Training for hockey competitions requires a lot of practice both on and off the ice. It’s true that hockey players don’t just practice on the ice because they need overall physical conditioning. That means players frequently train off the ice.One team called the Fighting Sioux have a trainer who tries to keep the off-ice training interesting and challenging. The trainer created a little competition by dividing the team into three groups and then having them compete against each other. The first event required the team members do don sweatshirts and jump in a pool. Much to their amazement, they were told to swim 2 laps each while wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. But here is the catch. Each team was given only one sweatshirt. At the end of the lap, the sweatshirt had to be taken off and handed to the next swimmer. That is not easy to do!
This creative use of sweatshirts just shows that it is one of the most useful garments people own. There were other competitions too but none of the others required wearing sweats. There were swimming relays, obstacle courses in the snow, sled challenges and much more. The three teams worked hard for 3 days and “Team Blue” won over “Team White” and Team Red”.
If you are an athletic trainer, you may have not considered how useful a sweatshirt can be when it comes to training. Odds are you have not asked team members to swim in sweat suits either. So it’s an idea you might want to try as long as the team members are physically able to handle the weight of the clothing while swimming. There’s no doubt that wet sweats would be quite heavy.
© Image by Henry Gretzinger, www.sxc.hu/