We actually got a snow day up here, so I’m using it to catch up on all sorts of stuff – from holiday shopping, to wrapping presents, to writing articles and programs.  Admittedly, I did sleep until 9AM this morning, and that’s pretty late for me.

1. It occurred to me that thanks to the miracle known as YouTube, I can embed a music video in my first random post each week, and you’ll have musical entertainment in the background (if you want) as you read my stuff.  And, since it’s the season of miracles, I’ll do just that.  For the record, the experience will be all the more enjoyable if you hold your mouse in your right hand and raise a lighter in the air with the left arm.  Of course, it won’t really work out that well if you try to play the other videos below at the same time, but my intentions were good…

Here’s Coming Undone by Korn, a classic song around Cressey Performance.  It gets me all fired up to blog like a rock star.

2. While snow is a royal pain in the butt up here in New England, it does have one upside: accident-prone reporters who think they need to be outside to accurately relate just how much it is snowing.

Occasionally, you’ll even get an in-studio goofball:

3. The only thing better than weathermen making tools of themselves?  You guessed it: clumsy women stomping grapes with their feet on camera.

4. Apparently, we’ve got some pro pitchers – one in VA, and the other in NH – drawing inspiration from this blog as they prepare to get up here in early January to prepare for spring training.  How you like these apples, fellas?  Up five reps from the Thanksgiving day lift – simply because that’s how we roll.

Come get some, fellas!

A huge thanks goes out to Jeremy Heffer and the University of Georgia Strength and Conditioning staff for the “Power G” beanie that made this all possible.

5. I’ve talked previously about the long-term detrimental effects of taping ankles, and I recently got a good inquiry about whether I thought this same issue would be present in MMA fighters who tape their wrists.  My response was that it probably wasn’t an issue as much at the wrist predominately because the wrist isn’t a weight-bearing joint.  By loading the ankle while it’s taped, we solidify neural patterns a lot more quickly.  Additionally, nobody tapes their wrists for the same duration and frequency as those athletes (basketball players, for instance) who tape their ankles daily for several hours – and combine those restrictions with wearing high-top sneakers.  I remember seeing an interview with Bill Walton back in the mid-1980s when he joked about how the ankle taping got tighter and tighter as the season went on – probably because the guys got more and more unstable at their ankles!

That’s all she wrote for today.  Have a great weekend, everyone!