Agility Training

The Critter Olympic summer games  is coming up in 2023. It is held on odd years to avoid competing with the human Olympic media coverage. The critter Olympics has the usual track and field events. There are some events unique to us. One of them is the agility climb. This involves navigating along narrow branches without falling off while at the same time coming up with the fastest time. Sounds easy until you try it. The Woodpile was selected as the official training camp for the U.S. Agility Climb Team. I was invited by the team to do a feature story about the facility for the blog. I would have special inside access to the team. (I should have asked more questions as what they meant by that.)

I arrived bright and early in the morning. They start training at 5am sharp. A thoughtful assistant coach offered to carry my camera and other gear. They let me try on the special climbing pads they wear on their paws. Wow, this was exciting. The next thing I know the coach was ushering us outside onto the training course. They decided to treat me as a member of the team. I spent a grueling day of training while the assistant coach took lots of pictures of my less than spectacular efforts on the course.

 

An overall view of the course

 

 
I am doing what? I'm going to train with the team for the day?

Seriously how hard could this be. I made it a whole two body’s length before slipping off. Did I mention they strip off all of the bark and sand the wood smooth. Even with claws this course is impossible.

The real trick to this course is developing your sense of balance
while at the same time being fast and agile.

And avoiding distractions like the aroma coming from the coach’s cup of coffee.

At noontime, I inquired about a lunch break. The coach glued a bunched of sunflower seeds to the course and said “lunch is served, come and get it.” I was the first to reach the sunflowers seeds but got “disqualified” for going the wrong direction on the course. I had to start all over again.

By the time I got there, only one seed was left.

Training was an endless cycle of run along the course, fall off, and repeat.

Once I tried to hop back on when the coach wasn’t look but his excellent sense of hearing betrayed me. He heard the distinct thud of me falling on my head.

“Hey coach, isn’t it about time we called it a day and got a beer?” Well, that got me an extra hour of training time. Never argue with the coach.

 
Especially when the coach is 10X bigger than you. 

After 8 hours of training, I was finally on the verge of completing the whole course.

Then disaster struck, but, the coach encourage me not to give up.

With Herculean effort I managed to climb back on top.

I did it! I reached the end of the course!!!

Now, how do I get down?