Fan Appreciation Day

Hey Cal Fans,

Tomorrow is Cal's Fan Appreciation Day from 12-2pm. I hope to see you all out there so that I and the rest of the Cal Bears can show a little gratitude! Thanks for being such great fans! Go Bears!

Sleep Deprivation

Being a Student-Athlete requires great time management and balance between your academics and athletics. But when the grind is on and things need to be done some of us might lose a little sleep staying up late or pulling all nighters for papers and homework. The problem a lack of sleep brings can be detrimental to your health. Sleep deprivation can cause aching muscles, dizziness and nausea, headaches, and can make individuals irritable. Sounds pretty similar to how you feel after a day at work, don't you think?

Its very funny to see one of our large rooms at the stadium occupied during Fall Camp with football players sleeping all over the floor to catch up on some shut eye they need. Picture a large room with bodies laying everywhere. It reminds me of the piers over at Fisherman's Wharf covered with Seals basking in the sun. There's really no difference between the two -- large animals fighting for superior spots barking at each other to move over and be quiet. The only difference is its at the stadium...

Its very common for guys to get their ankles taped for a practice 4 or 5 hours in advanced so that they can go to their respective meeting rooms and sleep on the floors. This allows the athlete to get a little extra sleep or power nap in and not miss or be late to their meetings. Usually the standard kick from a teammate will do for a wake up when meetings are about to start.

Get your sleep fans! An AMAZING season is beginning! We need you all!

Occasional Posts

Hey Fans! Let me start off this post by apologizing for not writing a new blog post in a week or so and leaving you all to believe that I have fallen off the face of Earth. That is not true in some respects. With Fall Camp in full swing, I am almost completely seperated from what's going on outside with the exception of about 20 minutes of Sports Center at dinner. I don't actually get to pick the channels we watch, I'd prefer 50/50 between the news and Sport Center, but hey, You take what you can get.

With that being said, My schedule during camp lets me have limited time for my blog posts. That time period is usually spent in the training room working with trainers to keep my body a 100 percent during this long and aggressive period of football. If I'm not in the training room I'm sleeping. Our days are usually from 6am-ish to 11;30pm -ish and sleep is a very important part of recovery of the body and mind.

As this might upset some of you, I must focus on Football at this time of my life. Occasional post will come up these next weeks of Camp, but during season don't expect the usual everyday message as well. I'm writing my thesis, 60 pages of interviews and investigated readings, which is going to take a lot of work to write while in season.

Thanks for all the support fans, its greatly appreciated. Next post should be around early next week.

Woo! Go Bears! <3

Avoiding Injury

As I walk over to the stadium this morning for our conditioning test (which I'm about to destroy I might add) I enthusiasticly read the comments to my last post. I will try to answer all your questions in the best way possible that follows the new criteria for my posts. So here we go...

The best way to defend yourself against injury is by fast feet. Our technique as O Lineman, in short, is butt down, feet apart, hands in chest. But those feet never stop moving. They need to move rapidly because in our position the frequency of someone falling into your knees is extremely common.

Not only that but the Offensive Line is mandated to wear our knee braces. My knee braces have definitely, on more than one occasion, saved major injury. There is nothing like a Erik Robertson/ Mebane battle and either one of them tries to plant a foot for leverage not realizing its into your calf or side of the knee. Or how about a Power play where Alex Mack drives the backside D Tackle into the Tackle. Its very common.

Other than that, injuries are very common for an Offensive Lineman. Playing the sport feeling a 100 percent is very unlikely. You are almost always playing Saturdays with small injuries. The sad thing about it all is there is no real way of defending against all injuries. You have to go out there with the mindset that if you play harder than the rest and keep your feet moving, your chances are less likely of getting injured. Which in my experience, holds true. The mindset of Kill or BE Killed comes to mind... Woo! Go Bears!

The Head Honcho

Sooo, I had a meeting today with the Head Honcho. He caught wind of the blog. Bluntly, he wasn't too excited to hear I have one. Kind of questioned my motives for doing it. Anyways, We've come to an agreement that the blog Can and Will stay, BUT (there is always a but and a big one at that) There are going to be 0 football talks regarding opponents and teammates. Everything must be from personal experience. My blogs can only represent my opinions and not those of the teams or coaching staff's. And it must not be a distraction to academics or football.

