Welcome to my first Mohawks blog entry and I’m delighted to be writing it. It is called ‘What I learned this week’, or WILTW. You often hear experienced players saying “I still learn something every time I play” and I thought I’d put this to the test.

So each week I’ll draw on happenings at our practices to explain some new idea or epiphany which I have come upon in that week.

My main aim is to stimulate some thought and conversation about whatever it is I’ve chosen to write about, so please feel free to comment below each blog entry with what YOU learned this week (WYLTW) or further discussion. Be sure to check the blogs section regularly!

Shimmy

Week One: A New Hope

Resolve is a really important word at this time of year. It is where we get the word ‘resolution’ from, as in “I’ve broken my new year’s resolution already.” Resolve can describe the quality of an action, “She progresses with a great deal of resolve” as well as being something you can do “He resolves to be a kinder person” and something which you can lack in general, “She has no resolve whatsoever.”

First let me assure you, nobody remembers the practice the last term where you couldn’t catch anything, or that time you just forgot how to throw a sidearm, or the Callaghan you were responsible for at regionals, or the time you were so offside that the pull hit you in the back of the head. You might remember them but we don’t. That means the new term is a great time to start afresh and resolve to form some new habits.

Most people find it hard to break habits because their life is so monotonous, but as a student you are in a unique position in that your life is segmented into chunks of 10 weeks at a time, with a rest in between. This means that at the beginning of every term you get a new schedule with new deadlines and, most importantly, the opportunity to form new habits. Whether that’s a big thing like making time to chuck around with somebody regularly, hitting the gym a couple of times a week, or a small thing like doing 25 press ups and 25 sit-ups every day before breakfast – it only takes a little resolve to get it done.

Most importantly you have to start right now. It’s already the end of week two (I admit, my blog is running late) and as time goes on fixing your bad habits is only going to get harder. So if you’re sat at home thinking to yourself “Yeah – from Monday I’ll definitely do more core work at home”, or “Once I’ve handed in this essay I’ll start going for a run in the evenings”, or “Next practice I’ll work on my side-arm huck” then that’s no good. Imagine you have a limited store, a finite amount of resolve. By promising yourself that tomorrow you’ll go for a 5km run, you use up some of that resolve in simply deciding to go for the run (call this resolving to resolve to do something), so that when you get to tomorrow the resolve you have left in reserve isn’t enough any more to force you to put on your trainers and make it happen.

So instead, get out and do it now. Right now. You’re not doing anything right now so put on your running shoes, or grab a disc, or get into the plank and resolve to keep doing it. Believe me, it’s much easier to resolve to do something that you’re already doing.