Keepy Uppies

In the first week of the COVID-19 lockdown I made the decision to challenge myself to do 200 keepy uppies. 200 was a mostly arbitrary number but also loosely based on a hazy memory of my teenage super sporty self’s record being in the 200s. Although the more I think about it the more I think it may have been nearer to 300. Anyway, I set myself the challenge of 200, made the spreadsheet and started telling people about it. That’s basically what makes anything a thing isn’t it? Put it in a spreadsheet, tell people about it and it’s a thing.

I’m not sure if it’s just relative to these strange times but I really enjoyed the challenge. And I don’t just mean the filling out the spreadsheet and telling people about it parts. It meant that I had an excuse to spend some time in the back yard, it was a good warm up for the army fitness course I've been doing and towards the end, when I was spending up to 15 minutes at a time doing them, I was even going into a zen like meditative state. It also genuinely gave me a sense of purpose and seemed to be transcending the physical to become a philosophical, possibly even spiritual, activity.

In terms of actual progress, it was pretty slow going particularly after the initial ramp up to the 50 mark after 4 days. The 4th day was also the first time the ball was lost to the Neighbours...


The numbers seemed to be stuck between the 50 and the 75 mark for almost three weeks, I was getting disappointed with myself and could almost hear young, sporty, curly haired, un-wrinkled me trash talking and taunting from back in the day. In the end I decided to get a bit more serious about it so extended the time I spent each day from a rough ten minutes to a very specific fifteen minutes. The first time I did this my best jumped up to 150 – doubling the record in one day. After that I also started counting (and recording) exactly how many I got in each attempt (rather than just the best one from each session).

When I plotted these on a graph (obviously the whole point of this was so I could plot this on a graph) I noticed that there was a sweet spot around, or just after, the 10 minute mark. Whether this was down to muscle memory kicking in because of the prolonged repetition or a calming of the mind I don't know but I did also start to realise that the better attempts seemed to come when I stopped focusing on beating the record or concentrating too hard. It was when I started to think about what to have for dinner or what the meaning of life might be. Or even whether the meaning of life was what to have for dinner. 

After this and the big jump up to 183, I seemed to lose my mojo again and was worried that I may have peaked as results seemed to be tending back towards the 100 line. This was one curve that I didn't want to see flattened in a hurry. Then last Sunday I took myself off for a 10 mile bike ride (on my new bike hired from the Council) and when I returned was 50/50 whether I should have a go or not. I'm glad I did though as after only a couple of practice goes I smashed the 200 barrier with a solid 210 (211 if you include an accidental belly bump around the 50 mark - see video below). 

So what have I learned? Other than the fact I am a 9 year old in a 38 year old's body and enjoy making graphs a bit too much. 

1. It's good to challenge your self, it's even better to challenge your past, younger self. But only if you win. 

2. Take silly things seriously. They cancel each other out and you end up being the right level of silly and serious at the same time. Not sure it always works the other way around though. 

3. If you are aiming for a keepy uppy record, do more than 10 minutes a day. 

4. If you are aiming for a keepy uppy record, go for a bike ride first.

5. If you put something in a spreadsheet and tell people about it, it becomes a thing. 

Further reading / watching

Keepy Uppy Records Spoiler alert : the record is 26 hours and people have ran marathons while keeping a ball in the air

History of Keepy Uppies - used to be a thing in Feudal Japanese courts and at a push you could say that the terrifying ball game of the MesoAmericans was an early form.