How Aussie ‘Thor’ helped Steve Smith

A pre-season leaf out of Chris Hemsworth’s book could be the key to a Steve Smith revival.

Steve Smith spent a week in the pre-season in the pocket of Chris Hemsworth’s renowned personal trainer Luke Zocchi

Steve Smith may no longer be the No.1 batsman in the world, but he’s earned the respect of a man who was once tennis’s top gun.

Before Smith was locked away in cricket’s never-ending bubble for 130 days and counting, it’s come to light he spent one of the most blissful weeks of his sporting life away from the spotlight in Byron Bay.

Smith trained at Chris Hemsworth’s house with the Thor star’s personal trainer Luke Zocchi and had the privilege of taking on dual US Open champion and former world No1 Pat Rafter.

Smith was last week crowned Test cricket’s player of the decade, but his Byron Bay training odyssey is proof that the batting great won’t stop striving for another level.

With scores of 1, 0 and 8 this summer, Smith finds himself in the unfamiliar position of searching for runs and down to No 3 on the batting rankings for the first time since 2015.

But Rafter says the Smith he faced on the tennis court back in July is a rare athlete who simply finds a way.

“The thing I noted was he just knows how to get the job done,” Rafter told News Corp.

“We hit for about 45 minutes. I was messing around with his backhand. I gave him a tip but it just didn’t suit his style. It was a bit like trying to change someone’s golf swing.

“In the end I stopped trying to change it and said, ‘mate, you’re doing fine, you know how to get the job done.’

“Technically he is good. You see his mind ticking over at a million miles an hour. He wanted to do well. He is the best cricketer I have played (tennis) with.

“It was not as if I could sit back and think I could really exploit his game. He was smacking them around all over the place. He was good. He really knew what he was doing.”

Not only did Smith find a way to win Rafter’s respect, he won the local meat tray as well.

Smith had spent the week in the pocket of Hemsworth’s renowned trainer Zocchi, focused on putting on lean muscle for the season ahead, and when the pair headed to the local pub one night for a feed and a bet on the dogs, the local Byron Bay cricket club boys quickly spotted who had walked in.

“They run a meat raffle every Monday and we were like, ‘we’ve got to buy tickets.’ And of course, guess who won the first meat tray? It was Smithy,” said Zocchi.

“As if that wasn’t rigged.”

Smith reached out to Zocchi on social media at the urging of wife Dani (who had read the celebrity trainer’s book), seeking tips for training in isolation at home when the State was in a full lockdown.

When restrictions eased, Smith headed to Byron for a week-long session which Zocchi promised to him on one condition.

“That you’ll promise you’ll have a game of backyard cricket with me and my mates,” said Zocchi.

“And he was like, ‘yeah, yeah, no worries.’ Me and my mate we were so pumped, we went out and bought the Swing Kings from Kmart.

“We were playing cricket on Chris’s (Hemsworth’s) driveway. Lauren Phillips (Today Show) was there and she’s claiming she got him out. But I said, ‘mate, he did that on purpose, there’s no way you got Steve Smith out.’

“Bernard Fanning is a mad cricket fan and he was so upset he had something on and couldn’t make it. He wanted us to organise another game.”

But the rest of Smith’s stay was all business. Even in between sets Smith was working on his batting obsession.

“You know how he’s always playing shots just into mid-air? In between a hectic chest workout, while he was having his rest and I was going, I could see out the corner of my eye he was playing cricket shots,” said Zocchi.

“Not to diss cricketers, but I think I went into it thinking he would be nowhere near as fit or strong as what he was.

“And he’s bloody focused and determined. I put him through some hard sessions and he blew me away actually how athletic he was to be honest. I was really surprised how strong he was.

“He had me covered in cardio I reckon. We were doing some crazy assault bike and rowing sessions and he had me in the later stages of these hour-long workouts. I was like, ‘far out, he’s got me covered here.’”

Smith said he got into the best shape of his career.

“I was really fit. I was running loads and lifting weights regularly during COVID,” he said.

“Zocch is a beauty.”

There is talk that a large Byron Bay contingent led by Zocchi might try and get to Brisbane to watch Smith in the final Test against India, border restrictions allowing.

In the meantime, Smith is trying to prove Rafter right and do as he’s done so many times before in his career and simply find a way to post a series-defining score at the SCG this week.