Well, my long suffering girlfriend is away on a sailing holiday in Turkey. My brother is away in Inverness (the north of Scotland). It’s a warm sunny day with a light breeze to keep the temperature reasonably warm. I’m going mountain biking somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales tomorrow, but I’ve decided that today is a rest day.
Back in my hardcore training days I used to designate Sunday as my day off exercise and I’d train six days a week and just loaf around and eat on a Sunday. The reality was that Sunday would actually be my “Day Of Pain” as my body would take the time to try to heal itself from all the punishment it had taken over the previous six days – and that hurts. So it didn’t really feel like much of a rest. But nowadays I don’t do anything like that and a day of rest is really a “Day Of Rest”. And that’s what today is.
But instead of lying around on my sofa all day I decided it was about time I got some video of myself doing keepie-ups. For those of you who don’t know, football (or soccer if you think those huge guys running around in body armour are playing football) is about the world’s most popular ball game. And to improve skills most players spend a fair bit of time doing “keepie-ups” or “ball juggling” as it’s also known. This involves keeping the ball in the air using all parts of your body except your hands. Actually, hacky sack is a game based on the same principle that Americans will be familiar with…
Anyway, while I may not be much of a footballer I am pretty good at keepie-ups (if I do say so myself). So to prove it to myself I got my beloved digital camera out (which shoots video) and recorded some of my skills – so you can see and judge for yourself. I hate to sound egotistical, but looking at what I got (and I only spent a couple of minutes filming, much to the amusement of my neighbours) I think it’s pretty good for a Scottish lad (you may recall me mentioning the dire state of Scottish football the other day). Anyway, here goes:
When I was a kid I used to play in goal and I was terrible. I had no idea what I was doing and I recall our team being beaten 14-0 one time – and I still played in goal after that. Of course, if I had the confidence and skill I have today I’d have played as an attacking midfielder and scored a great many spectacular goals, but I learned too late. Although one thing hasn’t changed. I’m still completely hopeless in goal, I’ve just never gotten the hang of standing in the right place to close down the angle…
Anyway, if you’ll excuse me I’m off to watch some more TV and just generally take it easy. Enjoy the video and note that no, there isn’t somebody holding the ball on a piece of string above my head. Honest!