"Offseason"

As colleges and high schools head into their winter breaks, virtually no teams will be practicing together for at least three weeks. For some teams, this is a chance to take a break and come back rejuvenated for the spring season. For the better teams, this is a chance to distance themselves from the rest of the teams. It's not easy to separate from the pack over the winter break, especially since almost everyone will be working out and running on their own. Their own personal motivation will be what drives them to work out, not their captains and coaches dragging them to the gym.

In a lot of cases, weather will be a factor for teams. Can they maintain motivation knowing that they won't be able to get out onto a field until March? It's here that the mental conditioning and strategies that the captains and/or coaches imparted in the fall come into play. Laying the groundwork for a long, hard winter must come in the middle of the fall, through teamwide goals and establishing a routine of workouts before everyone goes off on their own. Like UPA Board President Mike Payne says, 75% of working out is routine, and 25% is the actual exercises and activity.

For many teams, the captains and most dedicated players will continue to push themselves during the offseason. But it's what the whole team does that will determine how successful their season is. If only a part of the team is working out and conditioning over the winter, there is no way, no matter how good their throwing or strategies are, that they can compete with the best teams if they can't compete with them physically. Wisconsin and Florida have proven that the past two years with insane conditioning that clearly made them the top teams in the country.

It's almost as if every team starts off on even footing in the fall, with a mix of veterans and rookies. The choices they make, such as when to make cuts, when to teach strategy, and when to begin conditioning, affect fall results much more than the strength of the players on each team. It's why a lot of teams' fall results should be taken with a grain of salt. Stanford went through the fall tournaments without making their final cuts, teaching offense beyond a simple vertical stack, or teaching defense beyond force forehand and backhand. I'd imagine that teams like Oregon and Colorado have taken a similar approach. Teams that work over the "offseason" when other teams are resting can easily make up the ground lost by giving potential rookies a longer look.

It's why I'm outside when it's 30 degrees, icy, and the wind is blowing in my face as I sprint up a hill again and again. It's because I know that my teammates are doing the exact same thing, and nobody wants the be the one left behind when we go back to working out together. It's because I know that there is a difference between an offseason and an "offseason," and all the good teams have the latter. It's because I know that every team in Boulder in May with a shot at the title is also out there running.