My freshman year in football, we did all sorts of running.  At the end of practice, we would run these sprints or suicides to keep us in shape.  I remember them yelling, “Get on the line!”  And we would run.

Once football ended, we rolled right into basketball season.  After all that running in football, I’d still be sucking wind that first week of basketball season.  What the heck!!  I ran all those sprints for nothing??!!

I remember another time I sprained my ankle and couldn’t play for a couple weeks.  The coach put together some workout I could do on the bike to keep my conditioning up.  Yet, when I was ready to play again, my conditioning was not where it was supposed to be and I had pushed myself on that bike even harder than what I was told to.

It wasn’t until I got into this profession that I started learning about the cardiovascular demands on the body.  Even though your heart is pumping hard and getting the benefits of a good cardiovascular workout, what you are doing affects the entire body differently.

Running for distance is different than running for sprints.  Even though on a bike your heartrate is getting high, it is different than running or even swimming with the same heartrate output.

How much your muscles are exerting affects that conditioning and some conditioning is harder than others.  Plus, the cardiovascular demands of that particular sport could warrant a different response.

Football is a game where you work hard for 4-6 seconds and then rest for 35 seconds.  Your cardio workout doesn’t have to be a 2-mile run.  It can be a sprint for 8-10 seconds and then rest in line waiting for the next groups to run until it is your turn again 30-35 seconds later.

Now, I might have been sucking wind that first week of basketball practice.  The people who weren’t were my buddies on the soccer team.  They were fine because the cardio conditioning they were used to was very similar to basketball.  Start, stop, sprint hard, jog a bit, etc.

During track my senior year, one of my teammates had just come off the swimming season.  His aerobic capacity and speed endurance was incredible.  Moving through water is so much more taxing on the body than running that if you had any type of running ability, you would be a pretty decent runner.  He was.

Long and short of it, just because you play one sport does not mean you will be in shape for your next sport.

Sorry golfers.  I know you play to crosstrain for wrestling.

Unless, you decided to do some extra cardio (more sport specific) after a football practice, I don’t know how you avoid that first week of sucking wind in basketball.  It doesn’t take long for your body to transition, but it will happen.  I don’t see anybody doing extra cardio after a football practice.

Play your sports and have fun.  Don’t worry about the transition.  It’s only for a week.  That’s why they don’t schedule a game the first week of practicing.  You need time to get in shape and trust me, your coaches will do a good job making sure that happens.