ok ok so it's not a full 2 weeks long Camp experience like college was, but it was still intense. We stayed in this huge sports complex which housed a full indoor track and field facility, basketball courts, it had outdoor soccer fields, tennis, a weightroom, rooms to have meetings, it was pretty intense... Reminded me of an FCA thing we did at the University of Houston's indoor facility when it was new. Of course Matt and I share a room, it's a pretty sweet little loft, with 2 desks a bed, salle de bain downstairs and then 2 more beds upstairs. Pretty solid.
On the 2 a days on Samedi we just focused on Offense. This was great because we got to use a whole defense just to work on run and pass. It was good to be able to give the Lineman a look of an entire defense. See at Tech we had like 16 or 17 O Lineman, so you would always have a 7 man defense to see, when working with only 7 Lineman you can only give them half line looks. So we got a lot accomplished. However it was freezing! Remember the ice on the field... Yea that just didn't go away. So after the first practice, we come back. They have a full cafeteria like the athletic dining hall at GT, same quality, just less variety.
We run through meetings and get a test which asks like 40 random questions about NFL football. Like....
Whose the most prolific WR-QB combonation?
Who had 7 sacks in one game?
How many teams have never played in the super bowl?
... and of course some french questions like,When was football first started in France?
How many French football players are there?
Then we had the second practice and worked on more Offense. For warmups I had the great idea to plow the field so we werent running on ice anymore. Becaue it was seriously like a dump truck of Ice spun out on top of an ice skating rink and spread ice all over it. So I get the Lineman and we each take a bag, like the ones you do footwork drills with, probably 2 yards wide. I make them push the ice off the field the entire width of the field. I did this 6 times and then got pretty tired. But we had some space to work with after this.
Now this is the part were American camp and French camp differ! We had what was called the Rookie show. In America you do not have much hazing because of NCAA regulations.... No NCAA in France.
We gather up and all the rookies are lead outside to a snow covered soccer field. They tell us to line up and say are name, where were from, what we do...'etc. I'm last. For Matt and myself we have to parlez in francias. Fun stuff. I managae a my names matt. I live in the US from Texas. I play American Football. We then are paired up with are arms taped together. OK ... if your like me I bet your thinking, What's going on? What's about to happen?
Not speaking French sucks when your trying to understand directions (Matt and I are putting up flyers for a tutor at the University today....or if your interested and in France, lemme know) They set up a square with cones about 15-20 yards apart. First you have to spin around the first cone 10 times taped to your partner. Then disoriented, you sprint to the next cone.
Hafid and myself after spinning circles. It was so good being teamed up with him after he rilled up the team acting like they weren't going to get him!
At the second cone, you and your partner hop to the ground and army crawl to the 3rd cone..... little to your knowledge, the entire team has made a gauntlet. So while you are army crawling they kick snow in your face and on your entire body. I actually had someone shove snow down my pants. (I'd like to take this time to say thank you whoever you are, I really appreciated that one.)
Some of the rookies crawling through the gauntlet.
Once at the cone you do 10 pushups still arms tied together. You hop up and then one partner carries you to the next cone. This is more difficult then it seems because using your arm while attached to another persons is pretty awkard. Many teams bite it and tumble to the snow....my team being one of them. Then you switch partners and finish. This is all "timed.
Yea if you think that's it. Ha. The teams are then ranked based on how fast they finished. Now the teams have to compete against each other. We have a bunch of competitions ranging from easy to difficult.
- Notre Maman jokes... who can say the best Yo Mamma joke.
- Impersonation... the last impersionation was who could do Coach Mas
- Don't forget the Lyrics.... the guys have to finish singing a song
- Water chugging competition...2 litres of froid water, then a small one of chaud water
- Dance in the lobby.... Tom cruise in Risky Business minus the shirt style
- Throwing competition....outside in the snow, strip poker style
It was hilarious! The Yo Mamma joke that made the team laugh was basically some version of your momma's already been with the entire team. The Impersonation's where good, but I could have done a better Coach Mas! (Let's just say if you've ever seen coach dance, you'd get it...it's very unique) Don't forget the Lyrics was hilarious. Jesse has to sing R-E-S-P-E-C-T, being a non english speaker it is funny. Click for the Video. Water chugging was good, it was hard for them going from Cold to Hot. (last year they had salt water afterwards and all the guys puked) Dancing in the Lobby was just ridiculous. The throwing competition had both Matty P and Hafid down to their boxers in the cold. The QB didn't win..
All in all it was a fun experience and we had a fun time!
1 comment:
1. I like how you copied my reactions idea.
2. I cannot believe you don't have any negative options in your reactions. Narcissist.
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