Nine PAX braved the spooky gloom on All Hallows Eve and joined YHC at Rock City.
Warmups were a sprinkle of typical moves with a few Fast Tax favorites: Grass Grabbers, SSHs, Manatee, Swan Dives, and everyone’s favorite – Crab Merkins.
Sufficiently warmed, we picked out our medium to heavy rocks (except War Eagle) and lined up along the sidewalk for the morning’s first exercise – Hair Burners. Hair Burners is essentially the pushing of a rock ahead of you while bear crawling.
Next up in the morning’s festivities was Welsh Dragons.
Remain in plank position the whole time. Bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 1 merkin, 1 plank jack, and tap the BACK of each shoulder 1 time. Repeat adding 1 rep to each exercise each time – bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 2 merkins, 2 plank jacks, 2 sets of back of shoulder taps… etc., repeated until we passed the sidewalk.
Picking up our rocks, we circled up for Captain Thor – An ab exercise done in a 1:4 ratio OYO, 1 big boy sit up to 4 American Hammers.
Without further ado, the time that PAX had eagerly awaited had come to pass – the introduction* of BALL BUSTER.
Ball Buster (credit to Mahatma for the naming idea) is a combination of Capture the Flag and Dodge Ball, except there are no boundaries. PAX form two teams. Each side has a blue ball (referred to as the Flag), which must be positioned at a pre-identified location on each team’s base and each PAX on the team is given one non-blue ball. The object is to steal the opposing sides blue ball (i.e. their flag) and bring it back to your base. The team scored against has to do three burpees.
Similar to dodge ball, PAX can use the ball to hit or “tag” an opposing player or block an incoming ball. If you are hit, or the person you are throwing at catches the ball, you have to immediately drop your ball and do two burpees or five merkins.
PAX can only hold one ball at a time. In order to pick up the flag, you must drop the ball if you are carrying one. You can pick up a tagged PAX’s ball and throw it away, but only after dropping your own.
However, when carrying the opposing team’s flag, it can be strategically used as a regular ball to hit or tag an opposing player. If the opposing team retrieves their flag (b/c the carrier was hit and had to drop the ball), it must be brought or thrown back to base and placed in the same pre-identified spot. A player cannot just run around with the Flag in their possession (Bogey).
Halfway through the game, the teams should switch sides.
Optional Rule: A team cannot score unless their own Flag is at their base. For example, if YHC captured the opposing team’s Flag, I cannot bring it back to my base unless my Flag is already at my base, i.e. the opposing team does not have it.
Having dispensed with the game rules, play commenced.
Team 1: Bogey, Hawg Cycle, Mahatma, Hokie, Cyber Cajun
Team 2: Hand Grenada, Fast Tax, War Eagle, Tiny Dancer
Even with Team 1’s penalty for hiding the ball in Bogey’s shirt, Team 1 still carried the day winning 3 to 2.
With time running out, we headed to COT for Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and prayer.
Thanks for the fellowship!
SYITG
* Technically a re-introduction since YHC debuted it a month prior to a small group of 6 PAX.
