Canby
Lafayette Locks
The remains of old locks that once permitted boats to navigate up the Yamhill River to McMinnville, Oregon. Listed on the National Historic Register. Fascinating story of technologies outpacing man and man tripping over the environment in the process. I know, already heard it.
Barefoot girl, your sandals are there.
Carano vs. Cyborg - a card for all female fighters
Whether you're in the Gina Carano camp or the Chris "Cyborg" Santos camp, and especially if you're in neither but you know about this fight, I hope you'll join me in a moment of appreciation.
This Strikeforce MMA title fight was possibly the biggest female combat sports fight ever, thanks to the momentum of MMA, the marketing by Strikeforce, the marketability of Gina, and modern information dissemination. Before this, only boxing had a few big-name female fights touch the fringe of mainstream spotlight - a few of Martin's fights, Rijker's fights, and Ali vs. Frazier. But Carano vs. Cyborg took us where previously only Rijker vs. Martin could have.
People who never followed MMA woke up to find articles about this fight splashed all over the Internet homepages of the big pop culture news aggregates like Yahoo. And in today's world, that means you're officially on the radar. The mainstream radar. Where the tweens, teens and adults 18 - 45 live.
The buzz reached fever-pitch inside the fan world, and brought in audience MMA doesn't usually capture. The fight drew in me, for instance. I'm a female pugilist critical of MMA, but was compelled enough to fork over $25 to watch the livestream. It was worth it.
This fight helped propel not only MMA, but female combat sports into the light of legitimacy. So many women sweat, slug and stronghold their way through training and competition, in all manner of combat sports, and their recognition is limited to the small community within their local fighting subculture. But talent has never been enough, in anything. It takes major promotion and major media hype, big bucks and big power, to get individual fighters and matches fixed in the public eye.
There will be a challengingly small pool of talent for Strikeforce to draw on to match Cyborg and keep just some degree of this momentum going. But there is no small pool of talent in the world at large when it comes to female combat athletes. And every fighter should take heart from this fight, for breaking the barriers its has and moving consciousness forward just a bit.
Just as in training, as long as there's progress, it's a good thing.
Related links
- Women in Mixed Martial Arts: Fighting for Equality Part I, by Katalin Rodriguez-Ogren for Chicago Now
Women's boxing admitted to 2012 Olympics!
BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Women's boxing will be included at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the president of the International Olympic Committee announced Thursday.
The decision came during a two-day IOC Executive Board meeting in Berlin, at which board members also decided to propose golf and rugby for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games.
"I can only rejoice about the decision of inclusion of women's boxing," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters.
"I think it's a great decision. Boxing was the sole (Olympic) sport with no women involved.
"The sport of women's boxing has progressed a lot, a tremendous amount, in the last five years and it was about time to include them in the Games."
A men's class will be axed to make room for three women's weight categories at London 2012, the UK Press Association reported.
When the IOC dropped baseball and softball from the 2012 Olympic program several years ago, it said it would consider adding new sports that had a clean reputation and a wide appeal.
Rogge pointed out that women's boxing has around 200 athletes who could potentially compete in 2012, while softball has only around 120. As a result, he said, the IOC considered women's boxing to be more popular.
weightlifting inspiration from FX Toole/Jerry Boyd
This passage from Pound for Pound by F.X. Toole struck me as right on for Olympic-style weightlifting as well as boxing. Page 303.
Boxing ain't street fighting, where strength alone can make a winner. Boxing's a game of little things, like the links in a bicycle chain. It ain't about big or strong - it's about speed times weight being equal to force, not to strength. It's about respect and heart, and all this comes from your mind and legs, not the muscles in your arms, and sure as hell not because you think you're some kind of tough. Now the question is, can you execute under pressure?Related links
Photo by me
won honorable mention for photo
I entered photos in a contest for the first time. A big county fair gave my self-portrait After the Work Out an honorable mention. Better than a poke in the eye. 
Power clean, pull techniques
Ran across this really good pieces with photos illustrating do's and don'ts.
Corrective Power Clean Teaching Techniques
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