Old Dude in the Outfield: Back to Work ≠ Back to Play

Back to work doesn't always mean you're ready to get back in the game.

In this episode of Ask the Tactical Trio, we answer a question from "Old Dude in the Outfield," a firefighter who returned to work successfully after shoulder surgery, only to discover that his first recreational softball game left his shoulder "very, very angry."

Why does this happen? Because rebuilding strength for your job isn't always the same as preparing your body for the unique demands of throwing.

Join Becky, Anna, and Traci as they break down:

·       Why returning to work and returning to sport require different preparation.

·       How to know if your shoulder is truly ready to throw again.

·       The importance of eccentric rotator cuff strength and shoulder stability.

·       Why listening to how your body responds during, after, and the next day is one of your best guides.

·       Practical strategies tactical athletes and recreational athletes alike can use to reduce the risk of setbacks.

Whether you're a firefighter, police officer, paramedic, military member, or weekend warrior trying to get back to the activities you love, this episode offers practical advice to help you return with confidence—not just hope.

Resources Mentioned

·       Thrower's Ten Exercise Program: https://www.ortho.ufl.edu/throwers-ten

If you have a question you'd like the Tactical Trio to answer, send it our way at askthetacticaltrio@gmail.com - you might be featured in a future episode! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to Ask the Tactical Trio, where your questions meet real-world experience. We're three ATs and strength coaches with over 45 years working with first responders.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

From health and resilience to performance, leadership, and longevity, you ask, we answer. The perspectives shared in this podcast are our own and are intended to support conversation and learning. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations we work with, serve, or are affiliated with.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Real questions, real experience, real tactical wellness. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Hey everyone, welcome back to Ask the Tactical Trio. This is podcast number nine, and we have a lovely letter that came in. Um, and it's a bit lengthy, so bear with me, but I love the story of this firefighter. Hey Tactical Trio. I'm a firefighter and had shoulder surgery about two years ago. I did my rehab and got back to work, regained my strength, and honestly felt pretty good. Day-to-day stuff wasn't an issue anymore. I lift, I do my job, and I considered myself back to normal. You can't see my air quotes, but I wish you could. Our department has a softball team, which department doesn't in the fire service. And this year I finally felt confident enough to join. I did what I thought was the right thing. I warmed up, I threw a few balls before the game and played. Surprisingly, everything felt pretty good while I was out there. Well, that's good to know. Then the next day happened. My shoulder was unbelievably sore and as uh my athletic trainer would say, very, very angry. It made me realize something hadn't thought uh something I hadn't thought about to listening to you all a few podcast episodes ago. I had spent two years getting strong enough to be a firefighter again, but I hadn't done anything to prepare specifically for throwing. No throwing program, no rotational power work, no agility, no progression. I just assumed that because I was strong, I could do my job and I was therefore ready for softball. Turns out those aren't necessarily the same things. So it got me wondering, how do we know when we're truly ready to return to recreational sports or hobbies after injury? Is strength enough? What pieces are we missing when we assume back to work automatically means back to everything? I'd love to hear your thoughts because I have uh have a feeling I'm not the only one who's learned from this lesson the hard way. Signed the old dude in the outfield.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

