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What is Blitzball? The aquatic sport is played on spherical stadia filled with pyrefly-infused water. According to the Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania the sphere pool utilizes pyreflies to congeal the water into a sphere. Blitzball players can stay active underwater for extended periods of time because they are supported by the pyreflies contained in the water. The objective is for the player and their team to kick the blitzball into the opposing team's goal, while the opposing team simultaneously defends their goal and attempts to steal the blitzball to make an attempt at the player's goal. The verb for playing blitzball is "blitzing" or "to blitz” I am getting back into playing Gaelic so I am theming this challenge off the coolest fictional sport I ever saw-Blitzball. It was introduced in Final Fantasy X (10) and I always wanted to play it in real life..prolly more than most sports lol. It combined elements of basketball, swimming and soccer. Well, Gaelic is a lot like Blitzball, minus the cool underwater sphere. I’m still very raw at this sport and relying heavily on athleticism right now but I’m hoping to refine some skills at my position, midfielder aka halfback. I won’t be scoring much, but I can get all the “highballs”, make sweet passes and juke a couple people out in the process. My goal this 4WC is to get faster and build my endurance. Heather is also getting back into Gaelic. We joined up with the co-ed summer league going on right now and Heather will be joining Nichole’s team (since I’m on Drew’s). Her and I will have one day a week where we go practice at the enormous fields down the street from us. We’ll work on pure basics to refine our skills or techniques in Gaelic along with the weekly scrimmage on Saturday. I don’t know if it’s every Saturday but I think it is. Crazy fact #1-I will be participating in a sprint triathlon on the 24th...so in less than 2 weeks. YIKES!! I’m doing it with my father in law. He asked me this past Sunday if I wanted to go so I said yes. This will be interesting to say the least. 300m swim--->9 mile bike ride--->5k run. He’s gonna get a bike for me to borrow but I have everything else say for a swim cap which I’ll need with my luscious locks ;). I’m going to order some Hammer gels and endurolites for myself and my father in law cuz I know I’m gonna need em. This will be cool cuz this will be the first time him and I have done ANYTHING like this. Should be fun. And it will test me..so look out for me to prolly like it overall, lol. So there’s that. And Gaelic is going on until the Fall, so I’m gonna stay healthy to keep playing and upgrading my skills. My challenge will have me start as a beginner Blitzball midfielder and work my way up by gaining skills and upgrading my stats. For me, passing (PA), endurance (EN), speed (SP), attack (AT) and hitpoints (HP) will be my “5 Key Factors”. 5 Key Factors Passing (PA) will include hand passing and kick passing. Accuracy and power are my main attributes here. Patience too. I forget how much space I can cover with one dribble and a solo kick to myself. I was estimating around 30 feet once I got moving. Judging distance to decide which pass to perform is crucial as well. I can’t kick pass to someone only 15 ft away-it’s not efficient OR very accurate. Practice passing drills 1x a week, both kicking and hand passing Practice “soloing” while in full stride Endurance (EN) will obviously help me stay on the pitch longer but also break tackles and get up field for the score more efficiently. I am the Wolf after all, and wolves are known for their stellar endurance and ability to run and track prey for MANY miles. Endurance also allows me to go after what the players call a “highball”. When a ball is kicked from the goalie out to play and I can go up and grab the ball up high and come down with it. This is a basketball skill outright and I have always prided my ability to leap :). Grabbing “highballs” is also a skill that a lot of players don’t possess so I need to strengthen that skill with my endurance to jump for days. Get in a long walk/ruck 1x a week Speed (SP)..well we all know speed kills and that’s what I want to do. Foot speed, straight away speed, cutting speed and lateral speed are all important. Combined with my ability to keep running, I can use my size and speed to gain momentum on offense and take advantage of a slower opponent. Speed to the ball is crucial due to the fact of how fast paced Gaelic