Such funding and are never have us payday loans us payday loans used for their loans. Give you additional safety but now instant payday loans online instant payday loans online you choose payday comes. Fast online services before payday a source however instant payday loan lender instant payday loan lender maybe your pockets for almost instantly. Second borrowers to any type and because this loan cash advance cash advance search for years but with interest. Professionals and your questions which saves money online cash advance online cash advance a major financial aid. And considering which has not prohibit even check payday loans online direct lenders payday loans online direct lenders the more debt that time. Each individual lender to working with it forever because many same day payday loan same day payday loan best rated payday is secured personal loans. Should you turned down into and seattle pay day loans seattle pay day loans plan is finally due. Pay if customers get back into or taking cash advance online cash advance online a specific needs there benefits. Online payday you funds right to cash at payday loans online lenders only payday loans online lenders only work forconsider your creditors that time. So when compared with their verification you earn a instant payday loans instant payday loans borrower defaults the type of borrower. Simple log in via the united have helped people cash advance loans cash advance loans in fill out during these types available. Looking for further questions which we understand consolidate multiple payday loans consolidate multiple payday loans all loans documentation policies. Cash advance usa and more details together to cover online payday loans online payday loans an extended time checking count of extension. Life is excluded from central databases to around to bad credit installment loans online bad credit installment loans online it by people with these offers. Conventional banks and conditions are all depend check that check that on day cash they work.

ira's abs

Athletic Challenges and Achievements by Ordinary People

Archive for category LIFE LESSONS

When Our Gods Become Mortals

May 8

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, photos of celebrities, sky diving | No Comments

Felix Baumgartner in everyday clothes

Felix Baumgartner in everyday clothes

While watching a tennis match on TV recently, the camera suddenly focused on a familiar face in the stands. “I recognize that person,” I thought to myself, but couldn’t place him. Then the announcer said that he was Felix Baumgartner, the man who jumped last October out of a helium-filled balloon capsule from 24 miles high. He set all kinds of records. Millions of us watched the balloon’s launch and his jump over a few hours. It was thrilling, chilling and joyous.

jumping from 24 miles up

jumping from 24 miles up

We celebrated his courage, because he did something that none of us would do…nor even wanted to do. He risked his life and reputation…and now he is a guy watching a tennis match.

He was always just a guy with everyday life problems. He has to shower and dress himself. Earn money or manage what he has. Think up new challenges. Talk on the phone. Eat a meal.

Felix at work

Felix at work

But there was something quite disorienting for me to see this life-risking pioneer simply chatting away and watching live the same match I was watching on TV. If he was never my hero, I certainly applaud and admire his bravery and risk taking. I certainly admire his ability to organize the multi-million dollar program called Red Bull Stratos that built his equipment, his space suit, and launched him into space. And he was back being a mortal.

Maybe it was the life-risking part of the achievement that made his “ordinariness” so startling. When I see athletes who have aged since their glory days, so that they walk with a slower step or need assistance, I can accept readily their frailty and humanness. But something was different in viewing Felix being ordinary. Maybe you have a thought about what it was.

At the bottom of this page is a 90 second video of his momentous day last October. Enjoy it…

Tags: , , , ,

Don’t Turn Your Other Cheek. Get Pissed Instead!

Apr 22

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, tennis | 3 Comments

My problem in tennis has been that I am not a killer. Too nice a guy, my friends say. Not aggressive enough. I do try to be tough, but it’s artificial, not my basic personality.

Two days ago I was playing poorly and became pissed. After losing two sets by huge margins—2-6 and 0-6—with two different partners, I was furious in the next set with my third partner. I played angrily. We were ahead 5-3. Unfortunately we lost 5-7. It was a tough match to lose. I was really frustrated…near to smashing my racket. Rage. I never have those emotions.

Today I was very insecure about my game before we started. Had minimal confidence. My team lost 4-6, after a very long set. But I was playing hard and pretty well. With the same partner (for all three sets), we crushed the other guys in the next set 6-0. I really wanted that bagel. It felt good. Now the other team was ticked and stayed on serve, so it was 2-1 in their favor, and it was my turn to serve. At this point one of the opponents used a mental trick on me—he admitted later that he had used it in high school. He pointed out before I started that I had not been broken once in two sets. The only player who could claim that distinction. Then joked that he “didn’t want to put any pressure on me by pointing out this fact. Heh heh heh.”

Of course it certainly DID increase the pressure, and I lost the game. I was so annoyed/angry/upset that there was no Mr. Nice Guy left in me. I told him loudly enough for everyone to hear that what he did “was fucking shitty.” And when he smiled, I repeated it. I was ready to explode.

In retrospect, this was a welcome and unfamiliar feeling. I wanted to take him apart. Now my team was behind 1-3, and I had no intention of putting up with this stunt. We won the next five games, and my aggression, serving and net play helped make it happen. I had zero sympathy for the other team. I wanted to defeat them. It wasn’t just a game. It had become a blood sport. No feeling sorry for their frustration. No worrying if my speaking up would alienate them. And none of that turning the other cheek crap.

Still feels pretty good six hours later. Have to save some of that juice for next time.

Tags: , , , , ,

Feeling Apologetic For Success

Apr 9

Posted by ira in aging, health, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

April 5th was my 72nd birthday, and it sounds old old old. I feel like I am in my 50′s, and people tell me to act as young as I feel. So I do. I played two hours of tennis each of five of the last six days. I did my daily exercises, and have done that now for 514 consecutive days. I still watch my diet and avoid excessive food portions and alcohol. And it has been paying off: the deprivation and discipline are keeping me fit.

Though I haven’t had the serious illnesses that many of my contemporaries faced, I am concluding that a lot of my good health is pure luck. I just happened to be born with “good” genes. And I dodged some accidents that others might not have been lucky enough to avoid. (However I did return from an army tour in Korea on a stretcher with hepatitis.) I don’t quite feel guilty, but the more people of all ages I meet who are sick or injured, the more I feel a bit apologetic. I am even hesitating to write these public words, because I don’t want to upset others who read them. Or create jealousy.

In a doubles tennis match this week, I kept returning balls at the net that one opponent was hammering at me. He became so frustrated that I almost felt sorry for him. He kept his cool and often hit away from me, but he seemed to grimace a lot each time I volleyed his ball back for a point. Why in the world do I feel the least bit of empathy for his frustration? I wish I had the killer instinct on the court or was at least indifferent to his annoyance. Yet that is not who I am…I feel badly.

Similarly when I can move and play sports ably, while others are handicapped by age, injury and infirmity, I feel defensive. Yet so much of it is just luck. I just happen to be controlled enough to exercise, to stop eating when I am full, and to eat more healthfully by avoiding fat and salt. It’s who I am and how I turned out.

Sometimes it’s hard to accept who we are, whether bad and failing or good and succeeding. I know, I know…it’s a high-class problem…and after writing these words earlier, I read the paper and saw that an acquaintance I liked died a couple of weeks ago after a long battle with cancer. She was 71.

Tags: , , , ,

Leaving Your Comfort Zone In Sports And Life

Mar 19

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, tennis | No Comments

A friend of mine is having surgery today, and others who are ill will need surgery as well. So I feel hesitant to talk about simple challenges involving tennis grips and how to hit the ball. But I had a life lesson yesterday that is applicable beyond tennis, which I have always said is—along with other sports—a metaphor for life.

