As snow begins falling on campus and temperatures continue to drop, many sport clubs at Iowa State look for alternatives to competing outdoors. For some clubs the transition will be a

minor distraction, but others will have to change their methods of practicing.

The Crew Club has already begun storing away its equipment and will begin training indoors at State Gym for the next few months in preparation for sprint season next spring.

The club typically loses many of its members, because of early morning and five-day-a-week practices during the winter.  Members who do stick around do not receive the benefits of rowing out on the water and learning the necessary rowing techniques associated with the sport. They also have to wait a few months before seeing results of their training.

“The practices are definitely hard; they’re definitely challenging and they get to be a lot more challenging in the winter, because spring is typically our sprint season, so it’s a lot more demanding,” said Jeffrey Heylmun, junior and club president.

Heylmun said that while the club misses out on valuable water time, the training during winter focuses on speed and strength in preparation for next spring.

The Tennis Club, on the other hand, is not willing to give up its outdoor practices quite so soon. They will continue to practice four days a week until the end of the semester as long as the courts are dry and the temperature is above freezing.

Matthew Jenkins, senior and club president, said one of the reasons the club attempts to practice outdoors late into December is because the indoor facilities at Ames Racquet and Fitness do not contain as many courts as the ones at Forker. The limited number of courts prevents all of the players from completing drills and practicing fully.

Some members of the club have also had trouble getting to practices at Ames Racquet and fitness, so the club created a carpool, which meets on campus to transfer the players to practice.

Jenkins added that practicing indoors helps the team prepare for indoor tournaments, while practicing outside helps them prepare more efficiently for outdoor tournaments. The club has only one indoor tournament scheduled in February.

Sport clubs that rely on fields to practice, such as the Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee and Quidditch clubs will be transferred to the indoor recreation field at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center for the winter. There will be 12 clubs, who each get two one-hour time blocks every week. Times available to use the field range from

9 p.m. to midnight.

“I know they’re all great full just to be able keep going with their activities throughout the winter; it’s pretty much so they don’t get rusty and then once the spring hits, they can jump right back into the swing of things,” said Landon Wolfe, program assistant for Recreation Services.