It’s Monday morning, the first day of winter break, starting the two weeks you have with no school. You begin to sleep in but are abruptly awakened by your phone ringing. It’s your coach calling, wondering where you are. You remember that you still have practice.
Most high school athletes recognize the feeling of having practice even when school is closed for a break or holiday. What do the athletes think about this, though?
“I like them because I don’t have much else to do over break,” junior Heron Cromwell said. “And it’s just good so we as a team can be better.”
Cromwell has been playing high school basketball for three years; throughout those years he has had to practice during many breaks. Having those practices in the afternoon is fine with him and he believes they have helped foster improvement, however, he does prefer morning practices more than afternoon ones.
“I’m pretty much fine with any time,” Cromwell explained. “I prefer doing practices in the morning, but, since that isn’t an option I’m fine with it.”
Sophomore Jackson Hicks, a wrestler, instead has had practices in the morning during breaks leading him and other wrestlers to have to wake up early for practice. However, Hicks has been happy with and loves having practice at those times as he views them as being very beneficial for the wrestlers and the team.
“I think the times that we have practiced over break are very beneficial for the wrestler’s performance, discipline, and well-being,” Hicks said.
While these two sports have different practice times, they both practice over breaks, leading athletes to practice instead of relaxing on their vacations. Many families travel over breaks for fun, visiting family, or just getting away. Athletes struggle with this, however, as practices can unfortunately get in the way of vacations.
“There are times where I’ve had to choose between practices and vacation,” Hicks said, “but name any place in the world for me to travel, completely paid for, and I’d still pick practice every single time.”
Hicks’s experience is just one of the instances where an athlete had to choose between vacation and their sport. While Hicks chose his sport, there are many other situations where athletes have chosen to go on a vacation instead. Why don’t we just have no practices to remove that problem then?
Getting rid of practices would lead to more problems later on, including getting “rusty,” losing skill or technique, getting out of shape, or missing matches or tournaments. As such, while the occasional person is upset with practices over break, most athletes like them and appreciate the extra time they get to train and improve their skills.
