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In this Issue Sponsors Edge
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It's been a massive 3 months since our last newsletter, with the inaugural Wanda X-Treme 6, Fight Club, the launch of our new Premium PT program
, the cross country season, fun run after fun run, stacks of new JASSA athletes and some fantastic results. The Wanda X-Treme 6 was great success, with over 100 competitors, including the canine varity. Of course, hosting the event is made all the more possible thanks to our major sponsor SKINS. All the results and pics are now on the website. We're finally through the Winter Solstice and heading in the right direction towards summer. Hats off to all our members who battle on through the chilly winter mornings to keep up their fitness. It will be that much more rewarding when Spring comes around! So much coming up, inlcuding the Half Marathon Club, Wanda X-Treme "SKINS" sandhill bolt and "Fitest Kid in the Shire" Competition... stay tuned! Team JA PS. We couldn't help ourselves with the name of this newsletter edition - blame Mel! Picture: "the warm up" courtesy of John Veage & Chris Lane from The Leader.
By popular demand, the “Half-Marathon” Club has arrived! If you want a goal to help you punch on through the winter, this is THE Goal: Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, Sunday 20 September 2009. Half-Marathon Club is a 10-week training program designed for
TRAINING STARTS on Monday 13 July 2009. To sign up for the "Half-Marathon Club" contact Jock Campbell on 9544 3628. We’re not satisfied with the name “Half-Marathon Club”, so we’re putting the call out for some ideas! The author of the winning name receives a JA Performance Singlet and a ice cold can of whoop ass (ask Jock)! Email us with your suggestions. The nominations and winning name will come out in the next issue! But wait... there's more! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the second year running SKINS is the official compression partner for the Blackmore's Running Festival and will be owning the ‘recovery village’ where participants chill out and recover for free after each race. This year the focus will be on ‘the ladies’... so Skins will have:
To register and to join Team SKINS follow the instructions below:
* Please ensure you select the appropriate seeding section under "Bib Number Range" on the registration form. Be there or be square!
Only 9 days to go until these strapping young lads (pictured right) take to the boxing ring for their first amateur fight!! Our lone female contender, Nicky Longworth, will kick off Fight Night with an exhibition match against our very own Paul Watson. Now into Phase 3 of the 10 week training program, these contenders will be put through their final paces before hitting the boxing ring on July 10. Each will be paired up against a component of equal weight and ability for 3x2min rounds. Some are nervous, many are anxious, but all of them are pumped! Best of all, $500 from each fight will be generously donated toward two exceptional charities, the Steve Waugh Foundation and the Ponting Foundation. Fight Night tickets are the hottest in town, with most tables already sold out. If you're keen to come along and support these guys, please contact Mel C on 9544 3628 for all ticket inquires. Tickets are $100, including drinks and finger food. Fight Club (Mark II) is due to kick off on Monday September 14 2009. To book your spot, contact Paul Watson or Corey Bocking on 9544 3628. Limited to the first 20 contenders!
Jessica Durand Competition was hot for this months star performer, with Matt Hayden being the leading run scorer in the IPL and Laura James winning a number of races and completing her first marathon, but we just couldn't go past Jess. Jess has had so many great results in the past 6 months that it's very hard to list them all or even remember them all. In the little athletics NSW Titles, Jess set the fastest times in her age group in Australia this year for both the 800m and 1500m winning gold and has won many other races along the way, taking on all comers and all age groups. Her most outstanding results were however two seconds, the first was second to Lara Tamsit (World Cross Country Champion) in the Mothers Day Classic over 4km and then second, 1 second behind the ex German 800m Champion in the Elite Queen of the Hill event in the Balmoral Burn. Jess has great talent in several distances and is only 14 years of age. It is not her talent that we are most impressed with, it's her attitude and enthusiasm that we love the most. Keep an eye out for her in the future. Congratulations Jess, you are a worthy Jock Athletic member of the month! Picture: Jess leads the pack in Shirt #380
CRICKET Fresh from a private training camp with Jock Campbell in Brisbane, long time JASSA member Matthew Hayden headed over to South Africa for the IPL and returned as the tournament's leading run scorer, helping his team reach the semi-finals. Matt's still got it! On the domestic cricket scene, 16yo Sam Newman was recently selected in the NSW U19 City Squad. A well deserved selection, well done Sam! CROSS COUNTRY Our JASSA Juniors have been carving up the local Cross Country scene. Young gun Lachlan Crawford (pictured below) blew away the field in his school Cross Country event, setting a new school record in the U9's, and then took out 3rd in the Cronulla Zone event and 3rd in the U15 Wanda X-Treme 6. Adding to these results, Lachlan has broken two records in U10's 2kms in the Sutherland DIstrict Athletics Club 2009 winter cross country running programme. Also in the U9 category, Elly O'Donoghue took out 4th place in the Cronulla Zone event. Lachlan and Elly went on to represent Cronulla at the Sydney East Regional carnival where Lachlan finished in 4th place gaining him a spot in the Sydney East team at the NSW PSSA carnival.
