Head Coach Alan Richardson says recharging mentally and physically after a six month season is important for Worcestershire’s players before they report back for pre-season training.
The squad are given a six week break at the end of a six and a half month campaign which gets underway with warm-up matches in March.
A total of 40 matches spanning LV=Insurance County Championship, Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup have been packed into that schedule with several players involved in all three formats.
Richardson said: “I think it’s an important period to re-charge mentally and physically. The commitment they have to show throughout….their families miss out, their friends miss out.
“It is a chance for them to lead a bit of a normal life for a while, and reconnect with society a little bit, but also gives them an opportunity to recharge.
“As much as we champion hard work, rest and recovery is really important.
“It is a really good opportunity for all those guys to go away. They will all continue to do (fitness) work because they are all very diligent.
“Some are doing Level 3 and Level 2 coaching courses. They are utilising October as well as they can.”
Worcestershire will begin the long countdown to next summer on 13 November.
Richardson said: “It is an opportunity for guys to do cricket pre-Christmas, and some will take that chance more than others because they are going to go away.
“We are able to do some really important physical work with the guys, and some critical work about their game.
“It is about making sure we peak at the right time and then, post-Christmas, it will be far more full-on with their cricket.
“Not many sports have a five-month pre-season so we have to utilise that as well as we can, and make sure we get that balance as effective as possible.”
