Today we got up at 7:30, grabbed a delicious Spanish breakfast of ham, salami, cheese, bread, croissants, coffee, orange and apple juice, cereal, half peaches and sliced pineapples, and yogurt.
Then at 9 we walked to the venue, which was finally opened. the first thing we did was to takeout a bunch of broken mats and rearrange them so that the broken sides were either on the outside or the far one third. the MIT athletes were all used to it, and the others had no idea how to do each mat.
We kicked out pretty hard for the first two hours with the sparring team. We did a lot of steps and drills and paddle kicking and the energy was amazing. Then the poomse group went and warmed up poomse style, with sidekick stretches and front kicks.
Later, we had a second practice in the afternoon. Before starting practice we had to wait to get accredited…so we sat around playing Contact. Thanks to RDC and Sauza, the US Collegiate National Team now loves Contact and plays it everywhere we’re waiting for something.
We trained in the afternoon at the same time as several other countries like Korea, Chinese Taipei, and China. (In the morning it was Spain, Portugal and Cuba.) The Korean sparrers all have a type of helmet hair that looks exactly like their hair fits under the helmet and then gets cut. Their poomse teams look sharp and strong, and we have something to aspire to and learn from. Of course our own power and sync is coming along more and more and we are beginning to all look very good as well.
Alicia and I practiced poomse for another hour or so after most of the other people left, and with a wide open mat and warmed (exhausted) muscles, we actually felt and looked the best we’ve done in a long time. This included pyongwang which looked like we had good side kicks on tape. Then, we walked home in the beautiful Spain evening, with the streets bustling with activity.
Spanish days go like this: the morning is beautiful with the warmth of the rising sun. At 3, everyone goes on siesta and the streets are eerily empty, but you have the beautiful weather all to yourself. At 8, the sun is still up like it’s 4 PM, and everyone is out walking and eating and talking. Then people usually have dinner at 9 so life doesn’t stop until midnight, or later.
Tomorrow we will be having another day of training. We will also be wearing our awesome new USA swag. Represent team USA!
Posted by Ty on June 29, 2010 at 12:29 am
you guys look hella cool =) =)
haha.. i request a BADDASS POSE in Spain with all your cool USA Team swag?? =D =D
^_____^ train hard!