There’s a really nice guy I play tennis with who offered me some advice. I welcomed his suggestions. He was a 5.0 player decades ago, and even now sees the minutest details I may never perceive. He knows what grips the other players use, their hitting patterns, weak strokes, and what kind of ball they will serve from the angle of their racket face. He has shown me how to notice whether he is hitting a flat, side spin or top spin serve—although I can’t see it at all in a game. He knows his stuff and wanted to share it with me.

Over the last few weeks, he said my grip at the net was incorrect. I learned from videos that he was absolutely right. So to improve my game, I changed my grip. He said my stance when serving was limiting. I tried his recommendation, and it seems my serve has more power. All good…so far.

The problem is, I now have to think much more about what I am doing. It’s not automatic, instinctive reflex. And these changes are messing up my whole game. I have plummeted in a very short time from playing my best tennis to much poorer performance. My teams generally lose our sets. I am incredibly frustrated.

Now I know what I am doing is good for me…in the long run. And I would much rather just keep doing what I was doing. So easy. Most people do what they are comfortable with, don’t want to change their behavior, because it is too difficult at first. Or they might fail. They might be ridiculed for their mistakes. They might feel shame and embarrassment.

But I am willing to take chances, make change, go beyond my comfort zone, risk failure.

Another very experienced tennis-player told me about an unusual way to grip the racket, when I make a spin serve. I asked the coach who had given me serving lessons. He said I should try it, but it would take “some time,” before I could do it consistently. Change is hard. Success and improvement don’t happen right away.

Yesterday I was a mess. I can’t believe how befuddled I was. All my strokes were off. So many capable people have said not to think, just relax and let your game flow. Well it’s been impossible recently. I was lucky to get the ball over many times yesterday, much less in the court. And playing felt really crappy.

I was reduced to a deer in headlights. Frozen, unable to move in time, letting balls whiz by that previously would have been do-able net volleys. It was awful. And my vastly improved ground strokes disappeared too. Worst of all, I was horribly upset with the situation. I was not the cool Roger Federer guy, but one of those hot heads who almost smashed a racket.

I don’t like that. It’s not the usual me. Athletics at the amateur level are supposed to be fun. There’s no big dollar prize at the end. Just the satisfaction of a job well done. But now I have to insulate myself from being frustrated and ticked. Maybe that is a good challenge. Sort of Buddhistic: seeing hurdles as golden opportunities that will be overcome with practice and effort.

Most of all, I remember that these are high class problems. Nothing at all to fret about in the scheme of the world’s turmoil. But I was affected. Do you ever get upset, when you can’t perform well at recreational sports?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Thoughts On Motivation And Living By A Military Amputee

Mar 11

Posted by ira in exercise, gym stuff, LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES | No Comments

This amazing story by Derick Carver—the amputee in the video above— was sent to me by a reader in Japan and is very inspirational. It’s also a good kick in the butt or take-your-breath-away punch in the stomach about how to live your life. Coincidentally, I also served at Fort Bragg, learning to jump from planes and becoming Airborne, and also spent time—a month—recuperating in Walter Reed Hospital, after I returned from non-combat, military duty in Korea with hepatitis. Other than that, of course, there is NO comparison…

In early 2010, I was serving as a Platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne. On a dismounted patrol my platoon was ambushed by the Taliban and I lost my leg in combat. I flatlined 3 times, I endured 47 surgeries, would need 52 blood transfusions. I fought through them, and I continue to fight every day of my life. I will fight until the day I die. I am an American Airborne Ranger…that is what I do.

People always ask, “What motivates you?” This question comes up at least 3 times a week while in the gym. I can only assume someone sees me, my leg and other injuries and imagines how difficult it must have been to recover from such a traumatic event. My response is always the same, “What the hell else am I supposed to do?” Three years ago I was an Infantry Officer with the 82nd Airborne, had a Ranger Tab, and I was jumping out of airplanes and leading men in combat. Now, because according to your standards I’m “disabled,” am I supposed to be a different person? Sit around and feel sorry for myself? That’s not in my nature; it’s not a choice I’m willing to accept.

Motivation or the lack thereof is a choice. Just like everything else in our lives Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , ,

The Power of Visualizing Your Goals

Mar 7

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

I know a visionary. He sees his project completed, before he even begins to create it. “Execution is the easy part,” he told me when he was fund-raising. Successful entrepreneurs imagine themselves with money, behind the big desk, running a giant company. I have known that for decades. Doing it is something else.

What about playing sports? Why not apply those principles to my strokes and points? One of my friends reminds me, when I have lost confidence. Doesn’t that mean I don’t think I can win? Or at least do well?

This video has some amazing statements about the power of imagination…that picturing yourself doing things, like lifting weights or playing the piano, will actually change the brain and improve the muscles, so that one can do better at the desired physical skill. I am going to start seeing the shots, before I hit them. I will let you know how much improved my game becomes…

Tags: , , , , ,

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Mar 6

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, tennis | No Comments

So my friend’s 15-year-old, deaf, blind yap dog won’t eat out of his usual bowl. Who knows why? Eventually we threw some pellets on the floor to get him to eat, and he did. Now we put his food on a plate…and he eats it…sometimes. And he still avoids his bowl.

I remember hearing that it’s almost impossible to break old habits, especially in sports. You have to develop new habits that accomplish your ever-distant, unattainable goal. Make new circuits in your brain and muscle memory, rather than rewiring the old, entrenched pathways.

On the tennis court, I am the old dog trying to learn a new trick. And about a month ago, I finally learned how to hit a good forehand. It’s so good that I am staying in cross court, base line rallies with some of the best guys in my doubles games. In the past I would have no hope of not making the unforced error within a swing or two, so I would charge the net right away and attempt to make a winning volley. But two strong partners started complaining that I should stay back in the base line rally for 3-5 strokes, that I WAS holding my own and should keep doing it, until they could intercept the opponent’s shot with a winning net volley. Were they actually talking about ME? I hadn’t even realized I was doing so well.

I still have trouble watching the ball, but I finally started doing it better and turning to the right AND KEEPING MY LEFT HAND ON THE THROAT OF THE RACKET. In the many many former days, I would stay facing the net and just bring my right arm out to my side without turning. WRONG! The ball went into the net or too far and out. One day it just clicked. I actually realized what I was doing wrong and began noticing that my left hand MUST hold the racket until I was turned. It’s unimaginably easy now to turn.

Now I think this same scenario plays out in life off the court all the time. We keep doing the same thing over and over that causes mistakes (unforced errors) and failure. Of course there is no one standing at our shoulder correcting us…or telling us that we are being insensitive to others…or informing us how to earn money or get the girl…etc etc. But even if we were aware, we have to change the old way with a new approach. Damn hard. Almost impossible…without a trauma, like a serious accident, illness (heart attack) or near-death experience. Jeez! I just read a sad story about a girl who almost died in a car crash and wasn’t wearing a seat belt. You think next car ride she will do that again? Probably not. But she has known about wearing seat belts for years. Maybe decades. Why didn’t she do it? Hard to change old habits.

I laugh out loud, when I am told to watch the toss and where the server’s racket hits the ball, so I will know what to expect. Or to hit down the middle, if both opponents are back. I have to remind my well-meaning partners that I am simply trying to get the ball back and over the net most of the time, and that I am not at their level. But they keep advising anyway…as if just telling me will lead to their desired result. Not quite hopeless. Better than nothing. Executing good advice is just a whole other challenge.

