Bradford Bulls forward John Bateman gains muscle mass to match his teammates’ size
John Bateman, the English Bradford Bulls forward was so small when he was taken on board that he had a hard time looking for an appropriate gym partner for himself but now the story has completely changed.
After long sweaty hours in the gym, Bateman is no longer small because his hard work has paid off well. He is now all buffed up, 6 feet 2 inches Bradford Bulls emerging star.
While recalling how he had vowed to match up to size of his Bull teammates, Bateman said, “When I signed at 17, I only weighed 11-and-a-half stone. I was so small that there was nobody in the team that I could work with in the gym. I’d look around and see
how huge everybody else was and at the massive weights they were lifting and wonder how I was going to cope. I told myself I had to work extra hard to get up to their level and I’ve been lifting heavier and heavier weights. Now I’m 15 stone, so I’ve put on
three-and-a-half-stone over a year, and I now I feel like I can hold my own.”
In his very first season with Bulls in 2010, Bateman marked his place by just playing four games, which led to his appointment as a skipper for the England Academy side. He has been acknowledged as an emerging talent, who was commendable in his side’s 22-20
defeat against Australia making Bulls coach Mick Potter and captain Jamie Langley proud.
Bateman showed his true spark as soon as he joined in with Bulls. It was believed that the player’s inclusion in squad will add to the quality of the game played by them.
Rightly so, his true talent had surfaced in his very first game, which was even astonishing for his teammates, such as Michael Platt, who did not realise that how well the player could adapt to the game.
Platt also shared that Bateman was so exceptionally skilled that he could easily say that he is a future star, who had everything it takes to shine in the world of rugby league.
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