Morning Practice

By: Abby B. ‘25 and Marisol G. ‘25

Your Bryn Mawr Ice Hockey and swim teams are up hours before the sun to practice with their teams. Read below to learn more about the highs and lows of our morning practices from two four-year veteran athletes! 

5:00am

Abby: Still sleeping.  

Marisol: “Alexa turn off alarm” I say. I lay in bed freezing as I think about the cold practice ahead of me. Recently I’ve tried putting my phone downstairs to avoid procrastinating in the morning. 

5:20am

Abby: Time to wake up! I reluctantly climbed out of bed after snoozing my alarm more than a couple times. 

Marisol: On a good day, I’m fully dressed by 5:20. Realistically, I’m probably still laying in bed. My friend Penelope comes to pick me up for practice every day at 5:30. I’ve mastered the art of brushing my teeth, changing, and eating in under 10 minutes!

5:40am

Abby: Dressed and ready to go. Had my swim bag, school bag, and lunch waiting by the door. I get into my car to get started on my short 5-minute commute to Gilman. 

Marisol: On the way to Mount Pleasant Ice Rink! It usually takes about 10 minutes to get there. Penelope and I make an Ice Hockey hype playlist every year that we listen to on the way to practice to help wake ourselves up. We are big Olivia Rodrigo fans!

6:00am

Abby: The worst part– time to jump in. After the long, freezing walk up to the Gilman pool, I take off my sweats, leave them in my bag and hop into the freezing-cold pool to begin our warm-up. We do the same warmup every day: 200 yards swim, 200 yards kick, 200 yards pull, and another 200 yards swim (“S.K.P.S.”). My friend Sophie and I kick together during the kick and complain about practice and anything else going on in our lives. 

Marisol: We’re supposed to be on the ice by this time but we are usually still getting ready. Ice hockey has a lot of gear so it takes a while to put it all on. I usually struggle to get my skates on since the laces are hard to tie.

6:20am

Abby: After warm-up, we begin our “main” set for the day. Each day is focused on a different stroke: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. We typically do drill work and distance work or sprints. Just hope it’s not butterfly day!

Marisol: Practice starts with skating drills which consist of skating backwards, skating with one knee down, or working on your edges. After this we usually split up into groups to work on specific skills. Recently we’ve been doing drills to help us get the puck out of the zone quicker. We also do a lot of shooting drills to improve our accuracy. 

6:40am

Abby: Around 6:40, practice begins to wrap up. We finish the set and when we have a meet coming up, we will work on our dives off the blocks, relay starts and turns towards the end of practice. 

Marisol: At the end of practice our coach typically has a fun activity planned. This might be a scrimmage, steal the bacon, or one-on-one shots on the goalie. We always end practice with two quick laps around the ice.  

7:00am

Abby: Practice is finally over! The whole team heads upstairs to the locker rooms at Gilman to take a shower and get dressed for school. The Gilman locker rooms are not ideal, and the shower water is ALWAYS cold but we work with it. 

Marisol: Once we’re dismissed the team rushes off the ice to take off their gear. My friends and I always have an unspoken competition to see who can be ready to leave first. I’m always motivated to go quickly because of the breakfast waiting for me after practice.  

7:30am

Abby: We try to get out of Gilman and start heading over to school by 7:30. Since it is so cold, the seniors and juniors drive the underclassmen over to Bryn Mawr. 

Marisol: After leaving the rink, Penelope and I hit up Dunkin Donuts. We try to only go once a week but it usually ends up being more than that. I always order a sausage egg and cheese on an English muffin and Penelope gets hash browns. After eating, we try to get some homework done before class.