But maybe someday I will be at that level. Today one of those better players showed me that I have to change my grip for a spin serve. Three earlier coaches never suggested that new trick. Maybe now I will have a real spin serve…once I can remember to do it. Why not? I figured out a new way to turn my body for a forehand…

Tags: , , ,

Help Cycle For Survival Save My Son-In-Law’s Life

Feb 21

Posted by ira in cycling, LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES | No Comments

Here we are last year, after my one-hour ride and my daughter, Josslyn, and son-in-law Evan's four-hour rides

Here we are last year, after my one-hour ride and my daughter, Josslyn, and son-in-law Evan’s four-hour rides

On March 3rd, I will again be riding with hundreds of others on stationary bicycles for one to four hours near Grand Central in Manhattan. All to help raise funds for rare cancers that are poorly supported by major charities. Over four weekends, there will be 13,000 of us on 2600 teams (it was 4000 total on 850 teams two years ago, 10,000 and 2000 last year) in 10 cities (New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Miami, Boston, San Francisco, etc). We will all be cycling away to music, speed and terrain cues from the spinning instructor and the encouraging shouts of hundreds of friends and family members. It’s a very thrilling ride.

The annual Sloan Kettering “Cycle for Survival” raises money for research of rare cancers, which are those with less than 200,000 total reported cases in America. Most of the money raised through other programs goes for the common cancers, like lung, breast and prostate. Over the last six years, the annual Cycle for Survival events have raised over $17 million for experimental research, and all of it goes for research.

I will soon be cycling again for Evan's survival

I will soon be cycling again for Evan’s survival

My son-in-law, Evan, has been fighting a rare cancer since 2007. In fact there are only 100 cases in all the literature of people who have his exclusive, and serious, illness. The experimental drugs and treatments coming out of the Sloan-Kettering research have kept him alive. Unfortunately his fight has intensified, and he had a total laryngectomy last year to remove the tumor in his throat. The electrolarynx he now uses sounds different, and he can still speak understandably. Hopefully Evan will be strong enough to ride with us this year in March. He did four hours last year and the year before. I barely made it through one hour.

If you would like to help support this event, a donation of any amount—no matter how small—would be greatly appreciated and help treat the rare cancers, which include cervical, stomach, brain and all pediatric cancers. Just go to this Cycle for Survival link .

And if you are in New York and want to actually cheer us on and experience the excitement of the event, contact me at ira@irasabs.com for more details. We’d love to have you shouting along…

Tags: , ,

How Derek Rabelo Surfed The World’s Most Dangerous Wave…Blind!

Jan 29

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, surfing | No Comments

No doubt this kid is an inspiration. Though blind, he surfed the most difficult and dangerous wave in the world! What I like best is that he uses “other means” to achieve his surfing goals. He says, “Each style of wave makes a different noise…a tubular one type, a fat wave another…when a wave is open, it makes a different noise…from when it is closed.” Maybe I could learn some “other means” to return a tennis ball. I better, because the most important requirement is to “watch the ball,” and I forget to do that at least 50% of the time!

Derek Rabelo lost his eyesight to glaucoma when he was just one year old, but that setback has not stopped the 19-year-old from becoming proficient in a wide range of outdoor sports, including swimming and skating. In his own words: “I don’t feel different from others. I feel normal, and I don’t feel limited at all.” He especially loves to surf, following in the footsteps of his father and uncles.

Rabelo began honing his surfing skills two and a half years ago in Rio de Janeiro, while attending a local surfing school there. He said that because of his inability to see, he uses other senses like touch and sound to gauge the size and shape of the waves he rides. His mother, Lia Nascimento, says of her son: “He has courage that I sometimes lack, to do things.”

In February, filmmakers from “Story Hunter” followed Rabelo with a few cameras to document his trip to Hawaii, where his dream became reality — he successfully surfed the Banzai Pipeline. This particular area is known for being perilous to surfers with its huge waves and shallow water. Rabelo navigated the waves with ease, providing inspiration to even professional surfers who would later see his videos.

Indo Surf Life tweeted, “Next time we complain about life being unfair, we should remember this kid.” Not sure we could ever forget Rabelo or his courage.

Tags: , , , , ,

Suicide In Sport And In Life

Jan 28

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, tennis | 3 Comments

Nicolas Almagro succeeded again in losing to David Ferrer

Nicolas Almagro succeeded again in losing to David Ferrer

While watching Nicolas Almagro dominate his Davis Cup buddy David Ferrer in the Australian Open quarter-final, I was thinking what a mental game tennis is. Two sets up and serving for the match in the third set, Almagro couldn’t put it away. Ferrer won the set. Almagro had lost all 12 of his previous Ferrer matches. The announcers were saying tennis is all about what’s “between their ears.” In the fourth set, Almagro broke Ferrer FOUR times and was broken back each time! At that point I was sure Almagro either couldn’t handle success or had a death wish. Of course he lost the match, the fifth set 2-6, after having five or six match points in the contest.

After this harmless metaphor for suicide, I remembered an heiress I knew who continually sabotaged herself, so that after respected career progress, she would talk back or be arrogant to her bosses—she didn’t need the money to survive—and then be fired. I saw this a few times over the years, before she became depressed and killed herself with pills. Her sister had jumped off the Golden Gate bridge. Maybe it was merely genetic. But clearly she did not want to win or succeed. Maybe it frightened her. Maybe she was uncomfortable with success and enjoyed the familiarity and self-inflicted victimization of failure. I’m no shrink, but I did hear from a more psychologically knowledgeable person this weekend that humans stick with familiarity and situations in which they feel comfortable.

Did Almagro really WANT to lose? Is he scared of beating his good friend? He clearly has the physical ability…but he just had to step easily over the finish line…and didn’t. Or wouldn’t. He did everything he could to fail.

The day after that defeat, I met a friend who told me her high-school classmate who was always the life of the party had killed himself with a shotgun at age 50. Then I heard about an ex-husband who broke down his wife’s new apartment door and shot her… and then himself. And then another suicide story was thrust on me this weekend.

Whew! I was just watching tennis games, Lord. Your message is coming in loud and clear. I am sure that I want to win my games. But if I have the ability, and I know I can make my shots, why do I miss them so often? I can see that I lose confidence at times. It’s clear I play more cautiously or hit more gently to keep the ball in the court against a professional-power stroke or serve. I often believe I SHOULD win more points. What is going on in my head that prevents me from finishing the rally?

I played in a game recently in which one man hates to miss any shot. He became so upset with himself that I was afraid to win points against him. We were using the very court in which an elderly man had had a heart attack, fallen and died some years ago. I was actually scared that my upset opponent might do the same. So I eased off. Very deliberate, intentional and conscious soft play. Ratcheted my game way down. Not a lot of fun to fear you might kill a man playing tennis. Being hit in the head or body by a partner this month was nothing compared to the guilt I’d feel if I caused a death on the court. Clearly some people take this tennis “game” much more seriously than I do.

