SF Fire Win & Advance To Playoffs; Yoga Class Jumpin'; Kim "Eye Chart" Shirts Representin'

San Francisco Fire: Bring on The Western Conference Final!

Saturday night's "win or go home" match between the San Francisco Fire and the Miami Surge was dead even after 8 of 11 races - and then Coach Sarah and the Fire turned it on to shut-out the Surge in races 9, 10, and 11, securing a 20-12 win in emphatic fashion.  In winning this regular-season finale the Fire earned a spot in the playoffs and will face the Phoenix Rise once again in the Western Conference Final (taking place on Saturday, September 3rd at 3pm PT).

Check out the NPGL's match re-cap (click here for the full article) - an excerpt is posted below:

“Before the match, I just pulled the players together and had them look around, and told everybody, ‘Only one team gets to move on,’ and they had to go out there and fight for each other, for the opportunity to play again.” said Adam Wells, interim head coach of the Fire.

As has been the case in previous play of the Amazon match format, Partner Forward was an ebb and flow of lead-trading. Both teams moved fairly smoothly through the first three quadrants, but Miami had a several rep advantage as the teams moved into the fourth quadrant.

As both Marco Coppola for Miami and Cam Pernich for San Francisco got their dumbbell ground-to-overhead reps out of the way, it literally came down to a side-by-side dash across the finish line between the Surge’s Brooke Haas and San Francisco’s Sarah Hopping-Estrella. Haas had trouble with the first rep and the 75-lb dumbbells dropped back to her shoulders. By the time she reset, Hopping-Estrella had split jerked the first rep and was starting her second. Haas somehow recovered, and both athletes crossed the line in a photo finish. Only a review of the tape allowed the refs to determine that in fact it was Miami who had broken the plane first.  

“Of course you’re disappointed because you want to win,” Hopping-Estrella said, “but at the same time I thought we executed pretty well. Everybody tried hard and as a team, we continued to just take it one race at a time.”

The Mirror was more in line with Fire’s execution strategy. Rookie Ashley Gatewood showed tremendous effort in Quadrant 2, hitting a set of 10 jerks at 175 lb, and that smooth effort and the Fire’s quick transitions allowed San Francisco to get into Quadrant 4 first. Meanwhile, Miami struggled in Quadrant 2, with Reid Fitzgerald split jerking — a little slower movement in this race. Miami trailed San Francisco by nearly a full quadrant by the time the Fire started their reps in the fourth. Pernich and Hopping-Estrella demolished the final 10 reps for an easy San Francisco win. Miami beat the cap but the score was 3-3...

-Pat McCarty (NPGL)

Yoga Class

Sunday morning's yoga (make-up) class was jumpin'! Well, not literally - I mean, there was some jumpin' going on downstairs in Open Gym and Barbell Class, but the yoga group was holding their own and was definitely out in force.  If you've never tried a yoga class with Dani then you should certainly give it a go - check out the details here if you'd like more info, and then sign-up for class.  Yoga classes are free for Arena Ready members and the next class is Monday night at 7pm!  

Kim Tom "Eye Chart" Granite Games Shirts Still Available

As expected the Kim Tom "Eye Chart" Granite Games shirts are a hit, and several members have already been spotted wearing their "Mini Mighty" swag to the gym and while running around town.  There are still sizes left, so if you missed out - and would like to support Kim's trip to the 2016 Kill Cliff Granite Games - be sure to grab one at the gym (all proceeds from the $25 shirts go to cover travel expenses for our resident Mini's mission to kick ass in Minnesota in 2 weeks!).   

The Webbs, as always, know what's up.  Not to mention this family has great salad.

(For you slang-challenged folks, "salad" is "hair") 

Adorable Baby Iris sporting her Kim T "Eye Chart" with pride.  See what they did there?

WOD for 08-29-16:

Alternating EMOM for 5 Rounds (10 Minutes):

MINUTE 1: 8-12 Pistols, alternating

MINUTE 2: 2 Power Cleans, climbing

-then-

5 Rounds For Time:

12 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

9 Toes-to-Bar

6 Power Cleans @ 185/125 lbs