Going to the gym becomes part of courses as Yorkshire Cricket College places focus on health and well-being of students

The collaboration sees all students at the college receive a membership with The Gym Group - which has a site at The Headrow and Otley Road, in Headingley - as part of their college experience.

Students will use the facilities as part of their weekly practical sessions and the membership allows them to be a member of both the Headingley site, which opened in June, as well as another Gym Group facility near to where they live.

As well as shaping the cricket stars of the future, The Yorkshire Cricket College (YCC), wants its students to be fitter and stronger but also to benefit from the holistic benefits of exercise and the gym.

Alongside this, professional cricket coaching delivered by the Pro Coach organisation, is used to holistically develop the students by developing teamwork skills, enhancing self-confidence, leadership ability and autonomy.

Nick Robinson, the head of the YCC, said: “The Yorkshire Cricket College is delighted to be partnering with the Gym Group. Not only do we want our students to leave us as better cricketers, but also fitter, stronger, and healthier individuals.

“Their new facility is a five-minute walk from Emerald Headingley Stadium and will provide our learners with the ideal training environment to develop their physical literacy as they enter adulthood.”

Kieran Rogers, a coach for Pro Coach, added: “This partnership gives students a little bit extra focus in terms of their fitness, a big space to work in with a lot of great equipment to make use of. It also allows us now to design really focused plans for each cricketer and that allows them to build strength, power. They’ll see massive gains and improvements going forward.”

It comes as Yorkshire Cricket College works towards a more sustainable future and one of its strategies is looking to support more female students while also increasing it’s annual intake.

Millie Gray, 17, is a second year student and said joining the college enabled her to look more into her interest in psychology, how it affects performance and training and the gym programmes would also help this.

She said: “If you’re interested in the sport studying here is a really great opportunity and you should go for it. I have an interest in psychology and what’s great is we get the chance to focus on this area in assignments. I’ll be really interested to use psychology in helping cricket performance and in training.

“This new gym partnership is great as well because it’s not even a five minute walk from the stadium itself so really easy access to come to. it’s open 24 hours so we can come after lessons and work on things that would help with bowling and batting. And we’ve been given specialised programmes that will help us improve.”

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