8/11/07

Run Matthew, RUN!




Matthew is conditioning for pee-wee football this week.

We're always looking for ways to help him train for sports. He's a hard worker and he loves the challenge of doing something new. He also wants to play in the NFL... for his first career.

One of the things we got for him is an RZ Trainer. It's a football with a long elastic cord attached to it. That cord attaches to a belt at the other end. When you're wearing the belt and you throw the ball, it bounces right back to you and you can practice fumble recoveries. It also forces you to throw harder to get the ball to bounce all the way back to you.

We've talked about getting him a running-resistance parachute. It is a small parachute that attaches to a belt and opens behind you as you run to provide some resistance. If you train with the chute on, you will be faster when you run without it on.

These parachutes run in the neighborhood of $40-$60 in the stores, so we didn't just jump up to buy one for a 9 year old. We were discussing that very thing when Hubby came up with an idea. What if we made a parachute and attached it to the belt for the RZ Trainer in place of the football?

I knew I had some rayon in my fabric stash, so I grabbed it. Hubby got some cording from the garage and we were in business!

We tied a length of cord to each of the 4 corners of the fabric, tied the 4 cords to a key ring and clipped the key ring onto the RZ Trainer. It worked just like the store-bought version for a fraction of the cost! I love this because we also get double duty out of the RZ Trainer that we already had!

12 comments:

Trixie Twatwaffle said...

That looks like an awful lot of work. Running with the parachute - not making one.

As his "first" career? Does he have a long list of careers?

Unknown said...

When he needs more ristance training:
running up a hill
running stairs in high buildings
running at the beach through the dry sand.
Weights at the low parts of the legs or in the shoes.

It's how they do it here. LOL!

ZAM said...

training a future pro...heard running in waters also does the trick.

Rebekah said...

Very nifty

Cher said...

You are so resourceful! (Did I spell that right?) Matthew is very lucky to have the two of you for parents.

Anonymous said...

Poor little skinny thing.He needs to gain some weight now.Watch out for that bird that comes back to get his legs back.Grandma

Anonymous said...

That looks tough! He must really be in shape!

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Anonymous said...

Very creative. Thanks for participating in the Make it From Scratch Carnival.

Karen
www.balanceindiet.com

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! That looks like fun to me. I guess this enables you to find out if he is determined or not. Very wise. Loved the photos :-)


(MIFS)

Anonymous said...

that looks like so much fun!!

Stephanie Appleton said...

Just the pictures make me tired!