Oz Spellman
September 08, 2023 8:35 AM
Quidditch Practice by Oz Spellman
Seekers didn’t need to be strong. Beaters didn’t need to be agile. Everyone just needed to rehearse their own bit, again and again, without worrying what anyone else was doing.These were, of course, all horse manure.
Besides the fact that every position needed a range of different skills to be successful, and the team needed to work as a whole, there were also their own bodies to consider. Early specialisation and single-sport training wasn’t good for your body, and led to higher injury rates than a well-rounded and balanced program. Of course, at almost eighteen, Oz was edging very firmly out of the ‘early’ specialisation category, and it did also hold true that you needed to commit a lot of time to one thing to be really good at it, but well rounded whole team workouts were a staple of how they ran things, and were what the first practise of the week was usually dedicated to. It therefore probably didn’t come as much of a surprise to the team that general work out gear was laid out on the pitch.
“Alright, we’re going to stretch to warm up and then do some ground exercises. I’ve got a HIIT workout for us. After that, we’re in the air, and Cole’s going to take you through some agility exercises.” He’d discussed it with Cole at the last practice, so hopefully he’d come prepared. It was one of the weird parts of being captain that a big part of it was telling other people to do his job for him, so they’d be able to do it when he graduated and left it to them. Which made sense, but felt a bit fraudulent when he’d only held the position since the start of this year. “After that, we’re going on an endurance flight.” Words that always made him popular, but you never knew how long a match would be. Being comfortable with being in the air for a long time was a valuable skill.
On days when they met in MARS, he was able to get music to accompany their work outs. Whether or not this was an enhancement to the process was in the ear of the behearer. The music was certainly well suited to dynamic action, with a heavy, pounding baseline. Today though, the sounds of their feet on the grass and their breathing or muttered groaning was all they had to accompany them through the minute-work-minute-rest routine.
Afterwards, they took a water break.
“How was that?” Oz asked his nearest teammate, trying to work out whether he needed to up the level next time.
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Oz Spellman
Quidditch Practice
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