Tossing Kickboards

We have this "thing" going on after nearly every workout where we have a contest, tossing kickboards into the "bin" - the wire basket on wheels that contains them. We have one for pull buoys but the game isn't the same for some reason and we actually rarely even engage in it. But the kickboards, aha! Now this is a real beauty of a game.

The reason is that the farther away you stand the less control you have of your accuracy. If there is any kind of wind then all bets are off...but we still go for it. We have discovered that underhand tosses are far better than overhead. The mixed strategy is that the farther away from the bin you are the more loft you need to get the board there. If there is wind, the more loft you have the trickier the shot...you get the idea.

Thursday morning the bin was next to the pool fence. Our fence is 10 feet high. If the board goes over it is a long walk around the gym to retrieve it. You definitely don't want that to happen.

We often take a couple of shorter tosses to get warmed up. Ken was working the scene pretty well. Then he took several steps back so he was a good 30 feet away. He needed a bunch of loft if he was going to make his shot. There was a breeze working, often with gusts. His shot was up and clearly from the outset going to be wide left...no danger of going over the fence but wide to the left even as it left his hand.

His comment was, "I wanted to make sure it didn't go over the fence." It didn't and the shot was wide to the left of the bin...not way wide but nevertheless not in the bin.

He looked at me and said, "There is your blog for this week," all the while flashing his engaging smile.

"Winners see what they want; losers see what they want to avoid."

A golfer says, "I sure hope I don't land in the sand trap." A swimmer says, "I hope I don't go out too hard and die," a runner says, "I don't want my legs to cramp up at the end of my race," the list is endless..."I sure hope I don't botch this interview".

Next time you are lining up for your "shot", check your self-talk. Make sure you see what you want rather than what you want to avoid.

(Best kickboard toss on our team, by Ken of course - is around 55 feet, with a slight breeze. The size of the bin is about 24" x 36")