ATHLETICS Many of our JASSA athletes have made a successful start to the school athletics season with some great results. Amie O'Donoghue finished 1st in the 100m, 200m and 400m (with a new record) which gave her the Junior Girl Champions title. Amie's proudest moment was her 3rd place in Shot Put! Elly O'Donoghue finished 3rd in 100m and 2nd in Junior Girls 800m. Connor McWhinnie finished 1st in 12yrs 100m, 200m and Senior Boy's 100m and 3rd in 800m. Mitchell Finnegan retained his long jump title with another great win. These JASSA athletes will now represent their school's at Zone - Good luck! OUTRIGGING Soraya Afflick is at it again, picking up the Junior Paddler of the Year award with Cronulla in May, and has been racing up with the Open mixed teams at recent Regattas. Soraya is currently training with the open mens crew and the open women's crew who are training up for Hawaii in August and heads to Lake Kawana in September and the Cook Islands in November.
SYDNEY RACE SCENE There have been some great results from our athletes in recent races around Sydney town. The Bondi Barefoot was a great day. JASSA claimed second place in the men's and women's 4km through Nick Fox and Mel C respectively, whilst Laura James smashed her previous PB to claim second in the 10km soft sand event. But the best part of the day was in the Barefoot Bolt, a lung-busting, lactic acid, exploding 70m dash evey minute. Competitors drop off every lap until there is an eventual outright winner. Laura Bolton held on tight to claim 3rd place, whilst 13yo Amie O'Donoghue
smashed all but 1 in the open field to take out second place. Our 4-man team came through again at the Balmoral Burn to win the Corporate B Relay event, with Scott Murphy, Dean Gardiner, Alex Parker and Jess Durand (pictured here receiving their award) running on behalf of corporate team I Dump It. Anthony Malakou smashed a PB to claim second place in his age category, whislt Paul Watson and Willow did their bit in the Pet & Owner race equalling their best time. INTERNATIONAL GUEST APPEARANCES On a break from their OS duties, some local talent have dropped in to continue their training during their offseasons. Jack Fonteyn is on leave from his swimming Scholarship in the US at the University of Notre Dame, whilst Robert Paratore, on a break from his soccer duties with EPL Club Leicester City, has dropped in to continue his hard work before heading back in a couple of weeks.
Run Ricky Run The Ponting Foundation recently launched a new fundraising initiative- Run Ricky Run- to help the fight against childhood cancer. A key part of Run Ricky Run is the link between donations from the general public and the number of runs Ricky scores in the npower Ashes Test Series commencing on July 8. Every run that Ricky makes during the Ashes will trigger a donation to one of the Foundation’s beneficiary charities including Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia and Redkite. _____________________________________________________________
McGrath Foundation Gala Dinner Following the success of the Inaugural Gala Dinner in 2007, the McGrath Foundation is proud to host the 'Christmas Party of the Year'! Bring your staff, clients and friends for you own "Work Christmas Party" and be entertained by some of Australia's finest talent in what will be a night to remember. Date: Friday December 4 2009
Eat for Your Metabolism in 4 Ways Matt O’Neill is a celebrity dietition, amongst several other things, and an old classmate of ours from NSW University. He has a great website and posted an article on helping to gain a healthy metabolism in 4 different ways by what and how you eat food. For those interested in maintaining a healthy weight long term please visit: http://www.smartshape.com.au/a/928.html
ETIQUETTE FOR SICK CLIENTS It’s cold and flu season again, boohoo! Many people during a period of sickness try to ‘push through’ a training session without considering the harmful effect this may have on the people they share the facilities or surrounds with. Often the result is the needless infection of those around them. At rest a human breathes 3-4 litres of oxygen a minute, whereas during hard exercise this can reach up to 40 litres and above per minute. So the likelihood of passing on an airborne illness is increased by over ten times during exercise in confined spaces. To avoid the unnecessary spread of illness amongst a group of athletes and/or your fellow exercisers, clients coughing and sneezing or with an upper respiratory illness are discouraged from attending a session altogether for the sake of others and their own health. Research shows that exercising hard with a virus can lead to heart damage. Take home message: When struck with flu or cold symptoms please avoid training with other people and only train lightly if you feel up to it.
