The swimming team stayed in Athens for their winter training this year and looked to not only build upon their skills, but the relationships between each other as well.
Unlike last year, when the Bobcats traveled to Florida for 12 days, Ohio spent its winter training session in Athens with the intention of working hard and also relaxing.
The swimming team had a total of 10 water practices and two weight room sessions during the monthlong break. Through those 12 sessions, swimming coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh made use of the extra time she allotted to spend with the student-athletes while school is not in session.
“I am not restricted to my 20 hours by the NCAA during the winter session so we are able to do a little bit more,” Komisarz-Baugh said.
Komisarz-Baugh added that even though the team has more leeway with practice times, she doesn’t think the team needs to train 40 hours a week.
During the winter session, she said practices consisted of warm-up drills and working on getting the heart-rate up. She also said the team does challenge sets.
“One of the sets we do is a long set,” Komisarz-Baugh said. “It is a challenge of mental toughness and training to push yourself through and stay focused for something that is very long.”
Along with a test of mental toughness, a physical challenge is also part of their repertoire.
“Another challenge we do is trying to hit pace,” she said.
When encountering this challenge, she said the goal is to try and reach your race pace. While trying not to work the team too much, the incentive for hitting a pace time is to take it easy before getting back at it again.
As much as swimming takes place in the water, there are a number of things Komisarz-Baugh looks to do out of the pool to help strengthen her squad.
“We do a lot of aerobic activity in the water, so we like to counteract that with some anaerobic type (workouts) outside of the water,” she said.
Doing that helps with overall athleticism.
As part of the out-of-water conditioning, the team also workouts in the weight room. These workouts consist of working on core and shoulder movements and overall strength.
The most important thing the team does over winter break is bond, like they did with the team Christmas party and a white elephant gift exchange.
“There was a noticeable difference between how close the team was bonded (prior to and) after winter training,” Komisarz-Baugh said.
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