With that said... Anyone have any topics they want me to talk about? Not regarding any of those things stated above...

Top 10 Things That Make Me Mad.

10) People that run you over in cars...

9) Motorcycle thieves...

8) Wounded Soldiers/ Half eaten plates...

7) Some idiot standing on our lawn trying to distract us when his two buddies are trying to steal a car in the background... WE CAN SEE YOU... (that happened last night)

6) "One Size Fits All!"...Liars!

5) 3 and out by the Defense and Offense doesn't take advantage...

4) Losing to U$C/Furd...

3) "All You Can Eat" Buffets that don't let me in...

2)Getting all Dolled up for games each week and after a successful day of work on the Grid Iron coming home all bruised and battered only to see your butt for a combined 4 seconds on Sports Center...

1) When you're at the end of Fall Camp, practicing in the second practice of the day, in the last couple periods of practice, in the scorching heat of August, and you look over at the sideline and the kickers and snappers are playing tag... I understand there is only sooo much you can do in a practice, but you're killing me!

Leadership

Teaching the tricks of the trade to the youngsters on any team is a very important aspect of athletics that allows for improvement in cohesion of the group, communication between each other, and the skill level of all around. To many, teaching the younger guys the importance of particular aspects of your position may seem haunting. It might even lead to distancing between each other. In the end all that might matter to some athletes is starting or receiving the most playing time. But helping the young guns with their skill sets increase competition around us. Their increase in skill pushes the second string guys to become better, which in the end pushes even myself to become a better player. It drives the teams overall success and makes a team who they are years down the road.

Taking the younger guy under your wing might create competition against everyone including yourself, but in the end the reward is knowing a newbie has learned something from you.

(Special Thanks to AC for teaching me everything I know!)

Fall Camp Around The Corner!

I just got done having a conversation over Facebook Chat with one of our very enthusiastic freshman, Allan Bridgford. He asked me if I was excited for my fifth and final Fall Camp...He not knowing that it is going to be my SIXTH, I responded back with an "Of Course!". Fall Camp starts this Thursday and the excitement throughout Berkeley for the beginning of Cal Football season is evident everywhere. The guys on team with our time off from summer workouts still find no reason to leave the stadium these days and proceed to keep working out. Cal fans are in the stores purchasing their Cal #4 Jerseys and still complaining to me that they didn't buy their USC tickets.

3 More days until Fall Camp! 33 days until our first game!

The Women's Huddle

After yesterdays extravaganza I think I can honestly say that women are Cal Football's biggest fans. Yesterday was the annual Women's Huddle at Memorial Stadium. Approximately 400 women came out in support of the Cal Football team by learning some of the basic football techniques and hanging with the guys (Coaches and Athletes). The purpose of the Women's Huddle is to give the ladies a little first hand experience of the little things most of them don't see on an average day and/or Saturday. They run through multiple stations with drills each position does on a regular basis. For example, the QB's station showed them the proper technique of throwing a football and allowed them to throw a couple passes around, the Offensive Lineman station that I worked with Chris Guarnero and Chet Teofilo was teaching how to Shotgun Snap a football, etc, etc, for each position.

The best part about the Huddle was the enthusiasm from all the women throughout the evening, especially for the Offensive Line station. I've never seen a group of individuals so excited to learn about a position not highly talked about. Even though they had to bend over in front of us to snap the ball, their excitement blocked out most of their embarrassment. Women waiting their turn in line threw the occasional sexual connotation to their friends about playing with footBALLS and snapping the ball, "not too hard and not too soft...just the way they like it" (referring to snapping the ball toward the QB's) enlightened the mood of the event.

Another couple great moments at the event were the jealous men sitting in the stands watching their girlfriend or wife snap the ball. I have to admit, many footballs went too low, too high, or off to either side. Those snaps were usually accompanied with the sound of a sigh and a softly spoken, "Come on, hunny...".

Overall everyone had an amazing time. A special shout out to the Vikings who had the best snaps of the night! Good Job ladies!