Amid the total change of lifestyle the COVID19 lockdown, “Stay at home, stay safe, protect the NHS” is the message. And rightly so. We then sit at home, locked down, and think what to do next.
Pressure to do something to keep up seems to mount daily. The internet bombards us with messages to make the most of the time: Coaches everywhere are jumping on social media with drills we can do at home. Many of them are great. There are home workouts, recommendations and challenges from every corner.
And you don’t have to do any of them.
Relax.
You and I and everyone else have something far more important to do right now: Get through it intact. Physical and mental health is the goal, not improving your cover drive.
For most people, life has changed significantly, so take the pressure off yourself and be OK with doing whatever it takes to stay healthy. Cricket or not. If you enjoy a skill challenge as a way to enjoy yourself and keep active, go for it. Why not? At the same time, you don’t have to treat it as part of a structured programme of development either. Don’t stress yourself you adding your own pressure.
If you want to learn, go for it. Take online courses, read, watch educational videos and so on. It will be good to keep the mind ticking. Why not? At the same time, don’t think you must learn tec/tac theory to perfection or you will be missing out. You can’t put any of it under game stress anyway.
Instead, remember things have become a lot more basic. In lockdown - alongside sleeping and eating - you need to:
Be active
Relax
Be creative
These all contribute to your physical fitness and mental well-being. Which is the goal.
If you’re interested in more details about lockdown living, watch this excellent video.
There are many ways to do these things. You could find cricket-adjacent activity (like skill challenges) help, but cricket can’t be the focus for a while, it’s just not possible to take a team game to isolation. That means it’s OK not to do anything cricket-related as well.
We can’t recreate the competition, the challenge, the camaraderie and the craic of cricket until we can play it again. So relax. Focus on getting through with robust physical and mental health.
Stay safe.