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Clocking up the Miles: Craig reports back from the Potential England programme

27 January 2015

Much of my winter has been spent on the road, travelling between the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough, my home in Swindon and the odd week in Bristol.

Motorways are a familiar sight for a cricketer, however, it would be fair to say I know the M5 and M42 like the back of my hand and can now drive to Loughborough with my eyes shut!

I have been fortunate enough to be selected for the Potential England Performance Programme for the second successive winter. I was once again joined by Somerset’s Jamie Overton and Olly Stone of Northamptonshire as well as a number of new faces. These included another Somerset lad, Lewis Gregory, Sussex’s Matt Hobden and my “roomie”, Harry Podmore of Middlesex.

It was nice to receive the backing of the ECB after an injury hit 2014 and I am determined to repay them by making up for lost time this season.

The objective of the programme is to provide a group of young up and coming fast bowlers with a world class training environment, targeting strength and conditioning. The ECB also has the latest equipment to analyse and test all parts of your action, which helps back up the plans each of us have from a technical point of view.

Prior to Christmas, the programme consisted of two week training blocks at Loughborough before returning to our counties for a week. A typical morning would be some prehab followed by a tough max aerobic speed session. The afternoon would be much more relaxed, consisting of FIFA, pool and table tennis, before returning to hit the gym hard before dinner. It’s fair to say my table tennis skills are among the best! A combination of exquisite, attacking forehand dominance and solid defensive returns, the games room in the ECB house hasn’t see the like of it before!  It’s a shame I can’t quite transfer this ‘Barca style of play’ to Bristol when I return to play on the changing room’s make-shift table (about a foot short of table tennis regulations!) and I currently lie mid-table(ish) on the leader board.

The programme included an unexpected training week in the Algarve pre-Christmas - much to the delight of the lads. Although the weather was great all week, I did get a bit wet on the golf course as my inconsistent iron shots found the drink on several occasions. I should have guessed that the name of the course, Oceanico ‘Laguna’, suggested there were a few water hazards!

Since the turn of the year, we have continued our strength and conditioning and introduced bowling into the programme. Last week, Glamorgan were using the facilities at Loughborough and we had a bowl at them on Tuesday. I have taken plenty of inside info away to make use of in the summer!

I will make my last trip to Loughborough at the end of January, before the greatly anticipated three week high altitude training in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Many top level athletes including Olympians train at the North West University, as it is situated at over 4000 feet above sea level. These next few weeks are really going to test the winter’s work so far and I’m looking forward to training and bowling in tough conditions, before joining up with the Glos boys at the end of February. The lads are looking forward to making good use of the “tent” on the square, which will help us to hit the ground running in early April.

I hope you all have wintered well, and I look forward to seeing you all in the summer.

Craig

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