London Snow and Renewed Faith in Synchro Team Warmup

Two days short of my first year in London, it's snowing today and the snow is staying on the ground. So much so that the city is grinding to a halt. On my walk to work, I was reminded of the time when Toronto had a snow storm and had to call in the Army. I was living in Ottawa at the time, and we had a great laugh at Toronto's expense. Well today, all snow ridden northerners around the world can have a good laugh at London.

The two funniest things I saw on my way to work today were snow clearing and snowmen. First, for anyone familiar with snow as a child, we've learned to make snowmen in a certain way. The key is starting with a small ball, and rolling it around to pick up more snow until you have one of the classic 3 balls for the snowman. Of course, as Calvin and Hobbes has taught us, snow art has many paths. However, the snow in London is perfect for such a snowman construction, and yet the five snowmen I saw on my way to work were all more of a piling of snow where clearly they were looking for classical construction.

Even funnier was some of the tools that people were using to clear their snow away. Obviously, there's no need to keep a snow shovel for the one or two days of snow a year in London. Still, a shovel of some sort seems appropriate (garden shovel?). Anyway, the first person I saw used a 2 foot by 4 foot board of plywood. This was the effective person. Next, I saw a person clearing about 50 meters of side walk in front of a hotel with a dust pan. Finally, my favourite was a women cleaning here tiled front stairs with a mop and some water. I can only imagine what will happen when the front freezes.

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On a more to topic note, I've been wondering about team warmups where the attempt is made to warmup all together. At UofT we used to enforce our warmup run in double file. Lately, I've been of the mind that team warmups should be left to individuals so that they can prepare in their own way and for their own body.

Well, research is suggesting that I'm wrong and that some for of synchronizing leads to better teamwork. I'm back on the team warmup wagon.

PJ