Monday, June 15, 2015

The Eagle Has Landed

Eli 13.10 was in a local goalie camp this weekend.

It's the first time there's been a local goalie camp, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Plus, in addition to on-ice work, they went to a local training facility for very, very tough off-ice workouts.

The guys who run this training facility are ex DI football players (the highest level of college football), and they look the part. I'm going to guess that all three of them were either cornerbacks or safeties in college, to give you an idea of their size.

Their trainer for the first workout introduced himself and said that before they started training, he wanted to see how far they could jump. He stretched out a tape measure to 8'0", then asked one of his partners to come over and demonstrate.

He exploded off the line and jumped 8'1". The kids oohed and aahed.

Goalies started jumping. Eli was at the end of the line (a dramatist at heart). When he stepped up to jump, the longest jump before him had been 6'11".

He'd already been on the ice for an hour and a half earlier in the day, and he didn't warm up before he jumped.

Like I said, though, he has a flair for the dramatic.

He walked up, set his feet, swung his arms three times, and jumped. "Oh, SHIT!" said the ex-D1 football player as Eli landed beyond the tape. One of the other trainers put his hands on his head and ran in circles.

8'5".

I forget sometimes how ludicrous it is when he jumps. To me, it's just normal. It is clearly not normal, though, and I'm reminded of that when other people see him.

Here's a terrific photo of him during the workout (I didn't take it, so no complaints about the aspect ratio!):


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