The Cal softball team meeting through Zoom - a new way of life for Cal sports teams.
Photo by: Cal Athletics
The Golden Bear New Normal
4/9/2020 11:30 AM | General, Inside The Lair
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Cal Teams Learn To Adapt To Uncertain Times
By: Cal Athletics
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered plans around the globe, and it's certainly no different for intercollegiate sports teams.
Like the rest of the world, Cal's athletic programs have spent the past month adjusting to the new normal, searching for new ways to continue high-level training while at the same time maintaining a semblance of team culture.
From Zoom meetings to virtual team bonding activities, Golden Bears everywhere are doing their part to continue on as student-athletes during a time of enormous uncertainty.
In Cal's football program, first-year offensive line coach Angus McClure was going over defensive formations of Cal's 2020 opponents this week with his men in the trenches taking turns drawing up the plays on a whiteboard.
Most springs there would be nothing special or different about a coach and his players preparing this way in position meeting rooms. But with COVID-19 keeping Cal's offensive line at home, McClure has relied on his technological savvy that has grown leaps and bounds since overhead projectors and VCRs were his main tools 30 years ago.
McClure has always believed in the tools of technology, and his most recent discovery of Zoom's shared whiteboard feature led to the activity in the team's most recent virtual meetings.
"It's like tossing the chalk around and having them go up to the board and draw it up," McClure said.
McClure is also making good use of Kahoot!, a game-based learning program that allows him to quiz his offensive linemen in a variety of creative ways online or through the program's app. McClure likes the features of Kahoot! so much that he plans to continue using it when normal operations resume.
"As a coach and an educator, you have got to find the best vehicle to reach your students," McClure said. "As my career has gone on, technology has been a big part of how I've reached out to my players."
Cal football whiteboard shared virtually through Zoom
Cal's softball coaches have implemented a weekly challenge to the team during their once-a-week Zoom meetings. The student-athletes are broken up into four different teams for these challenges. The challenge for the first week was a scavenger hunt for everyday things around the house. The team that had every member show the particular items on camera won the round.
The winning team then gets to decide the challenge for the following week. The second week's challenge was a game of charades.
"They enjoy it," interim head coach Tammy Lohmann said. "Giving them the opportunity to come up with the next challenge is a challenge in and of itself. It's fun to hear them coming up with the rules and the criteria with it. This is a way for them to collectively create leadership and see their creativity and their ability to think outside the box. This is a challenging time that we've never experienced before, so it's getting them to get invested in these virtual meetings, as well."
The team starts each Zoom meeting with some reflection. The coaches ask the players to think about things such as what they are grateful for, what they miss most about not being on campus or what they miss about not being around the team.
Once Spieker Aquatics Complex was no longer in the picture for Cal's women's water polo team, the student-athletes decided they would keep sharp in different pools on their own while helping a worthy cause in the process. The team decided to take part in Laps For Life, an annual Australian-based fundraiser that raises funds to support mental health. Participants swim laps and ask for donations.
Junior Carla Traplin and freshman Ruby Swadling are both from Sydney and helped spearhead the effort, which had to be quickly altered after quarantine measures were put in place. Now, members of the team are walking, running and biking laps instead.
"It's a good way for us to all stay connected," Swadling said. "We can take photos of our progress and keep each other up to date, and keep each other accountable. We keep connected by checking in with each other."
In addition to Zoom team meetings on Thursdays, the Cal women's gymnastics coaching staff hosts casual "office hours" on Tuesdays where student-athletes can join at any time for relaxed, non-athletic related conversation, replicating the family environment produced during practice time. Team meetings are focused on team-building, with a messaging component similar to a team retreat. The gymnasts are placed in groups, and a different group is tasked with the discussion topic for the week. Each student-athlete is serving as a resource for her teammates, with gymnasts encouraged to upload creative workouts to a shared folder and submit a daily itinerary to help stay task-oriented.
The coaching staff is also taking advantage of outside resources, reaching out to colleagues such as Oklahoma head coach KJ Kindler and collaborating with other coaches from across the country and in varying disciplines through their membership in the What Drives Winning coaching lab founded by Brett Ledbetter. Cal women's swim Zoom meeting
Cal's women's swim team is having an alumna speak at its Zoom meetings. Caitlin Leverenz Smith, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, was the first to join. Leverenz-Smith is an MBA candidate at Stanford and works with the Olympic Business Development Program at Visa. Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer has also appeared at one of the meetings, and Natalie Coughlin is scheduled to be a guest, as well.
Each member of the team is also sending in a song, and the rest of the team is charged with guessing who submitted it. Junior Ali Harrison is turning the songs into playlists so the team can listen to them and feel connected to each other.
Cal men's soccer Zoom meetings have focused on such things as academic needs and mental health. The players contribute as well, with midfielder Lucas Churchill – who teaches a weekly meditation course called Cal Athlete Led Mindfulness (CALM) – conducting mindfulness sessions for his teammates online.
The coaches have also sent the players links of creative soccer workouts, such as one suggested by San Jose Earthquakes defender Tommy Thompson.
"It's really nice to catch up with everyone every couple days – we're used to seeing each other every day, so it would have been difficult if we had just been cut off from each other cold turkey," Cal midfielder Kaleo Fernandez said. "I miss the guys and the grind, but we'll be back, and when we are, we'll be hungry."
