Cricket coaching, fitness and tips - Coaching

How the Golfers Review Process Helped a Shane Warne Prodigy to Success

Millfield — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 06:07:30 +0000

I have the pleasure of working with a talented leg-spinner every few months. He is a top little fella, only 10 years in age and growing at the same rate of knots as a sweet corn field in the middle of a perfect summer. He first tried leg spin at the age of seven on a cricketing holiday we run out in St Lucia and has persevered with the toughest skill in cricket ever since.

His progress has been really good although the boy seems to be the only person in the world who doesn’t see that.

When he receives praise he discounts it. When asked if he can recall his most memorable experience from the day, he will talk about being hit for 4 or a ball that was dragged down into a long hop. It’s been a shame to hear his view of his bowling as this must represent his experience. In contrast, my onlooker experience is one of joy and excitement every time I see him bowl.

The brutal game

Cricket is a brutal game, full of failure and often, we cricketers reflect this in the way we speak and the way we think and act. I recall the Somerset 1st XI using a match analysis system back in 2002. It was groundbreaking stuff in the English County game at the time with every ball being filmed, tagged and analysis which then created archives of data and film which we could use as a coaching and development tool.

In one early game, Somerset were bowled out for 310 in less than 3 sessions on a pitch that would keep the seam bowlers interested across all 4 days play. 310 ended up being the highest innings score of the game yet each dismissed batter only watched their last ball on the system; the ball which dismissed them.

I noted that each batsman replayed the same ball over and over again, compounding their suffering and mental turmoil. It was fascinating viewing. Subsequently, I drew up some guidelines to help us use the system more effectively as a group of batters.

To analyse our dismissal trends, yes, but to also create highlight reels for each player, to establish statistics for different bowler type, built a synopsis on how each player performed in their first 20 balls at the crease and identifying the ‘weak spots’ and ‘sweet spots’ when it came to length of delivery faced and scoring areas exploited.

This data, with careful feedback, started to take the players out of their last ball dwelling mode towards a more proactive & positive review process.

Golfing crossover time

I thought about that applying a similar approach with the Leg spinner but then listened to a conversation between two keen golfing friends.

Neither of them are world beaters and both play off a handicap of 16 but the way that they appraised their round (of 87 and 89 shots respectively) was in stark contrast to my young leg spinner and the Somerset batters at the turn of the millennium.

My two mates spoke only about their good shots, their longest drives, their occasional lovely chips and their three 10 foot+ putts. These words were influenced by their memories in their heads which reflected their experience on the course.

So I came up with the “amateur golfers review” concept for cricketers!

Review process

And then took the approach into a conversation with the young leggy in question. For context, he had just taken 2-14 in 3 overs at the end of a T20 game which had effectively bowled his team to an unlikely victory.

“How well did you bowl today under that immense pressure Buddy! Awesome!” I asked.

“But I got hit for two 4’s Garas” was his predictable response.

“Shane Warne has been hit for more 6’s in Test Match Cricket than any other bowler in history! He also got 708 Test Wickets among the way fella” was the start of my pitch with my new golfing review product.

I followed up by speaking about the different way that cricketers and amateur golfers review the game and retain motivation. It only takes one “sweet as a nut” ball off the face of a driver to inspire the golfer to come back out the next day and do it all over again.

I asked the leggy to go away for the evening and think about this golfing approach in relation to his bowling experience from the T20 game and see if he viewed his experience (a winning one!) any differently.

I didn’t work directly with the leggy in his next session but caught up with him for lunch a couple of hours later. I asked him how he bowled in the net session that morning. His response was music to my ears!

“I bowled really well today Garas. A few short balls but I had 3 clear wickets when the ball came off of my spinning finger perfectly”

Initially, this idea was geared around batting. My fellow coaches, Pete Crocombe (golf handicap of 3) and Johnny Griffiths (golf handicap of 6) believe that golf and golfers are more interlinked with the task of bowling and the mindset of bowlers.

In our discussion they protested that in golf, you always get another chance to hit a brilliant shot or putt, whereas in batting, this is not the case. As bowlers, we can be hit for 6 and then be a hero next ball when we take a wicket.

Both experienced golfers also recognised that you are being proactive as a golfer. You put (not putt) the ball into play just as you do as a bowler. No other person has ultimate control over what you do in both golfing and bowling examples whereas a bowler, fielder and umpire can significantly influence the ultimate outcome of your momentary experience when you are batting.

Sage points I sensed.