is and controlling the ball with a “solo” at full speed is crucial to getting to the next level of the pitch and into scoring range. Sprints 1x a week-can be combined with passing drills. Work on catching highballs and moving 25-30 yards upfield afterwards Jumping rope and other plyometrics 1x a week Attack (AT) is my ability to defend and strip the ball-this is also called a “tackle” in Gaelic.. Being a glorified midfielder/halfback is not just smooth passes and swanky speed but I need to be able to defend and strip the ball from my opponent. Getting my attack up (strength and dexterity) will be getting into the mindset that this is NOT basketball and I can reach in and slap and manipulate so long as I’m not over the back and not holding. Be aggressive and be relentless. KB workouts 3x a week GtG pull-ups Hitpoints (HP) is keeping myself in one piece. I’ve done a good job recently and my shoulder feels better every day. Hitpoints in Blitzball is the ability to execute a trick shot, pass or tackle called a technique. These techniques range from ones like Venom Shot to Wither Pass but I’ll get into those more a little later. For now, the better I eat, sleep, and move, the more it will translate to Gaelic or Blitzball in the case of my challenge and the more dominant I will become. Shoulder rehab every other day (with band) Foam rolling and lacrosse ball rolling my feet-work on increasing the strength of my fascia. Check out this article, this one and this one 4-week crawling program for shoulder strength Wim Hof breathing method-practice each morning To be successful at Gaelic, I need to work on mastering the “5 Key Factors”. Once I can harness those and establish myself as an capable midfielder, then I can worry about trying to score some goals. For now, assisting my teammates to score is fine by me :). Hustle points are usually the best points, IMO. Techniques are important in Blitzball. They allow the player to get past defenders easier, make passes that render opponents asleep and even shots that can drop all stats in half. Now, with Gaelic, I cannot do that unfortunately but I can learn these techniques in the world of Spira, which is where my Blitzball journey to legendary begins… This challenge will follow the rise to stardom of my fictional Blitzball midfielder, Ryver. It will follow his triumphs and his failures. He will go from a complete beginner to a bonafide, badass blitzer. I’m excited about this and may even make it a 2-parter, not sure yet. This challenge will have lots of running, kettlebell swinging, pull-ups, rucking, Gaelic football, swimming, sleeping, eating clean, eating lots and praying/bible study. I still plan to go to that every week. Speaking of praying-I’m praying I survive my first triathlon. That’s gonna be intense! Wolf

Welcome back to another installment of Wild Wolf’s Adventuring Lupine Show. If you’re just now tuning in, please, let me recap you on the events that have transpired so far… Hey Everyone! Good to see y’all again! 2016 for me started with a HUGE change for me. I fell in love with Quidditch and, as a dream come true, went down to Austin to play in a Fantasy tournament for my very first time. My team lost in the semi-finals but it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had! The following day, I did something else that I’ve wanted to do since discovering Quidditch being an actual sport you can play. I tried out for a an actual team!! A club team down in Austin called the Lone Star Quidditch Club...and made the team! I’m proud of myself and stoked at the opportunity to be on a great team. 2 years now, they have lost in some BIG games, like the Quidditch Cup in 2015, to a Snitch grab from the opposing team's Seeker. They need the Seeker position filled quick..and that’s where I come in. These next 4-weeks will (somewhat) prepare me for Regionals. And, actually, Regionals is 02/20-02/21, so, realistically, I have 3 weeks, but my training to become the best Seeker started the weekend I was introduced to Quidditch and I’m going to be working very hard, EVERY day, to prove my worth on the team! I’ll be wearing jersey #99, for my long time love for Ricky “Wild Thing†Vaughn from one of my all-time favorite movies, Major League. And, hopefully, I’ll get some good action shots/vids during Regionals to share with everyone! Also, there’s Gaelic football. Drew and Nichole introduced Heather and I to Gaelic the weekend after Quidditch Tryouts and we both fell in love with this too! Gaelic is a crazy sport that combines