THE WAGNER MANTRA Run, bounce, repeat - The Wagner code Bharat Sundaresan Share Tweet

"I actually bowl one or two (short deliveries). I don't bowl many because it takes so much energy out of you" - Wagner ©Getty

Neil Wagner speaks to Cricbuzz about his unique fitness drills that keep him going tirelessly with ball in hand, how he doesn't like being only associated with the short-ball and how his motivation to succeed is defined by his past.

EXCERPTS:

There is generally more talk about your ability to run in for long spells tirelessly than your skills with the ball. What is Neil Wagner's fitness schedule like?

As a kid growing up, I bowled a lot of overs. Because I did that a lot from a young age, your body grows into having that muscle memory of bowling a lot of overs. Fitness-wise, our trainer Chris Donaldson works really hard with us. In the winter, when I do have some time off and if I'm not playing County Cricket, I train Monday to Friday with the weekends off. So, it feels like work. It's twice a day so it's running in the mornings and gym sessions in the afternoon. So, that takes up most of your day and you're pretty knackered at the end of it.

When you talk about running, I read you do a lot of sprints building up from 100 m, 200m, 300m, 400m?

At the Bay Oval, we get timed and you have to time your run. You try and beat that every time you do it. Every time you do it, you put a shuttle on or increase the load. You sprint 100 meters, a minute rest, 200 meters, a minute rest, 300 meters, a minute rest, 400 meters, a minute rest. It's one of my favourites. We normally start with 2 sets and the next week 3 sets, then 4 sets and then 5 sets. 5 sets is pretty tough and it takes you over 27 minutes to half-hour. It is a lot of sprinting at once and it sort of gets your body used to that running and bowling and having a bit of time off and then running and bowling. Then we've got the Mount session where you try and run up the Mt Maunganui summit in within around 10-12 minutes. A lot of people go up there as a scenic, nice walk, and you're running up and feel like you're going to throw up. Sometimes it's tough in the winters when you have to do it by yourself.

Do you have your own individual routines in the off season?

I've tried to take up golf seriously in the last little while. Sometimes between all that chaos and hard work during the winter, I try and find Wednesdays and Saturdays, even after the gym to play some golf. It's time on your legs when you are walking around playing golf the whole day. It's sort of similar to spending a lot of time on the outfield. Other than that, I have got a dog that I spend a lot of time running around the beach with. That's quite good, running on the sand. I do also like resting and not doing too much and putting the body on ice.

How different are your gym sessions, not only as a fast bowler, but also as someone who loves to run so much?

When I started doing those heavy weights, I didn't like them. I was quite stubborn and didn't want to believe in them, which as a young kid you can be quite ignorant. You don't think those kinds of things are going to make you stronger or better. You sort of feel that it's quite hard because it does put a lot of strain on your body. It does make your body feel sore at times. But once you get the relationship that we have with Chris and you get that trust that he knows what he's doing and it's only going to benefit you, and you start seeing the rewards, The difference between the batters and bowlers is that we do a lot of squats and upper and lower body strength. With the Black Caps, we all do it. Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls are some of the guys who squat the most in the team too. As a team, we like to push each other in the gym and be competitive as well. And the guys put some very good numbers. The flip side is that we've got some Sevens' and some Rugby boys training in this gym as well, and they push us as well.

You don't like talking about yourself too much but there must be something that works for your fitness wise even extra, because you don't just run in and bowl long spells like you did in those hot conditions in Australia, but you are running to your mark at the end of each over, and after each ball you are running from the ropes to the stands and signing autographs and posing for selfies and running back. You do realize you are a freak.

(Laughs) It comes with passion. It's loving what you do. I think whenever anything is hard and you don't love it, you're not going to try hard to push through the barrier. I'm very lucky and fortunate to have that opportunity to play Test cricket, but you never know when it's your last day. I don't want to look back at my career and say I was too tired or couldn't really push extra a little bit more to find that extra percent. Play every game as if it's your last. I am a passionate guy and love playing and representing New Zealand. Every time I play, I want to do what's my best, and that is to have a lot of energy and try and be as strong as I can on the day for the team. When you go to bed and are quite sore, and everything hurts and aches, when you have a Test win and you've contributed to the team, there's no more satisfying feeling than having an ice-cold beer with your friends and making memories for a lifetime.

When you were growing up in South Africa, your family went through some tough times, when your father lost his business and you guys were in not a great shape. How much of that drives you, the lessons that you learnt as a child to lose everything and to start from scratch.

Played a massive role, a massive role, seeing what my parents have gone through and seeing how hard they still work. They still live in South Africa. They watch countless nights without sleeping with the different time zones, follow us and watch us and thoroughly support us. Something I am always grateful for, and their support and what they've done. As a family growing up, we didn't have a lot but there were so many people who supported us and helped us along the way. You're always grateful towards those people. I feel my way of playing cricket and doing the best I can is sort of a way of paying them back. I do think it plays a big part of who I am and how I play my cricket. Learning not to take things for granted. Knowing that things can be one way now and you could lose everything tomorrow. It keeps your feet firmly on the ground.

Did the young Neil Wagner back then also think along similar lines? Have you always been this mature and practical?

No not at all. I think as a young kid, you sometimes feel because of that, life owes you something. And you feel like because things are hard, things need to happen for you. I think everything happens for a reason in life, and that's why I came to New Zealand. To go that extra step to fly with that one suitcase to the other side of the world to set a life up for yourself. It taught me a lot of different things. Coming over here, you learn for yourself and on your own two feet at the start. It played a massive role in the person I have become today. Very fortunate and I can't be more grateful. The support my wife has given me has been instrumental. She's my absolute rock.

