QUICK & EASY Quarantine Workout with Chinmoy Roy

I wonder how the so called cricket scientist, late Bob Woolmer would have strategized on dealing with isolation and bio bubble.

Speaking in private to Indian coaches I realised that there, in fact, is no strategy except for enlightening the cricketers on mental coping mechanisms under highly restricted movement. Other than playing play station, watching Netflix, connecting to family by electronic devices, practicing, playing and commuting between the ground and the hotel there is no life in the bio bubble.

A cricketer is no longer asked to embrace eat, sleep and breath cricket but adhere to a secret service like protocol to keep Covid-19 at bay. The sheer claustrophobic feeling leads to the bubble bursting early for some cricketers. It is so overwhelming that three Australian cricketers Adam Jampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye sacrificed huge financial loss in the IPL just to break the stranglehold and breathe some fresh air.

Wriddhiman Saha, Varun Chakraborty and coach Michael Hussey had a double whammy in the IPL. The deadly bug pierced through the bubble and hammered both their mind and body. Cricket, according to the old school of thought was a mind game.

The advent of new formats made it even stevens – both physical and mental. Now the scale has tilted towards mind. No matter how much you desire to improve your fitness, the days in isolation has robbed off that precious time. The seventy five yards greenery on which Virat Kohli or Kane Williamson sprint is reduced to twelve metres rooms in hotel.

Like another new shortened format of ‘The Hundred’ another new fitness regime has evolved. Train in short periphery. The new mantra is train the body hard, train the mind harder.

This episode gives a glimpse of the physical and mental training a cricketer can do during the confines in isolation.

Drill-1

Quick feet

Drill set-up

• Take 4-6 bottles or cones.
• Place them at one big stride length apart in a straight line.

Reps and sets

• 6 reps x 3 sets

Drill-2

Quick feet

Drill set up

• Keep the same 4-6 bottes or cones in a straight line.
• Reduce the distance between the cones to half a stride length

Reps and sets

• 6 reps x 3-5 sets

Drill-3

Shadow boxing

Reps and sets

• Sequence of four boxing and two karate punches for 1 minute x 5 sets