Former Crows Stephen Schwerdt putting fitness touches on Redbacks
Stephen Schwerdt relied on hard work to play 25 AFL games with the Adelaide Crows. Now, the fitness guru is putting his theories to work with South Australia’s leading cricketers.
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Chadd Sayers refused to concede to the sweltering heat and kept pounding the crease as the Redbacks’ strike weapon in the 2016-17 Sheffield Sheffield final against Victoria in Alice Springs.
The temperature soared beyond 40 degrees and the Vics, needing only a draw to claim the crown, dropped anchor for a lengthy stay at the crease.
On a flat wicket offering little encouragement for the bowlers, Sayers sent down 24 overs on the opening day.
He backed up with another demanding workload on day two.
SACA fitness guru and former Adelaide footballer Stephen Schwerdt admits that was his “tipping point” when he realised fast bowling was “hard yakka”.
“That was as demanding as any sport I had come across,” Schwerdt said.
“The first four days were over 40 (degrees Celsius) and the Redbacks fielded for nearly two days.
“Sayers bowled 24 overs on the first day and covered more than 22km.
“What you can’t measure is the load on the bowler when he hits the crease.
“Then, he bowled the next day.
“There are not too many sports where you have got to do that.”
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Schwerdt played 212 league games for Central District and made 25 AFL appearances in four seasons with the Crows.
After retiring in 1997, he had two years as Neil Craig’s right hand man in the fitness department, before taking on the top performance job for 12 years.
There was another three years as high performance manager at Gold Coast Suns, before taking his knowledge and enthusiasm to cricket.
Schwerdt notes there were some “unbelievable athletes” at the Crows, but the player who stood out as the best he worked with was defender Ben Hart.
“I remember when we played together, no-one wanted to do one-on-one drills with him because he had it all, you could not get away from him because he was so quick,” Schwerdt said.
“He was one of the quickest players and in the top couple for endurance.
“He was also one of the strongest, something underrated because he wasn’t the biggest guy.
“He was as strong as an ox, and powerful.
“If we did the vertical jump, he would be top – him and Nigel Smart.
“He was lean and didn’t carry weight, so he ticked all the boxes as a physical specimen to play the game.
“There might have been other guys quicker, or beat his 3km trial time occasionally, or stronger in the gym.
“But as a whole package, Ben Hart ticked them all, and he thrived on hard work.”
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Schwerdt’s passion for fitness was born as a teenager playing football in the Elizabeth suburbs when, encouraged by a couple of coaches to train hard, he lifted the workrate to compensate for lacking the talents of the leading players in his teams.
It was an attitude which had him well prepared when he joined the Bulldogs and had the opportunity to train alongside “great role models” such as club legend Johnny Platten, his brother Patrick and Stephen Connelly.
A physical education teacher by trade, Schwerdt said working with Craig was incredible and that at least 95 per cent of his knowledge was learnt in that period.
However, he had to evolve when he changed sports to cricket in 2015 and there were many lengthy phone calls to John Porter, SACA’s sports science and sports medicine manager, to “pick his brains”.
“I brought the same fundamentals which don’t change no matter what the sport,” Schwerdt said.
“You still need high standards and train hard, attention to detail.”
Football is about repeat efforts, according to Schwerdt, and he believed reducing the interchange rotations would allow a more continuous game and fatigue would have a more significant impact.
“Skills would improve more because there will be less pressure on players, players will get free more,” he said.
“Games now involve explosive athletes who have time to recover, so they can pressure each other and create errors.
“Robert Harvery wore players into the ground.
“Players now don’t have a direct opponent and even if they had one, they would be changed if someone was running hard on them.
“There are very few opportunities for a player to work over another.
“Kane Cornes ran one-on-one for the day, he knew he could do that.”
Schwerdt treats cricket as two sports, with batsmen and bowlers requiring different workloads.
The players are tracked during a game with GPS and a summary of their workload determines their subsequent fitness programs.
A batsman dismissed cheaply can expect added training, not as punishment, but to have them prepared for the next game when they could spend six hours in the middle.
For bowlers, it is more about management and fine tuning skills between games, rather than a heavy workload.
Schwerdt said there is a degree of fatigue for cricketers just standing in the field for lengthy periods, prompting walks and hiking of at least three hours in pre-season.
Time on their feet, as reasoned by Schwerdt.
“You need to be prepared for worse case scenarios in cricket,” he said.
“You can field in slips for two hours and right at the end of the session need a maximum sprint to the boundary.
“And they play a lot more cricket these days.
“Travis Head played in Tests, comes back to us for the Big Bash and Shield games and then is off to England for County cricket.
“It is a full year for him.”
While most are protective in football, cricket is a good sharing game when it comes to fitness, according to Schwerdt, and the states meet annually to discuss ideas.
A goal high on the list of priorities for each state’s cricket management is to produce players to represent Australia.
Plus, there needs to be a sharing of information given the movement of players between states for the Big Bash.
“A number of players in the Strikers are from interstate, so we need to share information to know what is happening with them,” Schwerdt said.
“I’m only too happy to share.
“I get a lot of satisfaction seeing someone like Alex Carey come through, the guys who have had to do it a little harder.
“Alex started in the emerging Redbacks with no contract, was in the gym at 6am then studied or worked, before being back at cricket at 5.30pm.
“Jake Weatherald is another to come through the same process.
“What I got out of footy was because I had to do it a little harder.”