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Mountaineers Work with U.S. Navy SEALs
August 14, 2015 03:30 PM | Volleyball
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - The West Virginia University volleyball team recently went through a day-long workout led by active and veteran U.S. Navy SEALs as part of their preseason training.
On Sunday, August 9, the team met at 6 a.m. to start a 12-hour session with the SEALs. The day consisted of physical activities, including push-ups, tire flips, log lifts and bear crawls – most of which started with a dive in a kiddie pool and a roll through the sand. Fitness activities were interspersed with classroom exercises focusing on aspects like leadership, accountability and situational awareness.
The goal of the SEALs was help the players improve upon specific qualities, like mental toughness and communication, the classroom before showing them how to apply such qualities in high-stress situations, such as a match. The players were divided into groups and tasked with team-based challenges, forcing them to use their newfound information to complete the tasks in a timely manner. The sports psychology-based training followed the motto of “team, teammate, self,” helping the Mountaineers to improve their level of performance this season through better leadership.
It was a tremendous bonding experience for the team, which features nine newcomers in addition to seven returners.
“I’ve worked with this group before at Buffalo, so for me it was a no-brainer to bring them in,” said Sunahara. “When they started at 5:45 that morning, I thought it was going to be a long day. But then, they started to buy in. I think as they day went on they started to believe ‘I’ve got to do my job so that I can help this team.’ They got wet, sandy and dirty and they didn’t care. I thought SEALs did a great job of finding success that they can bring to our team for the athletes individually and collectively. Altogether, I thought it was a success.”
Sophomore Gianna Gotterba echoed her coach’s sentiments.
I think it was hard to ‘embrace the suck,’ as they termed it,” she said. “Overall it made us all mentally stronger and formed a good bond for our team that we really needed.
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