A complete year cricket fitness plan
Update: This article has now been updated and reposted. Click here to go to the latest page and download the latest plan. The information below is for archive puropses only.
Most club cricketers in the Northern hemisphere are not thinking about next season yet. Winter nets tend to start after Christmas and football is dominating the world. But this is the best time to set down a fitness plan for the year.
Previously, I have approached this using a periodisation plan for cricket. I still think this is the best way to get results, but the method I used was quite complex. This periodisation plan comes from the successful Husker Power system from Nebraska. Although it's designed for American college power sports, it has certainly been successful in baseball, is a simple system and I believe can be adapted to cricket easily.
A complete cricket fitness plan
The Husker Power system is build on the idea that you start by building a general base of fitness, gradually peaking towards the start of the season. The year is broken down into 4 smaller periods. In the original plan they are 12 weeks each, but as the cricket season is typically 26 weeks I have made some adjustments:
- Postseason (4 weeks). The weeks after the end of the season are designed for rest and recovery, light exercise and playing different games.
- Offseason (9 weeks). This phase is designed to develop a strength base and controversially has no running in it (more on that in a moment).
- Preseason (13 weeks). This is the time to bring your fitness to a peak just before the start od the season.
- Inseason (26 weeks). The actual cricket season itself where you simply maintain your current fitness level and get to the nitty gritty of playing.
Update: This article has now been updated and reposted. Click here to go to the latest page and download the latest plan.
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Comments
[...] The best time to develop your plyometric training is in the winter. This is because heavy training takes longer for your body to recover. If you do plyometrics in-season give yourself at least 2 days rest before you play a match. [...]
[...] I’ll be building to a peak using a cricket-specific variation of the Husker fitness model using the 10 Principles. Here is my current week: [...]
i used to bowl at 65mph last season. I hit the gym and did explosive training, mainly the clean and jerk. I swear i can bowl at 80 mph now.
i want to thank whoever manages this site. heavy fitness and explosive training have long been overlooked.
Thanks for the feedback, I have long been of the opinion that cricket training in general not focussed enough on improving strength and power.
[...] Goal Setting Planning your year Pre-season training part 1 Pre-season training part 2 A complete year cricket fitness plan [...]
David, Im creating my own yearly cricket plan but my competion season is different in length as im a junior player in australia. My Inseason is 12 weeks long, so id have also 4 weeks recovery, so 40 weeks left. Should i just halve them so 20 off season training weeks, and 20 weeks of pre-season training. However i do play cricket constantly throughout the year, so around 1.5 hours a day at school, training everyday at home and private coaching (activate cricket centre). And i feel there's no point doing all this unorganised cricket training, i would get a lot more out of it if i had a plan to follow thats balanced and includes different drills not the same one all year. Also i'd like to ask should i play any cricket in the recovery period and just do slow jogs and swims and also im 13 years old so should i just keep it simple for training to build up strength by doing more core strength exercises without weights.
Let me change that sorry from now there's 12 weeks left to when the season starts. So 6 weeks off season training and 6 weeks pre season training. However ive been training constantly so im in pretty good shape but there's still a lot more i want to work on and improve on. So for strength training in the off-season ill just look up the exercises on this website of what i can do. Thanks for putting in all these articles and podcasts, there's just to many things to read. =)
Dean, at your age there is not that much to worry about. Play lots of sport (not just cricket), get a mate go on a bike ride, climb a tree and have fun. You could hit the gym if that's what you enjoy but at age 13 life should be about being active and not worrying too much about the finer details of periodisation.
Hi ,
I am a right hand opening/middle order batsman and a left arm googly/chinaman/orthodox bowler.
I have been playing cricket for a very long time now but never took fitness part seriously.
My problem is that i don't want to lose my flexibility but want to get some strength too. I have been hitting the gym but without any particular work out.
Can you suggest me any specific work out?
I would really appreciate advice on this.
cheers,
sanatan
have a look at this article
Hi, Im wondering if anyone knows where i can find an example of a profesional cricketers training programme, not to follow but for research purposes. Thanks very much
It varies tremendously. Email me with more information and I can get you something.
Hi David,
We are based in Delhi, India. The general perception here is to play cricket all around the year, 5-6 days a week which I dont agree to especially being a sportsman myself. My son is 9 years old and he is exceptional with technique/fundamentals to say the least. He looks good when he is batting. However, in the game of cricket, age plays an important role in every coach's mind unlike individual sports where we were trained as soon as we displayed a talent.
I do make my son play various games of course cricket remains his main sport....and he is enjoying his childhood like any other child. No stress at all. However, I am struggling to find him an academy with good bowlers who are either his age or 3/4 years elder to him. He has always played and can easily play bowlers up to 14 years of age or may be 15.
What advise do you have for me? Is private coaching a way to go forward? Because then a coach would perhaps make him play against the best!?
regards
Hi,
I am a student at the University of East London. For my training programmes assignment I have to do 1500 words on an annual training programme for a cricketer. This should include a needs analysis, and a microcycle of in season and pre season fitness. Please can you give me some ideas, some examples or journals that may be able to help me.
Paul Cook
Hi Paul, drop me an email from www.pitchvision.com/contact and we can chat about it properly.
A lot of the answers can be found on this site.