elements of soccer, basketball, rugby and some volleyball thrown in. We will both be playing for a club team up here called Finn MacCool but really spelt Fionn MacCamhaill with Drew and Nichole and all our new Irish friends. Those guys are crazy cool and the heavy accents and sailors mouth makes for some fun practices! I want to get really good at Gaelic. Maybe just as bad as becoming the best Seeker Quidditch has seen. I’m all sorts of fired up and motivated right now! And the VERY BEST part about all this, is that Heather and I will be working together. Gaelic has her REALLY motivated to get back in shape and it’s exciting! This will be the first time we are training together and the feeling is just wonderful. We make a great team! In fact, Heather is so fired up, she’s gonna get back on the boards and do a challenge with the Rangers! (Her name is PrincessMononoke on NF-just in case anyone was curious or didn’t know.) I will also be heading up her training program to get her back into playing shape and I couldn’t be more excited to help her! The major draw about Gaelic for both Heather and I is that it’s that it’s located up here in the DFW area whereas Quidditch is all the way down in Austin. That’s the HUGE downside to Quidditch, unfortunately...So there is a lot more growth in Gaelic then Quidditch just based on location alone. However, with Regionals coming up so quick for Quidditch, there’s not much I can do except keep up with The Routine and make as many practices/skill sessions as possible. Also, train with Drew as often as possible. He’s a good Snitch and a bigger dude than I, so it’ll help hone my Seeker skills and get me ready for battle. #WarPaint. Gaelic has 2 practices a week, Wednesday and Saturday, so that is implemented in The Routine as well. It’ll be good cross training with all the running for when I get out and handle my Seeker business . Oh, and the fact that Drew loves Gaelic and is willing to practice with me to get me better. What a great dude and Heather and I are blessed to have met him and Nichole. Thank you Quidditch for bringing us new friends and fun, new sports!! Speaking of Quidditch.. I just got back from another tournament this past weekend. It was basically a showcase for all the elite community teams and things were starting out very good. I didn't play the first 2 games, which I expected because of my newness and lack of actually Quidditch experience. However, game 3 rolls around and they’re calling my name out to go in as Chaser!! Whaaaaaa?! I'm excited. I go in for a little bit and do fairly well. I had a fast break chance and made a hard pass off for the score, but I put a little too much zip on the pass and it bounced off her hands. After about 5 min playing Chaser, they sub me out and tell me to get ready to play Seeker. Wooooohoooooo! I'm so pumped! I go in strong and aggressive making reaches and running around to wear the Snitch out. Like any good wolf stalking his prey, I have to be patient. We battle it out a while longer and I try and make a dive reach move from the left side and get tossed to the ground. I get up and keep going but I'm running out of gas because Seeking takes it ALL out of you. I sub out with Stevie, and he goes in and catches the Snitch right after and we win! This is when I notice the uncomfortable feeling in my shoulder… I try and rotate it and it definitely doesn't feel good. I go over to the trainer/medic tent and they look at it, tell me I might need to go get x-rays to see exactly what's wrong because I know it's not a bone issue. Nichole looked at it too and had me run through various ROM drills and said it might be a slight muscle tear. So, I'm done for the day… And I'm soooo mad. This sucks! I just got started playing and kicking ass So, I ice it the rest of the afternoon and stay to support my team. Our last game turned into a forfeit because the other team didn't have enough people and I went home, in pain and barely able to drive lol. The next day wasn't much better and today is OK.. But I think I need to go have it looked at. So, I called a doctor and made an appointment for Wednesday morning. I'm crossing my fingers that everything will be good and my injury is minor. Until then, I can't move forward with my goals. I can't set out to do something when I don't know the outcome of my own health lol, but once I find out the state of my shoulder, the ass kickery will commence either way I am a Gaelic Warrior- and I will heal up in time for battle! Wolf "Let the Broomstick do the talking."