How do you and the fitness team approach diet and exercise? Do you have a fixed plan or is there room for manoeuvre?
I think there is room to manoeuvre. Recovery is obviously a big part of professional sport: getting the proper fuel after the game, getting a massage, or using tools like a kick to the leg. If I have a couple of days before a game, I like to do a strength session at the gym. The day before the game I do my cricket and then I like to do a speed session.
Are there specific fitness schedules for different types of players? For a bowler, for example?
Each individual has their own program. It’s easier for me to talk about England: you sit down with your strength and conditioning coach and nutritionist, and your program in the gym will be tailored to what you do on the pitch. For me, as a hitter and a goaltender, a lot of things center around jumping and explosive activities: squats and then some jumping jacks, both laterally and vertically.
With batting, there’s a lot of rotational stuff involved – cricket is quite a rotational game, specifically thinking about The Hundred and power hitting, so there’s a lot of wire rotations, med ball throws, that sort of thing in the that you’re trying to develop that speed and power to be able to hit the ball as far as you can.
When it comes to running, hitting is a lot of repeated sprinting and working your turn. Obviously bowlers are a bit different. They need to work on longer preps with a little more time in between.
That’s another misconception people have when they’re sitting on a bench around the edge watching village cricket. It looks like no one is doing anything, but at the top level, it’s basically high intensity interval training.
Yes, exactly. The best training for cricket is to take a walk in your park or something and then run every 45 seconds or a minute. If you’re a fielder, you might only have to sprint once every 10 minutes in a Test Match, but it’s about conditioning your body to do that. Injury prevention is obviously an important part of the game. The more available you are for games and at your best when you play, the better you are for your team.
It’s actually a unique game – for a game that takes so long, every activity within the game is pretty explosive and related to sprinting or power punching. Of course cricket has the tactile elements and the mental side of the game is huge, but that’s also why the better conditioned you are, the better decisions you’ll make mentally, too, to be able to play for longer periods of time. weather.
Tell me more about the mental fitness side of the game. Is there any specific training?
Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk