Switched Up

9-II: Damn that's early

Later in the day after basketball practice, Ron suddenly had the boys gather up for a quick team meeting.

"Alright guys. So I know that we've been hammering out a bunch of exercises and drills during practice because of conditioning. But now's the time when we start stepping it up even more," he said.

"Oh, here it comes," said Zach, making all the other upperclassmen chuckle.

"Yup, exactly. The upperclassmen already know, but starting on the fourth week of conditioning we start doing weight training."

"Ah hell yeah!" cheered Charlie and Sam at the same time

Everyone laughed as they high-fived each other after their outburst.

"Well, at least some of you boys seem hyped," chuckled Ron, "Now, for you newbies, you may not be familiar with the type of weights we do here, so next Monday you can partner up with an upperclassman and have them help you learn the exercises. The first few days will be a little bit slower so we can get back into the pace of things."

"Coach, what kind of weight training is it? Is it like, low rep heavy weight?" asked Aaron.

"No, not at all. I'd like to avoid that type of lifting as much as possible. I don't want to strain your bodies by lifting heavy weights. The type of weights we do here is based on high reps with challenging weight that will help strengthen and tone your bodies. We do a lot of circuit stuff that alternates between cardio exercises and weight lifting."

The 1st years looked around at each other with excited eyes. Their innocence and ignorance to the new weight schedule filled the upperclassman with joy--oh how little did the 1st years know how difficult it would be.

"And also, I have something new planned for this year's conditioning."

The whole gym went silent as the wave of anticipation struck the team.

"I thought that it would be beneficial to throw in some cross training in the water."

Basically the whole team's mouths fell open.

"Whoa what! We're gonna start swimming, Coach?" asked Kai.

"Well, a little bit of swimming and a little bit of water aerobics. I've been discussing possible workouts for you guys with the swim coach and it seems like water running is great."

As the team gushed over how fun their new training menu seemed, Sam could only feel panic. She looked over at Ricky with big, fearful eyes, just to see that he had the exact same expression.

"Quiet down for a sec you guys. I just want to give you a handout real quick that will have our new conditioning schedule on it," said Ron while he removed papers from his clipboard to begin distributing them.

The schedules read:

Monday: 3:30pm-4:45pm practice/5:00pm-6:00pm weights/6:00pm-6:15pm stretch

Tuesday: 3:30pm-4:30pm swimming/4:45pm-6:00pm practice/6:00pm-6:15pm stretch

Wednesday: 3:30pm-4:45pm practice/5:00pm-6:00pm weights/6:00pm-6:15pm stretch

Thursday: 3:30pm-4:30pm swimming/4:45pm-6:00pm practice/6:00pm-6:15pm stretch

Friday: 3:30pm-4:45pm practice/5:00pm-6:00pm weights/6:00pm-6:15pm stretch

Saturday: 10:00am-11:15pm technique practice/11:15pm-11:30pm stretch

Sunday: Rest day

When practice had ended, Sam and Ricky sprinted to the locker room together. They both threw on their clothes and charged over to the tables outside the cafeteria.