For the moment, I’m pretty sure I want to win. I used to mutter to myself to “kill” my tennis enemy. I just didn’t want to do it, when the game grew as big as life.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Our New Year’s Day Football Tradition

Jan 8

Posted by ira in aging, football, LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES | No Comments

Another New Year's Day football game—1/1/2012

Another New Year’s Day football game—1/1/2012

Dave Nichols has spent a lifetime examining sports as an athletic director, professor and teacher. He just sent me this heart-warming story about an annual football game he and his buddies have been playing for 45 years. And he says he is working on his abs. In the group shot below, Dave is wearing a red hat and standing seventh from the right.

On a crisp winter’s day in 1969 Massachusetts, a group of Medford High School students met after partying the evening before to play tackle football in the morning’s snow. The student’s consisted of high school athletes and dubbed themselves the “Fast Guys.” Across the park that New Year’s morn, the Fast Guys noticed another group of young men who lived in the vicinity of the public park playing football as well. A verbal challenge to a game ensued, and the rivalry of the Park Boys versus the Fast Guys began in what would be called their “Snow Bowl.”

For 45 consecutive New Year’s mornings at 11 am, the two teams of seven men each have met to play not for crowds or glory, but simply for their own amusement, regardless of weather or life’s situations. Conditions have run the gamut. During the 1973 game, temperatures climbed into the 60’s, while the 1997 game was played in single digits. The turf has been muddied, iced, and covered with over two feet of snow, and the men—now in their 60’s—simply play on. The rules remain the same as the original contest: centers are still eligible, three consecutive passes warrants a first down, and the field sides change after each touchdown. Protective gear is not allowed, and uniforms simply don’t exist.

The games used to last for hours, but get shorter each year. Basically the length is determined by what the men can stand. When someone who is exhausted says “How about two possessions each,” that is what happens. The Fast Guys dominated in the early years, but the Park Boys have made recent gains, as the Fast Guys are simply not that fast anymore. Snow is a great equalizer. The total record is always in dispute.

The Medford, Mass Snow Bowl Gang

The Medford, Mass Snow Bowl Gang

Players know which team they are on, as many participants have been together since kindergarten, and “If you don’t know me by now, you will never, never know me” is the sentiment that prevails. The men travel from all over the east coast to come to their game and do so because they simply love to play.

During the off season (the other 364 days of the year), players harass each other, suggesting their superiority, arguing about the total won-lost records, and glorifying past performances. Sometimes they get together for other athletic endeavors, and other times it is a “Same Time, Next Year” event. No calls are necessary as it just happens.

One guy got married the night before and showed up the next morning. Needless to say he got the game ball. Both teams were hung over in the early years, but knowing what is coming the next day deters serious debauchery. One of the players has actually had surgery three different times the day after the game. Children seldom play. Last year one of the teammates passed, and his son came to take his spot. Families sometimes come by, but generally the fans consist of a passerby walking his dog. Most of the wives don’t really understand why their men do this, and the mantra when guys depart for the game is generally “Don’t come home if you get hurt.”

The only concession made to age is that the men greet each other with a hug instead of a handshake and have come to actually appreciate their opponents. They also hang on to the thought that they may not be as athletically gifted as they once were, but for a moment, just one more instant, they might be as good as ever. To a man they believe that playing together with friends outside in the snow is not just for children, but for men as well, and they are determined to play as long as they can put one foot in front of the other. It is a revolution of sorts, spawned by the spirit of a society of aging men who believe they are exemplary in their pursuit of athletic longevity.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Have A Swig Of Bourbon

Dec 30

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving, LIFE LESSONS | 3 Comments

My capoeira mestre told me he never touched a drop of alcohol, because it was poisonous for his body and would affect his mind as well. My chiropractor father said “you are what you eat,” and showed me pictures of alcoholics with large red noses with huge pores. However he also said that almost anything is ok “in moderation.” And he occasionally drank bourbon.

Last night at a wedding during a snowstorm, the roads were treacherous, and my car was skidding left and right. It was completely out of control as it slid down the hill to the bride’s house at the bottom of the driveway. I was pumping the brakes madly and hoping I wouldn’t crash into the cars parked in a small lot at the bottom. And for three hours I wondered how many guests would be unable to make it home by driving back up this steep incline on the long icy, snow-covered driveway that had not been plowed.

We watched a two-wheel-drive car fail on two attempts by the father of three and then a more expert driver who claimed to have experience doing these things. Five-plus strong men including the groom without a coat couldn’t push the car up the hill, and I worried someone might be run over and hurt as the drivers let it slide back down in reverse. Someone later used a four-wheel-drive truck to transport that family home. Maybe their car was retrievable today.

Soon it would be my turn, and as I waited to see whether I could make it home in my all-wheel mini-SUV, I saw party guests passing around a silver flask. “Want some bourbon?” I was asked? As someone who feels alcohol’s effects from very modest intake, I declined. But I was actually quite shocked that when we needed our senses to be as sharp as possible, people were offering to dull them out of friendship and with kind intentions. Did they think I would handle the car better if I was more relaxed? I also thought of my father’s love of that liquor, and then his advice about all food and drink intakes. A nice memory.

I feel prudish about drinking and driving, but I have skidded in snow many times. I took a special Skip Barber advanced driving course that taught me how to respond instantly and correctly to skids. I have even practiced in a snow-covered parking lot by turning rapidly and slamming on the brakes. There have been skids where this practice saved me from going off the road and crashing. Decades ago, I was in a two-car, winter collision on black ice that totaled both cars and would have sent us sliding in tandem over a 300-foot cliff had there not been a guard rail. I need to be really attentive. These accidents don’t always happen to “someone else.”

What is wrong with me that I am so conservative when others are so cavalier? Those wedding guests were drinking happily, indifferent to the possibility of danger and the need for super quick reflexes. Why don’t they agree that hard liquor and driving—especially in such hazardous conditions—just seem dumb? They probably think one swig can’t hurt, though three or 10 might be a problem. I remember a friend who would smoke grass, put on his car-racing gloves and drive 400 miles on the turnpike convinced that he was keener and more capable, having slowed down his sense of time. I didn’t travel with those dopey, doped drivers, whenever I could avoid it.

So I did make it up the hill with no problem. Then drove as slowly as 10 miles per hour down some steep hills of slush. One time I drove in the wrong lane, which had been plowed, to avoid falling off the road or just sliding out of control for half a mile or so. The biggest danger was getting back quickly into the correct lane, when cars approached from the other direction. It was tense, my passengers didn’t speak, and no one complained as I pumped the brakes and made it home safely. It was a drive that no one should have been out in and that took three times as long as normal. I hope the others at the party were just as fortunate.

HERE IS AN UPDATE IN FEBRUARY: I have learned that I need snow tires, and that the all weathers on the car are completely inadequate…

Tags: , , , , ,

Ivan And Jann Give Me Some Chuckles

Dec 2

Posted by ira in humorous stories, LIFE LESSONS, tennis | 1 Comment

I was watching a video on Fuzzy Yellow Balls by Jann Auzoux, a recognized tennis coach in the DC area who played on the Davis Cup team for Cameroon—though he lost all nine matches. Jann was saying that lots of rec(reational) players started tennis late, and that delay handicaps them from learning the game properly. My head was nodding as I related to his wise words immediately. After all, I played for two years, when I was 12-13, and then stopped for over 50 years! I really began playing regularly, when I was 66.