And this bowling bias approach bore out in the initial success of the “Golfers Review” process with the Shane Warne prodigy.

So would the golfers review work for a batter at all?

There is only one way to find out! Give it a go and let me know.

The Thompson Reaction Drill

Millfield — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 07:40:00 +0000

This drill of the week is great fun, a super reaction and decision making drill and we like to use it as part of a warm up to get the hands, eyes and “grey matter” prepared for the intensity of a coaching session or a match.

Whilst reaction drills aren’t new, (I can remember doing them with Alan Knott back in the 1990’s as part of England wicket keeping group) Matthew Thompson (One of our coaches) has bought some revised versions into the Millfield Programme in recent months.

Matthew is leaving us to take up a Talent Development Manager role with Cricket Wales after doing a good job with us over the past 14 months. Matthew is one of life’s great “games and drills” designers.

Most of Matt’s games don’t make a great deal of sense to me as a stubborn and boring old coach; yet the pupils seem to engage and enjoy the multifaceted and ever changing rules and objectives. Their engagement is far more important than mine so it doesn’t really matter if I can’t keep up!

The associated video shows how much the pupils enjoy the drills and embrace the challenge that creates around them. The great thing about this drill is that it incorporates decision making under pressure.

Matt randomly and rapidly delivers a variety of balls into the catcher from behind a cricket bag. The player can’t see which ball is coming next in the sequence, they have to identify the ball, catch it and then choose which of the 3 boxes (or buckets) they place the respective ball.

Skills developed include:

Reactions
Peripheral vision
Identifying detail/association with task
Decision making
Fine motor skills
Dealing with pressure
Speed
Movement patterning
Spatial awareness
Catching

and many, many more

Drill Set up:

Matt set up 3 boxes/buckets & has a variety of different balls to throw. There are 20+ balls per round. Matt insisted on one handed catching ONLY

Middle Box/Bucket: Tapeballs (tennis ball which has electrical tape bound around it to make it firmer and more realistic to catch. We use these balls in our tapeball programme at school)
Right Box/Bucket: normal tennis balls
Left Box/Bucket: Any other ball (incrediball, cricket ball, sand filled Ball)

We have to make quick decisions about whether to leave, defend or attack on each ball. We make decisions ahead of calling with “Yes, No and Wait”. Front foot to back foot. Straight bat or cross bat.

As with all the decisions listed above, we have found that players who have repeated this kind of drill at the start of each session become more adept at their decision making and also more precise with their Ball placement when dropping the balls into the respective box/bucket. The more you practice in a deliberate fashion the better you get I suppose.

Drill progressions

Pace: Increase the velocity of the throw as the player develops their skills.
Frequency: increase the frequency of throw to challenge the fielders developing skills.
Distance: reduce distance to further challenge the player.
Different ball weights and sizes: develop fine motor skill adaptability with different ball dimensions and weights.
Word Association: As if that drill doesn’t look or feel challenging enough, Matt also throws in some extra distraction in the form of word association. For example, when the player identifies a randomly fed golf ball is coming towards them they must shout a word.Matt asked one lad to say “Badger!” When he saw the golf ball and another to shout out his favourite cricketers name when the golf ball was thrown.
Dodge: get out of the way of a specific ball rather than catching it.

In the meantime, thanks Matt for providing our programme with your drills and games legacy. I am sure that the Cricketers in Wales will enjoy your innovative training methods as much as the boys and girls at Millfield School. See you soon bud.

How to Practice Indoors to be Ready for for Outdoor Cricket (It's Easier Than You Think)

David Hinchliffe — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 08:49:00 +0000

One of the biggest problems in cricket practice is moving from indoor surfaces in winter to spring and summer outdoor pitches.

It's such a huge difference in conditions that I know of many players who hate to have any kind of indoor net. They would rather do nothing. Why is this?

I think it's mainly about adaptation. If you spend - as many UK clubs and schools do - seven months with indoor nets alone you get used to it. Your style of play changes. Then you start the season on a totally different surface and your game is off kilter. It may take you a whole month to adapt back again.

Here are the differences:

Run ups are shorter, meaning less pace from the seamers Indoor length is shorter than outdoor. This is because of extra pace and bounce and batsmen who hit out forcing your length back.
The ball swings more indoors, meaning bowlers adjust line.
The ball turns less, meaning spinners adjust pace and line.
You tend not to bowl in spells, but in turns, making finding rhythm harder.
Batsman attack more, making finding a realistic line and length more difficult.
Impact is greater on knees and ankles, meaning you can bowl less and need more time to recover. The risk of injury is higher.

