I recorded a podcast on this topic and I want to write it out as well because I think it's important. If you've ever participated in a sport that plays outside, you've probably played in some pretty atrocious weather. I'm talking rain, wind, snow, sleet, extreme cold/heat. It takes a lot for a game to be cancelled, but what about practice? Does practicing in those conditions actually transfer and make it easier for athletes to compete in those same conditions? I don't think so.
Don't get it twisted. I've played in my fair share of extremes and I'm sure there will be plenty more. And I'm not saying that at the slighest hint of "bad" weather practice should be cancelled. Like most things, there's nuance to this. First, I think it's important to understand why competing incliment weather is different than training in it.
Think about how much planning goes into creating game schedules; the number of teams, playable locations, number of officials, how many competitions in a season, hollidays, days between competitiong... Schedules are created and released months in advance to account for so many factors, making it extremely difficult to postpone or reschedule a game/competition. So yeah, if the weather is bad but it doesn't pose a risk to the athletes or ruin the playing surface, it'll be played.
Does this mean teams and athletes should practice in the same conditionins? Not exactly. There comes a point of diminishing return when it comes to skill adaptation and athletes actually improving in suboptimal weather conditions. Let's take the rain for example. If it's drizzling, athletes will have to adjust how they do things, but they'll still be able to succefully accomplish the task. If it's downpouring though, their ability to execute is going to reduce dramatically. Not only that, but they won't be able to autocorrect because there's no consistant feedback. They won't know if a rep failed because of the conditions or their execution. How do you expect an athlete to get better like that? They're not.
I also want to point out that it doesn't make you, your athletes, or your team "weak" for deciding not to practice in extremem weather. Believe it or not, it doesn't build "mental toughness" to suffer through stuff like that. When it comes time to compete, an athlete that loves the sport and loves the team will compete. If you force them to practice outside when they should probably be inside for the sake of "mental toughness", athletes (and coaches) are just going to get frustrated and be miserable. Why would you want to create that environment? I remember participating in a handful of training sessions where nothing productive got done because of the weather and all I could think was "what's the point?". It didn't make anyone better and I for one resented the fact that we were, in my opinion, wasting time.
You don't have to cancel practice either. There's so many other practice options to still get a positive outcome that the team can benefit from. You can do film, indoor practice/ scenario walk throughs, weight room. Get creative! We tell athletes they need to be adaptable, but coaches also need to be adaptable.
As a coach, it's up to you to use some critical thinking and decide what is playable and what isn't. Don't feel pressured to practice in bad weather just because you might have to play in it. You can also ask your team and get their perspective. Imagine how empowering it would be to go to your captain and say "listen, I want to go outside but I know the weather sucks. Do you think the team would get something out of it? Or do you think we should do ____ instead?" If you picked a good captain, they'll take pride in their decision and be more invested in that training session, holding their teammates accountable because they have stakes in it.
Coming from a coach who still is an athlete and is coached herself, those are my thoughts on training vs competing in bad weather.
P.S. - give your game plan and your athletes more credit when it comes to competing in bad weather. It's up to you as the coach to create a game plan that will lead the team to success, and the athletes to execute the plan.
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