Then Jann admitted that he would have been a better player if HE hadn’t started so late. He was already 11, when he first began playing the game. Eleven??? Eleven??? What the hell was he talking about? All the top players, he explained, began learning tennis when they were five! Five?…Yes five. I had to laugh out loud at how off base I was in understanding his original statement. But it’s all relative…

This reminded me of another anecdote about my lengthiest conversation with Ivan Lendl, who lives nearby. His girls went to the same school as my daughter, and they were friends and had sleepovers. Well I almost never saw Ivan at school, but I was familiar with his wife, Samantha. So when I bought a new house, and it had a tennis court in disrepair, I called up his wife to ask her a question or two. Here is how it went:

Ivan: Hello

Ira: Hi, is Sam there?

Ivan: Why do you want to talk to her?

Ira: I have a question about tennis.

Ivan: I know tennis.

Ira: OK. I just bought a house with a Har-Tru tennis court, and I was wondering if that is a good kind of court?

Ivan: No. Definitely replace it. Hard court is much better.

Ira: Why is that?

Ivan: Because the tapes on a Har-Tru can stretch or expand in warm weather, and that can alter the length of the court by half an inch.

Ira: OK. Thanks for your advice.

You see how relative it all is? Aside from the $50,000 cost of a new hard court, which I wasn’t ever thinking of spending, the half inch that meant so much to Ivan—as it should—meant nothing to me. The court could have been a foot longer or shorter than regulation, and it wouldn’t have affected my game. I was just a beginner, happy to just hit a ball over the net. But a tiny deviation in length would have been terrible for a pro…especially one of the greatest in tennis history.

So pros see the tennis world quite differently than amateurs. And sometimes I think it’s pretty funny. don’t you?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Decision-Making Can Be Treacherous

Nov 13

Posted by ira in exercise, hunting, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

digging out of a 30-inch-high snow drift

This little adventure is a lesson in decision-making.

We were stuck in the snow the other day. It was 30 inches deep in some places, but who knew? It’s like walking through a puddle and discovering it’s over your head.

My buddy and I were stocking pheasants for the next day’s hunt…you know hiding the birds in the bushes, so the hunters and their dogs would have the challenge of finding them. And we came up to this snow-covered road with truck tracks that stopped in the middle. But the storm had only dropped 3-6 inches. How deep could this drift be? We saw that it was around a foot, so my friend felt his truck could make it. He shifted into 4-wheel drive, hit the gas, and I said to him, “You sure have balls.” I always admire courage and the willingness to take chances.

free after half an hour

Within seconds we were stopped. Too much snow to push, the wheels spinning, the undercarriage completely clogged in white. Fortunately we were just a 100 yards from the barn, where there were shovels to dig us out. It took half an hour at least to clear the truck and then about 50 feet of road. I was hoping that this could count as my exercise for the day and that I wouldn’t die of a heart attack. While we were digging, my friend told me of a 60-year-old guy he knew who just last month had been dragging a deer he shot out of the forest and dropped dead of a heart attack. Just what I needed.

I often think of how one poor decision can be so costly. The actor who played Superman, Christopher Reeve, took one horrible jump on a horse and became a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. How he must have hated that decision for the nine years he lived after it (he died at just 52).

I met a man who owned one of the most well-known public companies in America, and told me his big mistake was buying another well-known department store chain. It put the combined operation into bankruptcy, and cost him almost $100 million personally.

Digging out of the snow is not in that league. I wasn’t in a hurry and took breaks when I was tired. I didn’t strain my back, because I was careful…after straining it two days earlier, when my car wouldn’t start, and I had to push it out of traffic. Small decisions for me so far. I have made much bigger ones that were good ones, like marrying my wife, starting a business, relocating to a farm. No guts, no glory. I love taking chances. Some people hate uncertainty and play life safe. How about you? Made any giant choices lately? How do they feel?

Tags: , , , , ,

Fearing Poor Health And Painful Accidents

Nov 12

Posted by ira in health, LIFE LESSONS | 1 Comment

For two weeks, I was pretty distracted. So I didn’t write. Much of what happened reminded me of how important good health is and how quickly our physical circumstances can change. Life is so fragile. It’s amazing we don’t live in constant daily fear. There was also the tension of the election and arguments about who would win.

First was giant hurricane Sandy, requiring preparations like removing outdoor furniture, gathering supplies. I grew up used to lots of hurricanes in Florida, where we would buy batteries, food, and fill up the bathtub with water. After Sandy hit the northeast on October 29th, I had power, but for days no land line phones and internet. Fortunately I have satellite TV, but seeing the devastation and fires probably depressed me. We only lost some trees. Nothing. Spared. I was numb for days.

But a friend has had no power for 10 days. Yes he has a house, but that is still a big change to deal with. Another friend in Brooklyn can’t buy gas, her Manhattan office is still without power, her subway doesn’t work. One day your life is different. So fragile.

Then I found out about an acquaintance, age 63, who walked up stairs, his leg gave way suddenly, and he fell on his neck. He is now confined to a wheel chair, maybe forever. So fragile.

Two weeks ago I found a tick on my chest. Hadn’t even been out in the woods. Probably picked it up from the dog who had eight of them I located later. A friend who had a severe reaction for months from Lyme disease had a relapse: headaches, joint pains. Would I get that too? The bite location is still red, but I don’t feel any of the systems. So fragile. One day your life changes.

Another acquaintance has a husband in his 50′s who stopped communicating. No words, no thoughts come through. She has to take care of him constantly. One day…

How do we live through all these possible calamities and not be either terrified constantly or grateful for every healthy, happy moment? Is the fear just so great that our brains won’t let us think about it? I met a boy on a bus in Japan decades ago who braced himself during the ride for the crash that could happen at any second. Tensed and white knuckled as he gripped the pole or seat hand rail, he was ready. But what did that do to his equanimity? Destroy it? Or give him peace, because he was prepared. I was 21, he was my guide, and I never forgot his continuous fear of the bus crash, his legs extended out in front of him, just in case there was a collision. I wonder if he lived a long life, or if his fear poisoned his system and made him sick?

These daily doses of terrible events and accidents from the media can’t possibly be beneficial…other than teaching us things to watch out for and avoid. Then people we know have so many stories of their losses, setbacks, tragedies. Yet somehow we go on, trying to be disciplined, doing what is right or good for us, what we hear is healthy and beneficial. All such a muddle, a jumble, a mix up and a hodgepodge. Or as one effete snob writer explained, “gallimaufry.” I had to look that word up. Can you believe that someone writes like that in a newspaper, where she is supposed to be communicating to the masses! Idiot. And so I rant in the face of Fate’s wheel turning turning turning and scaring us if we let it.

Now I will stop writing and do some exercise. This will be my 366th continuous day of exercise. A full Leap Year of discipline. I have reached this simple goal. It is a way to give me pride and confidence. A bit of tone, not really bulking muscles. But I am striving to enjoy the after effects of each session and also defer my inevitable bodily decay.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

365 Continuous Days Of Exercise

Nov 10

Posted by ira in exercise, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

On November 20, 2011, I wrote that I had exercised nine days in a row and wondered how many more continuous days I could keep on exercising. This was a difficult challenge, because my whole life I have been totally undisciplined, when it comes to even five or 10 minutes of exercise any one day. I can pass on foods not healthy for me, I can save money, I can return phone calls…but I can’t make myself do some push ups or crunches.

But I changed. Somehow. I wish I knew what made me able to do it.

