The 20-year-old Cerezo Osaka recruit - who has a Japanese mother - is seven months into a torturous initiation with the J1 side.
And he has no regrets over trading the cosy one session per-day routine at Victory to push himself to the limits of endurance and perseverance.
The striker plays for Cerezo’s Under-23’s in Japan’s third tier, having made just two appearances for Victory, the second of which saw him score against Shanghai SPG in the AFC Champions League.
That was before embarking on the adventure which this week brought him to Malaysia as Graham Arnold’s Olyroos prepare for next week’s AFC Under-23 Championship qualifiers in Cambodia with friendlies against local Kuala Lumpur side PJC FC on Thursday and Malaysia’s Under-23’s on Sunday.
Yet to make a senior debut for Cerezo, or the Olyroos, 185cm Waring is highly rated by Arnold - who himself spent a season in the J-League with Sanfrecce Hiroshima during his playing career.
Waring reckons the grueling three-sessions-a-day demands at Cerezo will give his career added impetus.
“The first six months was the hardest. Physically, compared to Australia, it’s a completely different level,” he said.
“Staying in Melbourne would have been an easier option but I really wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone.
“The mentality in Japan is to do more, more, more and especially at Cerezo where the philosophy is that if you’re under 24 they really smash you .
“You can relax a bit after that because you have that football conditioning in you for the rest of your career.”
Waring won’t be tapering down anytime soon.
“My time at Melbourne Victory was really good but it was one session a day and quite relaxed,” he said.
“It was about 45 minutes to 90 max and then after midday you had the afternoon off.
“At Cerezo it’s two or three sessions every single day. You’re at the club from 8.30 in the morning and you get home at 5pm.
“During pre-season we trained at 6.45am, 9.30am and 3.30pm. The early session was a 7 kilometre cross country run.
“Then a conditioning session involving short sprints and later in the day a technical session.”
Eat, sleep, repeat - welcome to fitness conditioning, Cerezo-style. A far cry from Victory, with Dutch winger Leroy George famously describing his time there as more holiday camp than boot camp.
“It was hell during pre-season but when you come out of it and play actual games it almost feels relaxed,” added Waring.
“Back in Australia after a game I felt absolutely stuffed but in Japan after a match it just feels like a normal session."
Born in Melbourne, Waring was well travelled before his switch to Cerezo, living in China and Japan before returning to Australia aged 10.
“It was always in the back of my mind that I want to go to Japan and I think it’s definitely better to go earlier rather than later in your career,” he said.
“Otherwise, physically there’s a big gap. I have a long term contract and have been given plenty of time to adjust.
“It’s all about improving and my aim is to hopefully be going on to play regular football in the J1.
“Hopefully this year we’ll qualify for the ACL, which is a tournament where a lot of the young boys get opportunities to play in Japan. There’s also the Emperor’s Cup.”
Fan interest in the players runs deep.
“You get hundreds just turning up for first team training,” added Waring. “They’ll wait until afterwards for photos and autographs. They hand out gift packages, whether it’s a box of fruit or chocolates.
“One of the boys even got Calvin Klein socks and underwear. It’s quite interesting. In Japan fans love to get to know the players.”
Whilst he’s only been involved in one previous Olyroos camp, the former Joey believes the squad assembled by Arnold has the quality to get the required results against Cambodia, Chinese Taipei and Korea Republic in Phnom Penh later this month.
“I’ve got confidence our group of players will go all the way to the Olympics, and to play in Tokyo would be a dream come true,” he added.
“Arnie has a great squad together. He’s got confidence in us and he really knows the way he wants us to play.”
