Outdoors

We had a good outdoor practice yesterday at the OKPaws field. It was mid-40's with an Oklahoma breeze of 20-25 mph, but wasn't too bad if you kept active. Too much standing around would let the cold settle into the bones.

I wanted to get some opinions on the work Zio and I have been doing at home, using just the stride regulator before the box. It's good to have extra sets of eyes sometimes. They noticed that Zio hits the box differently when there is a ball in versus without the ball. Without the ball, he tends to run out of room coming off the box when he hits it too far left. With the ball, his rear hits further to the right and he seems to come back straight. After thinking it over, it may only seem straighter because he's hitting far enough to the right to avoid the jump bars on the ground discouraging wide turns.

Technically, it really shouldn't matter where he hits the box. Center of the box is actually supposed to be better. Coming back straight is coming back straight. Muscle memory wise, it's better for him to keep repeating the same motions (getting the ball) on his turn that he would use during a tournament. He has such a long body that it may be more difficult for him to hit the center and get the ball smoothly.

We also discussed using a larger stride regulator, but I really want to keep the visual cues to a minimum. From trying to reconstruct his turn all year long, Zio seems to really depend on the "junk" being in place to guide him. He seems to do worse at tournaments if all if ever sees at practice is the jump board before the box. That being said, we'll continue with the minimalist cue of one PVC jump bar on the ground to keep him from crashing the box and force him to drive back on his return. My logic is that you can't punch the box and also drive back over the strider.

Susan Owens mentioned using a clicker, which is something I've been considering anyway. It may be time to invest $1.98 in one!