I love that that sign-off name, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Oh, the old dude in the outfield.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Okay, yeah, and uh PS uh Becky. This uh person also is an admirer of the Canadian on Ask the Tactical Trio. So shout out super love heart um to Becky um from the old dude in the outfield. Oh well, thanks, old dude. We'll see what we can do for you today. All right, these are wonderful questions, and I'm uh can't wait to dive into this. So he asked quite a few things here that he was a wonder in. And so um out of curiosity, as an athletic trainer, what simple tests would you use to see if someone is ready to throw again? What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Well, I'll jump into that one. Um, and it's one where I guess for myself, like I don't have a set protocol. I'll take it uh depending on the person, the individual, and what some of the goals are. Uh, and this just makes me think of an officer that I returned to work um last year that used to play baseball. So I had to work with him a lot. And so I like to see what is the pain and function like of rotation, especially when the arm is in a flex position. So not down by the side, but what is your rotation like and your comfort with that rotation when your elbows up higher? Because this tells me a lot about what's going on in the shoulder and the relationship between the rotator cuff and the big muscles that move the shoulder, right? So I always like to see how is that joint fitting and uh like what is the space of it like because that ball of the the humerus at that ball part of that shoulder joint, we want it to stay nice and centered on uh the the spot that it rotates on. So the the part of the shoulder that it articulates with. Now your rotator cuff, it does rotate, it's really important, but it also stabilizes that ball on that that surface where it spins while the big muscles make the arm move. And what I have found with some people in their shoulder rehabs, uh, if they're not throwing specific, they might get really good and strong with rotating with the arm down by their side, maybe a little bit from their side. But as soon as they lift their shoulder up where their upper arm is parallel with the ground, they start losing some of that function, that strength, and I can see some loss of stability. So I always like to check the stability up in that position to see can we start some strong rotation or even test rotation in that point? And then if they're okay stabilizing up there or either way, I want to see what is their strength like both with rotating forwards and rotating backwards, as well as stabilizing if I were to suddenly give a sudden push of resistance, right? So, what is their appropriate reception of that shoulder joint up in that position? So, to give you a bit of a picture for it, you're standing there, your arms uh up out at your side, like you're gonna be throwing with uh your forearm perpendicular to the ground. So, like your elbow at 90 degrees and your shoulder at 90 degrees out to your side. And if you can't take a sudden tap or um resist sudden resistance in that position or makes you nervous or uncomfortable, then that's a good sign that maybe not throw yet because your body's not ready to stabilize and control in that position. Um so that's what an area that I'll look at first for for myself is what is that uh GH joint position like, and then what is some of the rotation there, and how does their their brain actually figure out how to stabilize? How about you, Anna?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So uh for me it's uh I do some of the same things that you do, and uh for anybody, well, nobody can we don't put this on video, but you should have seen the hand gestures that Becky had going there. The most excellent uh hand gestures to demonstrate how the shoulder works. You guys are missing out because I feel like I've just had an upper extremity class all over again, and it's good. I needed it. Um so I would actually ask them, I ask a lot um of questions of my officers during rehab because I know their time is limited. And so I will get to the point in rehab where I will say, What do you feel like you still can't do? And then I will drill down on different activities of daily living. Typically, by now I know that there's someone who plays softball or football or hockey or rugby or whatever their their poison is in terms of recreational sports, and they will have already tried it. Like this is where working with first responders is super fun because usually before they're ready to confess it, you have to go, okay, well, have you already tried and how did it feel? Um, and uh and then we talk about how it felt. And so then so then they've kind of tested at home on their own already. And um, and then I'll do the same thing with a shoulder that I'll do with hamstrings. We'll have a talk about the difference between sprinting, jumping, and jogging. Um, and I'll say, well, we have to sort of roll your shoulder through that same kind of progression, and we'll talk about getting a lightweight ball and maybe bouncing it off a wall in a 90-90 position and playing with it that way, and then uh backing it up or playing catch with one of their kids. And um, I typically, if they're rehabbing with me, we'll incorporate weighted ball throws into any of my shoulder rehabs just because it's so much fun and so much more fun than all band exercises all the time. Believe me, we do plenty of band exercises, so don't anybody email us about how many band exercises I've made you do in the past. Um, but we will throw and we will do faster movements with the bands that we will incorporate to make sure that all of the things that Becky just talked about are incorporating so that the posterior part of your shoulder is stabilizing so that those um bigger muscles can move, the the rotator cuff is stabilizing so those bigger muscles can move more quickly through that range of motion, and we just ease them back into it a little bit. And so it's it's sort of like guided testing in reality, is how I approach it by having those really thorough conversations with officers, and then and then I'll ask, like, are you comfortable trying some of these things at home? Or or do we need to to carve out a time? Sometimes they're hesitant to ask me to help with this kind of stuff. Not often, like my officers have known me, I've been there for nine years, and so they're pretty good at they know that I'm gonna say yes to most things, they know I have no boundaries, and um and I'm gonna say yes if I have time, and um, and we'll go downstairs to the weight room and we'll try a bunch of stuff. And I have a full set of the therab, the soft theraballs, and we throw those around all the time. And um, for liability reasons, we're not allowed to have a rebounder, so I have to be prepared to play catch with them. And I have gotten some bruises on my hands, and and we'll work through it and and try some things out if they're too afraid to go home and do it.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Well, that was good. I mean, you both gave an answer to the question, but you both answered it very differently. So, Becky, what I heard you say is, you know, range of motion, pain, confidence, right? You're checking all of those physiological aspects. And then Anna, what I heard is is literally, can you do the work? So you're using that that strength perspective, you're you're looking at some other body positions, you're using it through the exercise. I think both approaches are important, um, especially for our listeners to consider of, hey, you know, there's there's not necessarily a best way to get there, but there is a huge part, which we've been talking about on our podcast of listening to your body and seeing where it is and seeing how it takes to load. And so I think the piece that I'm gonna throw into it is not only the components that were both mentioned by Anna and Becky, but also how do you feel the next day? And working that in progressively into your rehab sometimes does tell you, are you ready to move from return to work into recreational activities? Now, when I look over this letter here, I don't see any, which is I sometimes wish we just could ask a few more questions, right? To the listeners. Maybe we'll get a someone to come on live at some point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can like just like plug in and ask all the questions. We have some questions. We have so many questions.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

