Natasha Heading for Sri Lanka
Academy and Pathway Strength & Conditioning Coach, Natasha Morton is part of the England Under 19 coaching team making its way to Sri Lanka.
The squad take on the hosts and Australia in a multi format tri series over the course of the new few weeks.
We caught up with her ahead of the trip to get her thoughts on the tour.
“This is such a great opportunity and it will be a real privilege to be working in that environment,” she said. “It’s an honour to be able to help develop the Under 19s and it will certainly help me to develop as well. Hopefully, I will come back to Storm a better person and a better coach, which will then hopefully be beneficial to our Pathway and Academy.”
She also took the time to explain why S&C is so important when working with younger players.
“S&C is really important at the Academy level because we need to be producing players who are strong and ready to continue that work when they progress into the professional game rather than getting into the professional game and then having to work on their strength.
“Strength & Conditioning isn’t just about getting players to lift as much as they can. When they are in the gym it’s definitely not about ego lifting. The key is that general strength underpins everything else that the players are working towards.
“Cricket is unique in its workload patterns. It’s different for seamers than it is for spinners. It’s different for batters than it is for bowlers. It’s also important that the players can jump and land effectively and things like that.
“We need to be able to ensure that the players are robust enough to be able to fulfil the physical demands that are placed on them, but it’s also about making sure that they are looking after themselves, managing their loads and taking the appropriate recovery time.”
Natasha will be linking up with Western Storm’s Sophia Smale and Katie Jones who were named in the England Under 19 squad.
