February Blog - Preparation of players for First-Class cricket
8 February 2022
In this month's blog Gloucestershire's Head Physiotherapist, Dave Bartlett, explains what it takes to prepare a squad of First-Class cricketers for a gruelling six-month-long season...
Fixture release day brings the same buzz around the group every year; When are we playing Somerset? Who have we got at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival? And will we have a Lord’s lunch this year? But after the initial excitement ends, having an overview of the summer ahead gives us context towards the preparation for the upcoming season.
In its simplest form, the preparation of a county cricketer can be broken down into four areas: technical, tactical, physical and mental. The cricket coaches look after the first two, whilst the Science and Medicine department lead on the latter. The team is made up of physios, strength and conditioning coaches, soft tissue therapists, our Club Doctor and psychologists, whilst Mark Thorburn, our fast bowling coach and performance analyst, holds the key to implementing our strategies into the cricket skills.
Physically, the focus lies on preparing the players to tolerate the demands of county cricket. Injury prevention is one of our key themes, especially with the nature of our squad make up. The Gloucestershire squad comprises multi-format players, and they need to be conditioned to perform throughout the season.
In 2019, Ryan Higgins and David Payne both bowled over 500 competitive overs, and the work they put in during the off-season gives them the strength and aerobic characteristics to be able to perform week in, week out. The other key focus area is developing the physical attributes that will improve performance on the field.
The difference in winning and losing can so often come down to singular moments in the match: a run-out, determined by a single camera frame by television umpire, or covering that extra yard to reach a ball and prevent a boundary. Gone are the days where fast bowlers can graze at fine leg, and the reason batters are hitting the ball further isn’t just down to the size of the bats. If we can improve the players’ speed on the field, and strength and power base, we aim to positively influence the game into our favour.
Over the past two years, mental health and well-being has been highlighted across society, and it has been well documented how athletes have found constant testing and life in bubbles challenging.
As a result, this winter we have put an increased focus on developing our psychological skills and coping strategies to take us forward. Dave Alcock has led on our performance psychology skills, whilst Sporting Chance, a charity set up by Tony Adams following his experiences in football in the 1990’s, have come in and worked across the club on understanding mental health and what we can do as individuals to help ourselves and others around us.
To have got to where they are, county cricketers are robust and resilient in nature, and it is often their hard work and focus in the winter, that pays dividends in the summer.
