ISSUE #88 - October 5th, 2019

ONE

MY SOCCER TRICK SHOT - I coach my six-year-old son's soccer team and in practice one-third of my time is spent tying shoelaces, one-third of it is telling the kids not to drill the ball at each other's heads, and the last third is them challenging me and betting me I can't do something.  At a recent practice, my son and another little wise guy bet me that I couldn't kick a ball into their small goal across the entire field. Of course, I said I could. Then they said I couldn't do it with one of them in goal. Again, I said no sweat. THEN they said I couldn't do it with two of them in the goal...and that piqued my interest and I accepted the challenge. Here's my triumphant video... I cut it off before I shouted, "Messi... Ain't Got Nothing... On Me!!!"

TWO

FITNESS - I have a theory: you're only as strong as your grip. What does that mean? Well, I'm not 100% sure beyond the fact that it seems like with most heavy lifts (deadlifts) or with exercises like pull-ups, unless you use wraps, your grip will fail you before the rest of your muscles will.  On a personal level, I've been on a quest to strengthen my grip so I can star in Over the Top 2: Bull Harley's Revenge. How am I doing it? In addition to refusing to use wraps of any kinds and doing a lot of burnout sets of pull-ups and stuff, I recently got these Captains of Crush hand grippers to keep in my desk. It's an old school grip-training tool that works. My "hold" is up to a minute now. Give'em a shot.

THREE

SCIENCE & HISTORY - This was the most interesting and fascinating twitter thread I read this week and it involves train tracks, the space shuttle, Ancient Rome, horses asses and more.  I don't want to give away any more because the timing and delivery of the thread really matters, but trust me on this one. It's a fun, cleverly written read that takes only a few minutes.

FOUR

HOOPS - I was extolling the virtues of Allen Iverson (as I often do) to a much younger friend who couldn't quite grasp how much of a force of nature AI was in his prime. How unstoppable... How creative... How fearless and frenetic and... cool... It's hard for people to understand his impact now culturally, but skill-wise, he was off the charts.  As we talked, I kept bringing up the time Iverson crossed over Jordan, not once, BUT TWICE ON THE SAME PLAY and then drained a silky jumper. So naturally I found the clip on YouTube and the move is just as jaw-dropping today as it was when it happened. Here's the highlight.

FIVE

AN EXCELLENT QUOTE ON ACTION

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”  — Dale Carnegie

Thanks for reading! - Jon  Questions? Ideas? Comments? E-mail me (reply to this e-mail) or hit me on Twitter HERE.   And don't forget to FORWARD THE FF5 to a friend!   ***BIG PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT COMING NEXT WEEK... STAY TUNED!!!***