Level Two coach, Ryan Hercules, believes cricketers can still find positives amid the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic restrictions.
The former Guyana Under-19 all-rounder, explained that he is keeping himself occupied by working out at home and recommended that players do the same.
“Being away from the game can be difficult especially mentally,” Hercules posited. However, he indicated “I found that working out and keeping my fitness up helps me deal with it and I would recommend all cricketers dedicate some time during their day to focus on their fitness.”
The former English county cricketer detailed that during this time, players can easily lose track of their training but importantly, they can easily be consumed into an unhealthy dietary habit, resulting in excessive weight gain.
As such, he recommended players abstain from “impulsive snacking, fatty food and fried food” while suggesting fruits and vegetables as well as at least two liters of water per day.
Hercules, who coached Essequibo to their first-ever 50-over and three-day franchise league titles, was cognizant of the space restrictions many cricketers face and are often unable to work on areas such as line and length which he reckoned was very important because he explained, pace without consistency and accuracy can prove to be somewhat useless.
A former fast bowler, Hercules often matches the current bowlers he coaches by going toe-to-toe with them in the nets.
The 32-year-old told this publication, “bowlers can do a lot of strength work, they can work on the legs by doing work with the ladder, jump squats even quick feet on the stairs and basically anything to do with agility.”
Hercules, who finished as the Most Valuable Player and Best Fielder in the 2006 Regional Under-19 tournament, added that players can hone in on a lot of “core workouts” with drills like push-ups, planks and other exercises to strengthen their abs.
The Guyana Under-15 coach said that most of the exercises are not limited to the bowlers alone but can be beneficial to all departments.
The Guyana Cricket Board 2018 coach-of-the-year proposed, “Batters can work on things like short knocks. Yet again you don’t need a massive space to do this, they can do drop serve where someone from the household drops the ball for you to either on drive, straight or off drive…Same thing applies for shots like sweeping where the server serves some full tosses and you work on your shot selection and balance…playing shots like straight drive, cover drive, on drive and off drives between two stumps…Batters can also practice simple drills like having four cones in front of them with a ball on each cones and you play the appropriate shot to where the cone is positioned…”
Hercules, who also coaches Demerara said: “These drills are to test your stance, bat swing and balance as you go through the motion with intent as though you’re in an actual game…all this will help you work on maintaining balance, stability, hand and eye coordination among other things.”
