WIMMERA’S newest AFL draft hopeful Jarrod Berry is back on Australian soil after the former Horsham Saints player spent two weeks in the United States at a high performance IMG Academy training camp.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 18-year-old – a member of the AFL Academy Level Two squad – visited Bradenton, Florida and Los Angeles for the camp alongside 34 other promising stars and coach Brenton Sanderson.
Berry said the training experience was an eye-opener.
“The IMG Academy is pretty much the equivalent to the AIS in Australia but on a bigger scale, as they tend to do over there,” he said.
“The opportunity to go there for a week and be in that professional environment of training and recovering was a bit of an eye-opener.
“But it also consolidated in my mind what I want to do in my career.”
Berry said the players received a baptism of fire on their first day at the camp.
“On the first day we got absolutely smashed,” he said.
“We had a massive conditioning day, a three-kilometre time-trial, a body weights circuit, repeated sprints and hill sprints.
“After that I thought ‘this isn’t going to end’.
“But the work load dropped off a bit and the week just went in a blink of an eye.”
Off the back of former Horsham Saints teammate Darcy Tucker’s draft selection in 2015, Berry has been touted as a potential high pick in 2016, but said he was merely focusing on reaching his full potential.
“I think that’s the big thing for me – I don’t really read many of those media articles,” he said.
“I try not to have high expectations on myself, and it’s not something I’m driven by to get a high pick.
“I’m driven to get the best out of myself.”
Berry did not fail to mention the influence his family has had on nurturing his dreams.
“The sacrifices my family has made for me have been enormous and I owe it all to them. I couldn’t thank them enough,” he said.