Terry, and he’s good! The reason people are talking about him, though, is because Luke only has one arm. When he was 19 months old he contracted E. Coli and had his right arm amputated. Does it look like it’s slowed him down much? I don’t think so.
When stories like this hit the mainstream, I usually get a little frustrated. The kid has one arm. Yes, that’s definitely newsworthy. But he is also an incredible athlete! There are stories of athletes all over the world who are labeled “physically disabled” or “physically challenged.” As I watched a show on ESPN, one of the anchors referred to Luke as “differently abled,” and I thought that was better. This isn’t an inspiring moment of the team equipment manager who gets to come out and shoot an easy layup as his team is up by 30 points in the 4th quarter. Those stories are incredible in their own right (and typically make my eyes well up,) but Luke Terry… this kid has a cannon.
Watch the video below and tell me whether you think this is a “cute and heartwarming” story of some kid being given a chance to play a sport with his friends. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that he won that spot fair and square by being the best player on the team. He bats third in the line-up, folks! That’s not a favor the coach is giving him because he “has a disability.” Luke Terry lost his arm when he was 19 months old. All he’s known is life with one arm. And he still learned to play the game better than I ever could! So while you may see an athlete with one arm, I see an extremely talented ball player.
Is he “differently abled?” Sure! He can throw you out trying to steal second OR be different and pick you off on your way to third base. Get it, Luke. You’re an awesome, and I’m stoked to see you continue to succeed!
When I moved to Colorado in 2006, I had only been “skiing” two or three times. The word “skiing” is in quotations because you can hardly call what I did skiing. Yet I’ll never forget the first day I took a snowboard on the slopes of Winter Park, had friends give me about 15 minutes of pointers, and then I said, “Go have fun, I’ll meet you for lunch.” I was committed to try and learn this new sport that so many of my friends had been doing their whole lives. So for three consecutive days, I tried to teach myself how to snowboard. And I fell. A lot. My butt was bruised, right along with my ego, but I remember walking off the mountain at the end of each day a bit more confident. I was making progress, and it felt great!
For the next 7 years, I would buy a pass to the incredible resorts around Denver, and each year I kept getting better and better! I wasn’t ready to drop out of a Heli-skiing down a couloir, and I wasn’t crushing the Super Pipe with all of the park rats, but I could hold my own. It took me several seasons to feel as though I had become “good” at this winter sport. Why tell you this story? Am I about to announce that I’m joining the Semi-Pro Snowboard Cross circuit? No, it is not. It’s to say that while it takes people like me years to learn how to ski on snow, there are people out there who simply need more. People like Candide Thovex, professional skiier and Freeride World Champion, for example. In partnership with Audi, he starred in one of the best freeriding segments of the year. Oh, and he wasn’t on snow for any of it. I hope you like the video below as much as I did.
Arthur Boorman’s story is incredible. I first saw the video below years ago, and just had to write about it on my blog. Arthur was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years. Through years of being a paratrooper, his knees and back slowly started to deteriorate. After gaining a lot of weight, he was no longer able to walk without assistance. Doctors told him he would never walk without support again.
One day, he came across an article that talked about famous professional wrestler, Diamond Dallas Page, and how he had been practicing Yoga. The article inspired Arthur to give it a shot. As you can imagine, the road was a rough one. Progress started slow and he fell often. But he never gave up. DDP took interest in his story, and began communicating with, encouraging, and supporting Arthur through his journey. He ended up losing 140lbs in 10 months, and just a little bit more physical independence!
Watch the awesome video below, share it with someone you know who might need a little pick-me-up, and remember… through consistency, discipline, a strong support network, and a well-thought-out training program, so much is possible!
… I swear every time I watch this. Every time! I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying!
Is the proper term Figure Skating or Ice Dancing? I never know and never want to offend anyone, but also haven’t taken the 14 seconds to Google the difference in order to avoid confusion. In fact, I probably could have found the answer to that question in the time it took me to write the last three sentences…… sigh.
