With the upcoming basketball season starting in a few weeks. I feel fully ready and excited for it. During summer I worked with multiple basketball trainers and teams. The team this year is looking great, and has a lot of potential. There is more size in the team now. During the summer it has just been mostly basketball for me. I started the day with basketball practice with the team and ended the day with the trainer. The basketball trainer, Noah, has helped me a lot basketball wise. He has helped me gain more knowledge in the game. He taught me how to control the ball and the speed of the game. I have improved my jumper with his help. I averaged 17.2 points per game and 5 assists during the season in the league I have joined with my friend in Taiwan. Although we have been downgraded to the lower bracket this upcoming season, we still have a chance in making the CIF if we go 8-0 this season. Anyways, I have come prepared and ready this season to win first place in the league this year.
Tag: Sport
blog of my life
When I write a blog every week, I feel like I spend more time wondering what to write about than I do writing. I am already wondering what I will write about next week.
But that aside, this week I would like to write a little about my past. Every time I write this blog I am reminded of my elementary school. Because I kept a one-page notebook diary every day from the first grade to the sixth grade. I cried when I was little because I was chased by farm animals, and I started washing my own hair at the age of 1.5 years old because I wanted to imitate my older sister in everything. I grew up with a lot of love from my teachers in kindergarten. I attended an all-girls school from elementary school until the summer after my freshman year of high school. My memories of elementary school were about trying different things. I did many things at school, such as being a member of the class council and student body president. My favorite class was physical education. I took first place in physical fitness two years in a row. The thing I looked forward to most on weekends was going on the trapeze with my friends. In junior high school, I gave up ballet, which I had been doing since I was two and a half years old, and started playing soccer. This was a big change for me, as every weekend and every vacation was filled with soccer. However, soccer was my youth, and I can’t count the number of things I gained from it. Also, the short-term study abroad program I mentioned in middle school was a big reason why I am here in the U.S. now, and it has changed my life. I lead a rather mundane life, but the people I have met have been wonderful and have enriched my life.
I am very much looking forward to the people and environments I will meet in the future. To be honest, I am dreading the preparation for college. lol
SHIN SPLINTS
Shin splints are a prevalent issue among athletes, caused by repetitive pressure and stress on the tibialis and the tibialis anterior tendons. This often happens when increasing the intensity of your training or if you have just begun training. Medically referred to as “medial tibial stress syndrome,” shin splints can cause symptoms like soreness, tenderness, and pain. These symptoms can mostly be treated with ice and lowering your training intensity, and trying to build up to where you want to be. However, if these symptoms are left unchecked, it can cause a stress reaction, which is a defense mechanism the body does under intense stress either physical or mental, and stress fracture in the foot, tibia, or even hip. The reason it can occur in the hip is the same reason a building will collapse if part of the support is taken out. With a weak base (the tibula in this case), then the whole structure will be weak. The hip will start compensating and having to much strain on it, causing micro fractures. These micro-fractures will often cause significantly more pain and rarely get treated due to the pain being not intense enough to go see a medical professional.
With your body undergoing your new style of training, it causes issues in your tendons and muscles but how does one fix this? Oftentimes times, the simplest treatment is the most effective for treating shin splints with ice and decreased intensity however, if your symptoms get check in with your doctor to try and fix the issue. However, it will most likely cause you to stop engaging in intense physical activities for a while.
State Sanctioned Violence
All day like, seventeen-year-old lungs rip against heaving chests, drained of oxygen instead filled with battery acid.
All night like, polyester raging against its seams, raging against boys, struggling against muscles, pads, and hearts all swollen, all wet with sweat.
With my boys like, helmets too tight to contain caffeine, concussions, and memories.
With my pads like, misshapen boys ill suited for football competing not only against another team but with themselves.
We hit the field like, a week of repeated beat downs a month of lows and season of confused agony.
Dropping bodies like, a body careens toward another without hesitation, without fear or knowledge of how it will collide with the other.
All day, he swells proud of his grit.
All night, he overflows with passion.
With my boys, he demands I follow.
All day, like a young stallion on a single stake.
With my boys, like the veins on his flank, roaring, like the muscles in his hock, screaming: raw power unfathomable in its adolescent intensity.
All day, he drives his head into his helmet and charges back onto the field.
Orcas vs. Horses?
Orcas, or killer whales, have been kept in captivity since 1961, and there have been books and movies made about them and how cruel it is to use them for our entertainment. As I read Death at SeaWorld (and watched Blackfish), I started to think about the similarities between horses and orcas in “captivity.”
Both are large, potentially dangerous, and used for entertainment and sport. Both have caused injury, both have caused death, and both are highly intelligent and (seem to) experience emotions and moods.
The only difference I see is that horses have been domesticated for 5500 years, which is far more than the 50 or so years that orcas have been kept captive. Somehow, I feel like the domestication, and perhaps usefulness, is what’s saving horses from being “liberated.”
Our horses, like the orcas, are kept cooped up in small stalls, while feral horses can travel 65-80 km daily for food, water, and shelter. To rid their energy before riding, we make our horses run in circles around us in a little pen.
