The greatest beast a student-athlete must conquer is invisible. It cannot be seen nor heard but is rather fought within.

In order to perform at peak level on the court, field or track, a student-athlete's mental and physical strength are tested well before the season gets underway.

Before the season starts, teams will have more intense training sessions or two practices spread out in one day - known as two-a-days. These days typically begin with an early morning session, then a break midday and one last practice at night.

In some instances, there are more practices during this time than any other point in the season. "We get twenty-four practices in twelve days", informed senior volleyball standout McKenzie Jacobson. During the entirety of fall, the volleyball team typically has forty-two practices.

Some student-athletes are required to be back in Tucson for practices as early as July, nearly cutting their summer vacation in half. "All of us had to be here July 7, so we started working out with Jim Krumpos (CATS strength and condition coach) and we would go everyday," stated soccer midfielder Kelcey Cavarra.

I was eager to find out more information on soccer and volleyball's training camps.

As a track and field athlete, our summer offseason generally consisted of training on your own. So, I wanted to go in-depth and discover the true benefits of enduring such rigorous training directly before the regular season.
 

McKenzie Jacobson

The day begins bright and early with 8 a.m. individual sessions that range from forty-five minutes to an hour. Individual sessions are then followed by an hour-long team session accompanied with an hour-long weightlifting session.

Student-athletes then have a break, to eat lunch, focus on homework and or take a nap before the last practice of the day, which - oh yeah - is three hours long.

"Yeah, it's a lot of volleyball," chuckled Jacobson, who has also earned three-time Pac-12 All-Academic honors.

The Wildcats opened up training camp on Aug. 8.

The team had a slight change of setting on Aug. 15. The Cats visited local Ironwood Ridge High school, holding an open to the public three-hour practice. Over 400 people gathered to spectate the practice, including many local Tucson volleyball players aspiring to someday participate in collegiate volleyball.

This only adds to the excitement and intensity of training camp, knowing that there's young student-athletes out there that aspire to be in your shoes.

One might wonder how all these practices are conducive for a student-athletes mental and physical well-being.

"It's a huge benefit" elaborated Jacobson, "it definitely makes you a better player, as an individual and we connect more [as a team] on the court, which is huge for volleyball."

The camp only reinforced the strong team chemistry prevalent amongst the squad. "We all get along pretty well which makes the team chemistry really good," said Jacobson.

During downtime, the team went to Picacho Peak for a 2.7-mile hike that reaches about 2,559 feet. Jacobson said it was no easy feat, "it took us about three to five hours."

The team's current record is 4-2 and they were scheduled to play this past weekend in the Florida State/Florida A&M Classic. But when they landed in Florida they were forced to head back to Tucson. The severity of Hurricane Irma had caused a cancellation of all college athletic events by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Volleyball's next match is Sept. 15 at McKale Center against William and Mary.

Kelcey Cavarra

Sophomore Kelcey Cavarra, who hails from Littleton, Colo., broke down the importance of being in-shape before mandatory training and conditioning even begins.

Cavarra began working out even before the mid-summer training sessions, "I already had the fitness part down, so I was ready to work on soccer," explained the sophomore midfielder.

There is a method to the madness, by preparing her body for the long days of summer conditioning, it allowed her to focus more on fundamentals and ball work, rather than channeling all her efforts on fitness.

One key benefit of camp for Cavarra was conditioning her mind. "Attitude was a big thing for me," said Cavarra. "Finding the right attitude within the team."
 
The 8 a.m. core group trainings were essential in building a strong unified foundation within the team. "We're all in the fight together," she explained. "Everyone was really upbeat, positive and wanted to train, you could tell everyone wanted to be there and make each other better every day."

Although night practices were individual and split by positions, these were some of the most important practices because it allowed players to strengthen specific skill sets necessary to make them vital cogs in the well-oiled machine that is Arizona soccer.

The Wildcats current record is 2-2-2 and their next match will be against BYU at Mulcahy Soccer Stadium on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m.