Chicago Lions prepare for Club Championship Series 7s in Las Vegas Feb. 12th-13th

For the first time ever the Chicago Lions RFC Sevens team will venture out to Las Vegas to compete in the Club Championship Series which coincides with International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens Circuit. The Lions play Friday against Kansas City RFC and then rivals NOVA in pool play. The top two teams advance to the quarterfinals. See schedule here:http://www.rugbymag.com/news/sevens/usa-7s-tournament/las-vegas-invitational-schedule-confirmed.aspx

Catch matches from the Summer of 2009

Here is additional information:

The field for the inaugural USA Sevens Championship Cup Series finals is set as 12 of the best 7s teams in the USA will battle in Las Vegas February 12 and 13.

The championship tournament will be held during the Las Vegas Invitationals on the USA 7s IRB event weekend.

Clubs competed in five qualifying tournaments all over the USA competing for ten spots, with two wild card spots open for two others. Life University qualified but had to pull out, leaving three wild card spots, filled by Old Blue, the Chicago Lions, and San Francisco Golden Gate.

They join the nine qualifiers: Aspen, Belmont Shore, Denver Barbarians, Glendale, Kansas City Blues, Long Island, NYAC, NOVA, and OMBAC.

The teams are split into four pools of three teams each. The pools play a round robin, with the top two from each pool moving on to the quarterfinals. The third-place teams from each pool move into the Bowl competition.

The competition begins the morning of Friday, February 12 with NYAC taking on Glendale and OMBAC against Old Blue.

Pool 1 NYAC Glendale Belmont Shore

Pool 2 OMBAC Old Blue Aspen

Pool 3 SFGG Long Island Denver Barbarians

Pool 4 Chicago Lions Kansas City Blues NOVA

The quarterfinals, Plate and Bowl competitions will all be completed on Friday. Saturday will see the Cup semifinals, the consolation final, and the Cup Final. The Cup Final will be played in Sam Boyd Stadium during a break in the USA 7s action Feb 13.

The champions will take home $7,500 in prize money, while the runners up get $2,500 courtesy of the USA 7s tournament.

The lineup of teams is impressive, with five of the teams involved responsible for the last five national 7s championships. In fact, of the 20 top four spots in the last five national club 7s championships, 18 have been claimed by teams in this tournament (Maryland Exiles is not in the CCS, and finished 4th twice).

MS-150 Bike Ride

This summer I participated in my first MS-150. I headed up to Minnesota with two of my clients and we did two 75 mile bike rides. For some reason we took off right at the start of the race. I thought we were trying to catch up with someone. The guys from Parktool set the pace. It was 50 miles in that I finally caught my breath. By that time we had pretty much passed everyone. I think I have only gone that fast on a bike one other time in my life and it was only after watching Armstrong tackle a tour stage

I had a great time and the people in Minnesota were definitely North Carolina nice!

Here is a link for the ride:

http://bikemnm.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=BIKE_MNM_150_homepage

Special thanks to those that donated to MS.

MS-150 June 2009

Rainy day? Try this Workout anywhere.

This workout is normally done by the Chicago Lions RFC Sevens team if practice gets rained out. Give it a try and see how you do.

7s Circuit Training @ Home or in the gym

1 hour 15 minutes

Warm Up

Do the dynamic exercises but in place with a longer hold and only half as much.

Perform each exercise for 30sec rest for 10sec.

Water break between entire circuit 3 minutes

(approx 10-12 min for entire circuit) Complete 4 Rounds of the circuit

1. Star Jumps
2. Bicycle Crunches (keep your shoulders up alternate side to side)
3. Clap Push Ups (not for time, do 15)
4. Single Leg Squat Touchdown (to foot) (Left)
5. Single Leg Squat Touchdown (to foot) (Right)
6. Push Ups X25
7. Supermans
8. Fast Punching (Shadow Boxing)
9. Front Planks (with alternating leg raises)
10. Side Planks (Left) (Earn a star by raising your Right Leg)
11. Side Planks (Right) (Earn a star by raising your Left Leg)
12. Squat Jumps
13. Wall Sit (no break between Wall Sits)
14. Wall Sit
15. Split Cycle Lunge

Stretch at the end (calves, groin, hip flexor (Lunge, make sure pelvis is tilted forward), quads, chest, shoulders, and hips).

John Golden returns from Everest…

it was bitter sweet to see John when he got back from Everest. I met with him at Morgan Street Cafe. He had been on Everest just some 50 hours prior. He had lost 30 pounds and had taken a bit of a beating from the mountain but he always has such a great attitude. Below is a link to his blog detailing the events that led him to descend from Camp IV after 24 hours in the “death zone.”

The 2nd link is a short clip of the storm they descended through to make it back to base camp.

You can still donate to his cause to further orthopeadic research by going to http://www.goldenexpedition.org/

Discovery Channel will be airing 6 one hour episodes of John and Jon’s summit attempt in November of this year.

http://blogs.discovery.com/everest_2009/

Golden’s Blog:

http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/jgolden/

Video Clip in the storm:

http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/jgolden/videos/Golden%20Rescue.mov

Huge thank you!

to all my friends, clients, and teammates for helping to raise $750 for the Chicago Hope Academy by donating money for BodyByManheimer t-shirts. If you are interested in a t-shirt or tank top please contact me. Anything and everything you give goes towards the CHA’s own rugby team.

To read an article about how the Chicago Lions Rugby Team (chicagolions.com) and the CHA have teamed up go here:
http://www.gainline.us/gainline/2009/03/lions-to-debut-chicagos-hope-field.html

Want to keep up with my client John Golden who is climbing Mount Everest?

John’s expedition page: www.goldenexpedition.org

Also, from the guide company IMG: http://www.mountainguides.com/everest-south09.shtml

I will be back in the studio April 13th.

Second Everest Training Video with John Golden

Quarter Finals of the 2007 Sevens National Championship. Chicago Lions vs. Nova

Lions are in black. Nova in white.

This was my rookie year as a coach. My proudest day was Sunday at the National Championships.
It was all about keeping the ball alive and playing as a team. Lions vs. Globo Gym.

Workout Video of John Golden

Sorry for the shakiness of the video. I am wearing a helmet cam.

My YouTube videos

I have a great YouTube channel here. There are demonstrations of all the different exercises and techniques, including the fantastic Dynamic Warmup.