Well. . .yesterday was my first 4-match day, and it was sort of a wakeup call. My first match was a U15 boys middle and I thought it went well, even with a send-off. Then I had two ARs, a U17 boys and a U16 girls. To finish the day I had a U16 boys middle. I was definitely feeling pretty wiped out. . .and to add to it all, I was being assessed. One of the ARs was a Grade 5 whom I’d worked with before and is quite good. The other AR was new to me and it didn’t take too long for him to unimpress me. Early on, I found he was having some trouble staying with play. Now, I know I have to get better at consistently looking to my right for the AR’s flag when balls are played forward, but I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with an AR who was consistently so late with the flag. I mean I’m all about a late flag, waiting for involvement and such, but this guy was almost to the point of pushing my buttons. I know at least half the time, I looked right as the ball/play went forward and saw no flag - only to have people screaming at me 3-4 seconds later to look at the flag. Fortunately, when the teams switched ends for the second half the majority of the action was at the other end. But I definitely felt that I didn’t get what I wanted from that AR. And when I’m physically wasted, I definitely rely on my ARs a lot more. I couldn’t have been more relieved when the match ended. Some matches you feel you did great, some matches you feel OK, and other matches you survive. This was a match I felt fortunate to survive. In the end, the assessor felt I did a pretty good job and gave me some things to keep in mind. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
So what does this have to do with fitness? In my mind, it has everything to do with fitness. If my fitness is where I want it to be I’m not nearly so wiped out for that 4th match and my mental focus is sharper, allowing me to better handle the match despite a problematic AR.
The other thing I realized is how poorly hydrated I am. In that last match, I started cramping pretty badly behind my right knee. I’d never had problems cramping like that before. Time to cut way way back on the sodas and drink more water!!!!