FESTIVAL

About an hour ago our field hockey team returned to St. Louis after a five day tournament in Palm Springs, California. This trip was scheduled to be our end of the year culmination, but with the way regular season ended i was pretty nervous to see how we were going to do. Since our season ended we have been holding practices twice a week in the fitness center doing one grueling hour of conditioning and strength training, 20 minutes of sprints and stairs, and a piddly half hour scrimmage. However, to my suprise the one factor that helped us keep an edge during the whole tournament was our endurance and conditioning level. The teams we played against at festival were made up of co-ed international players, alum division 1 players, and any other person who was gung ho field hockey. So needless to say it was a merciless few days.
Looking back at the six games we played against all the teams i can honestly say i was impressed by the way our team rose to play these "field hockey enthusiasts" by taking a beating and pretty much schooling each team we played whether we won or lost. Since we began our training for the marathon and our gym workouts i saw such an improvement in the way we played with each other and how we dealt with other teams. We ran circles around our competition.
I left this weekend with a new respect and excitement for my team and next season. We saw that our training is paying off and being immersed in a world where field hockey is worshipped really has the affect of putting passion for the sport and for being an athlete back into your heart.