We can't promise there won't be some things, some some dental shaming. It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Um, but he says in the letter it was it was two years ago he had his surgery, and here he is two years later, and he finally has the confidence to be able to try to do softball again. So I'm so curious as to what happened in that two-year timeline. But if that was our patient and he came in and we did all of the things, certainly access to an athletic trainer or a strength coach is valuable in that conversation. But what about the public safety professionals that are at home? They don't have an athletic trainer or a PT or a strength coach. What simple things could they do at home to test whether they are ready to return to ex-recreational activity? And in this particular case, it's softball. And I know it's softball season for these fire departments here in Wisconsin. And so I would just love, I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on a simple thing they can do at home to check.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

So I would say uh the first thing that I noticed about this is that he started with a full game after two years of not playing. Um, bless your heart. I have the same mentality when I get back to running after a period of time of not running in my 18-year-old cross-country mind, three miles is the minimum amount that I do. But now that I'm 47, um, I have learned that sometimes you gotta start with a half mile or a mile. And so, so in the in the vein of listening to your body and starting off small, I would have been super excited for you to just warm up for that softball game and then give it 20 to 4 to 48 hours and feel how you feel and pay attention to what's going on. Your brain is incredibly strong in in what it will, and I just was out at SWAT school Monday and I saw this in action. If you have an intention um to complete something, your brain will allow you to complete that something, even if it's maybe not the best structural or physiological idea for your shoulder because of a variety of processes, which we won't get into today. And so you have to be real careful ahead of time and set out, okay, I haven't played in two years. I don't know how this is gonna go or how this is gonna feel. Here is where I'm gonna cut myself off this first time. And this is how long I'm gonna wait for that adrenaline, that sort of joy of being back at it to wear off until I can feel the real response because your shoulder was was angry at you. I use that same terminology with my officers at work. And uh it wasn't necessarily damaged, it was just angry at you. And I and I don't know the age of the person, but even delayed onset muscle soreness is a different monster once you're over 30. And uh and it's it can feel like a lot of anger in your shoulder, but not actually be damaged. So my first thing would just to be like try the thing you want to do, but like warm up and then stop and give it a couple days. And um uh and then if that was successful and you didn't get too angry, awesome. Then warm up and maybe play a couple of innings and see how it feels. Um and it depends. Are you the all-time pitcher? We can't do I don't know, seven or nine innings or how much recreational softball goes all on the first try. Um, the other thing is um, and Becky could probably speak more to this, but just getting into functional positions while you're weightlifting, playing with tempo while you're weightlifting, um, because sports happen at a real speed. And so you can feel very strong with weights, but you're thinking very carefully about how you're moving and what you're doing, um which you're not necessarily going to have the opportunity with that movement in sport. And so backing off on the weight, working on various tempos, maybe even doing like um some rhythmic shoulder internal extra rotation. We talked about it with a band earlier, with a weighted ball, playing with those types of things in an environment where you don't have to worry about your hopeful adrenaline-soaked brain taking over in a competition setting. Um, and you can pay a little more attention to how you feel.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Becky, do you have a go-to go-to at home test that somebody could do to see where they're at?

