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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// THE WEIGHTING GAME Strength and conditioning in the modern age is more than lugging steel plates. Learn how it happens the Big Green way. "Champions are made when nobody is watching." While there's a lot of truth to the old chestnut, these days someone usually is watching, although it's not always cheering fans, not necessarily their coaches and often not in person. Whether it is in Hanover during the offseason, or keeping tabs via email and the Internet when they are off campus, Dartmouth's strength and conditioning coaches are pretty much always maintaining a watchful eye on Big Green athletes as they do the hard work necessary to become champions. Bob Miller, the Holekamp Family Director of Strength and Conditioning for a dozen years, counts women's ice hockey among the teams he is guiding through the offseason. Kayleigh Fournier, in her first year at the College, oversees strength and conditioning for the volleyball team as well as eight other teams. Because the volleyball season ended in early November 18 PE AK | SUMMER 2 013 and the long ice hockey season didn't wrap up until early March the teams are at different stages of their offseason conditioning programs. But the goal is the same – to be bigger, stronger and faster when practice resumes in the fall. The hockey team, which played an exhibition game on Oct. 19 against McGill and saw its long season end on March 2 against Harvard – a span of 135 days – wisely did not go straight into its offseason program. "The first part of the off-season is recovery," said Mark Hudak, who is 196-99-27 in 10 seasons as head hockey coach. "The kids need a break. We typically take almost a full month off. Once we've finished our last game we tell them we will see them in three or four weeks. "We feel like by the time they get back a lot of the bumps and bruises are better. Their bodies are a little bit more rested. The mind is more rested. The stress on the body and mind that has been there for six plus months is relieved and we can start to build strength and power." Once the players return to the weight room Miller has them lifting for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. Because the volume of lifting work is cut down during the season, the emphasis when the team hits the weights again is "work capacity," according to Miller. "That's lower intensity as far as weight goes, but with the volume really picking up as far as sets and reps," he said. "We want to build a really good base with the work capacity so that their bodies are better prepared to handle the more explosive and heavier stuff to come in the summer." In addition to lifting, the team runs after the Monday lift, either doing "stadiums" in the football grandstand or sprints. Both have a direct correlation to on-ice capabilities. "If you look at a sprinter and a hockey player, the angle of push once you get going is different, but the angle of the body is the same," Miller said. "They are always on a 45-degree angle. That's why we stress a lot of running, especially in a three-point start off the ground. And running up stadiums, which is pushing the perfect angle." On Wednesdays at 7 a.m., the Big Green skaters have their second running session of the week, often doing "sled drags" on a wooden apparatus constructed by the Dartmouth grounds crew. Players pair up and push the sled loaded with various amounts of weight 25 yards in one direction as fast as they can. Another pair will push it back. Players may make eight or 10 runs with the weighted sled before they are through. "We want to get our conditioning in that way, in short bursts rather than have them go out and run miles," said Miller. "There is a reason why they call it L.S.D. Long. Slow. Distance. It just makes you slower." Explained Hudak: "We want to have good cardiovascular and endurance but to go out and run long distances is counter to what you want to work on, which is the fast twitch, quick burst of speed." The hockey team is back at it on Thursday mornings at 6, doing agility drills that see the players work on their starts and stops