Horses can get “moody” and “off.” Sometimes they’ll refuse jumps, buck for no reason, or refuse to slow
down while trotting or cantering. So we blame the rider, trainer, or the weather. Orcas can be like that too, refusing trainer orders or protesting in their guttural language.
After I was flung off my pony and broke my clavicle rather terribly, I couldn’t do much of anything but sit in my room all day. I still can’t ride, but I can lunge and groom as long as I’m careful. The pony that bucked me off didn’t seem crazy, guilty, or dangerous whatsoever, and I felt no fear or trauma while looking at him. I was injured so severely that my bone was in danger of impaling through my shoulder and I required a two-hour surgery, and something like that sticks in your mind.
Huge controversies came up and multiple rules were put into place when the first orca injured its trainer, yet when I was injured by my pony my friend was instructed to keep riding him because he “shouldn’t be allowed off that easy.”
I don’t think my pony’s intentions were to hurt me, just like I think that killer whales don’t really want to kill us. But if I were stuck in a cubicle, working for hours with little to no rewards, I would probably go a little nutty and stir-crazy.
Just sayin’.
Soccer
Football, or as we Americans call it, soccer.
Yes, I’m aware that the above is not a complete sentence. However, the winter sports season is my favorite, as I get to play soccer.
Now, I hate running. Even though I do cross-country in the fall and track in the spring, I am really not a runner. I wish I was, but I’m not and that’s just how it is.
That aside, I love running in soccer. I love the sprinting, and the distance. My friend Ally and I run at least two additional miles after practice every day.
Here’s the other thing: I’m terrible at soccer.
I played as a kid in one of those coed AYSO leagues. The only thing I remember from that was when a kid named Peter fell off the monkey bars near our practice field and got a concussion. I was sad because he was never the same when he came back, and I had a crush on him.
I played again in seventh and eighth grade on the school team, and wanted to play my freshman year of high school. But, I popped out my knee during cross-country and skipped a year, joining back up as a sophomore as left wing.
I’m currently the only left-footed player on my team, so I guess that’s something.
But back to the point, I’m awful.
I just can’t seem to get my kicks right and I don’t know why. But that’s ok; I don’t mind.
Who needs aim when you can just smash?
That’s what I do. I just barrel into whoever is in my way and pass it to the players on my team who actually have all that fancy ball-handling down. It’s a party, and I like it.
I love the physicality of soccer, the movement, the heat.
There’s something incredibly fierce about the pace and the nature of the game. It’s like an unexpected dance, the opposing team always has you guessing. You have to figure out how to move with them, anticipate their actions and take your queues.
Of course…I’m a horrendous dancer, but that’s mostly irrelevant.
Dead Toenails and My Lovely Roommate!
Today, two of my toenails fell off after my final season of track here at Ojai Valley School.
My roommate and I were talking about this to our coach (thebrownguy) and we were discussing how it is almost a badge of honor to have toenails that fall off. It shows our character and dedication in running, that despite the pain that comes with running, we give it our all.
My roommate’s toenail fell off a few days ago.
Now, let me tell you, this girl can run.
She was a new student this year and came to take advantage of the track team at our school. Her previous school did not have track as a sport. Now, for a girl who had no prior official track team training, she did fantastic.
My roommate broke several personal records, brought home multiple first place medals, broke a meet record, and even took the title of Condor League MVP this season. But this is not the crowning point in her high school track career. She ran at the CIF preliminary meet, placed second in her heat, and qualified for finals.
She is one of the most dedicated people I know. And dedication is not something you can fake. When I look at her run, its inspiring. The way she pushes herself to the hardest during practice and the way she takes such tender care of her feet afterwards is just fantastic. There is nobody I know that is as dedicated as her. And all of that dedication stems from her pure love for the sport. She loves running. And that is what makes her good.
Now, my roommate can be hard on herself sometimes but I hope when she reads this, she realizes how great she actually is.
She will only get better as she gets older. College is going to be fantastic for you. I just can’t wait to see how well you do, even in your first year in college. I know you will go on to do such great things!
And so back to the topic of toenails. Now that we have established them to be badges of honor, you deserve to have all of your toenails fall off.
I love you thehungryrunnergirl!
My Passion for Volleyball
Volleyball has always been a passion of mine. I love the sound of tennis shoes scuffing against the waxed gym floor, the feeling you get when you celebrate a victory with your teammates, coming into the center of the court to cheer each other on, the release you feel when you snap that ball down onto the other side of the net, and then quickly prepare for it to come right back. I love that in volleyball, you have to always be on your toes, low and ready to play every ball. The trust and relationships that develop between you and your teammates is something truly beyond words. I cannot express the love that I have for each and every girl on my team. Volleyball is all about team work and always trusting your team mates to do their best with every ball that comes their way, but, if they make a mistake, you are right there to tell them “shake it off, we got this, good try.” I know that this sport will always be a big part of my life and i am happy to share my experience with other girls at OVS.
OVS Journalism Blog 
