The Making Of Anrich Nortje
The preseason training that birthed Anrich Nortje as we know him today.
Anrich Nortje is good at mixing up his lengths. One delivery threatens to kiss the batter on the nose and the next seeks to drill the big toe back into the foot. It is a habit Piet Botha first noticed just after Nortje had just started his career, in January 2017. In the searing Windhoek heat on one of the flattest decks he has ever bowled on, Nortje mixed his lengths as he bowled rockets at the Namibian national team. He made the batters uncomfortable.
Nortje did not take the most wickets on the day, but he created the conditions that allowed the Eastern Province leg spinner to take a bag of wickets on the other end. Nortje has persisted with his approach, batters never know what length he will choose for the next delivery, what they can count on is the high speeds. And he can do it over and over again, over after over, spell after spell. Nortje is strong enough to do that. Here is a primer on the season that turned him into a human rocket launcher:
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Anrich Nortje wanted to bowl fast. He was already fast - faster than most bowlers around him - but he wanted to add an extra yard or two to his pace. He was certain that bowling faster would give him a competitive edge against other bowlers. Nortje was low in the Warriors’ pecking order and was desperate for a breakthrough.
Drikus Saaiman agreed that speed was the most efficient way to gain an advantage over other bowlers. Every fast bowler desires to bowl faster than they do. Nortje had a slight advantage; his bowling action.
Nortje has always had a good action, an action that allowed him to bowl fast. When Piet Botha first saw Nortje bowling for his school, Brandwag High School, in 2010, he was impressed. The 17-year-old was a little rough around the edges, but it was nothing Botha could not help correct.
Nortje joined the Eastern Province academy at 18, immediately after high school. One of the first things Botha worked on with the young seamer was his feet’s alignment in the crease. “Anrich used to block his action off slightly with his front foot which caused alignment problems at point of release, which in turn prevented him from bowling to his potential,” says Botha.
The other thing that Botha worked on was Nortje’s understanding of his bowling action. It was important that Nortje understood his body.
If there was anything Saaiman could do for Nortje, it was to build his capacity to bowl fast for longer. There was no point in bowling fast only to break down after nine or ten overs. Under Saaiman and Botha’s guidance, Nortje would get stronger, develop more efficient mechanics and create more mobility.
Saaiman does not believe in cookie-cutter approaches, he is from the Mike Boyle school of thought; he questions everything. He is not afraid to think outside the box, resulting in a lot of trial and error. Saiman is not afraid to figure things out as he goes along.
“My philosophy is not to believe what the world tells you to believe. Do some reasearch. Find out what is out there in studies and make up your own mind. If it makes sense and you can relay that information in the simplest understandable method to a player,” says Saaiman.
It helped that Nortje believed that Saaiman was there to help him. It was not just blind faith, Nortje asked questions. He was incisive with his questions, he wanted to know the reasons behind each drill and why Saaiman thought it would help him.
When Nortje told Saaiman that he wanted to bowl faster, Saaiman responded that he would do him one better, he would help him find a way to bowl fast for longer by training smarter and with purpose.
“My advice was that he needed to prepare himself in such a manner that once he get the opportunity, he would blow everyone out of the water. I made it clear to him that it was not going to be easy,” says Drikus Saaiman.
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What had started as a relaxed afternoon of people enjoying whisky, beers and braaied meat turned into a strategic planning session. The pair discussed why and how to build up Nortje’s bowling loads to avoid situations where he either underbowl or overbowls. Saaiman wanted to limit the risks of overuse. Nortje and Saaiman still hold the same discussions
Over the next four weeks, Saaiman put Nortje through a routine that would change his life. Over the years, Nortje has added new elements to his drills, stuff that he has picked up from different strength and conditioning coaches, but the core of his training is still what Saaiman taught him in 2016.
In week one, Nortje did general training like every other fast bowler. In the second week they focused on strength training - weights, medicine balls and such. During week three they did strength endurance training. This stage of training drove Nortje beyond the limits of his abilities. In the fourth week they exchanged training strength endurance for activity for explosive movement.
“We still joke that phase three was absolute death, but it did the trick,” says Saaiman. “It’s a phase where everything must go. Absolute fatigue. Very hard training high pace and high reps.”
Saaiman believes in a scientific approach to things. He made sure that Nortje’s loads never reached above 1.5 on an acute chronic ratio during the four weeks where they worked on his strength and conditioning. It was a very structured approach. Nortje’s bowling loads were lower in the periods when he had higher loads of conditioning and vice versa.
Nortje did not just do what he had to do in the gym or training field, he also did the extras, from Yoga sessions to just stretching on his ace. He took ownership of the training.
After four weeks with Saaiman, Botha took over Nortje’s training sessions. Initially, they needed to understand the sequence of his bowling action. They broke it down and dissected it using video footage.
“We wanted to ensure that all his energy from his run-up to left foot load-up, to his position at back foot impact, to his position at the point of release and his follow-through was all aligned and channelled towards the target,” says Botha.
Botha did not expect Nortje to improve and become efficient overnight. Nortje enjoyed early success in his first-class career. But, he did not let this get to his head. During the 2016-17 season, Nortje made his debut for the Warriors. He took 20 wickets in four matches. He finished in fifth place on the first-class wickets charts in the 2017-18 season. He was the second-highest wicket-taking seamer that season.
Botha constantly reminded him that he was not yet a finished article or close to becoming one. Those around him say Nortje does not get ahead of himself, it is a trait that served him well during that period. The early successes helped him to appreciate how lethal he could be if he continued his work with Botha.
“His improvement was gradual. We worked on small checkpoints over a period of around three years. He now knows exactly what works for him and what he needs to fall back on when he feels slightly out of sync,” says Botha.
Before the 2016-17 season, Nortje’s front foot remained bent at the knee at the point of delivery. By 2019, Botha got him to completely straighten his leg out, his body bent at a 90-degree angle at the waist. The wish he had shared at a relaxed braai, with Cliff Deacon present at Drikus Saaiman’s home in 2016 had come true; he now had speed. Terrifying speed. He could summon it at will and could bowl long spells.