Are your brothers responsible for you bowling all this short stuff?

Yeah they are a little bit. I never got to bat because they wanted to bat always because they're older. And when I got them out, they were never out. So I started bowling short at them, and I got a fair share of short balls back from them. My brothers are two phenomenal sportsmen who played rugby and cricket.

Do you get peeved with this obsession over your short-pitched bowling that other people seem to have more than you do?

Yeah, sometimes people think I'm a one-trick pony. And they see me to be someone who can only do one thing. Like I said, it's me summing up the conditions on the day of the game. If conditions aren't there for me to pitch the ball up, I'm obviously going to do something different. I know it's a strength of mine but I know I've got some other skills and variations as well. That makes the short ball even more effective.

What sticks out is in the nets you don't bowl more than one bouncer in the nets?

I actually bowl one or two. I don't bowl many because it takes so much energy out of you. To bowl a short ball is not easy and to go waste it in the nets. It's something that I fine tune. I know exactly how to do it. And there are going to be times when you get it right and times when you get it wrong. We've got four phenomenal bowlers in Tim, Trent, Colin and Matt Henry. They are the best in the world at pitching the ball up and getting any movement. If they are better than me at it, why should I do it. If I get the chance, then I can obviously show that I can do it. I do have the skills too. But it's whatever they need and if I have to go short then I go short.

But it is rather remarkable that the one skill you're renowned for and you are really good at needs no practice. Can you see how odd that is?

It is odd. But it's also an odd thing to run in and keep bowling bouncers. It is something that comes natural to me. It's something that as a kid growing up, it's always got me wickets. It's always helped me create some pressure on the batsmen. So to be able to know that it's in your armoury is something that's really good. To keep ticking away at it, because I'm bowling it so much in games, you don't need to train for it in the nets. Sometimes you don't want to play around with it too much.

What is your mind-set like when you are employing that tactic. Are you always sure of where your bouncer will go? What are the numbers you looking at, getting 80 out of 100 right?

You are going to miss some. There are sometimes ones that I want to bowl that are above the shoulder are counted as one for the over. But then there are those that I want to go under but they go above and you're annoyed with yourself. It does happen. I do believe that I get it right more than what I get wrong. But I feel you are going to get it wrong but that's the nature of this game but you obviously strive for perfection. And when you miss, you go back and work on it. It's a strength of mine but I also don't get too carried away with it. I know cricket is a tough game and you're going to get days when someone's going to get on top of you and then you're going to be able to adjust to that.

You got really excited with a ball that swung in the nets and kept asking Tom Latham if it had swung. Are those the kind of skills you are working on in the nets?

Oh yeah, getting a wicket with a ball swinging and hitting the stumps is more exciting for me than getting a wicket with a short ball. Hitting the stumps or nicking a guy off a full-length does excite me more. It looks a bit more conventional. If I get a wicket a different way, I'm still grateful for that but it's something that I work really hard on the nets to try and get some sort of movement if any. I want to still be able to move the ball. There's no point in bowling a ball straight up and down. Players are too good for that. In the nets, you can tinker around and ask the batsmen what you've done. Then you can put it back in your mind and make some mental notes, if it's a cross-seam or a three-quarter delivery or a seam-up delivery, then you play around with different ways of holding a seam and if it has done something then you know you can work on. I'm always trying to get something new like the knuckle ball and other slower balls and different variations.

So are you saying getting rid of Steve Smith on so many occasions in Australia wasn't your biggest high?

I know Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell I have got lbw a couple of times. And that was a set plan from before the game started. For me it was trying to go full, sort of yorker length, left-arm swing in and hit the pads. And when that comes off, it's really satisfying. It's the same with Steve Smith. I had the plan to go short to him because he is a freak and talented batsman. He scores in odd areas. You think you have your field in one place and you're going to block him up, and he dominates the field in different areas. For me, it was a way of not just getting him out but drying him up by not letting him to score. When I did pitch it up, he wasn't as effective then to dominate the field because he was hanging back on the short ball. So he's a class act. The way I know him, I'm sure that the next time I play him, he will have a way of combating it.

With regards to longevity, what you do, with the overs you bowl, hasn't been done too often in Test cricket. What is longevity for you and how do you plan for that? Can you think about cutting down the overs at some stage?

No, for me it's about wanting to do something over a long period of time. We always talk about the long game. There are a lot of times when Kane wants to take me off and I keep asking and pleading saying one more because you sort of as a bowler get an inkling or feeling that you might be able to get a wicket or get something happening. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Kane gives you the extra over and it doesn't happen and other times it does.

How much has the attitude towards life changed since the days you felt life owed you something? You almost sound like you owe your adopted country your service.

I wouldn't use the word owe. I wouldn't consider myself a people-pleaser but I love satisfying people. As a 16-year-old to about 18-19 thinking that you've gone through tough stuff in life and the world owes you something and learning it to the hard way that it's not how it works and getting to a point where you really have to work hard for something and if you really work hard, regardless of your talent or skill there is a way. To win Test matches for New Zealand is the absolute pinnacle for me. I will give everything else up and playing any other format or whatever to play Test matches and win it for them. And you experience something like what happened to us in Australia, you have to go toughen up mentally refreshed and be able to do it again. It's about giving back something to everyone who's given me so much.

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