Picking up where our Inner Sanctum Scribe Lyndon James left off, Calvin Harrison is the latest to provide us with updates from pre-season. 

The 25-year-old enjoyed a stellar 2023, making his Nottinghamshire First Class debut, finishing as the Outlaws’ third top-wicket taker in the Vitality Blast, and appearing in List A cricket for the first time before being whisked off to take record-breaking figures in The Hundred. 

Now, in the first edition of Keeping Up With Calvin, the all-rounder explains his approach to winter training, the keys to success and the value of feedback. 

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Last season was a positive one for me personally - I broke into the red-ball team and felt like I took my chances in white-ball cricket.

In July, I signed a contract extension which will keep me at Trent Bridge until the end of 2026. The opportunity to continue my development here is really exciting and I am grateful for the trust the club has placed in me since that game for Oxford UCCE, which feels like a long time ago now. 

Because I felt like my game was in a good place before that break in October, I came into pre-season quite relaxed and was keen to pick up where I left off in the County Championship. 

Typically, we call that six week training block before Christmas the ‘exploration’ phase, as we look to add certain things into our game and hone in on the more technical elements.

Batters, for example, will look back on last year - what they did well, what could be better - and look to tweak their game. They might try and work on a trigger movement, a particular shot or leaving the ball. 

What has struck me is that everyone this year has been so focused. I think there is a strong awareness of where we want to be, what individuals need to do to better themselves and what we need to do as a collective to be the best we can be. 

But the enjoyment and environment hasn't dropped. People come in with a smile on their face and whether we're in the nets or doing fitness or gym work, we enjoy being here which is really important because otherwise this time of year can be a bit of a slog.

For me, because I found a good rhythm before the break, I didn’t want to go back into too much of a technical drilling phase where I was being super self-critical. 

Analysis is good but you can over-analyse, and that can make things quite stressful. I didn’t want to overcomplicate, so I went into the block with quite a clear mind - focusing on quite simple things like how many revolutions I can get on the ball when I’m bowling. 

I missed out on that pre-Christmas block of training last year because I’d had shoulder surgery and, funnily enough, bowling for the first time after that was probably as good as I’ve ever felt. 

I was so absent of thought - although with the bits I’d picked up through the summer still ingrained - it all just happened. That was a big learning for me - whilst it is really important to work on the finer details, when I am bowling well, I am relaxed and not overthinking. 

Throughout pre-season, things may get more technical depending on how I feel. Especially as a leg-spinner, I might come in one week and things will feel good and fluent. On another, I might feel like it isn’t quite working so I’ll look more deeply at what I can do to get back into the swing of things.

What I have learned over the last few years is what bowling and batting well looks and feels like for me. That is really important, because in the times when I am not on song, I know what I need to do and feel to get it back together. 

This is a process you go through with coaches - I’ll describe to them what I am feeling, they will tell me what they are seeing, and we can agree on what needs to happen for me to execute my skill. 

For example, they might observe that when I’m bowling well, my knees pump a little bit higher. I know that when it comes out nicely, my wrist is loose and I feel light and springy. 

So now I literally tell myself ‘relax, bounce, fizz’, and the technical elements fall into place from there. I will be able to stay tall and over the top of my action.

When batting, I tell myself ‘climb into the ball’ so I can really get on top of it, my head is going towards the ball and I get a good stride in. That ensures my intent is positive.

It is great to have a variety of inputs to help me get to the stage where I can be quite autonomous. 

Shiney is really sharp when it comes to movement efficiency and biomechanics, while Botes helps me to find movement and energy. Moorsey has such experience in the game from working with people like Mushtaq Ahmed and asks really good questions, while a lot of the progress in my batting has come from working Moorsey, Botes and Franksy, and my confidence has grown as a result. 

“I literally tell myself ‘relax, bounce, fizz’, and the technical elements fall into place from there. I will be able to stay tall and over the top of my action.”

Calvin Harrison

The benefit of winter training is that you have the time to take on board that feedback, filter it and find a method that works for you so that in the summer, when you’re in the middle, those tidbits of information have become part of your routine. 

Of course, the other part of pre-season is the physical element. I don’t mind doing it particularly when everyone is in the same boat and you know that the work we do now will leave us in the best position to be strong and, ultimately, available for selection next year. 

It is hard work, but we’re not that far away from the season beginning once we break it down. We’ll get ourselves into a competitive headspace now so that when we go away to Abu Dhabi in March, we can hit the ground running. 

Even though some of the lads are away either playing club, franchise, or international cricket I’ve been able to face a bit of bowling which has been great. That’s quite rare at this time of year when bowlers are usually building up their workloads. 

It all means that when we get outside onto grass we’ll all be in a good position. April always comes around sooner than you think, and I’m looking forward to getting out there already. 

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