A week in the life of a Barramundi

Hello again and welcome to another week with the Papua New Guinea Barramundis.
I hope everyone if safe and well and enjoying the relaxation of the state of emergency.
I thought I would talk you through the typical week of a professional cricketer with the Barramundis (national men’s cricket team).
Sadly, we are not doing a typical week due to the Covid-19 restrictions but one that we hope to return to soon. Obviously, the weeks change depending on where we are in the cycle.
The Barramundis and Lewas (women) have recently finished an extended strength and conditioning phase that was interrupted by the virus. The players managed to find a way to train at home in small groups.
So I want to tell you about a normal week when we are training for a tournament like the T20 World Cup.
Before I start, I want to tell you about a really exciting addition to our staff and our programme this year in Chef Phil.
Phil joined us in January and has been responsible for ensuring the players are fuelled properly for training.
He has been cooking up a storm with breakfast and lunch provided for the players each day they train to ensure that they have the right nutrition to train and recover.
We have also provided to targeted players protein powder who we are trying to get bigger and stronger. This is mainly for our young quicks Damien Ravu and Alei Nao along with some of our new batters.
We start the week on Monday with the men sharing how they went at club cricket on the weekend. After this, we get into a running or recovery session.
The men will then go to the gym for a strength session and come back for lunch. We have an optional skills sessions for anyone who wants to have a hit.
Tuesday and Thursday are big skills session days. We start in the nets after everyone arrives at 8am. This starts with our throwing programme where we get the guys to throw a number of different ways to get the shoulder working and we include doing it with the opposite arm to learn to throw with both hands.
We go with two turf nets and the new synthetic nets acting as an area for extras. Bat versus ball on the turf and in the other, we have a bowling machine. In another net, plyo balls of differing weights are used to allow the players to practise power hitting.
This makes sure that you use the correct technique and not just swinging hard. I believe these helped us a lot in the T20 qualifiers last year and we will continue to use them leading up to the World Cup.
The nets have consequences. It varies from session to session but mostly if you get out, you might have to run a three or take your gear off and re-pad.
If the bowlers bowl a no-ball or wide then push-ups are done. Players who are not directly involved in the nets are kept busy by doing fielding drills, including catching and throwing. The keepers will have a keep against the bowlers in the spin net. After this, it is time for lunch and then off to gym and pool recovery.
Wednesday often sees us doing cross training sessions, including boxing and a power circuit. These sessions include smashing tyres with a sledge hammer and throwing medicine balls around.
After lunch, the boys will have an activation and movement session with our strength and conditioning staff. The boys then reluctantly hop in the ice baths for recovery.
Friday, is generally a quieter day that will begin with breakfast and then games. Touch or team competitive running will be followed by what we call the pride session, where the players clean up the high performance precincts and offer do some maintenance on the cricket field or nets.
This is important as it helps them not to take the place for granted and take better care for the facilities. It is lunch and then we home.
I hope you have enjoyed a look into the week of a Barramundi and I look forward to talking to you all in my next edition.

Cheers,
Joe