The Need for Speed – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
July 10, 2006
While most college students are relaxing over the summer months, Ohio State student-athletes are doing just the opposite. Many Buckeyes participate in `speed school’ during their summer break. It requires homework, but not the type of homework that comes from a textbook. It is voluntary and has proven to be beneficial for the participating athletes.
Strength and conditioning coaches Anthony Glass and Tom Palumbo have evolved speed school into what it is today. It is designed to help athletes with speed, flexibility and conditioning.
“We work on things like agility, acceleration, starting power, over-speed training and sprint challenges,” Glass said.
It is a voluntary summer workout program on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and evenings. Athletes can choose to come at 6:50 a.m. or 5:30 p.m. The strength and conditioning coaches push the athletes with various agility drills and sprint challenges.
“I like the effects of speed school,” senior softball player Christina Douglas said. “It makes you better, faster and pushes you to reach a level that you can’t do on your own.”
Douglas has gone to speed school the past two summers and plans to start this summer in July with the rest of the softball players.
“It’s good for agility and conditioning,” senior men’s ice hockey player Sean Collins said. “Even though we skate it’s still good for overall mobility. It has helped me get to places quicker.”
“Coaches used to do their own conditioning,” Glass said. “But I thought why don’t the athletes train together? The kids didn’t really know each other and they train harder when they are competing against each other.”
Douglas agrees that athletes train harder when working with each other.
“It’s tough because you really have to push through,” Douglas said. “The bar is set higher because of being with other sports. Pushing myself in speed school has been one of the hardest things I have done here.” “Speed school is good because it pushes you to do better,” Collins agreed. “If you work out by yourself then you can quit whenever you are tired. When you are being pushed by other people you can’t quit.”
The coaches thought about dropping speed school and going to a more team specific workout, however the athletes wanted speed school.
“Speed school is not quite as specific for each sport since all the athletes train together,” Palumbo said. “In the summer there is more intermingling among athletes.”
Given that the athletes volunteer their mornings or evenings to partake in speed school, they usually give their best.
“There is no punishment for not reaching a time because they are willing to come in the summer, so they want to be here,” Palumbo said. “If they choose to come then they are giving me their best.”
According to Collins the conditioning factor is the toughest part of speed school.
“Conditioning is definitely the hardest part because it toughens you mentally,” Collins said. “Mental toughness is important in sports and it’s rewarding when you are finished with the conditioning.”
Changes are made to speed school each summer. There are always things added and taken away every year. Glass and Palumbo have used material from Loren Seagrave who is the chief performance officer for Velocity Sport, a program for athletes offered in various regions of the country including Mayfield Village, Ohio. Glass has been apart of the program for the past six years and Palumbo for the past four years.
Looking back on previous Buckeye seasons it appears that speed school is one class OSU athletes are excelling in.
By Ashlee Smith, OSU Athletics Communications
