As the spring sports season comes to a close, many student athletes are beginning to fill their summer schedules with intense training sessions and practices.
Athletes discussed how summer training and practices do more than just improve general endurance and skills in a certain sport.
Freshman Jordan Light, a member of the girl?s varsity basketball team, plans on attending many basketball camps over the summer, both school-sponsored camps and outside camps such as Longwood University?s summer basketball camp.
?I think summer training is helpful because you can bond with your teammates by the start of the season,? Light said. ?It is also a fun way to meet rising freshmen and help them develop their [basketball] skills, like the upperclassmen [did last summer].?
According to senior Camille Lorenzana, who played on the girl?s varsity volleyball team, summer training not only hones her skills and prepares her for school tryouts but is also a good way to make connections with coaches and other volleyball players.
?Since I went [to GMU volleyball camps] every year since freshman year, the coaches know me. So I have connections.? Lorenzana said.
Unlike, Light and Lorenzana?s indoor practices, senior tennis player Sarah Doan?s training sessions are held on outdoor tennis courts.
?The downside [of outdoor training] is that you are more likely to get exhausted or dehydrated because of the hot weather,? Doan said. Nevertheless, Doan?s main motivation to conquer the unbearable heat is because she knows that in the end she will ?improve [her] stamina? which will ultimately make her a better tennis player.
Many student athletes will be participating in champion training, held at Marshall throughout the duration of summer.
?When champion training first started, it was only for football players, but now athletes who play any sport can go,? sophomore Tarek Othman said.
With two hours of training a day, the sessions are very beneficial to the participants.
?It keeps you in shape for whatever sport you play and the training is very competitive,? Othman said.