 "Photo: Sholten Singer")
Athletes are required to maintain high performance for games by having intensive workouts and training even when they are in their offseason or injured.
“It’s not just lifting weights,” said John Hark, director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports. “It’s not doing an average workout.”
Hark’s program is aimed to increase each athlete’s performance in speed, direction, explosive power and strength. It starts assessing individuals for their specific skills and limitations and every team has a specific energy system program. For example, soccer is more of an aerobic long-distance sport, which is using a moderate level of intensity over a long period of time, and basketball focuses on anaerobic exercises and conditioning, which is high intensity but is short lasting, Hark said.
Depending on the sport, athletes generally workout four to eight hours per week in the offseason, three to six hours per week in preseason and two to three hours per week during in season, Hark said.
“We peak them in the offseason for their in season and then maintain that with less training and continue to keep it going,” Hark said.
Over the summer and Christmas breaks, Hark issues packets to athletes to do exercises in flexibility, strength and conditioning cycles. Some exercises include squats, explosive lunges and bench presses. Information is also included in the packets on how to eat healthy, Hark said.
“I keep it simple, so they will be more likely to do it,” he said. “They also have to use things more common that they can do in a health club. Most don’t have what we have to train sports.”
Tyler Wilkerson, senior forward on the men’s basketball team, said he never goes home over the summer because it’s better to train under Hark rather than rely on himself.
“People get complacent,” Wilkerson said.
However, the men’s and women’s basketball teams were at Marshall the past summer. Athletes only got breaks from training in the time between the five class sessions, Hark said.
“We want them in the best shape, endurance and high-end strength to possibly be in for preseason, which starts in October,” Hark said.
“We strengthen up bones, muscles, joints, and the more we do that, the less we’re prone to injury,” Wilkerson said.
Matt Smith, assistant athletic trainer for men’s basketball and other sports, said injuries are more likely to occur once the season starts because athletes are going full speed and the entire team is on the court during practice.
Each sport has particular areas where athletes are more prone to getting injured. For example, with volleyball it’s the back and shoulders, with basketball it’s ankles and knees, Hark said.
When athletes are injured, they still have to exercise the rest of their bodies that aren’t hurt. Hark said it is important to do this because when athletes get healed, that part of the body that was injured adapts more quickly to the rest of the body that was kept in shape the whole time.
Wilkerson, who has had a broken hand and has recently gotten over a broken jaw injury, said “It’s a lot harder working. You have to work through the pain.”
He said, while injured, he had to ride a stationary bike during practices to keep up his conditioning.
“That’s the worst,” Wilkerson said. “I hate riding the bike.”
However, this continual upkeep of the body allows athletes to see the effects of their training transfer onto the field, Hark said.
“A big aspect of it is team atmosphere,” Hark said. “It’s training and working through diversity and pushing each other and showing their captain they are excited. Hopefully this creates a stronger, better, faster team.”
Emily Ayers can be contacted at ayers@marshall.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!