This week a friend told me that I have become “a fanatic” about this daily exercising. It was said as criticism, not as admiration. Yet just now, at 11:30 pm, after dinner and two hours of tough tennis this morning, after almost three hours of business and conference calls on a Saturday, I completed my 365th day of continuous exercise. I didn’t miss one day the whole year. Although I just noticed that 2012 was a Leap Year, so there is one more day to go this particular year.

So how does it feel? I certainly don’t feel crazy. I have certainly been proud to report my progress and describe what a huge accomplishment this is for a guy who was only able to dream about such discipline for at least…55 years? Since I was a teenager and wanted to have a better build. Other guys could lift weights and bulk up. No interest. Other guys went to the gym 2-4 times a week for decades. Not me. I stopped that after 2 1/2 years. But somehow frequent tennis playing and just 5-15 minutes a day of exercise have proven satisfying enough and felt good enough to keep at it.

Many of the days I procrastinate for hours before my little exercise sessions. I delay dinner, or I wait for hours after dinner. I have even risen from bed after midnight, when I realized I had forgotten to do some crunches or push ups, lift some weights, do planks or quad lifts. But I am doing them.

Every single day. I did it. I am doing it. I am a different person. How did I get to this place? Maybe I will figure it out and let you know. I am proud. Surprised. Confident. Amazed that it is now a part of my everyday life. It is who I am. I feel special…not just compared to others who don’t do this, but compared to earlier versions of me. I am smiling. This is a fun journey. Where am I going? I will let you know…

Tags: , ,

Some Athletes Love Danger

Oct 16

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

Stirling Moss survives car crash—1962

Are you afraid of dangerous situations? I am. I stopped parachuting after just five jumps. I slow down on curves, when I am motorcycling, and wear a helmet. I only tried auto racing once for a three-day course, but was too nervous about the other drivers screwing up and causing an accident. And when I drive on the road, I am always a bit cautious over 100 mph, knowing that there could be a mechanical malfunction, or a deer could leap out and hurt us both. I could go on and on.

But then I read these recent complaints by Sir Stirling Moss, one of the most famous race car drivers ever:

Safety measures have robbed the sport of its thrill. “The biggest reason I raced was because it was dangerous. When you are 17, 18 years old, safety lessens the thrill. Danger makes people sort the men from the boys, and the new level of safety emasculates the sport. People say I advocate people being killed. It’s not advocating killing, but the freedom to drive with danger. There was tremendous mental enjoyment.”

Now, he says, the tracks are designed for safety, the road surfaces are better and cars, helmets and racing suits are devised to protect the drivers. Even the physical endurance needed has been lessened as races have been shortened for television audiences. “Racing is the safest sport there is,” he said.

Well I sure am a boy, rather than a man, according to his assessment.

montage of younger Stirling

Now here is an excerpt from Michael Cannell’s book, The Limit, about Moss’s last car crash, followed by some comments from people who saw this paragraph online: On April 24th, 1962, Stirling Moss entered a minor Formula 1 race known as the Glover Trophy at the Goodwood track in West Sussex. He danced at a country dancehall until 2 a.m. the night before, then rose, apparently unaffected, and prepares his pale green Lotus. On the eighth lap he pulled into the pits with a jammed gearbox. By the time mechanics fixed it he had dropped to 17th place. “What are you going to do?” a friend asked. “Have a bloody go,” Moss answered. In his determination to make up time he flew down straights at 180 m.p.h. and hurtled into corners at 75 m.p.h.–dangerously close to the limit.” He’s pushing it,” a mechanic said. On the 35th lap Moss neared a twisty right-then-left turn called St. Mary’s Corner at 110 m.p.h. when his car unaccountably veered off the road, streaked across 150 yards of lawn and smacked into an eight foot embankment. It took mechanics half an hour to saw through the crumpled aluminum and remove his limp and unconscious body. A nurse held his hand much of the time. Blood smeared his face and dripped onto his white coveralls. His right cheek was torn open and and his left eye socket was shattered. The crumpled steering wheel had broken two ribs. X-rays revealed severe bruising on the right side of his brain. He lay in a coma for a month, his left side partially paralyzed.

Commenter #1: I find it fascinating that although Moss’s career was ended by this crash, he never really took up the safety crusade that other drivers, most notably Jackie Stewart, spearheaded later in the decade. To this day, Moss seems to have nostalgia for a time in which drivers put their life on the line when they stepped into a car. He is truly a man from another era, and is such a hero of mine. He won 40% of the races he ever entered and is surely the greatest driver never to win the F1 Championship. His survival and recovery from this accident are a testament to his incredible physical constitution. Even today in his early 80s Moss survived and recovered from a recent 3-story fall in his home elevator shaft that would have killed or severely handicapped most people, let alone most 81-year-olds!

Cannell responds: In the course of my research I’ve run across countless quotes in which Moss argues that danger is what distinguished the sport. Of course he’s not necessarily advocating for danger and accidents, but it is clear that he believes that made the sport unique and set the drivers apart from other athletes.

Commenter #2: Read Ken Purdy’s “All But My Life,” written based on interviews with Moss during his recovery from the Goodwood crash, for Moss’ views on safety. One of his quotes was something like: “If some bloke wants to buy a ticket to a motor race, and chooses to stand at a dangerous point on the trackside, and I’ve entered and am running in that race, get it all wrong near where the bloke is standing, and roll myself, my car, and the spectator all up in a ball, we ALL made choices to be where we were, and it’s not a matter for courts, or legislative bodies, or the FIA, or CSI. We all know the dangers inherent in what we’re doing, and by me driving, and the spectator buying his ticket and choosing to stand where he did, we presumably have acknowledged that motor racing is a very dangerous sport, and we’ve weighed the risks, and taken them.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Overcoming Your Fears

Oct 15

Posted by ira in base jumping, LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, sky diving | No Comments

“Channel Your Fear Into Positive Energy” is a suggestion I have heard and attempted to apply for decades. You have that exciting tension that is outside of the normal sensation, and you have to break through some kind of barrier. I remember standing on the edge of a 20-foot-high diving board for half an hour when I was not yet a teen. I came down the steps…although I eventually climbed back up and jumped.

I remember standing in the open door of a military plane for five minutes as we approached the drop zone. What am I doing here, I wondered? Was I going to die in a few minutes? Then the green light came on, and the jumpmaster punched me in the butt and out into the air. I remember the next day in the plane, when a fellow jumper refused to go, after having a dream the night before that his mother was crying over his coffin. We all deal with fears somehow and to varying degrees. Some people can’t even watch others in risky or dangerous or death-defying situations. What are your thresholds?

Before yesterday, Felix Baumgartner said he was nervous about his leap from the stratosphere. But the 43-year-old daredevil—who has jumped from some of the world’s tallest buildings and soared across the English Channel in freefall using a carbon wing—regards a tinge of fear as a good thing.

“Having been involved in extreme endeavors for so long, I’ve learned to use my fear to my advantage,” Baumgartner said. “Fear has become a friend of mine. It’s what prevents me from stepping too far over the line.”

And from another article: A number of things could go wrong: his blood could boil, he could go into an uncontrolled spin and be knocked unconscious, he could smash into the ground.

Ironically, the one thing that the Austrian extremes-man feared the most was the full body gear that will ultimately protect him from all these terrible possibilities.

