{"id":14169,"date":"2020-01-30T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T22:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=14169"},"modified":"2020-03-05T14:46:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T20:46:08","slug":"practicing-for-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2020\/01\/30\/practicing-for-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"Practicing for perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 All 14 of Harding\u2019s sports programs are different, and all require various amounts of work from each of their student athletes. But what is seen during the regular seasons is just a product of the work that goes into the off-season. Every year, athletes spend time training and working almost year-round to be ready for their sports\u2019 respective season. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Thomas Barbara, a pitcher for the baseball team, said a big part of preparing for their season is playing against each other. They have regular scrimmages and workouts, making sure to mentally prepare for each game. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is just showing up and being there all the time,\u201d Barbara said. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara also said coming back from winter break, and going straight into practices can be challenging. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, getting back into the swing of things \u2014 it\u2019s been a bit of a process,\u201d Barbara said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Dalton Allen, offensive lineman for the football team, said the team trains regularly during off-season. He said during \u201cspring ball,\u201d which is about four to five weeks of practicing, coaches evaluate the players\u2019 performances. Allen said it allows players and coaches alike to rebuild as a team. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce it comes to the regular season, we know who to trust, who not to trust, and who we can count on and not count on,\u201d Allen said. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior wide receiver Michael Cendrick said there is no real time off for players. Off-season consists of continuous training, and is beneficial for keeping skills. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we don\u2019t have those five weeks of ‘spring ball,’ we have training Monday through Friday,\u201d Cendrick said. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weekday training occurs in the afternoons, Cendrick said, except for Wednesdays, when the team heads to the field around 5:30 a.m. for conditioning and practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen said preparing mentally is just as important as staying in shape. Repetition is key, and conditioning helps allow the student athletes to be ready for their season. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt builds character in a way,\u201d Allen said. \u201cYou become mentally tough, and when it comes to the regular season, you\u2019re able to play it back in your head; \u2018I\u2019ve done this, and I\u2019ve worked so hard for how ever many months,\u2019 and in that moment, you\u2019re prepared for it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team bonding allows athletes to work well together, and grow stronger with one another, Cendrick said. One activity the team takes pride in is spending time with possible recruits. Cendrick said he enjoys taking out possible new team members for things like bowling, dodgeball and workouts. Cendrick\u2019s favorite event, he said, is the big camping trip, where teammates fish, grill, take float trips and spend time together. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cendrick said that while being a student athlete does take a lot of work, he enjoys it and loves being a part of a team. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people say college football is a job,\u201d Cendrick said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s hard, and it takes up your time, and you gotta want to do it, but it\u2019s more of a joy, I\u2019d say, than a job.\u201d<\/strong>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 All 14 of Harding\u2019s sports programs are different, and all require various amounts of work from each of their student athletes. But what is seen during the regular seasons is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15176,"featured_media":14170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14171,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions\/14171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}