Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Cross country's big meet
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2009
Runners to compete with many teams this weekend. SPORTS | 5A
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
PAGE 10A
Past plays make future predictions
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
Junior cornerback Chris Harris remembered rather vividly Kansas' bye week last season after suffering a loss to South Florida in the final nonconference game of the season.
Harris said entering Big 12 play with a number in the loss column doesn't make for a fun week of practices without a game.
That's why, in the moments after Kansas' victory against Southern Mississippi on Saturday that pushed the Jayhawks to 4-0, Harris talked with a sense of optimism about the bve week.
"This bye week is all improvement," Harris said "Practices are so much harder when you're going into the Big 12 with a loss."
In general, nonconference and conference games are categorized into two separate
seasons. With that in mind, The Kansan looks back at the Jayhawks play in their first four games while looking ahead to the start of the Big 12 season.
"We're pleased with where we're at but we aren't by any stretch comfortable with where we're at," senior wide receiver Kerry Meier said. "There are still a lot of things out there and a lot of work to do."
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 8A
Photos by Weston White/KANSAN
SWIMMING & DIVING
Focus shifts to fundamentals for Big 12 Relays
BY ANDREW TAYLOR
ataylor@kansan.com
Coach Clark Campbell identified starts and turns as areas in need of improvement following the alumni meet Sept. 18. These two skills have been themes for the team throughout its training this year.
With just two weeks until the Big 12 Relays and one week until the annual intrasquad meet, the swimming and diving team has been fine tuning problem areas and increasing the intensity in practices.
"The beginning of the season was dedicated to doing starts and turns," freshman swimmer Madi Landi said.
To improve these two abilities the swimmers have been doing plenty of repetition. In practice they have done repeat 25-yard sprints, one length of the pool, with a dive before each sprint.
Also, Campbell estimates that swimmers will perform upwards of 200 turns during a normal practice.
Junior swimmer lulia Kuzhil competes in the mixed 100-yard individual medley during the alumni swim meet at Robinson Natatorium Friday afternoon. Kuzhil outpaced former team members in the 50-yard backstroke with a first place time of 26.31 seconds.
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Work on turns in deep water has also accompanied the repetition. In this type of technique drill, the swimmers do a turn entirely underwater. This allows them to feel the resistance of the water much more than doing normal turns.
Chance Dibben/KANSAN
"When you do repetition you can either reinforce good habits or bad habits." Campbell said.
"Doing that really cleans things up naturally," Campbell said.
The team has also taken its improvement in these areas into its own hands.
As the team centers its attention on improving starts and turns, senior swimmer and team captain Carrah Haley said that training has intensified in anticipation of the Big 12 Relays on Oct.16.
"There have been a lot of swimmers staying after practice to work on starts and turns," senior diver and team captain Meghan Proehl said.
"The first couple of weeks people were getting antsy," Haley said referring to the team's early season preparation.
During early season training, the team primarily spent time running and lifting, with minimal pool work. The team shifted its training primarily to the pool in mid-September as in-season training began. Now, the team works with coaches for about 20 hours each week. Most of this time is spent training in the pool.
the season, the divers have been working toward similar goals.
While the swimmers strive to ready themselves by the start of
"We've been in the weight room and we've been seeing a huge improvement, especially in the freshmen," Proehl said.
their jumps, which the weight room work helps improve, and work on fundamentals.
"Good fundamentals lay the base for harder dives later on," Campbell said.
- Edited by Sarah Kelly
The focal areas for the divers revolve around getting height on
COMMENTARY
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Nutrition important for student athletes
I consider myself something of a foodie. Add exercise and health to this passion, and there is an interesting combination that relates to Kansas sports.
In particular, I read a rather humorous story last week about men's basketball preseason morning practices being so intense that players sometimes lose their breakfast. I understand that both Kansas football and basketball teams take their strength and conditioning practices very seriously. Sometimes I wonder though if these athletes are aware of the fact that nutrition may have a bigger effect on overall physical ability than those vomit-inducing hours of practice.
Perhaps our star athletes are completely avoiding these dietary hazards and that's why they're so fit. However, I'm inclined to believe that these student athletes are humans, and subsequently, college kids, who may not be perfect examples of health and nutrition. Throw in other factors that usually undermine the good health and fitness of young twenty-somethings, including smoking, drinking or injury due to over-exercising along with poor sleep and eating habits, and it's a wonder that any university in this country has an athletic program with exceptionally fit athletes.
I must admit I don't know the dietary regimen of our football and basketball players, but as a busy senior in college, I know well the pitfalls of going several days without eating meaningful servings of fresh organic fruit, vegetables and whole grains The National Center for Health Statistics did a study on college student habits that indicated repeatedly that we don't sleep enough, eat food too high in sodium and processed corn sugar and drink too much high calorie soda and fruit juice.
The Aug. 17 issue of Time magazine reported on the relationship between one's eating habits and how much exercise can truly make one healthy and fit. For example, if a typical preseason men's basketball practice is two hours long, then a player could burn well over 1,000 calories in that session. However, if he should go home and gulp down a few sodas and burgers, then his body might get mixed signals.
On one hand, these signals mean his body is glad to have received a strenuous workout, but on the other hand, its synthesis of overly processed, fatty or salty foods will blunt the benefits of lifting weights or hours of cardiovascular cross training.
Edited by Jonathan Hermes
What is more worrisome is the fact that one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. Mathematically speaking, a student athlete would have to attend two or three morning practices to lose one pound.
Follow Jordan
Williams at twitter.
com/salvio_hexia.