A week off?

That's right-- no practice this week. I slept in this morning.

So why, you ask, are we taking a week off? NCAA rules give 19 total weeks to DIII programs. We can use those however we see fit, but that's the total number of weeks we have to practice as a team. Lewis & Clark has a fall break this week-- Thursday & Friday there are no classes and most of the students plan to get out of town. Since we stay in town for spring break I've always liked to give the athletes fall break off. So if we were to practice this week we'd be using one of our 19 weeks for three days of practice. We choose to take the week off instead and tack one more week onto spring, hopefullly letting us build into our primary season more purposefuly.

This process of planning the season has always seemed a little ridiculous to me. I'm a big supporter of one of the primary ideals of Division III; that sports should be one part of a student's education and be kept in balance with accademics and other activites. It's always seemed crazy to me, though, that we use weeks to control this-- in theory we could practice 30 or 40 hours during our weeks in-season (we don't, as there wouldn't be much of a team if we did), and not at all out-of-season. Why not set it up at 14 hours a week in-season, and say 5-6 hours out-of-season? Wouldn't that be more balanced, and let people continue to particpate in one of their passions throughout the year?

Anyway, probably not many people are interested in this aspect of my job. The bottom line is, no practice this week and the coaches are hoping our athletes pursue their training individually and in small groups. We'll be back in action next week and pushing through our last three fall races, looking to send the team into winter with some good results.