Young Officials
Russell Evans provides an insight into his pre-season preparation.
One of the more frequent
questions our Young
Officials ask is: ‘How do the
professional umpires
prepare for the season?’
ECB ACO has, therefore,
asked First Class umpire
Russell Evans to give a brief
overview of what he does in
the off-season. We hope
that you find this of interest
and it gives you some ideas
for your own preparations.
‘I am often asked “what do
First Class umpires do
during the winter”. Firstly,
we are fortunate enough to
Russell Evans
be employed for the full
year, so this takes any
pressures off home life. The ICC boys obviously continue to
umpire around the world. Some of the lads have their own
businesses, others work (Neil Bainton continues as a
postman), others enjoy the break, travel etc.
‘Another popular question is “How do you prepare for the
season?” Having completed my inaugural full First Class
season last year, the first thing I did was enjoy a family
holiday. As umpires, we are away a lot during the summer
months, so it was great to have quality family time.
Preparation for me for the 2016 season started in October
2015 as I joined the local gym. Chris Watts and his better
half to-be kindly put together a daily programme for me
which is a mixture of weights and cardio work, which takes
around an hour per day, five days per week. I also mix this
with bike rides with the dogs, swimming and running. I’m an
22
early morning person as my son is a good swimmer, so he’s
in the pool most mornings for 6am and the gym opens at
6.30am, so it’s a great start to the day…honest!
‘Fitness, for me, is key to enable me to do the job. I’m not
talking about running marathons or doing triathlons, but a
typical week will include an 11k run, a mile swim, and bike
rides with Millnsy (David Millns) around Sherwood Forest of
up to 30 miles – getting the yards in the legs during the
winter certainly helps on day four at 4pm.
‘We also do winter workshops, which are organised by the
boss, Chris Kelly. This year, Chris has split the Laws and
regulations up, put us in teams, and we have presented our
findings. We have not simply read out the Laws. Each group
has taken aspects of the Laws/regulation given and
discussed various scenarios, enhanced by videos, which has
been brilliant, as there have been some excellent
discussions as to what is right, wrong or simply a judgement
call. We have had two winter workshops so far, with another
one in March.
‘We also have a pre-season meeting and fitness test which
are in March, just before the hectic season starts. During the
season it is more difficult to keep up the gym/fitness work,
as I’m sure all of you umpires know. Standing on the field
and concentrating is tiring, so when you get back to the
hotel around 7.30–8pm you have to motivate yourself to do
the necessary.
‘Best wishes to all ACO officials for 2016 and I hope to see
many of you on the circuit.’
Thanks to Russell for taking the time to offer us his
experience. Hopefully we will hear more from the First Class
list in future issues of this magazine.
e-mail us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710