Can I kick it?

If we’re being honest with ourselves, every man asks this question of himself – daily. Can I kick — at my job? Can I be a kick-__ husband, dad, son, brother, friend? Can I kick it (aka keep up / prove I’ve still got ‘it’) with the PAX in the gloom? In short, we’re sizing up ourselves to assess whether we’ve got what it takes to be a High Impact Man (the proverbial HIM in F3 jargon).

There’s also another way we might be asking this question: “Can I kick a bad habit?” “Can I kick an addiction?” Can I kick the sh– out of this illness / sickness / unhealthy thing in my life?” “Can I kick myself in high gear and get motivated to make an important, but hard change?”

My hope for every man that reads this post is that you regularly hear two sets of voices:

#1 The encouragement of the PAX every time you step away from the fart sack and fearlessly step up to the challenge presented by any given AO. You’re there. You’re committed to getting better. And every man to a man is in your corner. “Well done, bro.” “Way to go, men.” “Thattaboy!” And they mean it. Why else would we get up at 0’dark thirty? We’re there for and because of each other. There’s a chorus of guys, as in the song, saying “Yes, you can” every step of the way.

#2 Whether you’re a believer or not, I hope you hear a voice that echoes down through the generations and says, “You are my beloved son. I couldn’t be prouder of you.” or “Well done, my good and faithful servant” or even “Do not be afraid; I am with you.”  If you’re somewhere in the Judeo-Christian tradition, you know these words and you claim them as your own, knowing it’s not just a bunch of mortal men that cheer you on. There’s a Father-Son-Spirit trio that’s proclaiming in unison: “Yes, you can!”

So there’s that – and we also proved that we can kick a soccer ball pretty far, that we can kick it backward in crawl bear to score a goal and some of us can even kick it 12 yards through two yellow cones 8 feet apart. All that happened with 7 PAX for EC, 21 at ME and 16 for Coffeeteria.

WARM-O-RAMA

• Chinooks x 10 IC x Reverse
• Seal Jacks x 10 IC
• Windmills x 10 IC
• Harvesters x 10 IC
• Newton’s Cradle x 10 IC
• Mountain Climbers x 10 IC

Q thumbed through his pocket Apocrypha (ask Bump Draft for a copy) and found the question that kicked off this post (see what I did there?). Apropos, we played “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest. When that query arrives in the song, PAX were instructed to perform a Donkey Kick and shout “Yes, I can!”…otherwise Bird Dogs, Plank Jacks, Crab Kicks, etc. on the verse.

THE THANG

Round 1:  With the pending question of the day hanging in the air, Q unveiled a soccer ball from his bag of tricks and placed  it on the penalty hash. PAX were to call an exercise, kick the ball as far as they can (full field), grab a cone and run AYG to ball. Drop cone to mark the feat, then dribble back fast as you can. Next PAX up, so on and so forth. Exercises YHC can remember:

• V Ups
• Burpees
• Merkins x 2
• Star Ups
• Bows and Toes
• Squat Jumps
• Lunge Jumps
• Mountain Climbers
• LBCs
• Side Shuffle Hop
• …and many more

When all had kicked it, bear crawl to cones, low squat hold. Wawa Wins for farthest kick! Run back to penalty hash.

Round 2: PAX would call exercise, then Crawl Bear kick / dribble ball to yellow cones placed 12-15 yards away. Some of the exercises:

• Sprint to fence and back (3x)
• Superman Rows
• Overhead Clap
• Moroccan Night Clubs
• Plank Jacks
• Flutter Kicks
• Mountain Climbers
• High Knees
• Peter Parkers
• 10+ more – if we missed you, hit the comments.

MARY(ISH)

One last chance to step up and kick it – regular penalty kick. If PAX splits the cones, 15 of X, if misses 30 of it. First shot wide. 30 Burpees. Got through 20, PAX groaning, Q calls audible and all perform 10 Slow Merkins IC. Somehow we gave Red October the keys and did 20 Flutter Kicks IC, had time for a couple others and YHC clearly needs more sleep as cannot recall the exercises. Finally, circle up and go 21 x 5 count for Superman Ring of Fire to close out.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Habitat build coming up. See Uzi (?) for details.
• Also, Run for Malawi fundraising going on now. See Churham News for details.

APPRECIATION

• Thank you to @Flapjack and @Bonsai for the chicken biscuits!
• Thank you @Shark Tank for the coffee.

One more time: Yes. You. Can.