Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2013

10 At the time of writing, I’m sat in my hotel room in Johannesburg, South Africa, helping Yorkshire prepare for our Champions League qualifying campaign. Two important matches over the next two days involving ‘Uva Next’ from Sri Lanka and ‘Trinidad & Tobago’ will decide our fate…..will it be an early trip home or an extra 10 days which will see us pit ourselves against the best Club sides in T20 World Cricket? Exciting. Having been here for 5 days to acclimatise to the heat and altitude (2,300m above Leeds!), not to mention getting back into ‘T20mode’ following our successful Championship push and return to Division 1 of the County Championship, yesterday saw us play our practice match at The Wanderers against the Stalkot Stallions from Pakistan, a team containing former Yorkshire fast bowler Rana Naveed Ul-Hassan. Not only is it fantastic to report that despite it being 6 weeks since T20 Finals Day, the lads hit the ground running, seeing us win convincingly against a very dangerous team. It is also great to report that despite the dedication and hard work put into training this week, we also have a clean bill of health, the boys only needing a bit of tender loving care this morning from both myself, and my extra pair of hands on the trip, Club Masseuse Sharon Shanks! It is this latter point, ‘keeping the lads on the field’ that I take a lot of pride in as Yorkshire CCC’s Physiotherapist, a role I’ve enjoyed immensely over the last 10 years. Of course the most important thing for all concerned at the club is on field performance, seeing the club do well. My job, working with the coaching staff but especially with the club’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Tom Summers, is to ensure that we have the biggest pool of players to choose from, and that the pool are able to give their best when they take the field. Hopefully this short piece will give a little insight into how this process works - how the team effort behind the scenes has developed into a year -round process, starting in October 2011, far from the cloudless skies of South Africa! November & December 2011 2011 was disappointing for all following our relegation to Division 2 of the County Championship. Despite that, the players returned on the first of November full of vigour, determined to put the work in to have a successful 2012. Having the whole of October off may sound a long time, but a domestic season is arduous and time away helps ensure the boys come back as mentally and physically refreshed as possible which then allows the fitness testing and screening processes to start. Firstly it is important to undertake a ‘full body screening’ with every player, a process which all players from the First Team to Academy undertake. Screening is a process which requires both Tom Summers and myself to identify any potential risk factors that may predispose the player to injury or mean that they cannot maximise their potential from winter training. Simply put we look at joint and muscle range of movement, strength and flexibility, as well as functional movements specific to the needs of the cricketer. Strengths, weaknesses, imbalances are identified which then allows us to formulate training programmes specific to the individual player, based on their role, level of fitness, age and previous injury history. A Physiotherapist’s Year at Yorkshire CCC... Scott McAllister Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society A room with a view: The Southern Sun Hotel, Johannesburg