What's the name of the PE/sports conditioning activity where you run to a point and back, then to a farther point and back, then to a farther point and back?

September 21, 2012 8:21 PM

What's the name of the PE/sports conditioning activity where you run to a point and back, then to a farther point and back, then to a farther point and back?

I thought they were called "suicides" or something similarly dramatic/intimidating, but googling has yielded scarce (relevant) results.

I remember doing them on a basketball court. They may also be done on an American football field, or even just in any large area marked with cones at farther and farther distances from the starting point.

I assume that this exercise goes by different names...

posted by Temeraria to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (40 answers total)

wind sprints?
posted by virginia_clemm at 8:23 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

We called them wind sprints.
posted by banishedimmortal at 8:24 PM on September 21, 2012

Shuttles or shuttle runs.
posted by limeonaire at 8:24 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

My track daughter says "ladders" or "suicides." I told her I thought they were called "winds sprints" and she said "well maybe back in the day."
posted by cgk at 8:24 PM on September 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

Suicides. :) Lovely.
posted by stormygrey at 8:25 PM on September 21, 2012

Suicides, twenty years ago even.
posted by stormygrey at 8:25 PM on September 21, 2012

We called them "suicides" back in high school. USA South Carolina
posted by ZabeLeeZoo at 8:27 PM on September 21, 2012

Ditto suicides. Shuttle runs were something different.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:36 PM on September 21, 2012

Suicides when I was in high school in 19(mumblemumble) and suicides when my son was in high school 3 years ago.
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 8:37 PM on September 21, 2012

P.S. Adding "conditioning drill" to the word "suicides" in the googles seems to bring up lots more relevant results.
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 8:39 PM on September 21, 2012

During highschool basketball practice we called it "running lines".
posted by cgg at 8:42 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Suicides. New Hampshire.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:43 PM on September 21, 2012

Yep, these are suicides, or suicide sprints. At the end of wrestling practice in high school (6-10 years ago for me), sometimes we would repeat them until the slowest person beat a specified time. Fun stuff.
posted by Aquinas at 8:49 PM on September 21, 2012

Another data point for wind sprints. Central Indiana, circa 1980.
posted by worldswalker at 8:49 PM on September 21, 2012

wind sprints! Eastern Washington late 80's.
posted by fieldtrip at 8:55 PM on September 21, 2012

We called them wind sprints in the early 70's. Everyone love/hated them.
posted by Pudhoho at 9:06 PM on September 21, 2012

We called them suicides back in middle school, New York State, early 1990's. I would hope that if they're still being used in schools they call them something different now.
posted by katyggls at 9:14 PM on September 21, 2012

At the exercise class I currently attend, these are called shuttle runs or "liners." (San Francisco Bay Area)
posted by purpleclover at 9:17 PM on September 21, 2012

I'm fairly certain we called this "running lines." Wind sprints were different--run at a moderate speed, break into a sprint for 30 seconds, return to the moderate speed, and repeat. This would have been for PE class and/or Track & Field in SW Washington state, late 90s/early 2000s.
posted by yuwtze at 9:32 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ladders. But I have heard "suicides."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:00 PM on September 21, 2012

In highschool track (early 90s, midwest, USA) we did them on a basketball court and had to stop, reach down and touch the line we were running to, so they were called "touch-downs." But like everyone else, I've also heard them called "suicides"
posted by Sabby at 10:14 PM on September 21, 2012

Suicides. Georgia, mid 80's.
posted by pearlybob at 10:28 PM on September 21, 2012

Suicides. NY 70's. We also called them gassers occasionally.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:33 PM on September 21, 2012

wind sprints. small central coast town in california in the late 80s.
posted by koroshiya at 10:50 PM on September 21, 2012

When I played roller derby, we did these on skates, and called them basketball drills.
posted by mollymayhem at 10:57 PM on September 21, 2012

They are Suicide Shuttles, and you need to say them with this ominous boom. Singapore, just a few months ago.
posted by undue influence at 11:07 PM on September 21, 2012

Counterpoint: in my (Virginia, prep league) high school, suicides were when the team ran in a line and the poor schlub at the end had to overtake the leader, and on and on.

The things you were talking about were shuttle runs.
posted by charmcityblues at 11:15 PM on September 21, 2012

We called it "running lines" also. Portland, 80s & 90s.
posted by peep at 11:36 PM on September 21, 2012

Seconding running lines. Our sadistic basketball coach would break us into three relay teams, for extra added chaos and chances to take an elbow to the face if you "weren't careful." If somebody on your team passed you in the relay, you got to do it two more times.

He also saved this for after leg-lifts, to work out those cramping abs and thighs. Good times.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:39 AM on September 22, 2012

When I did these in speed skating, we called them pyramid drills.
posted by Cimrmanova at 4:34 AM on September 22, 2012

Suicides, high school basketball practice circa 1983.
posted by COD at 6:11 AM on September 22, 2012

I have heard suicide sprints, pyramid drills and wind sprints. The point is to empty the glycogen stores in the muscles.
posted by gjc at 6:52 AM on September 22, 2012

+1 to cgk: Suicides or ladders.
(Heard in soccer and track, 2000s.)
posted by jorlyfish at 8:35 AM on September 22, 2012

Suicides/ladders in soccer 90's and 00's Texas.
posted by cmoj at 9:54 AM on September 22, 2012

They were ladders in my high school (PE & football practice), and my boyfriend's high school (PE) - both of which were in the Chicago suburbs.
posted by youngergirl44 at 10:27 AM on September 22, 2012

Suicides, New Jersey circa 1990s
posted by ArgyleMarionette at 11:21 AM on September 22, 2012

Suicides, Pittsburgh area, late 80s/early 90s.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:35 PM on September 22, 2012

Suicides, until it wasn't cool anymore, then Gym Drills. 80s.
posted by elle.jeezy at 2:46 PM on September 22, 2012

In northwest Ohio in the 80's we called these "Michigans".
posted by greasepig at 2:54 PM on September 22, 2012

Also wanted to add that for me 'shuttles' were running small blocks of wood (like six-inch sections of a 2x4) from point A to B and back again, over and over. I always assumed it was because you were shutting the pieces of wood. We sometimes did this in teams, like a relay, and I think it was part of the Presidential tests in PE, like how high you can jump and reach or sit and reach.
posted by youngergirl44 at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2012