R. Leman

The minutes tick down before the early morning workout gets everyone moving.

Every athlete knows that to be successful at any sport you must practice the skills required for individual sports. However, you must have more than a good throwing arm or a blistering serve to be successful, so one of the best conditioning options is morning speed. 

Possibly the most challenging part of speed is not working out but dragging yourself out of bed. Speed begins at 5:45 in the morning which makes for a very early morning since most people get up before 5. 

Every Tuesday and Friday morning the alarm rings and shock takes over, dragging you out of bed. A granola bar later it’s time to head to Dowling. 

When you first get to school, most people head to their respective locker rooms for warmth and some bonding time over the ridiculously early hour, the frigid temperatures, and whatever else comes to mind at 5:35 in the morning. 

The time then comes for the locker room exodus and the struggle to get the best possible line location. When it comes to warmups the best place to be is close to the sides of the gym. Also, being last in your line, while a rite of initiation, is not all it is hyped up to be. In other words, stay away at all costs. 

Warmups consist of many different comical activities including but not limited to skipping tin soldiers, bear crawls, and strides at exactly 60 percent, since everyone should know exactly what 60 percent of their speed is. 

Then comes wall drills and there is a race to find an empty patch of wall and claim it for your own. The unlucky few who were not fast enough are forced to run to the overhead walkway to have room.

Coach Jack strides into the center of the gym and begins his daily holler. “HIT… HIT… HIT,” accompanied by the squeaks of shoes hitting the gym floor with the sound of floppy noodles, also known as wall drills.

The time comes to run to the first station that you have been assigned. The running part is very important since there are a few coaches who are understandably upset about being awake so early in the morning. Most cope by yelling at poor souls who chose that unfortunate moment to walk. 

There are about six different stations that you visit and each one of them contains its kind of physical suffering that you know will make you better, but it doesn’t stop the pain. 

In the large gym, there are several different stations that you might go to, depending on the day. This includes box jumps, stairs, and carpets. 

Boxes cause the most anxiety of any of the stations mostly since the probability of you tripping, slipping, or knocking your shins is scarily high. Falling in front of an entire gym full of people is probably not on anyone’s to-do list.

The larger your group is, the better the stairs are because the longer you will have to wait before going the second time. Once you bunny hop up the stairs trying to figure out how far to jump without slipping and falling, you just have to fly down the stairs and sprint to the far end of the gym and jog back into line, this is done twice and then you are rewarded with a much-needed rest. 

Carpets are arguably the most awkward station, and possibly the most difficult if time allows. There are a dozen or so squares of carpet that you place your hands on and run in a downward dog position to the end of the gym and back. On the days when it goes fast enough that you have to do the ladders, you run back and forth until your legs are weaker than jello. 

The station in the swim lobby is one of the more enjoyable stations once you open the doors and let a little fresh air in. On Tuesdays, two lines are created and you perform various ankle-breaking exercises while moving forward at the same time. Fridays in the swim lobby are a different matter. A sloppy circle is formed and an insane amount of crunch variations are performed. The number of people not doing nothing often rivals the number of people doing the exercises.

Of the many stations of suffering that speed has to offer, those are the most memorable for their consistency and systematic struggle. There are also plenty of other assorted stations full of jumping, throwing, and suspending yourself upside down in handstands. It depends on the day and the moods of the coaches.

The final rotation is called and suddenly everyone is racing back into the large gym for the cooldown. Partner push-ups, lunges, and bottom-of-the-squat are routinely used during these five to ten-minute cooldowns.

When Coach Jack calls the time to break, a huge huddle is formed and someone yells a cheer. Girls go first in line and fistbump the coaches while the boys wait impatiently for when they get to go. 

Fist-bumping the coaches who run speed is your golden ticket to leave because speed is over. Sweaty and exhausted but surprisingly satisfied with the morning’s work, most people head off in various directions to prepare for the rest of their day. 

Morning speed is a place to grow in pain tolerance and self-awareness as you travel at an insane rate through various difficult activities that are meant to boost your athleticism. Drop by sometime and see if it lives up to the hype.