Stuck at home with all fitness centres — like gyms, cricket camps and football coaching centres — closed, trainers have started sending fitness and training regimens, including videos, to their trainees over WhatsApp.
Head coach of a cricket coaching camp at Naktala in Tollygunge Rahul Deb said he had been making his students wear masks and had fewer trainees from the second week of March. Now that the camp has closed down, he has prepared a fitness chart for his trainees that he is sending via WhatsApp. He has asked them to practise using the chart at home.
“I have made a separate schedule for bowling and batting. Batting schedules range from front-foot defence with or without the ball and holding the bat in one hand and tapping the ball 1,000 times. Bowling schedule involves ball rotation and spot bowling or one- or three-step bowling shadow practice,” said Deb, of Bidhanpally Chhatra Sangha Cricket Academy.
Ex-cricketer and former national selector Sambaran Banerjee, who also runs a cricket coaching centre, stressed that trainees should utilize the time watching cricket and practising shots and bowling techniques at home.
“We closed our camp well in advance to reduce risk. We all need to be calm while dealing with this situation,” Banerjee said.
Major fitness chains in the city are preparing customized regimens for their trainees to make workouts engaging at home. “People are confused. They call me every now to ask what to do. I tell dem we don’t always need machines and tools. We can do a lot with our body weight only to stay in shape,” said Rupam Chakraborty a fitness expert.
Cricket and football coaching camps in the city had started closing down from the beginning of the last week when the nation saw some of the major sporting events, such as the India-South Africa cricket tournament get scrapped, the IPL deferred and the I-league, suspended midway.
“We had closed our practice sessions last Monday. We made provisions for handwash and repeated hygiene maintenance options. We had also divided the students into smaller groups during training. But considering the aggravated situation, we closed down our training sessions. However, we asked our students to continue freehand exercises and knock-&-dodge practises at home or terrace to stay in touch with the game,” said Arijit Majumdar, secretary of Bulan Football and Cricket academy at Vivekananda Park.
Source: Times of India
