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Fred Flintoff hooking a fast bowler into the stand, Adam Gilchrist taking a diving leg side catch or Steve Harmison exploding into his action.
All examples of the need for explosive power as a cricketer.
While much of this is natural talent, you can dramatically improve your power through training. Particularly pre-season.
This power workout is part of your pre-season cricket preparation moving towards the start of the season.
Remember the order of workouts is as follows:
Pure Strength (2-3 weeks)
Strength and Speed (2-4 weeks)
Pure Speed and Skills (2-4 weeks)
Explosive Power and Skills (1-3 weeks)
Speed, Strength and Skills (2-4 weeks)
Never begin any exercise programme without knowing and understanding your health history. If you are in any doubt that you can safely perform exercise, contact your doctor before starting.
Weekly Workout Schedule
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Plyometric Power
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Off
Friday: SAQ Explosion
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Cricket Skills and Interval Running
- The focus of this workout is on explosion and rest. High intensity but lower frequency for recovery: Hence only 3 sessions per week.
- Always warm up, stretch and cool down.
- You can add an extra interval running session if your fitness allows.
- You may have more than one skills session in a week. If so, simply ensure you do one of the other workouts on the same day.
Plyometic Power
- For all these exercises complete 4 sets of 6 reps at an explosive tempo.
- Take 4 minutes rest to ensure full recovery.
- To raise the intensity use multiple balls or a wall for quick returns.
- You will need a medicine ball for some exercises.
Plyometric Push Up
Slams
Vertical Depth Jump
Chest Pass
Hurdle Jumps (3 sets of 2 reps)
Side Throws
Single Leg Chops
You may notice some of the links above show other plyometic excercises. Feel free to mix these in for variation.
SAQ Explosion
Complete an SAQ workout with the focus on the explosive portion. However, ensure you complete all the other parts of the SAQ workout too. For more on the basics of SAQ click here. For the SAQ book on Cricket click here.
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Comments
[...] There are several ways to train. If you are following the SAQ method you will be doing some plyometric work as part of the Explosion section. Alternatively you can do a cricket specific circuit or a set and rep routine instead of weight training. [...]
[...] 10 Principles of cricket power Pure strength workout Power workout Part 1 Power workout Part 2 Circuit Training [...]
[...] Explosive Power and Skills (1-3 weeks) [...]
[...] training. Once a base of strength is built up you can move onto more power specific exercises such as cleans and medicine ball throws. Hitting a ball long requires your muscles to generate explosive, rotational power through your [...]
This looks good - what results have you had?
Excellent results although I would probably modify things a little now.
Is the "explosion" and then rest to tear down muscles and then allow them to rebuild? After doing this for some time, do you feel this works better than just a constant level of effort?
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