The men's hockey team took a short reprieve after a successful season, returning to practice in the second week of Spring term after a three-week hiatus.
"Three weeks is definitely a good thing for people to recharge mentally and physically," team member Doug Jones '12 said.
Despite the absence of competition, the team works out four days a week.
"We lift Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we do plyometrics on Tuesday and we do off-ice skills on Thursday," Jones said.
The removal of ice from Thompson Arena eliminates the team's ability to practice in the arena during the spring, but the Big Green manages by focusing on other aspects of training until the ice is reset in the fall. This break from skating benefits the team, according to Jones.
"It is a very long offseason in terms of being off the ice, and I think it's actually good for everyone to get some time away from the rink," he said.
While they may not have real ice to practice on, the team keeps its passing, shooting and skating skills sharp using an area of fake ice located at Davis Varsity House.
"[The fake ice] is close, but you can tell it's different," Jones said. "It's a pretty small area too, so you can't do the same things."
Players take turns in rotations of two or three on the fake ice, working on shooting and passing. Jones said, however, that this is just a small part of the team's spring training plan.
"Spring is just for getting bigger and stronger," he said.
After a long and grueling winter season, the men's skiing team also views spring as a time to recharge. Most skiers take a break after the season for a few weeks before jumping back into strength and aerobic training.
"I just took a week or two off where I just didn't do anything," Big Green alpine skier Evan Diamond '13 said.
After a rest period, team members begin individual workouts. They generally stick to aerobics and strength training to build up volume, endurance and strength.
During the spring, the skiers start with relatively low weight and then ramp up as racing season approaches.
"It's a time for us to get back to basics," Diamond said. "We do a lot of running. It's nice just to slow things down and then build back up again [for the season]."
With the snow gone, the team has to find ways to work out that still provide the proper training for optimal ski performance.
"Obviously there's no better training for skiing than skiing, but we do the best we can," Diamond said. "Our workouts are really ski specific, so we are always trying to find movements and different lifts that will activate the same kind of motions and muscles that we are trying to do out on the hill."
The team will start to increase the intensity of its workouts in the summer and fall, and the cross-country team will begin to integrate roller skis into its practice routine sometime in the middle of June.
Nordic skier Sam Tarling '13 noted that while roller skis are a good substitute for cross-country skiing, injuries can occur from pounding the pavement.
"It doesn't offer the same aerobic training as running does," he said. "It's good to build up the aerobic capacity in running first and then switch to rollers."
The team lives on the snow during the season, so moving to the offseason presents an interesting transition. Some team members, like Tarling, see the break as a welcome reprieve.
"We're not really interested in skiing this time of year," he said. "For most of us it's been a pretty long season and it's really nice to have a break."
Others, like Diamond, have a more mixed opinion of the time spent in the offseason.
"It's kind of a weird mix of emotions," Diamond said. "It's a welcome relief because the winter is brutal for us with classes and skiing. You're always busy so at the end of every season, I'm just kind of psyched that the sun's here. At the same time, we all love skiing all the time so it's tough that all of a sudden there is no snow, but it psyches you up for next season."