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Not that specific like in terms of specific do this. Like I aligned with with Anna on it, is try a small dose and see is there pain during, is there pain after, is there pain next day? So I'll usually go with those, like because they'll tell us different information. If it feels okay, then try a little bit more, then try a little bit more, right? Um, and I just want to say to this firefighter, um, I've been through this, and so many of my officers have been through this. I've had this conversation many times because we want to get back to what we love and we're like, oh, I dialed it down, but often we we don't dial it down enough, right? It's kind of like getting back into the gym and you're like, oh, I dialed it, and but really didn't dial it back enough, and now I'm like Bambi and I can't sit down on the toilet because my legs are so sore from getting back in the gym. Um, so first I just want to say, yes, you are not alone with doing this. Um, but trying those small doses are great. Now, if you're wondering for throwing and you're like, I don't have anybody to throw with or something like that, and is there an exercise I can try? What can tell us a lot about the rotator cuff strength, especially when it comes to throwing, is how is it with that eccentric load? So, yes, when we're throwing, the muscles on the front of our shoulder are contracting really strongly to make the arm accelerate for power. But the muscles on the back side of the arm are going into an eccentric load. So they have to control that so it can actually slow down your arm, and that's where some of that pain can come from because often that part of training is missed, especially in general rehab. So if you have a band at home, maybe stay like in a standing position with your arm at a 99, uh 90-90 position, um, band anchored in front of you, rotate your arm backwards, and then do a slow controlled rotation forward where the band's pulling you and you're you're controlling the speed until your arm hits parallel to the ground, and then go back up. Try that for a few reps, see what that's like the next day, because that's going to be a lot harder on that muscle. And you can see, is it barking at me from this? Okay, I need to strengthen that area. If you don't have a band, you can do this laying maybe on your bed or on the floor where you're rotating off the ground, and then you do a slow controlled lower. Ideally, somewhere where you can have your arm hanging off something and your shoulder is still at 90 degrees and your arm's pointing down to the ground, you rotate upwards while it's parallel to the ground, and then a slow lower just to test out that how well is that muscle at uh, how good is it at doing that eccentric load can give you a little bit of insight too on do I really want to try throwing yet?

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah. And throwing is a really special motion. I don't think we give it enough credit. So I did all my grad school research on the throwing shoulder, and the amount of torque that goes to the human shoulder during an overhand throw is incredible. And it's really more than our tissues can handle most of the time, especially if you're throwing at pro speeds, which I'm sure you probably are in recreational softball. Firefighters are super, right? Of course they are. Yeah, 100%. Um, but it's still it's a lot on some pretty small muscles. If you were to look at a cadaver or a rotator cuff, those are not big muscles in there that are responsible for slowing down um that those um those uh that the physics of it all. And so throwing is a pretty special motion. And if you think about the 90-90 position, um, it's really the hardest place to keep, like Becky with her hand, um, hand gestures earlier, to keep the ball on the socket, those muscles have to work so much harder in that 90-90 position than they do when your arm is down at your side. Um, and so throwing by itself is just a really special hard thing to do because you're doing it fast and you're asking a lot out of a out of a small group of muscles or a group of small muscles, and then you're asking them on top of that to coordinate in a really sort of delicate fashion with the bigger muscles around the shoulder and in the posterior shoulder as well. But I really am glad Becky brought up the eccentrics because that's a really important point.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, I want to go back to those x-rays because I do like the eccentrics as well, and I like incorporating that in. Um, have you guys ever used the throwers 10? It's one of my favorites. This is a new one to me. Please share. The throwers 10. Anna, you must have with the research that you've done.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

