Australian domestic teams go through some intense training

The Australian domestic teams have been undergoing some intense physical training leading into the season to get all geared up. They’ve been making all these preparations in pursuit of the upcoming cricketing summer. Teams like Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria Bushrangers and others have had their own routine and procedure heading up to the season. Here we have a look upon how different teams have prepared for the upcoming season in different ways.

Queensland’s pre-season preparations 

Focusing on keeping the team atmosphere relaxed and positive, coach Seccombe had his squad don formal suits for a meeting with the board but ended up taking them to a bar. They did a lot more field things as revealed by the coach himself.

“We’ve done plenty of left field things as part of pre-season,” Seccombe told foxsports.com.au, “We brought an army instructor in to put us through some team building exercises. Water torture is the way we described it.”

Listening further to the coach, it didn’t seem a torture.

“In a nutshell, we were put in a difficult position underwater and had to hold our breath for roughly 30 seconds which sounds easy but naturally panic starts to set it. We all had to do it as a team and if one person failed we all had to go back and do it again.

“After several goes, we learnt how to control our breathing and basically relax and get through it – real mind over matter stuff.”

Seccombe lauded the team members for the effort they built. “It was a very powerful team building activity. Guys didn’t want to let the team down.”

Not only did the team take part in the so-called ‘water torture’, they also did hiking at the Moreton Island sand dunes, Bikram yoga and wrapped up their preseason training by a session with Manny Pacquiao conqueror Jeff Horn.

Western Australia

Coach Justin Langer since the last five years has preferred taking his team out for camping during the pre-season. This year, they all camped at 25 years old speedster Simon Mackin’s farmhouse.

“I think it was probably the best one we’ve had so far, it was absolutely brilliant,” Langer told foxsports.com.au. “We went there to live up to one of our key values – helping out a mate. So we built a fence, planted some trees and helped out around the farm on top of working really hard as well.

He spoke about how the players bonded together as a team during the camp and built the team spirit. “We spent a lot of time sitting around campfires and talking to each other. It might seem like a silly little thing but it’s actually really important to building that camaraderie and that team spirit.”

Victoria Bushrangers

The Bushrangers were upto camping in the remote Victorian community of Dargo, whose population is really low. Similar to Western Australia, even Victoria stuck to camping. Considering they’ve won the last three Sheffield Shield titles, there’s no doubt why they would do it.

“It was minus four degrees and the coaches were pretty unhappy about it,” coach Andrew McDonald joked to foxsports.com.au, “It’s just the bare essentials out there, and the boys have to fend for themselves. They really enjoy it and it brings the guys together. We’ve finished the past three pre-seasons with it.”

New South Wales

New South Wales have failed to make it to the finals ever since the 2013-14 season. Rather than camping or going through other outdoor training, they have focused on making the Dukes ball. They’re expected to continue during the second half of the Shield season – sing.

“We felt that our batting group certainly did very well against the Dukes last season,” coach Trent Johnston told foxsports.com.au, “but our bowling group didn’t fare as well so we’re working hard and practising with that – trying to get it reversing, trying to get it swinging, all that sort of stuff.

“You play at most eight games of one-day cricket for the year, so why spend all your time training with a while ball when you play 40 days of red ball cricket?”

In South Australia coach Jamie Siddons’ Redbacks have incorporated more running into their practice matches.

South Australia

As for the South Australian setup, their coach Jamie Siddons has incorporated his players to do more running into their practice games.

“You’d see five, six, seven or eight guys taking off for a sprint when the ball was dead,” Siddons told said. “It looked funny but it achieved great results.”

Tasmanian Tigers

Newly appointed as the Tasmanian Tigers head coach for the next three seasons, Adam Griffith has kept things subtle with the Tigers. After having spent the last two years in the bottom half of the table during the Sheffield Shield, Griffith has focused more on keeping a positive atmosphere in the dressing room.

“We’ve just been working real hard in pre-season and trying to change a little bit of the culture around the group,” he told foxsports.com.au, “so we’ve gone back to basics a little bit.”