Thursday, May 07, 2015

The Beamon

To understand this post, do me a favor: go get a tape measure. It needs to reach at least one hundred inches.

While we're waiting, let's look at some long-lost art from Eli (roughly 10.0):


I'd personally like to see one of our cats on a leash, particularly if they're wearing a bow tie.

Okay, you should have the tape measure by now. Measure off eight feet, four inches.

Therein hangs a tale.

"If you can jump 8'4", I'll give you a hundred dollars," I said.

"What? A HUNDRED DOLLARS?" Eli 13. 9 said, nearly leaping out of his shoes. For his dryland workouts (I posted it last week), I usually bring a tape measure, and we measure his standing long jump. It's an NHL Combine event, and it's fun for him to compare his distance with guys who were actually drafted.

I mentioned last week that he had jumped eight feet, and that's a long, long ways. It was the median result for goalies at the 2012 Combine (I can't find info on anything more recent), to give you an idea.

"Yes, a hundred dollars," I said.

"Oh, come on!" he said. "That's impossible."

"Indeed it is," I said. "That's why I offered you a hundred. If it was possible, I'd only have offered twenty."

"Challenge accepted," he said, laughing.

He rode the exercise bike and skipped rope to warm up, and then I brought out the metal tape measure and stretched it to 8'4".

"Okay, that is ridiculously long," he said.

"I think you can do it," I said. And seriously, I did think he could do it. I thought the money--just maybe--might short-circuit any doubt he had. So I didn't necessarily think he could do it on command, but I thought he physically had the potential.

It's so long, though. Just look at your tape measure.

On his first jump, he went 7'10". That's a huge jump. "Just warming up," he said.

On the second, he launched like a rocket. And he landed in the 8'3" range, but he couldn't stick the landing--one of his feet stumbled backwards a bit, and he had to put his hand down.

"Seriously, man, that was huge," I said. "Even not landing it, that was still huge."

"I want one more try," he said. He went back to the jumping line. He started swinging his arms back and forth, bending his knees, and then he jumped.

I'm not able to even convey how high he jumped. But I knew--somehow I just knew--where he was going to land.

He stuck the landing and started to raise his arms before I could even say anything.

8'4". Exactly.

There was much celebrating. By both of us.

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