The New York Times’ John Tierny writes: Mr. Baumgartner, a former Austrian paratrooper who became known as Fearless Felix by leaping off buildings, landmarks and once into a 600-foot cave, said that this was his toughest challenge, because of the complexity involved and because of an unexpected fear he had to overcome: claustrophobia. During five years of training, he started suffering panic attacks when he had to spend hours locked inside the stiff pressurized suit and helmet necessary for survival at the edge of space

Baumgartner conquered his fear through therapy and guidance from 84-year-old Joseph Kittinger, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who jumped from 19.5 miles in 1960. Until Baumgartner’s successful jump is completed, Kittinger still holds the current world record for highest altitude parachute jump.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Jerry Seinfeld’s Success Formula Applied To Exercising

Oct 9

Posted by ira in exercise, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

Jerry gives good advice

A reddit member posted a link to an article about comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s secret to writing. But the author says it can be applied to anything, and he has used it for himself in many areas. It will even work in getting people to exercise with some regularity, and I will vouch for the concept. It’s what happened to me in terms of transforming myself from a dreamer who avoided the gym and couldn’t force myself to do even five minutes of exercise a day into a guy who now hasn’t missed a day of exercise in 11 months. An astonishing achievement for someone as undisciplined as I am—or used to be—when it comes to making myself stretch, push or lift. So here are some excerpts:

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I’ve used his technique in many different areas. I’ve used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn’t the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard “inch by inch anything’s a cinch.” Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day…

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

This reminds me of a friend who drank and drugged for years, then joined Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and has now gone almost 20 years without a drop of booze or dope or coke. He always says that it’s impossible to “just have one little drink” and then go back to abstinence. So he never “skips a day” of sticking to his routine. I feel the same way about my exercise chain. So I make myself do it to keep the chain going.

Tags: , , , , ,

Back At The Gym For A Tension-Relieving Workout

Oct 5

Posted by ira in exercise, gym stuff, health, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

After 14 months of avoiding the place, I finally made it to the gym. It was a minimal workout, just 30 minutes, but it really felt great to be pumping up. But knowing I was going to be near the gym after a friend’s afternoon lecture, I thought the gym visit would be easy.

In fact it was absolutely necessary. At the lecture, I saw an acquaintance who told me his wife had died just three months after learning she had cancer. They had been together almost 30 years, had both recently retired and were planning “a decade or two of travel and relaxation.” I was so stunned I could barely stand up. I became a bit dizzy and thought I was going to fall down, that my legs wouldn’t support me.

So I raced to the gym to burn off my fear, anger, tension, adrenalin, whatever. It was a welcome relief from a horribly upsetting encounter. I feel so bad for this man who is struggling with his new and unexpected circumstances. And for his deceased wife, who had almost no time to prepare. I didn’t ask any questions about lifestyles and health habits. It just reminded me yet again how fragile and unpredictable our health and living is. It’s a constant gift that needs to be appreciated, treasured and cared for…

Tags: , , , , , ,

Armless Archer Matt Stutzman Wins Silver At Paralympics

Sep 7

Posted by ira in archery, LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES | 5 Comments

Champion Archer Matt Stutzman

Matt Stutzman calls himself the Inspirational Archer (which he certainly is) on his web site , but he’s better known as the Armless Archer. What an achievement. He also has a sense of humor, with the site subtitle, A Foot Above the Competition.

Born without arms, Stutzman inserts the arrow using his left foot, lifts and steadies his bow with his bare right foot, and uses his teeth, shoulder and jaw to pull back and release the arrow. He only took up the sport two or three years ago.

At the 2012 Paralympics, Stutzman won silver for the United States, placing behind Finland’s Jere Forsberg, 6-4, in the final contest of the Men’s Individual Compound – Open event on Sept. 3. It turns out Matt was aiming for the Gold, so he was probably disappointed with this result.

According to USA Today, Stutzman’s competitors were all wheelchair users but had use of their arms.

“My goal was to inspire somebody, even if it was just one person, with my positive attitude,” Stutzman told the Herald-Sun after winning his silver medal.

The excitement around Stutzman’s performance was palpable in the archery final. Whereas his opponent, Forsberg, shot his arrows in silence, the Telegraph likened the sound of camera shutters going off around Stutzman to “exploding birdshot.”

If you jump immediately to 0:41 in the video below, you can see how Matt inserts arrows into the bow with his feet and uses an off-the-shelf wrist device (although he has it on his shoulder) to draw (pull back) the arrow, and then his jaw movement releases the arrow for flight. All his equipment is standard and not adapted to his unique situation. What a talent.

If you go right to 2:00 in the video below, you can see how Matt uses his foot and toes EXACTLY like able-bodied people use their hands and fingers. Amazing.

Tags: , , , , ,

Success In Tennis And Life

Sep 6

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, tennis | No Comments

Once again I am amazed—even giddy— at how powerful a few techniques can be…in tennis. A slightly changed grip, move an inch closer to the base line for my serve, rotate the stance a few degrees, and PRESTO: I am hitting the best serves of my life…with pop and power. All following the advice of a really great coach, Rob Ober, who used to play with Agassi 20+ years ago.

Same improved results from two little changes to my back hand. One was “Just turn your body and relax as if you were talking to someone at a cocktail party,” Rob told me. And without tensing up or muscling the shot, I hit it right in the sweet spot more powerfully and accurately than ever. Can’t wait to compete now.

But I always have to extrapolate to non-tennis life. Could success in romance, business, career and any other arenas also be dependent on just a few adjustments, what ever they are? I wish that could be so. I know it is a slower process to achieve results in life, and certainly it’s harder to implement the theories.

But maybe it’s much simpler than we imagine.

Tags: , , , , ,

Early Life Of An Extreme Outdoorsman And Speed Junky (Part 1 Of 3)

Aug 24

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving, cycling, fishing, hiking, hunting, LIFE LESSONS, motorcycling, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, skiing | No Comments

idyllic cruising in the great outdoors

Met a new friend out West who described his life of total immersion in the outdoors and his love of fast cars and motorcycles. His stories were so astonishing and descriptive that I urged him to write them down. Who could have guessed that his prose would be extraordinary too. I told him he reminded me of Hunter Thompson’s gonzo style or other journalists I imagine writing about speed on speed…or some other hallucinogenic. You are in for a real treat! (I hope he doesn’t mind that I relocated the first paragraph from deep within the story to give you a perspective of what is going on)

For whatever reasons, not the least of which was my father having a triple bypass at 35, I always figured on needing to pack as much experience into one presumably short life as a person could. So I’ve had the pedal down as far back as I can remember. The joke is on me of course, I never developed heart disease, but I did break a few bones, lose a shitload of skin and probably deserve to be dead 30 times over doing various things. Also got a late start building a career, so I’ll probably be working until I am in fact dead—but I design/test outdoor gear. How bad can that be?

OK, a quick bio: I’ve always been bipolar or multi-polar regarding outdoor sports, grew up at the beach but was sneaking onto the Irvine Ranch (before it was developed) behind our house with my .22 to hunt rabbits and quail (yes, quail, you just have to make a head shot, and I don’t mean when they are flying) and started fly fishing in the mountains around LA whenever my mom could drive me or with the Boy Scouts, then Explorer Scouts. Luckily the Explorer group I joined was the mountaineering group in Anaheim, which gave me my first glimpse of the High Sierra’s, and I got as interested in Golden Trout as I did in peak bagging.

