Senior and water polo captain Cullen Pow claims that a full physical warmup is “the most important” aspect of pre-game preparation.To set themselves up for optimal performance in games, the team does a variety of preparations, including stretches, altered sleep schedules and revised diets.  

 

Pow describes the stretches that the team does outside of the pool, which include jumping jacks and stretching their arms across their chests, to be “fairly basic.” Once in the pool, the players swim laps and warm up their legs by treading water. These stretches are either led by the coach or by team captains, but Pow believes the team “gets the most out of [the stretches]” when they are led by the captains. 

 

“There's definitely an aspect to team bonding there,” Pow said. “Also, as players, we're all kind of going through the same situation, so [we] might be sore in a certain area that the coach [doesn’t] even realize.” 

 

Pow emphasizes that many water polo players, including himself, have mild shoulder injuries and therefore spend extra time stretching their arms and shoulders. Another area that players struggle with is getting enough hydration. Pow notes that although their coach encourages extra sleep before games, their coach emphasizes the importance of hydration even more.

 

“It's a funky situation because you're working out in water and you also need to drink water,” Pow said. “You can get carried away and kind of forget to keep yourself hydrated.”

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Similarly, sophomore and football player Hamza Moharram remarks that from the start of the season, their coach encouraged the players to drink a gallon of water every day and to limit the amount of junk food they consume. Although the coach does not keep track of players’ diets, Moharram states that some players log the foods they consume to keep track of their nutrition. 

 

According to Moharram, believes another significant part of game preparation is icing sore body parts. He says that many players need icing to limit pain and soreness, especially in their ankles, due to strenuous practices the week before games.

 

He also admits that although he values the importance of sufficient sleep before game days, his sleep schedule typically becomes worse during the days leading up to games. 

 

“It's tiring to have school for so long and then hours of practice right after,” Moharram said. “We have to push ourselves to progress, but especially [on] the days before games, having both practice and homework after school gets to be a lot.” 

 

Like Moharram, senior and field Hockey player Yashvi Narravula finds it difficult to prioritize her sleep but aims to get at least nine hours of sleep before game days. She also eats a lunch that contains protein and carbohydrates to have enough energy for the game. 

 

As a goalie, Narravula begins warming up earlier than the rest of the team, but joins them for dynamic warmups. She mentions she commonly rolls out her muscles, especially her quadriceps which are more prone to cramping. Afterwards, the team practices taking shots on Narravula to activate her muscle memory. 

 

“[Blocking shots] really helps [me] get a sense for what the game is going to feel like because it is already kind of gameplay,” Narravula said. “Short corners are something that happen in games a lot, so it's good to incorporate them into your warmup just to get a feel for them. If I don't warm up, I usually don't feel as ready to stop the ball.”

 

Narravula asserts that although taking special care of physical preparation can be repetitive and somewhat tedious, it drastically improves playing ability. Moharram also agrees, regarding his preparations as “worth it.”

 

“If you want to improve throughout the season [and for] next year and the year after that, you want to be thinking in the future and how the things you do now impact it,” Moharram said. “Everything adds up at the end.”