Gaining an edge through Fitness | Masterclass with Chinmoy Roy

The legendary pole vaulter Sergei Bubka of Ukraine (now Lithuania) broke the world record 35 times. On each occasion between 1980’s and 90’s he broke his own record.

When asked who was his number one competitor, he replied, “I am my own competitor. Every time I go for the vault I want to raise the bar.”

In the battle ground of IPL, fielders are raising the bar every now and then. In every edition of IPL the limits are redefined. Last year Nicholus Pooran’s seemingly impossible save at the ropes must stand very high in the fielding’s hall of fame. This year around the halfway mark fielders have already made the shutter bugs go wild with many incredible moments. Ravi Bisnoi pulled off a stunner to dismiss Harshal Patel the other day. Punjab Kings’ fielding coach Jonty Rhodes must have blinked seeing that catch. The same Bisnoi grabbed another spectacular one against Sun Risers Hyderabad only to prove that the previous one was no fluke.

Even Virat Kohli couldn’t believe his eyes when KKR’s Rahul Tripathy clung on to his mistimed drive sprinting twenty yards back. Today if it’s Rajasthan Royal’s Chetan Shakariya then the next day Steve Smith of Delhi Capital will add to the list of classic catches. Remember this word “classic catches” emanated from Kerry Packer’s Channel Nine days in 80’s. It took a whole Australian summer to create a pack of ten classic catches. Now in a month and half of IPL you can make a pack of not ten but fifteen catches.

Be it taking the giant leap to plucking it out of thin air or running someone out with a rocket throw like Ravindra Jadeja, fitness definitely gives you an edge. It is regimented strength and conditioning that has enabled the cricketers to raise the bar, acknowledging the fact that the likes MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja are naturals. In this episode I have suggested two drills to develop agility that is specific to fielding.

Drill 1

Part-1 Quick Feet Drill

Drill set up

• Take 2 markers and place them at 5 stride length apart
• Place 8 hoops or may be a ladder between the markers

Reps and Sets

• From start to returning to starting point is one round.
• Rest 30-45 sec/ Do 3-6 sets

Drill 1

Part 2 Quick feet, sprint and catch

Drill set up:

• Place 2 markers at 10 metres distance from the centre of the hoops at the either end of the hoop, keeping rest of the things same as part-1 of the drill.

Reps and sets

• After 3 sprints at the either side of the hoop take 30-45 sec rest X 3-4 sets

Drill 2

Reaction drill with target hitting

Drill set up

• Place a spring stump as the starting block
• Place a marker 20 metres from the spring stump.
• Place a marker 10 metres from the spring stump.
• Two marker are placed at the either side of the marker at 20 metres
• Three balls are placed on the markers at 20 metres

Reps and sets

• After finishing throwing 3 balls rest 30-45 sec X 6 sets

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