Player blog: David Payne on DIY, golf days and tweaking technique
2 March 2016
It has been good to get outside in the marquee, bowling on grass and coming off longer runs ups.
We also went up to the National Performance Centre at Loughborough for a few days which was a nice change up. It was good to have a change of scene and to work in a top class facility like that.
We are starting to get more scenario-based in our practice as we get nearer to the start of the season.
Pre-Christmas the onus was more on us which was different to previous years where we’ve been in full training from November doing cricket skills and fielding.
This year it’s been nice to just have the gym and fitness sessions as compulsory and have the decisions about whether we come in to bat or bowl left up to us.
I decided to take the time pre-Christmas to focus on my body rather than on skills.
I have also been working specifically on my front arm. It was something I highlighted that had got a bit slack so I was working with Thorbs (Mark Thorburn, bowling coach) one or two times a week – sometimes just for 10mins, sometimes for a bit longer.I have been looking at the pros and cons of shortening my run up to try and get more sustained power during a spell.
Away from training I organised a golf day for present and past players at the Celtic Manor.
We did it last year at the Belfry and I am trying to make it an annual thing. It is really nice to catch up with former players like Steve Kirby, Jon Lewis and Mike Smith and pick their brains a bit.
Unfortunately the weather meant that we didn’t get a lot of golf in.
On the first day there was no play at all but Steve Kirby came up with some challenges on the driving range and around the dart board that kept things competitive.
On the Sunday we got 12 holes in before the weather stopped play again.
I also attended one of the “Evening With The Champions” events that Daws (Richard Dawson) has been doing at local cricket clubs.
I went to the Bristol YMCA one and it was a really good night. The club had a local journalist Tim Lezard MC-ing and made it into a reunion for former players, which was nice. There were guys that played from as far back as the 50s and 60s right up to the present day.
It was nice to have a chance to talk about the final again and hopefully the events have helped strengthen the connection between us and the local clubs.
The other thing a few of us did recently was a DIY day as part of our personal development.
We did wallpapering in the morning which proved a more delicate job than some of us had realised. In the afternoon we did plastering which felt like the old Generation Game TV show.
Learning those kind of skills is definitely something I want to learn more of. We have a few practical guys in our squad – Chris Liddle is a trained electrician and Tom Smith has a plumbing qualification.
Chris Dent also picks things up pretty quickly and managed to go home and plaster his loft after our DIY day which is pretty impressive.
