A Fiesta and four rugby players head to Atlanta....

Eagle Olympic Training Center

Atlanta, GA

This past weekend 4 of us traveled together from Raleigh, NC to Atlanta, GA. We started the trip by packing up my Ford Fiesta which is still lingering with the smell of cleats and grass. With little sleep on Friday night we hit the field at 8am to find that a monsoon had hit and two inches of standing water covered the fields. We ended up in the Life University Basketball Coliseum and did not waste any time getting into the fitness testing. First up, the 70m Shuttle, Broad Jump, 5-10-5 meter agility test, and 5 rep max Front Squats. After this session, we hit the fields and slipped our way through the first ground session where multiple times I was put up against some of the best props and forced to take them to the ground as quickly as possible with the hopes that it resulted in a positive tackle. It went well... just ask my neck and shoulders.

We ended day one with delivery Thai food and The Breakfast Club. Watching a Brat Pack movie is exactly how high level Rugby players prepare for intense competition.

The second day we started off with the Bleep test. One of the most grueling fitness tests (besides the death flop). I surprisingly increased my score from a 12.1 to a 12.7 and was very excited to see such an increase! Maybe I'll thank some of those CrossFit Open WODS for boosting my suffering threshold. It's still raining on  this second day of training but that won't keep us off the field. We worked on defense and double tackling, which resulted in a cracked nose and a black eye but a tackle I won't forget for quite some time!

This was a great camp and everyone worked extremely hard. The eagle pool is being cut from 120 people to 80 people and I'm eagerly waiting to see if I made it through to the next camp in April. All of this for a shot to make the traveling squad for France in June. I've been searching for a cute little hat to wear when I land in France, because my only perception of the French is that... they wear hats...