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Feature: Coping with Change: How athletes of UPIS train during the pandemic
When we entered 2020, everyone was hopeful for a prosperous year, a year filled with new experiences, excellent opportunities, and good fortune. No one thought we would experience a pandemic, let alone be under a lockdown for more than a hundred days. Still, everyone has been trying their best to adapt to the current situation.
Since UPIS is one of the several schools that start their school year every August, our previous school year was cut short because of the lockdown. Even so, we have seen the efforts of our administration, faculty, and staff, to wrap up the school year in the best way possible. But while they successfully concluded our school year, one part of UPIS was not able to finish theirs: the athletics division.
The past school year marked the end of the careers of our seniors in some varsity teams, but the teams were also able to welcome new athletes this year. According to Prof. Tin Jamon, the Head of the Health and PE Department, there are about 150 new athletes, composed of homegrowns and VAAS applicants, for AY 2020-2021. The Basketball Team, Girls Volleyball Team, and Girls Swimming Team have also recruited new members.
If we look back on the experiences we had before the quarantine, we can see that all athletes, coaches, and varsity teams of UPIS did not expect the school year to be over that instantly. Some were preparing for major tournaments, while some were in the middle of them. But our athletes have not let that experience hold them back from continuing their hard work and sustaining their efforts. That said, let us now look into the statements of the current team captains of each varsity team about their situation during this pandemic.
Throughout the fast-paced months, the Track and Field Team have kept track of their bond and condition as they meet once a week via Zoom or Discord. They had no specific training program, but they made sure they sustained their training efforts.
Recently, their coaches gave them their individualized workout menus, depending on the event of the athlete. The duration of training depends on each athlete's workout program. The throwers have the strength and anaerobic workouts. Distance athletes also run if they are allowed to go out in their neighborhood, but they mainly focus on aerobic exercises. Dynamics are the main exercises that sprinters and jumpers enjoy.
“Many of our workouts require professional supervision so it is quite dangerous to train alone. The feedback that we were used to hearing about our form will not be available so each athlete has to become more focused and aware with their training,” the current captain of the team, Ameer Fernandez shares.
“Working out used to be so much fun but with the individual workouts, many of us have been slowly losing motivation,” he adds. We can understand and relate to that, right?
The Taekwondo Team have also made the best of the situation by kicking their way out of several months of resting. They meet through Zoom once a week, and each session lasts an hour and 30 minutes. The sessions focus on strengthening and conditioning exercises such as squats, sit-ups, push-ups, kickings, and more.
Paddling their way back to business, the Table Tennis Team are currently planning how to train as they adjust to everyone's schedule. Their new coach, Mr. Neil Patrick Ferrer, is also a sporting director and a professor, which is why they will have to fix their training schedule according to his availability.
“We are recommended to do our personal physical and mental workout when there is no online training,” captain Rekz Ruiz says. “We also have our assignments on watching films and video gameplays of high-level players to help us understand how we can develop our skills when we return to normal training.” We can really see how they utilize their time during this quarantine, huh?
Let’s head on to the Swimming Team, which has a boys and girls division, but has a joint program and train together.
The captains and coaches of the Swimming Team host an hour-long meeting with the whole team every first and last Monday of the month through Zoom. The swimmers plan to train three times a week using the program given to them. Since they only started training recently, they will have to swim quite far to achieve their tip-top shape again! Am I right?
Moving on to the dancers of UPIS, the street dance team, known as BLK, have not started training. As they are not an official varsity team yet, they have to file a request to train. Their request to train is still in progress. According to Esha Catiis, they are training on their own using the program they made for themselves.
The Pep Squad, on the other hand, officially started their training on October 16. Once they elected their new captains, they immediately started planning the training program for the year.
The said training program consists of weekday and weekend training. Every morning of a weekday, they focus on strengthening and conditioning the body. In the afternoon, they try to gain power through tuck training. As for the weekends, they work on fewer repetitions on the full-body workouts.
This pandemic has brought several challenges, but being the core support system of all athletes and varsity teams of UPIS, they remain optimistic.
"We may not be able to lift one another at the moment, but we are preparing to rise again along with the beat of our hearts," PEP’s captain Joanna Bacud states.
As we look into the teams that play ball sports, bear in mind that the Boys and Girls teams, led by EJ Cruz and Jeulyanna Ferrer respectively, follow different programs set by their coaches.
The Boys Volleyball Team have been training on their own since April using the program their coaches gave them, but they started training online through Zoom in the second week of August. They meet online for 2-3 hours twice a week, and they do plyometrics, strength, and endurance workouts.
“Instead of scheduling workouts on weekdays when there is a lot of school work, we decided to do them on the weekends when there is more free time for everyone. The coaches also adjusted some of the workouts because of the lack of equipment of the players,” Cruz states, showing how everyone on their team has been adjusting to one another.
Likewise, members of the Girls Volleyball Team have been following a program since March and have been training individually since then. Now that classes have started, the team conduct their 1-hour-and-30-minute online training using Zoom every Monday and Saturday and use extra days of the week for specific-position group workouts. The Wing Spikers group meet every Thursday afternoon, while the Setters/Liberos group and Middle Blockers group meet every Sunday morning.
Lastly, our Basketball Team, known as the Junior Fighting Maroons, have started their online training through Zoom.
“As of now, we're focused on strengthening our bodies by lifting weights and focusing more on our conditioning training so that we'll be prepared whenever we get back to face-to-face training,” Abel Lopez, one of the captains of the team, shared.
But if you are active on social media, you can see that some, if not all of the team, have been swishing their bodies back to excellent condition as they train individually nonstop.
Since they participate in close-contact sports, the Pep Squad, Girls and Boys Volleyball Team, and Basketball Team see this lockdown as a roadblock to their team bond. A team's chemistry is vital, and you cannot improve it overnight. With the current situation, it is harder for them to maintain the bond they need in their sport.
“Due to the pandemic, we couldn’t train together and that is a big loss for us because our sport requires us to work together and gel inside the court,” Ferrer stated.
Another fact we should also know is that since almost all these sports require proper equipment and venues, this situation clearly is a hindrance. After all, how can you expect a swimmer to practice his/her skills, given the restrictions on using public spaces such as pools? But, to maximize time, all of the athletes are focused on strengthening and conditioning their bodies, in preparation for when they come back to physical training.
All varsity teams have many challenges in common: the lack of equipment and space in their homes, unstable internet connections, and the struggle to manage their responsibilities in school and at home. Remote learning has been breaking the boundaries between home and school, and this quarantine has really taken its toll on everyone. Luckily, all of these teams are led by coaches and captains who acknowledge their situations and adjust accordingly with the cooperation of its members.
One would think that all of the methods of training mentioned are not enough compared to the usual intensity and duration of training they all had before, but this is enough to prepare them for when they get back to face-to-face training. Let us make use of our resources and time as these teams do. As we approach the end of the year, let us all hope that our country's state will improve so that we will be able to come back to our old ways soon. Soon, hopefully! // by Kyle Mararac
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