By Kelley Baylis, Swimming World College Intern
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI Swimming) has had an incredible season thus far. In addition to hosting the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference for the second year in a row this come February, the team will travel to Puerto Rico this late December for the fifth year.
Head coach Paul Bennett discussed the plans for the teams’ winter training. Due to the fact that WPI resumes classes in early January, the team tends to leave for training trip in late December.
“We have been going to Puerto Rico for the last 5 or 6 years, because classes start early we leave late in December,” Bennett said. “I try to give the team 10-14 days after winter finals home with their families, as that is important for us. Usually that means we leave on between the 27th and 30th.”
Bennett continued to describe the plans for this year’s training trip.
“Our main focus will be to regain any lost conditioning that has occurred from finals through the holiday break,” Bennett said. “Ideally the athletes are at home with their club teams but in some instances that isn’t always possible. Secondly we work on any specific weaknesses the team may have after reviewing out last meet. Since we still train in stroke/distance groups we return to the season plans and goals for each group and try to refocus the athletes toward the end of the season. We will take a day or a few workouts off to see parts of the island and enjoy the beautiful weather.”
A typical day of workout for the WPI team during training trip includes:
- 2 hour am workout – leg based team workout.
- 2 hour pm workout – athletes into their specific stroke/distance groups.
- 30-45 minutes of dryland/weights either before or after the pm workout.
In addition to the normal pool and dryland workouts, Bennett also incorporates different kinds of workouts during the week. “We will do an open water workout at some point and a beach workout as well.”
When asked what the most important part of training trip, Bennett replied with, “For us the most important part of winter training is the ability to allow the athletes to focus just on the team and their sport. During the academic sessions classes and project work take priority and student athletes have to juggle and balance so much more than normal students. It can take away their ability to put in as much time, effort, energy and focus. So for us coaches it’s a great time to have fewer distractions.”
Bennett’s positive outlook of the team is shown through his excitement for this upcoming trip.
“I am looking forward to this year’s experience because I am fortunate to have the most driven group, from top to bottom, of athletes whose desire for improvement is only outweighed by their effort toward that goal. Additionally we have a great group of coaches who have really helped broaden and expand the team’s training abilities,” Bennett said.
Training trip in the winter not only incorporates tough swimming, intense dryland workouts, but team building activities as well. The training trip is always a great time to bond with teammates and coaches and see a sense of cohesion between the members of the team.
“I think team building is a constant necessity. We try to do team building each week. While we are in Puerto Rico we will certainly work a little more on that as well,” Bennett said.
WPI will resume on January 10th for a home meet against Bowdoin College.