Even Southern California cannot promise consistently sunny skies and warm weather. During the winter months in Claremont, rain and wind present real problems for teams trying to practice. But with creative help from coaches, bad weather neither dampens athletes' spirits nor the daily rigors of their routines.
When wet weather strikes the CMS women’s tennis team for instance, its players get an alternative workout with cross-training sessions that include cardio-revving ultimate Frisbee and basketball, said head coach Maxanne Retzlaff. "You can get pretty bored doing sprints all day when it rains, and this puts some variety in the menu of fitness.”
Regardless of the weather, however, something else Retzlaff added to her players' fitness menu two years ago was weekly yoga classes. Meeting in an exercise room on the Scripps College campus, the sessions work to strengthen and stretch muscles, with particular attention to players' arms and legs. “Yoga is a great way to stay in shape when we can’t get onto the courts,” said freshman Lauren Drew. “I also like it because it is a definite stress reliever.”
"People can go to the gym on their own time, whereas for many girls, yoga is something that they’ve never done before and never get the chance to do anywhere else," Retzlaff says. "It is exercise that is fun and beneficial, and the team can do it together.”
Tennis is not the only sport affected by bad weather. Even if it is not drizzling during practice, a soggy field from a previous night's rain is enough to disrupt practice for CMS baseball and softball. “It is extremely difficult to train indoors during rainy weather, but our motto is ‘adapt, improvise, and overcome,’” baseball coach Randy Towne says. As far as “adapting,” the baseball team’s strategy is to use the small gym to recreate the baseball field. Players set up hitting stations which include hitting tees, a soft-toss, a whiffle ball machine, and a bunt station. Pitchers practice in makeshift bullpens while position players train in the weight room. As the rainy day schedule continues, position players then rotate onward, to practice batting. Pitchers move to the weight room and to the treadmills. And on it goes, with indoor whiffle ball championships thrown in for good measure.
The softball team follows a similar strategy. “The rain definitely does not stop practice,” says sophomore Karen Conrad. "Whether I’m helping pitchers in the gym or working out in the weight room, I make sure I don’t waste a day of conditioning just because of the weather.”
Some teams do not have to change their workouts in order to accommodate the weather. For the men's and women’s swim and dive team, rain is almost an unexpected treat. “My athletes love the rain,” head swim coach Charlie Griffiths says. “They’re wet already, so a little more water doesn’t bother them.” The track and field team also welcomes a drizzly forecast. “As long as it’s not really pouring, it’s actually fun to run in the rain,” sophomore Lauren Weeth says.
One of the great things about indoor sports such as basketball and vollyeball is that players never have to deal with the whims of the weather. “The only thing I don’t like about the rain,” says CMS men’s basketball coach Ken Scalmanini,“is that it generally means fewer fans will come to our home games. They don’t want to walk outside.”
For athletics director Mike Sutton, the worst thing about rain is sharing space in the gym. “With so many teams in season,” he says, “a rainy day can mean a lot of struggle on the part of the coaches for practice space.”