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Improving Your Fitness for Cricket

J_asonR

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
I know this may be a little bit in advance at the moment but over the winter I'm looking to severely increase my cricketing fitness! I've never ever been 100% fit for cricket and I would like to be to see how far I can get..

I've been told that this is the only thing holding me back from getting into a proper side/academy and I believe it too!

I'm predominantly a batsman but like to have a bowl from time to time too.. I'm guessing you could liken my role to someone like Jacques Kallis.

Does anybody know of any good videos/books/websites/threads that address cricketing fitness and how to get 100% fit other than running and other cardio activities? I'm guessing as a batsman there's going to be some time spent doing weights in the gym, which I'm happy with..

Maybe some of you more experienced forumers/cricketers could give me some exercises too!

Thanks.

**By fit, I mean cardio fit, not injury free.
 

Burgey

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I'd do some interval training, mixed with some steady-state jogging as well. As an example (using a treadmill) -

Say a 15 minute jog at 10-12kph, then

30 seconds at 15kph
30 seconds rest
30 at 17kph
30 rest
30 at 17kph
30 rest
30 at 19kph
30 rest
30 at 19 kph
30 rest

do the interval training x 2

I'd also do some squats, remembering to engage your core. Don't worry about the weight, get your technique right. it's crucial, but if you do they're one of the best all round exercises imo. If not, leg presses and extensions.

To get the most out of the workout, I'd mix the squats/ leg exercises with some push ups or bench presses and flies. If you do super sets you don't need to do nothing in your rests between sets, you just train different muscle groups. That should help a bit with your endurance.

Again, avoid the temptation to lift massive weights imo, and instead do 3-4 sets of say 8-12 reps of each.

Start eating well too. Lots of protein.

Plenty of blokes use supplements - I haven't really ever used any save some amino acids for recovery. Will leave it to others to comment on the worth or otherwise of them. I've tended to remember the advice given to me by an old bloke who worked at the first gym I ever went to when one of the birds at the recepetion area was trying to sell me some muscle building powder "Pffft. Only by the sweat from thy brow wilt thou have muscle".

Mind you it's come a long way since then.

All the best with it.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
It really depends on your personality.

Getting fit isn't hard. It is just boring. You already know how to get fit, Doing it that is the hard part. The easy cheat is just to do something competetive everyday and the fitness will come. Play squash, net, gym, play what every football code takes your fancy. Keep moving 6 days a week and you will be fit and fine.
 
Last edited:

andyperkins

Cricket Spectator
I'm currently working with a lot of teenagers in a similar position for you. Through my work as the S&C with Guernsey cricket who have a link with Sussex County Cricket there are a lot of our players on the fringes of joining their academy team. Whilst I can't speak for you specifically of areas you need to develop the common area's of fitness that our boys need to work on so that they are at the same level as these academy players are

1) Strength
2) Speed and Agility
3) Mobility and Flexibility
4) Endurance

The great news for you is that training for cricket does not have to be boring, as it is an explosive sport and long steady state runs and endurance work will hinder your progress at a point.

Whilst cricket games last a long period of time the work period of cricket tends to be very short and therefore anaerobic in nature. With this in mind there are numerous studies that prove you can't develop one muscle fibres equally there will be one dominant muscle fibre in the body. In terms of cricket we want the dominant muscle fibre to be the power muscle fibres.

To sum this up Charlie Francis in his book Training for Speed makes a few thought provoking points regarding this.

- Enough power related work must be done during the early years of 13 - 17 to maintain genetically determined levels of white power related muscle fibres and promote the shift of transitional or intermediate fibres to white power related muscle fibres.

- Endurance work must be carefully limited to light or light to medium volumes to prevent the conversion of transitional muscle or intermediate muscle fibres to red (endurance, less force producing) muscle fibres.

This second point is massively important statements for young developing players. By doing too much endurance training you can train yourself out of a sport. No please don't misread this and think that you should reduce the amount of training you should be doing. The time you spend in each session will be less, but the intensity and quality of each session will be far higher. The above interval session is a great option or a favourite with us here in Guernsey and at Sussex County Cricket is the 7 second run with 13 second recovery.

This workout is short in duration but has massive benefits to your fitness levels. To complete this workout follow the steps as laid out below.

- Run as hard as you can for 7 seconds from a designated start line.
- Jog back to the start line in 14 seconds.
- Repeat 6 times then rest for 60 seconds.

Repeat this process for 6 sets.

Obviously this is only one small area of fitness for cricket but it is a great place to start as it requires very little technical no how and will give you a great base from which to build upon. Squats are great for building strength but you really need to be taught the cricket technique to reduce injury risk. If you want to follow a strength training program then I strongly suggest investing in a S&C coach to teach you the relevant techniques to get you up to speed prior to starting this type of program.

Andy
andyperkinsperforman
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I'm currently working with a lot of teenagers in a similar position for you. Through my work as the S&C with Guernsey cricket who have a link with Sussex County Cricket there are a lot of our players on the fringes of joining their academy team. Whilst I can't speak for you specifically of areas you need to develop the common area's of fitness that our boys need to work on so that they are at the same level as these academy players are

1) Strength
2) Speed and Agility
3) Mobility and Flexibility
4) Endurance

The great news for you is that training for cricket does not have to be boring, as it is an explosive sport and long steady state runs and endurance work will hinder your progress at a point.

Whilst cricket games last a long period of time the work period of cricket tends to be very short and therefore anaerobic in nature. With this in mind there are numerous studies that prove you can't develop one muscle fibres equally there will be one dominant muscle fibre in the body. In terms of cricket we want the dominant muscle fibre to be the power muscle fibres.

To sum this up Charlie Francis in his book Training for Speed makes a few thought provoking points regarding this.

- Enough power related work must be done during the early years of 13 - 17 to maintain genetically determined levels of white power related muscle fibres and promote the shift of transitional or intermediate fibres to white power related muscle fibres.

- Endurance work must be carefully limited to light or light to medium volumes to prevent the conversion of transitional muscle or intermediate muscle fibres to red (endurance, less force producing) muscle fibres.

This second point is massively important statements for young developing players. By doing too much endurance training you can train yourself out of a sport. No please don't misread this and think that you should reduce the amount of training you should be doing. The time you spend in each session will be less, but the intensity and quality of each session will be far higher. The above interval session is a great option or a favourite with us here in Guernsey and at Sussex County Cricket is the 7 second run with 13 second recovery.

This workout is short in duration but has massive benefits to your fitness levels. To complete this workout follow the steps as laid out below.

- Run as hard as you can for 7 seconds from a designated start line.
- Jog back to the start line in 14 seconds.
- Repeat 6 times then rest for 60 seconds.

Repeat this process for 6 sets.

Obviously this is only one small area of fitness for cricket but it is a great place to start as it requires very little technical no how and will give you a great base from which to build upon. Squats are great for building strength but you really need to be taught the cricket technique to reduce injury risk. If you want to follow a strength training program then I strongly suggest investing in a S&C coach to teach you the relevant techniques to get you up to speed prior to starting this type of program.

Andy
andyperkinsperforman
Racist. :ph34r:
 

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