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NeoCons or NeoNazis?

"Project for the New American (& Israeli) Century"

Signed by Abrams, Cheny, Cohen, Libby, Rumsfelsd, Wolfowitz, et al.

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ARABS & ISRAEL for BEGINNERS

  by Ron David

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< ARABSONG

On Being an Arab in America: Chapter 1

   by Ron David

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The New York Giants played an inspired game, but it wasn’t the Giants who beat the New England Patriots, it was Bill Belichick.  Athletes in every sport in which performance can be objectively measured experience three physiological facts:

1) If you train with too much intensity for too long a time your performance goes down.

2) Every athlete in every sport, aware of that physical reality, attempts to "peak" at the time that best suits his competitive schedule. 

3) You can only "hold your peak" for a limited amount of time.  Very limited.  A crude estimate--4 to 8 weeks. 

By ignoring the non-negotiable reality of human physiology, coach Belichick burned out his own team by the 11th week of the season.  The Patriots had “peaked” and were on their way downhill for at least six weeks before the Superbowl.

In 9 of their first 10 games the Patriots beat their opponents by an average of 27.7 points a game.  That's nearly four touchdowns!

They beat Buffalo by 46 points.

They beat Washington by 45 points.

They beat San Diego and the Jets by 24 points each.

Those were all good teams with high expectations until the Patriots demolished them.

Partly because of their poor finish against the Colts last year, and partly to beat up on the rest of the league for "Spygate," Belichick's Patriots played every minute of every game with maximum intensity.  They seemed determined to show the rest of the league how superior they were.

By the time the playoffs started, the Patriots had so clearly established themselves as the uncontested masters of the NFL, that the pundits never seemed to notice that the team had lost its dominance.  The talking heads on TV noticed that the further the Pats went into the playoffs, Tom Brady seemed to have lost his touch and Randy Moss seemed to have disappeared and the offensive line seemed sluggish and the defense seemed to be getting "old"--but nobody seemed to realize that the entire team was fading.

You would think they would have noticed that the team itself was diminished during the last five games of the regular season--

The Patriots, who had won 9 of their first 10 games by an average of nearly 28 points, won 3 of their last 5 regular season games by only 3 points!

In the Division Playoffs (Jan. 12), the Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-20, but the game was much closer than the score indicated.

In the Conference Playoffs (Jan. 20), the Patriots beat San Diego fairly convincingly, but the 9 point victory (21-12) was unimpressive in light of the fact that San Diego's two best offensive players, Ladanian Thomlinson and Antonio Gates, were too badly injured to play and quarterback Phillip Rivers (after a knee operation one week earlier!) played the entire game on a gimpy knee.

didn’t suddenly fade on Superbowl Sunday, he was a player with diminished skills for a month and a half before the Superbowl. 

Randy Moss didn’t suddenly become a non-factor because he was double-teamed (he is always double-teamed!) or because of a run-in with a lady friend.   e disappear because he was being double-teamed.  Randy is always double-teamed.  Randy faded for the same reason that Brady faded and Maroney faded and the offensive line left town and Seymour evaporated and Faulk was hurt: They were over-trained.  They had peaked and been on the downslide for weeks.  When an athlete over-trains, among the first things to go are their fine motor skills and their enthusiasm.  Brady didn’t miss the target on easy passes because the Giants had rattled him, he missed the target because his eye-hand co-ordination was compromised from over-training.

If one player flops, it's the player's fault.

If the whole team is flat, it's the coach's fault.

        Please understand, I am not talking about my opinion here, I am talking about basic human physiology.  Every athlete who participates in a sport in which progress (or deterioration) can be measured objectively (e.g., all running, swimming and weightlifting events and most Olympic events) knows they must “cycle” their training, carefully proportioning the amount and intensity of their workouts or they will—with NO exceptions—“over-train” and burn out before their event. 

        What is physiologically true for every athlete is also physiologically true for every team.

        If the most gifted athlete in an event trains with undiminished intensity for 20 weeks (the approximate length of the NFL season), he will be beaten by a dozen inferior athletes who have cycled their workouts to avoid overtraining and to peak at the proper time.

        NO human being can train at peak intensity for 20 weeks without burning out severely.  If they ignore that physiological reality, their performance will deteriorate dramatically.  If you are a sprinter and your times are getting slower or a weightlifter who sees his lifts spiraling downward, you can’t lie to yourself.  You must face your situation realistically.  But football players and their coaches can lie to themselves indefinitely.  To the best of my knowledge, elite athletes cannot “hold their peak” for longer than 6 or 8 weeks.  Holding your peak for 10 weeks is incredibly difficult.   But holding your peak for 20 or so weeks of an NFL season, or even worse an NBA season (if your team makes it to the Finals, the season lasts for 8 ½ months  Over-training is aThere is

        I repeat: A mediocre athlete who cycles his workouts to peak at the right time will beat an elite athlete who trains with undiminished intensity for several weeks at a time.

        And Brady’s ankle?  Who knows?  I do know this: if you are over-trained you are more likely to sprain your ankle or to hurt yourself in some relatively small way.  It’s your body’s way of telling you that if you are too damn dumb to take a rest it will make you take a rest.

To apply that physiological FACT to the case of the New England Patriots, Belichick guaranteed his own team’s failure by attempting to play at peak intensity for the first 10 games.  In 9 of their first 10 games, the Patriots beat their opponents by 27.7 points a game—that’s nearly 4 touchdowns!

        They beat Buffalo by 46 points! 

        They beat Washington by 45 points! 

        They beat San Diego and the Jets by 24 points each!

        Those were all good teams with high expectations until the Patriots demolished them.

        Partly because of their poor finish against the Colts last year, and partly to beat up on the rest of the league as pay-back for Spygate, the Patriots, under Coach Belichick’s misguidance played every minute of every game with complete commitment and intensity.

        To make matters worse, Junior Seau and a few others were so committed to excellence they didn’t miss a single practice.  That was bad enough, but the most committed players were older guys like Seau who physiologically needed more time to recover between intense workouts, not less.

Many of the specific things that individual Patriot players did in an attempt to improve their condition, worsened their condition.  Specifically, Junior Seau was so determined not to be a weak link on a great team, made a point of not missing a single practice for the entire year.

A Few Things to Note

1. The teams with the best season-long winning records

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-AZQcZ0dc

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Ron D