So yeah, so I know what the throwers tent is, but it's been a long time since I used it in its entirety. I really like to take bits clearly because all of my answers are super vague and a lot of my answers are it depends on the individual. Yeah, I like to pick and choose things from different places based on the human being in front of me. And I know that Becky and Tracy also do that. Um, but yeah, so I do know what the throwers tent is. Have I used it in its entirety? Not in at least a decade, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

So every year, every year, um many of the agencies that I work with have softball teams. And I finally got creative, right? And I got on the throwers 10. When I worked with softball back in college, we used it all the time. And it's 10 exercises developed by somebody that I can't remember. I bet you Anna could find it because she is my science person sometimes with these things with the research. Um, but essentially what it is is 10 exercises. And so I'm gonna read it from a list here because I didn't want to mess it up and I was looking for it while you all were talking. So it's shoulder flexion with abduction, shoulder internal rotation, shoulder abduction, strengthening of the triceps, wrist flexion, wrist extension, shoulder flexion and scaption, elbow flexion with dumbbells so basically a bicep curl, wrist extension, and then pronation supination. I think I said wrist extension twice. And we'll drop these into the show notes so you can see them because those are probably very foreign words to some of you that have never seen it. But essentially it's 10 exercises. And I've when I was in, when I worked with softball, we did, you know, pretty much all of these, you know, two, three times a week. But with my tactical operators, I'll say, Hey, when you're on shift, pick, you know, four to five exercises. We're doing small sets, two sets of 15 to 20 reps of each exercise. Pick a moderate ri moderate weight, you know, where your reps in reserve is about you know four to five. And just start working through on the strengthening aspects. It's a great low level activity to start to strengthen that shoulder and get into the point where you can start really working those eccentrics that Becky was talking about earlier, and then into the functional base training that was discussed earlier on as well. So I like the throwers 10 as a as a quick hit because I don't have the time to meet with everybody individually to go through it one at a time. I will meet with the folks that reach out, but this is a nice way to get some blanket information and some good direction that is better than TikTok sometimes on the exercises you should be doing. So um yeah, I've seen a couple of wild ones out there. I'm like, why are we why are we doing that? Why are we doing that? And so lovely. Okay, so let me um go back to his letter. I want to make sure that we've covered everything in here for our discussion. Oh, there's one other little piece here. So um is there any closing thoughts, I guess, for those that are out there that are maybe playing softball or recreational activity one time a year? Any advice that we could give them if it comes up out of the blue or it's something like, for instance, Battle of the Badges is is huge here in Wisconsin. It's coming up. We know it's coming up, everyone's putting a team together for Battle of the Badges to support local charities. I mean, what what what could we drop as a nugget if it's a one-time a year event for these folks?