Slavery in the Modern World I talk to a lot of people about what they do in the world; you know, their jobs, their professions. I am amazed at how many don’t really like what they do! Its just not their passion, it doesn’t excite them and worst of all they continually complain about what they do! While it's not slavery in the classical sense my thinking is if you continue to work at what you hate doing then it is a form of slavery. When I was 19yrs old I went to work in a Kibbutz in Israel called Kibbutz Gonen on the Upper Sea of Galilee. There were many jobs to perform and most of these were manual labor tasks that didn’t require a lot of grey matter. Kibbutz life is based around communal living and sharing. Still a lot of the workers were not that taken with their occupations. The jobs they gave me included gluing soles onto clogs, making paddle pop sticks, using a tractor to scoop up and remove turkey poo and working on a fresh water fish farm. First up was the clog factory, where the workers besides being high on glue hated the mundane process of the conveyor belt. One person had to put the clogs on the belt, one had to put glue on the clogs, one had to put the rubber on the clogs sole, then it all went through a heating unit before someone else collected the clogs for another process. Well I get bored very easy so first thing I implemented was getting music into the system and then geeing everyone up to go for making the record number of clogs in a day. We were humming and singing, making Clogs, going for it and it made the day so much better (and I don’t think it was the high from the Glue either)! After that I got promoted to the Paddle pop stick factory. Yes we made paddle pop sticks - you had to get the poplar tree sections and debark them with an axe. Next, you put them on the lathe, which cut out continuous sheets of paddle pop stick thickness, poplar rolls. Then you put them through the paddle pop cutting out machine, where every time a knot in the wood came through, you had to press a button and it clanged the machine, which stopped the paddle pop stick from being cut out and knotted. So here I am in Israel making paddle pop sticks with people who have been doing it for years and are hating their jobs and bored out of their minds. What did I do? I started training them so we could go for the world record number of paddle pop sticks made in a day. I still claim it though it might not be official and I am not sure if its in the Guiness Book of Records. So what happened is these people started to come alive and each day we worked harder and faster and with enthusiasm. The big day came around and so we went for it running, hootering, hollering and jamming those paddle pop sticks out. Well 1,400,000 paddle pop sticks later over an 8-hour shift we finished. I still think it might be a world record to this day, but who knows. The point is if you decide to work at a job you hate or do not like, change your attitude, find a way to make it better, start enjoying your job. There is nothing worse than someone who continually complains about their work, their job, and their boss! These people have become slaves, because if you are that unhappy you should leave! Now I know plenty of people say they can’t (there's that limiting word again) leave because of money, family, house, car, boat or other material financial situations. It might be true but there are always alternatives. If you decide to stay in a job you hate or one that doesn’t fulfill you change your attitude, have a reason for staying and work to make your job better and to be better at your job. The Cronulla Sharks did me a great favor many years ago by sacking me. I loved my job and didn't know what I was going to do. I had lessons to learn! What it showed me was that I had to begin to grow again, come alive again and that it wasn’t the end of the world. If your job, profession or occupation is bringing you down and depressing you, limiting your growth, making you resentful, what will this be doing to the people, family and friends around you? We get caught up in the “fairy floss” of life. Fairy Floss is so good when you are a kid but all it is sugar and food coloring. The fairy floss of life is all the material things that are fun but ultimately do not lead to true happiness. Your health, family and friends are what count. I know I would be just as happy without any of my material trappings. We live in one of the richest countries in the world with a standard of living unmatched elsewhere. If I lost my job, house and lifestyle, I have my ‘Winnebago Plan’, which is for the dogs and myself to live in a Winnebago. If it got worse than that then there’s the shopping trolley plan where I become a homeless man with a dog tied to each corner of the shopping trolley. I would still be very happy! The point is your job is not as important as you believe. If you hate your job stop complaining, change your attitude. If you are staying in it know why and change your attitude about your job and practice the attitude of gratitude. If not, leave it and break free from the slavery. Life calls to those who are bold! If you can’t change the situation, change your attitude about it!
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