Every player can benefit from developing their own set of routines and processes to help them prepare and play successfully. 

In the first installment of this series, I dealt with developing routines to be employed during batting, bowling and fielding practice. 

This article will deal with developing sound routines to help you get the most out of your training sessions away from the team: Non-practice training. 

For some players this may be a long jog with the dog every other evening. For others it may involve gym sessions, road running, yoga lessons and a whole range of ‘cross training’ options. While it is great to devote time away from ‘just batting and bowling practice’, a haphazard approach can be detrimental, causing fatigue and lack of clear focus on the ultimate goal of improving your cricket. 

How do you go about this training more systematically? 

As with the whole mapping process, the younger cricketer will not need a very detailed or complicated set of routines. They are supposed to make your job of preparing to play cricket easier. 

More experienced players, playing at higher levels (or aspiring to reach higher levels) need to spend considerable amounts of time each week ‘adding value’ to the work they do at cricket practice. When deciding on your specific non-practice training routines it may be useful to follow a few rules. 

• Examine your game and identify what physical and psychological aspects need attention
• Identify what action or activity will provide the required attention
• Identify how much time you have available to devote to an activity – if there are a number of activities you may also have to prioritise each activity to create the best overall fit.
• Try not to choose activities that require a hard and fast commitment. This will allow you the flexibility to miss the occasional session when it is at cross purposes with your specific preparation for cricket.
• Monitor your energy levels. Don’t over commit yourself to too many training activities. This may cause fatigue and physical injury or just a reduction in your enthusiasm for cricket training. You don’t want to burn out!
• Where possible, seek out experts to help you perform your identified activities properly. E.g. sprints coaches, psychologists, yoga teachers
• Evaluate your sessions constantly. While it may take a while for an activity to start having an impact on your cricket, don’t persevere with an activity that has not, over time, shown any beneficial results. Devote your time to activities that really do help your play better cricket 

To clarify this further, let's look at some practical examples..

A young player may decide the one area they really need to improve is in their flexibility. 

They are getting lots of strains and aches and pains after training and this is affecting their performance on weekends. A non-practice training routine for a young player focusing on improving their flexibility may be a simple morning and evening stretching regime (15 minutes of static stretches before breakfast and again before bed each day). 

As the player gets older, they may decide that improved flexibility has a very positive impact on their performance in games. This player may then decide to take some yoga lessons if they have the free time to do so. 

They may also be going to a sprints coach one night a week to improve their running style (so important for bowlers of all types as well as fielders and runners between the wickets!); playing in a touch football competition (to improve their agility); and going to the gym twice a week (to improve their strength and muscular endurance).

The key to deciding what should be included in your non-practice training routine is the amount of time you have available to train and one other very important consideration: balance. 

It is genuinely unhealthy and ultimately unproductive to devote all your time to a single pursuit such as cricket. One must have other things going on in one’s life to enjoy the whole human experience. 

Non-practice training activities can provide some of this balance. Allowing you mix with ‘non-cricketers’ and spend time enjoying yourself away from the game. (Matthew Hayden identified this as being a major reason why he was able to play the game at the highest level for so long.) 

So now we have discussed developing routines for cricket training as well as training routines conducted away from cricket. Hopefully your map is starting to take shape!

Every journey is an adventure, and every map provides an invitation to explore the world … and yourself!