Yahoo News England wing Jonny May warns Six Nations rivals: I am even faster now
Pennyhill Park, England’s luxurious training camp in the heart of the Surrey countryside, could soon be confused for the new setting of Fight Club. A few days after Eddie Jones sustained a nasty shiner, Jonny May was yesterday sporting a black eye-head bandage combination usually associated with the Rocky franchise.
The Gloucester wing sustained the injury after a clash of heads in training on Tuesday. He has come back from a lot worse and will start against France at Twickenham on Saturday. It was at Twickenham that May destroyed most of the ligaments inside his left knee playing for Gloucester against Harlequins in December 2015.
No so long ago rupturing an anterior crucial ligament (ACL) was thought of as a career-ending injury. The ACL is the ligament that controls the mobility in the knee. That is particularly important for a player such as May who relies upon rapid acceleration and changes of direction. Many of those who recover from a ruptured ACL, which was the most severe injury in the RFU’s recent annual injury audit, struggle to able to recapture their former peaks.
May, who returned two months ahead of schedule in time for the November internationals, has no such ambitions; he is determined to get quicker and he has evidence to prove he can. “I still feel like I am at an age and stage in my career where I am improving physically as well as tactically,” May said. “I believe I can go faster, of course I do. That was something I asked the surgeon about. Ultimately all the stuff I was doing for my knee rehab like the stability and strength and reactivity is going to make me quicker.”
That should be considered a frightening prospect for defences everywhere considering May, whose personal best for the 100 metres is 10.71 seconds, is already considered the fastest winger in the Six Nations. His faith is based on working with Marlon Devonish, the former British sprinter who was part of Britain’s 4x100m gold medal winning quartet at the 2004 Olympics. Devonish recorded his own personal best in the 100m at the age of 31.
Developments in sports science and physiotherapy have played a significant role in aiding recoveries, but Devonish believes learning correct running technique is just as important in getting May up to speed. “If you go back ten years ago, the technique and biomechanics of how to move in the gym, let alone outside the gym, was very poor. You would sustain an injury and those technical problems would make the condition worse and would often lead to a reoccurrence.
“The work I did with Jonny was looking at the components of speed and giving him an understanding of the principles behind the mechanics. It is not about making him run like Usain Bolt but there are certain components that if you don’t understand will hold you back. once you understand it then you integrate it into training and then into games.
“In Jonny’s case, it was not about making massive speed gains, but the efficiency of his speed. His speed throughout the whole match needs to be sustained for longer so in that last 20 minutes you have more in the tank the opposition then your legs are hanging. If he keeps following those principles, he will get a quicker without a doubt.”
May’s speed drills are extras he does on top of normal training at Gloucester’s Hartpury base. His main focus is plyometrics which focuses on jumping as high off the ground as quickly as possible to develop explosive power.
“You have to keep working on speed, I see it like any other skill that needs to be improved,” May said. “Naturally I have got a bit of sprinting ability but because it is something that is so important to my game and I want to make my strength as strong as it can be. That’s what set me apart really.”
During his arduous rehabilitation, in which he took up colouring-in books to relieve boredom, May received regular correspondence from Jones. “I was surprised in a way that he took the time to message me at numerous points throughout my rehabilitation and to be in his thoughts was a huge motivation for me to work as hard as I could to get back as soon as I could.”
Indeed Jones plunged May straight back into the starting XV for the fixtures against South Africa, Argentina and South Africa. Even though he scored two tries in those games, May felt a long way from his best after a ten month lay-off.
“I was not in the best shape or form going into the autumn internationals but it was awesome to be involved,” May said.
“As soon as I was on the pitch I was getting stuck in and playing the way I wanted to play but I was definitely a bit short of match fitness when I came in for those first games. I found a way to perform reasonably well even though I was not in the shape or form of my life and that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Now May feels he is firing on all cylinders. The 26-year-old was sensational in Gloucester’s last Premiership outing, a 55-19 demolition of Worcester, and wants to take that form into the Six Nations.
“I feel I have been back to my best since the new year,” May said. “I was feeling really sharp in the Worcester game and that was probably my best game of the season. That’s a marker I need to build upon.”
