Tide Women?s Hoops Working Hard in Off Season
4/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
After working through a difficult season, the Crimson Tide women’s basketball team realized that there was just one way to erase some of those memories: get back in the gym, work hard and get better.
After meeting with the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Michelle Martin, for the past six weeks, it seems that the Tide has certainly taken strides to meet that goal, in the weight room at least.
“I think these players, especially our freshmen, who came in not having had much experience in a weight room, saw how important strength is last year,” Martin said. “They saw every night how good the athletes are in this league and how strong you had to be to compete, and I really think they took it to heart, because they have been incredible in the weight room this spring.”
In the weeks since spring break in mid-March, the Tide has participated in its spring workout program as allowed by current NCAA rules. The bulk of the six-week program is dedicated to its strength and conditioning regimen, designed to recover and regain any strength lost in the regular season, when weight lifting workouts are tough to fit in to an already busy schedule that includes practice, travel to and from games and film study.
“During the season, two days a week is all we can get in,” Martin said. “We are just trying to keep them as strong as we can without wearing them out.”
But since the beginning of the schedule following spring break, the workout routines have become more difficult and more intense. The response from the young Tide team has been even better than hoped.
“They have really taken ownership of the weight room,” Martin said. “From where they came from a year ago, when many of them couldn’t even do the most basic lifts, to where they are now is great to see. I think this season really opened up their eyes to what they needed to do, and they have responded.”
Martin, who develops and implements all of the strength training workouts for the team throughout the season, has been pleased with the development of the team and singled out several of the Tide’s freshmen for praise.
“Tamara Williams and Nikki Davis have really stood out in there,” Martin said. “They are all business in the weight room and have really perfected their form. They take instruction well and do things right and have seen the results. Alyson Butler has worked very hard, even though she has been limited with an injury and Courtney Strauthers has come a long way as well.”
The key, though, for Martin and the rest of the team, is to continue to put in the work necessary to build for next season, a season that the team hopes to erase some of the bad memories from the 2006-07 campaign. Hopefully, the hard work put in this spring will help them do just that.
Next week, RollTide.com will take a more in-depth look at the Crimson Tide off-season workout program as it enters its final week prior to finals at UA and the summer break. Check out all of the behind-the-scenes coverage beginning Monday to find out just what being a Division I
