Ed Joyce - Fitness interview
Updated: Nov 21, 2018
All time super star, probably the most underrated cricketers of his era. Likened to Gower in his time, bowled lightning bolt bouncers and was once putting pressure on me with the gloves at middlesex! Fantastic skipper, great mentor and extremely well respected in the cricket world. Has little hands though! How on earth he caught a cricket ball I will never know!! 255 First class, 78 ODI, and 1 test match that I had the pleasure of watching in Ireland this year. With almost 20 thousand career runs this is a guy to stand up and listen too!
Ed, thanks for joining me today, how are you enjoying your retirement?
Thanks Scotty, well I was ready to stop so I’m enjoying not playing any more. My knee wasn’t in great shape and having played for such a long time, I felt it was the right decision to hang up the boots. I’m coaching now which is a completely new challenge. I miss the competitive element of playing professional sport but also love seeing someone I’ve worked with achieving success. My shoulder is also pretty sore, slinging balls for hours on end!
Was it always cricket or were you good at most sports in your school days?
I love most sports. I played soccer and rugby to a decent standard in school so they were the winter games. Cricket took over in the summer. I’d completely disappear from my school friends lives during the summer and they thought I was pretty weird playing cricket all day every day in the holidays! My favourite live events now are watching Leinster and Ireland okay rugby.
What made you head towards the cricket pitch to start your career?
Cricket was the game I was best at and enjoyed the most when I was young. I never thought about being a professional cricketer until I had actually played a few games for Middlesex 2’s and realised all these English lads weren’t as good as I’d thought!
Who were your sporting influences back then and did they help you decide – directly or indirectly?
My parents were my biggest influences. They’d be fairly conservative people though and my dad was always trying to convince me to go into accounting or something boring like that even after I’d become a regular at Middlesex. My brothers were my coaches and are still some of the best coaches I know
You and I started at a similar time/era and have seen many styles and trends of fitness training for cricket, how do YOU think cricket fitness has evolved?
It was all fairly amateur back then. Rocking up in March and doing a bit of running and skills work was the extent of it really until about 2003/4. We then started to do a lot more running and weights etc. I’m still not sure it was the best prep as we were all doing the same thing regardless of our body type and position. Personally I did loads more core work and leg strength stuff, especially after my hip op. The foam roller became my best friend. I also fee