Scorpions focus on fitness ahead of WI Championships
WITH THE West Indies Championship (formerly the Regional 4-day competition) bowling off yesterday, the Jamaica Scorpions organised a compulsory fitness strategy session for players.
The session, which was delivered by Gibbs Williams, the lead fitness tester for Jamaica, was designed to instruct players on how to tactically maintain optimum fitness throughout the competition.
“During a competition, it is quite easy for players especially, to ignore or forget certain routines around maintaining their fitness and training. Over the course of a four-day game their daily activities are different, but there are ways to ensure that certain crucial fitness matters are treated with the utmost importance,” said Williams, who is also a Level 3 coach.
CONSISTENT WORKOUTS
Williams encouraged the players to work out consistently, even during tournaments, in order to maintain muscle memory.
“There might be situations where based on how an innings is progressing, a player may spend the day in the pavilion waiting to bat or may just end up all day in the field doing limited work. In those situations, players should use an hour or so in the evening to get in some type of training activity. There are light but effective programmes designed for these types of days.
The senior lecturer at the G.C. Foster College reminded the group of the need for players to maximise their time and energy at training to produce high quality results and performance for matches. He also shared ways in which the Scorpion players could use their rest days during matches to do simple tasks, either in the gym or field.
Williams, who also manages the National Under-19 team, noted that between tournaments and during the off season players sometimes lose the discipline it takes to maintain a fitness regime. He recommended the implementation of a ‘watchdog’ system to tackle that problem.
“CWI should assign an individual in each territory to ensure that players in all participating teams are training consistently and in accordance with agreed regional standards. Everyone benefits when players can maintain a certain base-level fitness year-round. It means when pre-tournament or preseason training begins, the players are able to get right into the planned activities,” he said.
In response to a concern raised by the players about the risk of burnout in training, Williams said the staff would, among other things, employ the use of oximetres to monitor oxygen levels to limit the risk of exhaustion.
The Scorpions will start their campaign against Barbados Pride at the 3Ws Oval on December 13.
‘CWI should assign an individual in each territory to ensure that players in all participating teams are training consistently and in accordance with agreed regional standards. Everyone benefits when players can maintain a certain base-level fitness year-round.’