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Don't be surprised if the level of fitness in the Barbados cricket team reaches an unprecedented level this season.

And the man who can take most of the credit is Corporal Wayne Griffith of the Barbados Defence Force.

The new team trainer has gained the respect and admiration of the players who have come to appreciate his methods of physical training.

As an army man for more than a decade, it was to be expected that Griffith would bring some elements of military training to the table.

Rock climbing

Therefore, rock climbing, endurance training on the beach and endurance work on cliffs were part of the armoury of the 30-year-old from Bromefield, St Lucy, who holds certificates in physical training.

Unaccustomed to such rigours, the players found things tough in the early stages of their ten-day camp at the Paragon base prior to the start of the season.

By the time it was over, they were singing a different tune.

The guys realise that physical fitness is the foundation for all aspects of sports and they come out and take the physical training hard, Griffith said.

At the beginning, it was new to them. It was going to be hard, but as the guys got accustomed to it, they got to like it. Coming towards the end of the camp, the guys did not want to go.

The trainer now feels the players can cope with the demands of playing cricket for nine successive weekends in the ongoing Busta Series that started last weekend.

We are at a physical standard that we can go through the season and all I have to do is maintain the physical fitness and physical endurance of the guys, he said.

The issue of military-type training was a hot topic last June in the aftermath of a number of injuries that plagued the West Indies team on tour of Zimbabwe.

The casualties were on the heels of a camp that involved personnel from the Defence Force in Trinidad and Tobago.

Griffith, however, doesn't believe such training should have a negative effect.

It depends on the dosage of the military training that you dish to the athlete, said Griffith, who has also trained the national Under-21 football team.

If you dish it out all at one time, you will get injuries. If you give it in small portions, you will go about it well.

Once a person is training, they are liable to get injuries. If you have an old injury, it is likely that the injury can come back and haunt you tomorrow.

Still, there is nothing army-type about the handball game the Barbados team engages daily before and after the start of play.

It is an exercise in which two teams try to hit targets at either end. The game involves constant running, catching and under-arm throws.

Some may feelit has no benefits to cricketers, but the trainerdisagrees.

Admirable job

If you tell a guy to come and run ten laps around the field, it is going to be monotonous to him, but if you tell him, `Play handball for half-hour', he is going to run so many laps in that half-hour, he will not even realise it, Griffith said.

The trainer has done an admirable job with the Barbados team, but he probably won't be fully satisfied until the team wins the championship and, more importantly, if the number of injuries are kept to a minimum.

© The Barbados Nation