Life is changing rapidly as shelter-in-place continues. Schools have been finding ways to teach children differently in this altered environment. With the stay at home orders in place, new obstacles arise in terms of training for athletes.
One of the most popular methods of communication right now is the application Zoom which allows people to contact others through a virtual call. The app includes several perks such as a camera, microphone and screen-sharing. It can also hold meetings with up to 500 people. Zoom is used by schools, workplaces, casual friends and now athletic teams.
Although the application has been helpful for most cases, many athletes find it difficult to make up for training they would have had with their actual team.
“We’ve had one virtual meeting,” said freshman track runner Javier Martinez-Gonzalez. “I missed it, that’s the thing. I went out for a run, and when I came back, I looked at the time and it was too late.”
In this limited space, many people are stuck doing general exercise that doesn’t apply to their sport such as going on runs, using exercise equipment they may have in their household and other individual workouts. People have been searching for ways to fulfill their physical goals and many popular workouts being found on YouTube.
With the limits of their house and neighborhood, athletes of different sports all have their own problems doing specific types of training. The lack of practicing grounds have a variety of effects, with some athletes being affected more than others.
“It differs from the usual training because we’re not in a pool, for one, and I can’t work on swim strokes,” said freshman swimmer Taylor Pulley.
Swimming, similar to track and field, requires much practice of the same routine. Stamina and speed are key qualities a swimmer must develop by training consistently, but the lack of a pool offsets the root of their system.
Another factor that affects an athlete’s practice ethic is the lack of teammates. Sheltering in place takes a serious toll on athletes that play team sports. Sports like soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball fit in this category. All strategies an athlete that plays one of these sports are team-based, so practicing them would be futile without the presence of any teammates to work with.
“During quarantine, I can dribble and shoot in the backyard or set to myself,” said freshman basketball and volleyball player Kayla Fukunaga. “But beyond that, there’s not too much else I could do.”
Some athletes, however, have the luxury of training without the need of other participants by their side or a special training ground for their sport. One sport that’s mostly unaffected is track and field, where athletes already have the most important item they need to practice: themselves.
“I’ve been running around my neighborhood timing myself and my pace,” Martinez-Gonzalez said. “When I’m training with my group, I try to push myself more to kind of keep up with them.”
Another factor that’s affected by the shelter-in place order is the training schedule an athlete abides by. Being locked up at home can tempt people to create bad habits.
“We motivate ourselves and others in our team, stuff like that,” Martinez-Gonzalez said. “When I’m running by myself, I don’t really have much motivation or find it fun. Don’t get me wrong, running is fun. But, it’s more fun with your friends.”
Athletes are having to be creative and find solutions to try to make up for the lack of team practices.
“Some of my friends motivate me to keep practicing because they also do it, so sometimes we would exercise or train at the same time,” Fukunaga said.
Our efforts of keeping our lives the same are strained, but staying optimistic is the closest we can get to feeling normal again. Thanks to our developed technology, staying connected together has helped young athletes keep up with their active routines.
