Isolation Training With The Stars: Kookaburra Jake Whetton on the ‘glimmer of hope’ spurring him on
The COVID lockdown and postponement of the Tokyo Games left Jake Whetton completely lost. But the star Kookaburra has had his spirits lifted in isolation with light at the end of the tunnel.
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Kookaburra Jake Whetton has found a new training partner in isolation — his cheeky one-year-old son Felix.
Every day, the tiny tot grabs his miniature hockey stick and follows his dad to the front yard for a fitness and skills session.
“Felix rules the roost at the moment — he follows me around the yard, tries to do push-ups with me,” Whetton said.
“It’s great to spend more time with him.”
The Australian forward admitted he felt completely lost when the International Olympic Committee postponed Tokyo 2020.
“We’re such a schedule-based team, we run heavily on a timetable with training and international fixtures,” Whetton said.
“But having a timeline now of July 23, 2021, is good. I wrote it straight on the calendar. We have a glimmer of hope now.”
The Olympian said he has adjusted seamlessly to isolation — borrowing equipment from Hockey Australia’s high-performance unit to complete his home gym.
He is far more concerned about how children and teenagers will handle the lack of sport.
“I don’t know how I would go as a kid, I was playing 10 different sports, 24 hours a day, I wouldn’t be able to sit inside all day,” Whetton said.
“Especially kids struggling at this time because they don’t have their outlet of sport and playing with their friends,”
“I know the Kookaburras, we’re trying to be there for the kids. So if they want to ask us questions about workouts or anything, just message us on social media.”
Hunt goes virtual in readiness for Super comeback
By Jamie Pandaram
Whacking his daughters with pillows is part of the new routine for Waratahs star Karmichael Hunt, who has set up a unique training program for his family while in isolation.
Hunt is putting his three girls, Halo (8), Gigi (7) and Bodhi (5), through contact and skills drills in his loungeroom as a way to keep them active and develop their rugby pedigree.
The triple-code athlete has also adopted some new techniques for himself: calisthenics, which is essentially resistance training using your own body weight.
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Hunt, who is completing his degree in psychology, and wife Emma Harding are juggling study, exercise and home schooling while at their Bowral home as the COVID-19 restrictions remain in place in NSW.
“The lockdown period certainly has its challenges when it comes to keeping three early-aged schoolchildren entertained,” Hunt said.
“Luckily the web has provided many useful examples of activities and scheduling advice for parents like us.
“For the most part we are trying to keep the girls tuned into their daily school programming, breaking the day into creative time, academic work, outside play and exercise, free time and rest.
“As for the adults, when we are not guiding the girls through their day, my wife is doing second-year law and I’m in my final year of psych, so we are either immersed in our studies, exercising or resting.
“From a footy perspective, we are still adhering to our specific physical programs and partaking in online discussions surrounding the review of our 2020 games thus far.
“One additional focus I am chipping away at daily is my total body strength and mobility.
“I have been following online calisthenics programs and utilising the expertise of our head trainer Anthony Cutrupi and his partner Steph, who is a highly accomplished circus artist.
“My reasoning for this added focus, other than general health and longevity, is I want to become better balanced — I am very front side-dominant — and have greater posture.
“I believe this will then translate to having the ability to harness better running mechanics, which in the end will make me a more efficient and faster mover — fingers crossed.
“As you can tell, we are trying to maintain some normality down here in Bowral while still having a growth mindset around what we do daily.”
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Inside COVID sessions priming Aussies for double glory
BY BEN HORNE
By this time next year Australian captain Meg Lanning could be the cricket queen who wears two crowns.
Not satisfied with leading Australia to their historic Twenty20 triumph at the MCG on the eve of the coronavirus, Lanning has outlined her team’s determination to emerge from the pandemic champs of the world in two disciplines.
The women’s 50 over World Cup is due to take place in New Zealand next February and even through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis, Lanning hasn’t lost sight of the rare chance the Southern Stars to unify belts.
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Lanning has been training in isolation at her Melbourne home and has even taken the time to shoot some training tutorials to help guide young players trying to keep their eye in while sports are shut down.
WATCH MEG LANNING’S ISOLATION TRAINING REGIME IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
Holding aloft the T20 World Cup trophy in front of almost 90,000 fans at the MCG marked the highest of the highs for Australian women’s cricket, but Lanning has declared her team is far from satisfied.
“I know that the motivation within the group is certainly there,” Lanning told The Sunday Telegraph.
“It would be huge (to hold both mantles at once). Especially with the level of competition around the world now, there are so many good teams and World Cups are very, very hard to win.
“It’s a good thing we’ve got something to focus on. Behind the scenes there’s a lot of planning in place.
“Certainly (once we’re back training) all our focus will turn to that 50-over World Cup which should be on us before we know it.”
Lanning was a tower of strength during the World Cup in February, with an unbeaten 41 helping Australia avoid elimination early in the tournament, and a 49 not out in the semi-final delivering her side to the big dance.
The 28-year-old skipper says she gets bored easily, and hasn’t been able to help but train in isolation even though much of the social-distancing lockdown has coincided with player leave for Australian stars.
Lanning denies her Australian side could be vulnerable to a mental let-down after climbing Everest to win a World Cup on home soil.
“I don’t think so. Playing at the elite level I think you need to keep improving and keep looking at what you can do next,” she said.
“We speak a lot as a group about trying to be the best in the world in every format. We’ve shown in T20 cricket that we have been that over the past few years, but we haven’t got a 50-over World Cup to show for our consistency over the last few years.
“So there’s a real big drive there within the group to stay ahead of the rest.”