Regardless, Jimmy Ma’s routine at this year’s US Figure Skating Championships turned a few heads and helped give way to what has to go down as one of the best truly genuine color commentary moments in the history of sports. (Relax, I said one of, not the best.) Not only did he begin with “Propaganda“, a song by DJ Snake, but he brought it home with the melodic harmonies of Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What“!
I don’t know what I appreciate more:
Nice job, Jimmy Ma. Great job, commentary crew. And congrats on the breakthrough, DJ Snake and company!
I’ve tried to start writing on my blog again at least once per week for the last…. eight or nine months. Every time I start a post, however, I get paralyzed. I wonder whether or not what I’m writing is good enough. Whether or not I use commas in the right places. (I don’t, by the way.) Whether or not people will like what I have to say.
You know what? When my writing was at it’s peak, and when the highest number of people were checking in every day, I didn’t care about any of that. I just wrote to write. I just started blogging because I had something to say. Something I wanted to share. Sometimes I learned. Or my favorite posts, somethings I wanted to learn from all of you!
The sense of community we started here many years ago has been lost, and I really miss it. So, for the seventeenth time….
THE BLOG IS BACK!!!
My good friend Broderick always told me that to get better at writing, you write. Every. Single. Day. No matter how little, just do it.
Here’s to trying!
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MOMENT OF AWESOMENESS is a segment on my page where I share things I’ve come across online. Typically, it’d be a video I saw on Facebook, and now Instagram, too. Since we woke up to snow here in Colorado this morning, and then my friend Erin shared this video with me, it seemed like a perfect time for me to post this one!
One of my favorite Snowboard segments I’ve watched was this one from JP Auclair (RIP) from the movie All.I.Can.
I’ve watched it at least once every winter since I saw it 6 years ago, and the video I saw today was inspired by this same epic run through the streets of Nelson, B.C. It was so great because I could tell in the first few seconds of the video that it was the same neighborhood!
Tom Wallisch crushes this video, entitled “Imagination”, as he follows in JP’s footsteps and makes the world his playground. I think my favorite scene is when he does a gate-stall on the fence, closes the gate, rides down a huge rail, then grabs the handle of the car for a lift, only to wall ride on the mural that was used in JP’s scene, which has had many more colorful birds added to it! When he does, the parents in the car comment on how it’s nice that something is finally being done with the mural. So great!
(Side note: does this remind anyone of Danny MacAskill’s Imaginate video?! Kids daydreaming of awesomeness, in mountain towns, while adults go on with their boring lives, none the wiser. Just sayin…)
Regardless, this video brought a smile to my face, and I hope it brings one to yours, too!
I hope you all have a great week. Here we go again!
-Tom
Virtuosity is a word that gets thrown around in CrossFit a lot. It’s generally referred to as
“performing the common uncommonly well.” Today, I’m sharing to videos of people who embody that word.
I think Ive posted this before, but it’s worth sharing again. Séan Garnier is a freak! Just look at this control. The next time you’re near a soccer ball, just try ONE of these tricks. So cool to watch!
Also, how is this a thing? I’m still partially convinced that this is a fake video, haha.
The next time you’re near a bike.. do NOT try one of these tricks!
My family is from Brazil, so soccer was my first love as a sport. I remember going to visit family growing up, and being floored at how good one of my cousins was at “juggling” a soccer ball.
After today, I’ve seen the most impressive footwork to date with a soccer ball. Check out Séan Garnier just doing WORK.
So cool.
p.s.- You don’t have to like soccer to enjoy this video. Just awesomeness.
Happy Hump Day, everyone!
I am a HUGE fan of trick shots. The guys at Dude Perfect are the best at it.
The shots they make, mostly with basketballs, are pretty darn fun to watch!
This time, however, they did their own “Gym Stereotypes” video, and it actually left me laughing out loud for most of it.
This is my favorite one of these types of videos out for sure. Which is your favorite? Which one are you?
Check it out, and pass it on!
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