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I usually just make sure they have my office hours for the day. Yeah, and I'll serving virtually. But I really will seriously give them my office hours for after the event. Um, because a lot of times you're like I'm I'm pretty busy in the clinic, and I'm never gonna convince them to do a whole lot ahead of time because their schedules are so busy. And so if they're keeping minimally fit, I of course will um encourage them to take advantage of our well fit resources and our strength and conditioning coaches and say, look, let them know that you're playing this game, this is the position you're gonna play, let them tweak the well-fit workouts for you to prepare and prevent. And so I just encourage them to be generally fit and generally healthy, and then I prepare to deal with the aftermath, which maybe is not the right approach. Um, but I just feel like all the nagging in the world isn't gonna make them do any kind of regular sport training if they, you know, if they're in a difficult position or they're working midnights or they're, you know, canine and they have a weird schedule and so I just really focus on sort of general fitness and general health, and then maybe give them a couple of exercises to say, well, you know, this old shoulder thing that we've been dealing with, this is gonna help um to prevent that from becoming a problem during Battle of the Badges. And I would give them the same advice um, like uh I get about like people who had like significant hamstring strengths, um, and it's never been the same. And how do I prevent it from tearing all the time? And uh and then just encourage them. Look, it doesn't take that much, it just takes consistency in these two or three exercises um to keep that body part game ready or as game ready as possible.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Becky, what do you think? Any other additional thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah, and I I agree with Anna uh on that. And one thing that they can do, just because yeah, they might not be motivated to go do the the exercises, is you know, find somebody to throw the ball around with for five, ten minutes. And can you do that, you know, maybe every two days or every three days for two weeks beforehand, right? It also make you have a little bit more of a good time on field because if you haven't thrown a ball for a year, at least you can kind of get some of those kinks out.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Um, here uh because what we haven't talked about, but it also applies is the the CrossFit um the CrossFit competitions and high rocks.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

The MERF every year. Yeah. So we know through the same kind of recreational competitions, and I'm very and I thought about it because we actually have um Jake, one of our strength coaches, puts together a like a it's just one month, but I have so many fewer Murph-related injuries in the clinic now, and he just puts it on the well fit Instagram, like a Murph prep type of sort of a deal. So what Becky is saying is absolutely applies. Like it doesn't have to be six months ahead of time, it could be a couple of weeks of let's start to add some of this in. Sorry, Becky, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

That's okay. But yeah, like you know what, grab one of your teammates or somebody and just just go throw a little bit and keep it a short distance to start off with, you then progress to longer. And if your shoulder's not liking it or you don't have a chance, is there a lighter position on the field that you can go to where you might not be throwing as much, right? But you're confident covering, or depending on numbers, somebody switching and out with, right? Because absolutely I want you to participate in that game, right? Like those are sometimes the best events where it's just the annual event of this and that, right? And I do not want you to miss that. Sometimes it's it's worth some discomfort, right? But yeah, that's a great one, and in terms of some of those annual ones that people just don't do all the time, but people want to get involved in. Um and so if there is something that might be a one-off, if you have staff reach out or um yeah, try and just do a little bit of prep prep and mimic that movement maybe as much as possible if it's a really particular sport, right? Like we just had a lawn bowling tournament for our department last week, which was amazing. No injuries, but luckily it's pretty light. Bowling, lawn bowling, yeah. They said mowing and I'm gonna head.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah, and then I'm just trying to say you can make the perfect breed.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Uh oh, our guys are also getting into uh jujitsu and combat sports a lot. Yeah, that's another thing, that's another good one. Yeah, that's intended to sort of help them with their control tactics skills, but a lot of them are getting really into it and doing competitions, and so that's that would be another good one to address.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Totally, right? But if it's if it's something like a different sport, just mimic it at a smaller level and try and progress, right? Especially if it's that one off and have fun and then make sure you have resources to reach out to afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Lovely. This was wonderful. So um, old dude in the outfield. Um, I hope you got some information that you were looking for today. Um, again, just a quick uh sum it up. So make sure you're dosing it slowly, slowly, and really try to listen to your body um to test those areas to see if they are ready. Work the eccentrics, especially for you thrower athletes that are diving into softball or something else. Eccentrics are good. Consider the throwers 10. We'll drop that into the show notes. Um, and then on the the recovery side of it, we did in um one of our previous episodes, I believe episode six, it was the still showing up ankle pain um episode back in May of 2026. We talked a lot about recovery, rest, heat, all the things that you should do to take care of an injury when you've got one. So consider that. And then uh some of the lovely things stated by Anna and Becky of using your resources and use your resources. So if you have an athletic trainer, a strength coach, a PT, a chiropractor, a medical provider, please consider seeking them out, especially if you have a pain or discomfort that's lasting more than 10 days. Always good to get to get a good eye on that.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

