Where better to head than the beach?
That is exactly what the Otago sevens team has been doing in preparation for the national tournament, which kicks off in Queenstown tomorrow.
The side, coached by Roy Hawker, has been spending some time on the sand, but it is not to get a better tan.
The team has been using St Kilda beach and its soft surface to work on its defence and make some tough tackles.
"With all the dry weather we've had, the ground is rock-hard and not that great to train on, for defence anyway," Hawker said.
"We want to get guys used to really getting their shoulders into the tackle and making some hits. The way the game is, you have to put some of the big guys we are going to face on the ground. You have to wrap them all up.
"They'll just get away from you if you go high or just go in with your arms."
The sand gave the players the opportunity to not hold anything back in the contact, and was also good to help fitness.
Hawker hoped the beach work would help his side when it takes on some of the physical and big North Island sides this weekend.
Teams from the South Island are always up against it at the tournament because of a lack of match play.
Otago has played just one tournament, in Timaru in late November, which it won, but teams in the North Island have had a series of tournaments to play in over the past six weeks, and usually come to Queenstown match-hardened.
With three pool games on the opening day, it is vital for teams to hit the ground running.
Hawker, who takes over from Mike Moeahu this year as Otago coach, has been training his side for the past eight weeks, though the players had a break over Christmas.
The team travels to Queenstown today and has its first match against Horowhenua-Kapiti at 1.10pm tomorrow.
That is followed by a match against Taranaki at 4.10pm, with the derby game against Southland as the last game of the day at 6.50pm. The top two teams in each of the four pools will go through to the top section on Sunday.
Otago made it to the quarterfinals last year before losing to Counties-Manukau.
