Northamptonshire county cricketers put through their paces by students ahead of winter training

Steelback Freddie Heldreich participating in a fitness test.

Students from the University of Northampton put first class county cricketers through their paces in a pre-season fitness testing session.

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club’s senior squad visited Waterside campus on Monday November 15, so players could have their fitness levels assessed prior to the start of winter training.

The players underwent a morning of physical profiling and fitness test exercises, which were conducted by Sports Science and Sports Rehabilitation and Conditioning undergraduates, and Strength and Conditioning postgraduate students

(Left to right): Liam Thomlinson, Gus Miller, Oisin Geary-Cuddy (NCCC assistant strength and conditioning coach), Freddie Heldreich, Wiktoria Kucharska and Aidan Bhambhani.

The data collected will be used by the Steelbacks’ backroom staff, to help them prepare individual training regimes for each player.

Chris Lorkin, the club’s head of strength and conditioning, said: “It was great to get the players back in for their physical profiling and testing.

“Having the link and partnership with the University of Northampton is priceless in this regard, allowing us to measure and analyse all aspects of our players’ physical performance.

“The facilities and equipment on campus let us dive deep into the bodies of our athletes so we can drive their performance forward on the pitch, using the results to shape their physical program throughout the winter.

“The data will highlight the key areas for players to work on over the coming months so we’re fit and firing come the start of the season.”

Student, Aidan Bhambhami, added: “Working with the county cricketers was a great experience as it provided me with an opportunity to work with a different athletic population and learn to develop within a new environment.

“Different populations present new challenges, but the friendly and light atmosphere around the performance testing ensured that I felt confident throughout the session to undertake the required testing for the athletes.”

The link up with the cricket club is the latest working partnership the students have benefitted from.

Over the summer, they also assessed the fitness levels of players from Northampton Town Football Club and MK Lightning ice hockey side.