So and make sure that practitioner knows that you're not just trying to get back to work, but yeah, all their goals because they will, if they know, they will incorporate it in for you, and that will be so helpful. Absolutely. Yeah, very good. All right, are we ready for question of the day? I'm gonna steal one off the internet because I just think it's fun. What is the last uh video that you took in your camera roll? The last video I took in my camera roll. Yeah, what do you got on your camera roll?

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Oh my gosh, this timing is perfect. My kiddo, so I got three kiddos, and one of my kiddos sent me a video of them making uh a I'm we don't have TikTok, but making following a trend. And the trend is a video of one of my kiddos dancing in the mirror and the other one singing in the shower. And it is absolutely hilarious of my kids. I mean, they're they're young, they're under 10, making a video based on a trend that they saw on, you know, when we were doom scrolling one day on mom's phone. I just couldn't believe they did this. And so that is the last video that's on my phone.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Oh, that's so cute.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Dancing in the mirror, singing in the shower. The video would have been good for today's podcast.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

So cute.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

How about you? Well, for mine, we've been having great weather up here in Canada. And um, for those, if you haven't listened to the episode on our pets, I have a house horse. So my dog is a Dane Mastiff named Mabel, and she loves fruit, but she has not experienced it all. So we thought she loves apples, so she'll run around and just be super joyful with that. So my husband had a peach and cut it up and had her figure that out. So it's a lot of prancing, throwing the food the food around and shaking her face and smushing it with her face, and it has been determined peaches are not a quality fruit by Mabel. She likes bananas and strawberries and apples, but peaches, I'm sure. What's better, the pickle or the peach? Oh, the pickle's just scary. So the pickle show was funnier. So if you want to see Mabel with a pickle, you can go to my Instagram at Becky Swan AT and you can see Mabel battle the pickle.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Uh so mine is also my dog. Um, I have a whippet. Her name is Bean. Uh, she's been with me for about four months. And if you know anything about whippets, they have like zero protection from the world outside world, very thin coats and very little body fat. Uh, and so she has a raincoat. I just got a raincoat in. And when I took her out of the storm, she did not get wet at all. But when I brought her back to the house and I took the coat off, she still panicked and rubbed herself on everything she could find as if she had just gotten soaked. And so she did sort of the classic wet whip it, very dramatic. How dare you take me outside where there was water, even though she had had a full raincoat on that is very nice gear and totally effective. It didn't, it did not matter. The thought of water was just terrifying enough that she felt like she just needed to rub herself all over the carpet. My yeah, so that's it. It's always gonna be dogs for me, probably.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

If it's a video, it's a it's there was somebody that I had ran into recently. He's like, is if you post cute dog videos, I am your follower. Like I just want to see cute dog videos all the time. So the two of you are making many, many people in the world happy right now with your dog videos. So please note yourself. I'll I'll post Mabel versus Peach.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah, yeah. And just like put maybe the podcast logo floating the maybe we get maybe we get Mabel to like move across the screen following the podcast logo.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Oh gosh, it goes ridiculous.

unknown 34:07

All right.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Well, this was a lovely conversation as always. So thank you to um old dude in the outfield for sending your question our way. And if you got a special question for us, please send it to ask the tacticaltrio at gmail.com. Um and we will answer it or feel free to hit any of us up individually on our Instagrams, LinkedIn, um, or other social media platforms. Um, it was lovely to talk with everyone today and have a great evening.

unknown 34:37

Yay.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Thanks for being here with us today.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

If you have a question, make sure you send it in. We are super excited to build this with you. This is Ask the Tactical Trio.