Girls soccer team uses pool for off-season workouts

Carly Gaspari
Staff Writer

Sports teams are always looking for new and innovative ways to train. Recently, the girls soccer program has started to spend lunch periods in the Costa pool for their off-season workouts.

Normally, girls soccer works on endurance and strength training on the track and field, but now they have expanded their routine to Costa’s pool.

“I enjoy this new workout technique because it helps mix up our normal practices,” sophomore sweeper Danielle Major said. “This is not as tedious as our regular running drills.”

The team has the pool for a small amount of time, so the girls have to rush to the pool at the beginning of lunch to change in order to be on time to their classes.

“We are limited to only 20 minutes in the pool,” sophomore midfielder Brooke Gleason said. “It gets hard sometimes because we don’t have time to eat our lunches and we practically have to run to our classes.”

The workouts consist of running laps through the pool, using kickboards and swimming laps.

“These workouts make us a lot stronger because we are using different muscles through various activities besides running around on the field and playing soccer,” Major said.

The team says this training method is sometimes inadequate due to the lack of pool space during lunch when other teams may be using the facility and the amount of girls from soccer who participate in the workouts.

“It gets slightly difficult with so little room in the pool,” sophomore defender Caroline Keever said. “We have to fit all of our team into a few lanes to the side.”

The team is able to spend time with each other in a different environment to develop their abilities and team dynamics.

“I find the pool workouts beneficial to our team because we are able to spend time with each other and exercise in a new way,” Keever said.

According to members of the girls soccer team, they feel this new technique will help them improve for their upcoming season.

“Even though there are some drawbacks, I do think that the pool workouts are really helpful for us to be doing,” Gleason said. “It would be great for other teams to be working out in there once or twice a week.”