Toronto Argonauts guard Taylor Robertson provides an Argos update and answers your questions

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a little bit of a rough time in Argo-land since we last spoke; we have seemed to find ourselves on a bit of a losing streak these days. A lot of people are always asking me what the problem seems to be, and my answer is usually the same... ourselves... that's our biggest problem right now, we are stopping ourselves from being a great team, but the positive that can be taken away from that problem is this can all be corrected, and I believe it will be - I really do!!

You know, it’s funny when you start losing games, many people seem to think they need to chime in with their opinions and reasons as to why things are not going well. Where are all these people when things are going good and we are winning?? Funny how that works...

I will also say this though: we have awesome fans and supporters out there who stick with us no matter how we’re doing and support us no matter what, and that's what really counts!! It’s great to see everyone come out to our home games and cheer us on and all we want to do is give you, our fans, a win at home to reward you for your dedication and support!

I am even lucky enough to have some of you take the time to send me questions that have been on your minds. I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent a question so far. I think that's really cool that you all take time out of your day to do that, and I must say I have been impressed by them so far! So let’s get to this week’s questions!!

Craig asks: At this point in your career are there any new techniques and tricks to learn from the O-Line coach or your teammates, or is it all about executing the plays as they're drawn up?

Well to be honest, the day I retire will probably be the day I stop learning new tricks and techniques from my coach. I believe that there are 2 ways to get better: one is to be self critical at all times and the other is to have another set of eyes on you. The second is where our coaches and at times my teammates come into play. When you watch yourself all the time, you can overlook a small detail here or there that may be causing a problem that you can’t figure out how to fix. When you have someone else watching that is not used to my certain ways of playing, they may discover something and be able to bring it to my attention so I can correct it and improve. Also, it’s very rare for a veteran player to have the same position coach his entire career. For me, this is my seventh O-Line coach since I have been playing in the pros. The best part about that is every time a new coach comes in, he is constantly evaluating players with fresh eyes and all coaches have their own bag of tricks that they have developed through the years, either from coaching other players, or playing themselves, so they are always willing to share, thus I get to benefit from that and add to my own bag of tricks!

Carl wants to know: Does it help to play the same team two straight times?

The back-to-back games. Well, I will be honest. If it’s a Western team, I am all for it but if it’s an Eastern team, then I hate it. The reasons are we only play western teams twice a year, so a back-to-back gets that team over and done for the year in a two-week span without having to prep for another team in between. As for the Eastern teams, we play each team four times, so the back-to-back seems pretty pointless. The hardest part about it is trying to win back-to-back, which is very hard to do. As for lining up against the same players two weeks in a row, I find if you have a good game the first week, then they make instant adjustments because it’s fresh in their minds whereas if it’s a few weeks between meetings, they may have forgotten some things that happened because they are focusing on other players and hopefully that would play to my advantage. Looks like I'm pretty 50/50 on that one!

We are currently in the middle of our bye week right now, and it couldn't come at a better time. It gives everyone a chance to get away from football for a few days and hopefully recharge themselves and ready to turn this season around and get back on track to our goal which is Calgary in November.

A lot of guys end up going back home, wherever home may be, to see their families, but stay tuned because in a few days I will post a special blog update on what I was up to for a few days of my bye week. To all you NASCAR fans out there, you won’t want to miss this, and to all of you who follow me on twitter (www.twitter.com/tr65) you had a hint of what I'm talking about this past Sunday!!

Taylor

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