On a chilly Thursday afternoon in November, the only thing anyone wanted to do was to go home and relax after a long day at school. But that wasn’t going to happen today. Instead, we chose to participate in running a mile as a warm up, completing several laps around the track, and hitting the gym right after, also known as basketball conditioning. To understand how we got into this crazy situation, we have to start way back: the soccer season.
While soccer practice was going on, we always saw people running around the track after school and doing intense drills. We soon discovered that they were part of basketball conditioning and that’s what their average day looked like. With an immense curiosity deep in us, we decided to one day participate in a basketball conditioning session, just to see what it felt like. However, at the time we were on the soccer team, meaning we couldn’t come to any conditioning sessions. But now that the soccer season is over, we felt it was only right that we felt what the basketball conditioning experience was truly like. So without further ado, here is what happened.
Directly after school, a group of about 15 boys united at the locker room to change. Despite the cold weather, we all put on shorts, knowing that the intense running would warm us up. For some people it was their first time there, like me, while others had been to every conditioning since it started.
We quickly went outside after we were done changing and waited for our coach. After a little delay, he showed up and told us to huddle up around him. At that point, we knew the drill. Every sport starts with a little huddle, and then a quick warm up to get the blood pumping. What we didn’t know, however, was that our first warm up was to run a full mile. Everyone stood there indifferent, whilst we contemplated why we were there. Although soccer had trained our bodies for moments like these, it was still a shock that this could be our first warm up.
We all ran the mile in under 7 minutes, so it was, in fact, a quick warm up. But during the whole run, we felt an aching sensation to stop running. If it wasn’t for our journalistic spirit and internal drive, we would have quit that mile the second we started it. Fortunately, we didn’t. And so, the first obstacle was overcome.
The rest of the outside warm up went as expected. We went to the end of the field, did running drills (which felt agonizing after the mile), and finished it off with a lap around the track. At that point, we were exhausted. We had burnt out every single bit of energy we had inside. Whatever energy we had left from school, we spent it on the track. So imagine our surprise when we were told we had to workout at the gym for another 30 minutes. We got shattered internally. Our heads started hurting immensely, and we had to endure 30 more minutes of grueling work.
Curiously, however, the workout didn’t turn out as bad. This is because we actually got to talk to and see our friends, which was impossible during the outside work because we all ran at different paces. All in all, the gym session was a step up from the work we did outside, and it felt nicer than what we loathed it would be. And, after that, the conditioning was over! The experience was tiring, but it was fun(ish)!
After the conditioning, we decided to interview some of our peers. The general consensus of their opinions on conditioning was that it’s essential for team building. “I get to build a stronger bond with my teammates,” said Tavin Royster, also saying that it was, unsurprisingly, “very tiring.” We also asked them to define conditioning in one word, and “necessary,” said Dillon Blewitt, “tiring,” said Cole Paladino, and “bonding,” said Tavin.