Winter Work Reaps Rewards

 

by James Skitt - 19.03.09

England’s Cricketers go into Sunday’s ICC Women’s World Cup Final hoping to lift the trophy for the first time since 1993 after stretching their unbeaten run to a record-equalling 17 matches with an emphatic 146 run victory over the West Indies in Sydney on Tuesday.

England’s form throughout the tournament, which has now seen them win five of their six matches, has been all the more impressive considering many of the squad hadn’t seen competitive action since September before arriving in Australia. 

With preparation therefore key, the squad has been working hard over the winter months with English Institute of Sport (EIS) Strength and Conditioning Coach Ian Crump to ensure they were ready to hit the ground running.

“The girls have worked extremely hard over the winter” insists Crump, who oversees the squads Strength and Conditioning (S&C) programmes.

Whilst six members of the squad were already playing club Cricket in Australia during the winter months, Crump has been busy keeping the home based players in shape.

“I worked on a regular basis with a number of the squad at Loughborough whilst the other home based players saw my colleagues at either Bisham or Sheffield” he explains. “We gave them fitness tests on a fairly regular basis to keep them on their toes whilst I also oversaw the overseas based players’ programmes remotely.” 

Following a ten day camp in India to get the players reacquainted with grass wickets after a winter indoors, Crump travelled with the squad to complete their preparations in Australia.

“During the first few weeks of the tour, prior to the tournament, most of the girls followed their usual S&C programmes, involving some gym work, some speed and agility work and some prehab work” he explains.

“Once the tournament began it’s been a fairly hectic playing schedule of virtually a game every other day, so we have to strike a balance between doing enough training to maintain fitness levels whilst allowing the girls enough recovery time” he adds.

“My role during the tournament is mainly the match-day/training warm-ups and cool downs, recovery sessions, prehab sessions and some 1-1 work with injured players or players who aren’t involved on a match day.”

Charlotte Edwards’ side beat Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan convincingly to win their pool before ensuring their final berth with victories over New Zealand and the West Indies in the Super Six phase. But what is the value of S&C to Cricketers?

“In such a technically-dependent game it’s sometimes difficult to measure the impact of an S&C programme” Crump explains. “But one of the main areas where it can impact in Cricket is injury prevention.”

“Taking fast bowlers as an example, there are huge forces generated around the shoulder, lower back and knee and subsequently the incidence of injury is fairly high. We have worked hard with the coaches and physiotherapists to implement corrective prehab programmes to remedy this and these appear to have been successful so far” he adds.

“The other main area where it can impact within Cricket is fielding. As well as skill levels, fielding requires high levels of fitness and athleticism” he adds.

“This squad has worked extremely hard over the past 12 months or so and are currently the best fielding side in the world. Whilst another area I’ve been working on with some of the fast bowlers is in ensuring their speed of delivery remains consistent throughout a spell” he says.

Despite an eight wicket defeat in their final Super Six fixture against Australia on Thursday, England can now look forward to the weekend’s final against New Zealand, with Crump ready to add a little extra to the pre match preparations.

“I’m in charge of the pre-match music which is obviously vitally important!” he explains. “But obviously these games are the reason why we have worked so hard over the last 12 months so we will prepare properly and professionally as always and hopefully they can perform to their best on the day.”

Photography © Getty Images