An out-of-season athlete is not practicing every day or partaking in games, but they still have an immense amount of work to put in that people probably don’t realize.

This can include indoor practices and lifting sessions and bonding exercises during their off season.

The VTSU Castleton field hockey team, for example, is utilizing its off-season as a step forward toward the upcoming fall season.

Field hockey coaches meticulously plan their off-season to prepare the team for the fall. Not only do the girls lift two to three times a week, but they also have boot camps every Friday. Once the weather gets warmer, they will imminently start stick work outside.

Currently, one unique strategy the women are also implementing into the off-season regime is the book club. They are reading the book titled “Row the Boat” by P.J. Fleck and Jon Gordan.

First-year player Ava LaRoss reflected on the book.

“This book is about a football coach turning around his team dynamic in order to bring a losing team to a team of champions. Overall, this book is mostly about changing your mindset. This is something that we’ve been implementing into our practices because it helps encourage us and drives us to be better. We don’t have practice, we get to practice. We don’t have to wake up and run, we get to wake up and run,” she said.

Field Hockey coach Emily Douglas further emphasized the importance of book clubs.

“Book club helps with our internal drive. Rather than our negative thoughts, we need to focus on the positive,” she said.

Along with book club and lifts, the women have a 7 a.m. boot camp every Friday. For about an hour, they focus on conditioning and stamina. Junior Peyton Richardson talked about the importance of the boot camps.

“At our boot camps, we do a lot of running and sprinting. But, the main focus is to push one another. Whenever we want to give up, we have to keep pushing and encouraging each other. We’re pushing our limits. We can always do one more rep,” she said.

Douglas purposely uses these strategies to make her team better on and off the field.

“When we’re out of season, we have the opportunity to focus on our team culture. We need to connect with one another, so that our bond is strong come next season. And when new players join, they can branch off of that,” Douglas said.

Douglas said book club and off-season practices better her team, but also each player individually.

“Spring season helps with individual growth. We can work on hitting progressions, stick skills, and speed. Whereas in the fall we’re more focused on the team strategy. In the Spring, we can focus on ourselves.”