By Joshua Bryant

Sports Editor

Training as teams in the Charleston heat this summer are both basketball teams, football and volleyball.

This seven-week grind is a group effort devised by head strength coach Sean Edinger and the team’s coaches, based around specific team and individual athletes’ needs.

Percentage-based strength workouts and template-based conditioning will progress within the seven-week time frame with the goal of churning out game-ready athletes.

“We want to progress them week by week,” Edinger said. “We want to push them, but we want to do it safely.”

The heat is a key factor in the safety of those conditioning outdoors, with temperature known as a key factor in dehydration, fatigue and overall discomfort during the conditioning portion of workouts.

“There are certain things you can’t plan for,” Edinger said. “If it’s been 82 or 85 degrees week to week, you can’t plan for a 105 degree day. If suddenly the temperature is 20 degrees hotter than it was the last week, you’re not going to be able to run your athletes as hard, nor should you, so you have to accommodate that.”

With football being the only outdoor sport of the summer sports quartet, the stakes are higher for their conditioning, but that doesn’t alleviate all risk.

Athletes can get just as tired in the air conditioning.

There are some factors, however, that can’t be evaded.

“We had to accommodate the other day because we had some lightning during our second group, so we had to get everybody off of the field,” Edinger said. “So, in effect, they didn’t get to train as intensely or effectively as they would had we been able to do the entire session, since we don’t have anywhere indoor to go to.”

Collective fatigue can build on the muscles as the summer draws on as well, creating the need to adjust the training tempo in order to avoid overtraining.

“If you’re having a great group, the energy is great, the recovery is great, for whatever reason, shoot, we’re going to go ahead and use the day and we’re going to push them,” Edinger said.

On occasions with lower energy, however, the tempo is not pushed as hard for the sake of recovery and future performance.

“Some days you feel like Superman and some days you don’t,” Edinger said. “So there’s no point in grinding athletes into the dirt and thus jeopardizing further the recovery they could have.”

Joshua Bryant can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].