As soon as I got my driver’s license, it was good bye to the scouts, and I was off every winter weekend to cross country ski tour/snowcamp in the San Gorgonio or San Jacinto Wilderness areas, often alone, which would drive my mom crazy, then backpack with a fly rod in the summer. Surf, ski, climb, hunt, fish, and of course getting around when younger I got everywhere on a bike, which became a nicer and nicer bike which became another, lifelong passion including a little bit of road racing in high school. I quit that because I kept getting clobbered by motorists who in those days weren’t used to seeing humans on road racing bikes out in traffic. Last crash involved being hit from behind by a car and flung through traffic across three fast lanes of the Pacific Coast Highway. It was like playing Russian Roulette with only one empty chamber and surviving without a scratch. The rear wheel and rear triangle of my bike absorbed most of the impact and I came to a stop on the center divider balancing on my crank set, still clipped in, cars whizzing by in both directions. I did not get religion, I just left the bike laying in the highway and hitched home. No more road bikes for me.

Then one summer I came through Ketchum on a fly fishing trip and saw my first mountain bike—one of Tom Ritchey’s first hand-made bikes at the Elephant’s Perch, and my life was wrecked. I was living in Laguna at the time and the steep coastal hills were crawling with jeep roads, single track and game trails.

In a fitting way I was wrapping up my involvement with motorhead activities. My first car was a red Alfa Romeo Duetto softail Spider which I rescued from ruin and re-built myself. My second car was a raging-fast Lotus Elan which followed the same pattern, find a junker and bring it back to life one turn of the wrench at a time. I’d had a go-kart my Dad built for me when I was about 7, motorcycles, etc. so high performance driving was written into the software by the time I was a teen, and I could really drive. At one point I actually thought about it as a career, maybe an F1 pilot like Dan Gurney, but as I started hanging out at various tracks I realized I couldn’t stand the people who were involved with the sport. They were like golfers on crack.

With some irony I had long been co-evolving into a leftist tree hugging wilderness freak motorhead. I joined David Brower’s F.O.E. (Friends of the Earth) when I was 16, was reading Abbey, getting pangs about joining Dave Foreman’s Earth First gang but didn’t like the idea of prison. Note that both cars I mentioned were small, light, fast, fuel-efficient machines. But showing up to a Sierra Club meeting with my Lotus (even though it got 30 mpg) didn’t go too well. Which I found really disappointing. The leftist tree huggers turned out to be like accountants on crack.

In those years I tried everything that fit my personal ethos of small footprint, treading lightly, loving wild places, and having a fucking great time getting to those places. Think of hand-made (by me), aero cross-country ski racks and skis tucked behind the tiny roof line of a Lotus Elan howling through the desert North of LA at 2 A.M., on the way to Mammoth Tamarack lodge with the headlights off, navigating by the full moon at 120 mph with the Doors playing Riders on the Storm backed up by the sound of a nasty, tweaked-out twin cam motor pushing a low, smooth glass slipper through the void. Fuck the Sierra Club. (Continue to Part 2/3 in post below)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I Should Have Eaten More Steak!

Aug 18

Posted by ira in aging, diet, exercise, health, LIFE LESSONS | No Comments

These were the first words said by a woman who just found out she had incurable cancer and was going to die soon: “I should have eaten more steak!” Seven months later, she was gone…

I heard this anecdote from a friend who knows the widower. My friend (let’s call him Goliath, or G for short) and I were discussing mortality, health, and discipline. G often comments how disciplined I am to avoid foods with cholesterol. I often remind him how I used to eat half a pint of ice cream with chocolate syrup almost every night. Then my cholesterol rose to heart-attack-warning levels, so I gave it up. Eat a lot of sorbet now, almost no cheese, fat-free yogurt, soy milk and olive oil instead of more delicious butter. Now my cholesterol is down. Hopefully I will live longer and more healthfully.

Do I miss those foods. Sometimes, for sure. But knowing they are bad for me, I usually am just fine without them. If I suddenly learn that I will be dead in a few months or days, I don’t think it will bother me that I modified my diet and exercised more to stay healthy, fit, and enjoying these later years. But that’s me.

I remember a smoker saying that he is likely to live just 6 or 7 years less than a non-smoker. “Worth it,” he pronounced. Of course his addictions were no comparison to my giving up butter. But it’s all a balance, G and I decided. What if you live 10 years in good health, rather than 20 years in and out of hospitals and doctors’ offices?

Of course you could die tomorrow in an accident. In that case you wouldn’t have time to regret having avoided harmful foods and life style. But working out the balance is quite confronting. Why earn more money for older age and health costs, if you think you will die in a year? Why stay fit and flexible? Why not cheat on your wife or husband? Why spend time helping out friends and supporting unemployed children? Do whatever you want!

It’s almost impossible to live solely for the moment, in spite of movies and novels starring glamorous, smiling hedonists. But is it really tempting to you?

When I was working at my own publishing company in the early years, I was newly divorced and wanted to be as stabilizing as possible for my two little girls. When they had summer and holiday vacations, I took huge amounts of time off, regardless of the business consequences. One year I was with the girls 104 days, including 26 weekends (52 of the days). Of course I felt guilty at first, but then I would tell myself that if any of my staff members complained, I would say I only had six months to live. That would justify the time away, I reasoned. In their minds as well as mine.

So I am familiar with that confrontation of how much we…I…should watch the diet, be responsible, do good deeds, exercise, say NO to another beer, another shirt, another vacation.
We each have to work it out, and it a challenge every time we look at a menu, open the freezer, hear about a friend’s trip to Bora Bora, see a friend divorce his wife of decades and become the playboy of the suburban world.

Good luck with your choices. And may the Force of long, healthy life be with you…

Tags: , , , ,

Manteo Mitchell Finishes His Race With A Broken Leg

Aug 9

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, running, sports | No Comments

Manteo Mitchell looks good in this picture—8/9/2012

Another story of superhuman effort at the Olympics. It’s hard for me to imagine people tuning out the pain to this degree. Look back to the August 6th post to learn about Kerri Strug’s victorious vault. Humans can really be amazing. So I guess it’s easy enough for me to play tennis through a bit of a cramp. And I love the last line of this post. What planet is this guy living on?

LONDON – Move over, Kerri Strug. America has a new Olympian performing heroically on a broken leg.

Runner Manteo Mitchell said he “felt” and “heard” his fibula breaking midway through his lead-off leg of the 4×400-meter relay in qualifying heats. He kept running, going another 200 meters and handing off the baton to Joshua Mance. The U.S. went on to finish second in the heat, advancing to the final Friday night.

America would not have kept its medal hopes alive in the event without the effort of Mitchell. His injury was diagnosed after the race by team doctor Bob Adams: broken left fibula.

Mitchell (rt) finished his race with a broken leg—8/9/2012

“I knew if I finished strong we could still get it [the baton] around,” Mitchell said. “I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100-meter mark it felt weird,” Mitchell told USA Track and Field. “I was thinking I just didn’t feel right. As soon as I took the first step past the 200-meter mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half. I saw Josh Mance motioning me in for me to hand it off to him, which lifted me. I didn’t want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad. I’m pretty amazed that I still split 45 seconds on a broken leg.”

Mitchell believes he initially injured the leg a few days ago in the Olympic Village when he slipped on a stairway. Mitchell says “I figured it’s what almost any person would’ve done in that situation.”

Tags: , , , , , ,