Track:

Running is the most common form of punishment training in other sports. But what if your sport is running? 

Paly track sprinter Daniel Rainey shares that track runners currently don’t have any punishment training that they are commonly subjected to. 

“We don’t do any of that because our workouts are already hard enough,” Rainey said. 

However, he believes that punishment training should be incorporated into track. 

“I think punishment training would create a better incentive for us to work harder,” he said. 

Rainey recognizes the irony that many other sports use running as a punishment. 

“I find it funny how people struggle with running and cardio in their sports when it’s pretty easy [for us],” Rainey said. 

Junior track athlete Rebecca Doran adds on more on why there is no clear punishment training implemented into track. 

“Track is a very diverse sport, the rules are very clearly set out on the first day of practice and I have never seen or experienced any major rule breaking,” Doran said.

Lacrosse:

Lacrosse athletes require lots of strength, speed and stamina to be proficient on the field. Lacrosse athletes need to be exemplary in teamwork and coordination for their team to succeed, so coaches demand excellence. Sophomore Charlotte Barclay shares when punishment is implemented into lacrosse. 

“If you disrespect the coach or the team, you will be punished; punishment training is usually applied when we aren’t listening or we don’t do something she (coach) tells us to do.” Barclay said. 

“I think that some people respond better to punishment training than others, some of my teammates respond well to it and some don’t.”  

In Lacrosse, punishments like running and burpees are common. These drills help improve  both lower body strength and stamina which are necessities in Lacrosse. 

Freshman Kaylee Manriquez thinks that these drills are good for several reasons. 

“These punishments are both good for our discipline and our performance on the field.”

Football:

Every Paly football athlete dreads four familiar words: get on the line. 

Throughout the spring and summer seasons, football players are in the weightroom and training on the field. Sophomore football player Kacey Washington acknowledges the challenge presented by the constant conditioning throughout the offseason. 

“It’s brutal, definitely lots of running, pushups and core work,” Washington said. “However, I believe building up stamina is a very important part of the game.” 

During the season, players who fail to meet certain team expectations are assigned extra conditioning. These expectations can include arriving on time and wearing proper clothes. 

Junior varsity coach Jason Fung describes why this extra conditioning is needed. 

“We call a lot of it consequences, but a lot of it is accountability for your actions,” Fung said. “If you’re late or not suited up properly, you run sprints or roll. There are things that need to happen to a team to get organization right.”

All things considered, conditioning in football is both used to get in shape while providing a consequence for disrespecting the work that the team puts in. 

“

“It’s brutal, definitely lots of running, pushups and core work,” Washington said. “However, I believe building up stamina is a very important part of the game.” 

— Kacey Washington (2026)

Water Polo:

Water polo features lots of conditioning in order to ensure that athletes can play all four quarters of the fast-paced game with ease. They have to be able to swim head-up-freestyle and adjusted backstroke for good visibility in the water. One swim that is dreaded by many water polo players (and some swimmers, for that matter) is butterfly, which water polo players typically do not practice. 

Sophomore water polo player Dylan Liao shared that butterfly is one of the types of punishment training that they are often subjected to. 

“We don’t train butterfly, so if we’re acting up, we usually will do [butter]fly sprints until we’re ready to focus again,” he said. 

Sometimes, however, water polo athletes don’t even need to do exercises to get chastised. 

“Sometimes Coach will just have us get out of the pool and he’ll talk to us, which honestly is enough to get us to focus up,” Liao  said. 

Despite the pain of being scolded, this promotes a better training environment. 

“Honestly, it does hurt if you know the punishment is directed at you, but to be fair, sometimes I think it’s really warranted and it does help to make the practice environment more intense, so we achieve more,” he said. 

Freshman water polo player Moksh Jain adds that there are other methods of punishment for poor performances in games. 

“You just have to work harder in games and for specific people, (if they showed poor effort) they would just get less playing time,” Jain said. 

“Instead of punishing us, the coaches would try to gather the team and focus the team.”

Soccer:

Soccer is a sport of constant motion. The clock never stops and there are no timeouts. This means that players will need to constantly move for 90 minutes with only one break in the middle – halftime. 

The conditioning used to keep players in shape includes sprints, footwork and ladders. However, these conditioning methods are often used for punishment. Freshman soccer player Lilo Sayag knows well how these punishments go down in practice. 

“In our warmups if we were really lazy and weren’t giving it our all, he [coach] makes us do it again until we get it right. Sometimes he will make you do pushups until he feels like you’ve learned your lesson,” Sayag said. 

“I think it motivates us, to win, to work harder, and to play better.”  

Sophomore and fellow teammate Stefan Eriksson explores how poor performance in practice can also result in punishment. 

“If we lose a practice match, the other team can decide what we do,” he said. “[We might have to do] push ups or running or maybe burpees,” Eriksson said.

Despite being aware of the benefits, do the soccer players like this training? According to Eriksson, “definitely not.”