So, for example, if you bowl outswing, your indoor back of a length ball pitching on middle and leg and hitting off stump becomes an outdoor slow short ball down the leg side.

It's similar for batsmen,

Timing is upset by the ball coming on faster And bowlers bowling from a yard over the crease line. If you ever had an early season leading edge after spending the winter knocking the ball through square leg, you know what I mean.
Bowlers don't bowl the same lines and lengths as they would outdoors.
You don't bat for very long, and when you do it's against variable ability bowlers bowling in turns.

Fixing indoor net practice

That's a lot of problems. Can we fix them?

Yes, we can!

Firstly, it's about attitude. The problems of indoor nets must be seen as a challenge to overcome, rather than an impossible barrier. If we give up and don't go to nets, we better be gun players to justify no practice! And when we do turn up, we need to embrace the challenge with new ways of training.

Putting aside the issues with the basic structure of net practice (one batter, many bowlers, take turns) here are some simple tweaks to our cricket practice we can easily make to manage the transitions from inside to outside.

Play like outdoors

The easiest change to make to bowl and bat like you are playing an actual cricket game.

This might be as simple as setting your target length in PitchVision and bowling it no matter how the batsman plays. Or using cones in a low tech version.

When batting, you play like you would in a game. Imagine a score and a field and think how you are going to make runs in this situation. There are a load of games you can play to help with this like the 10 point net and the 421 runs net.

For even more realistic a feel, bat in pairs and bowl in overs.

Separate skills

A more dramatic way to make nets feel more outdoorsy is to separate the bowling and batting: Bowlers bowl at a target, batsmen work with throwdowns, Sidearm or bowling machine.

While this isn't always practical or desired, it does serve as a way to freshen up the practice. It allows people to work on things without worrying about anyone else. You can do technical work, or work on tactics without the wrong kind of feedback from the other end.

So, if you are a bowler who wants to bowl faster, you can do technical walk-throughs to lock in a better action without having to concern yourself over giving a batsman a hit. As a batsman, you can work on strike rotation of length bowling by having someone give throw downs in the area you want. Try asking a group of six bowlers to hit length on off stump every ball and see how it goes!

Slow down

One of the biggest challenges is to make the ball behave as it would in the middle: Pace, bounce, swing and spin are all different. How do we slow it all down?

Before I tell you how to sort it out I want you to consider one thing; how different is it really? Pitches and weather conditions vary a lot even outdoors. There are days when playing outside is not that different to inside.

Even when the difference is larger than usual, isn't adaptation one of the keys to good cricket?

For many, the answer to indoor net problems is simple; get on with it. Learn to be adaptable, build a technique that allows you to be in control whatever the conditions and then hone it to excellence.

That said, there are things you can do to help further,

Bowl a fuller outdoor length.
Bat with two mats instead of one laid down to dull the pace and bounce.
Turn a mat upside down to make it spin.
Use the bowling machine at a reduced pace to make you wait for the ball longer when batting.
Ask bowlers to bowl within themselves (it's easy with short run ups) for less pace and more waiting on the ball.

Finally, I would argue that once you get outdoors, the ideal is not not go back inside again. I know that is not always practical and sometimes - in rainy conditions - to get anything done at all you need to use an indoor net. My view is that as long as you try to get and stay outside you will be fine, even if weather drive you back in again.

Summary

Moving from indoors to outdoors is a challenge, if you let it be one.

There are many ways to manage it, but they key is to be adaptable. Use the resources you have to make the most of things. It won't hurt your game if you practice with match intensity and slow your roll.

The biggest mistake is thinking indoor practice is harmful To your form. If you manage it right it will always help you.

How do you manage it?

Catching is a Mindset

Millfield — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:12:48 +0000

You can never become too good at catching, right? So this has been a major emphasis as we embark on a new season.

The Millfield School teams may not always be the best XIs in the country but they are full of players who love to catch and players who know that catching is one of the key strands in the DNA of a Meyers XI (our most senior XI) cricketer.

It has been fantastic to watch the players collecting katchet ramps, Crazy Catches, hitting bats and lots of balls to practice their catching skills and make their hands sufficiently robust for the rigours of early season fielding (in the cold)!

One of our U15s is lad who will end up being a very good fielder. He has the most important ingredient that any fielder could possess: Passion for fielding!

I have yet to work with or meet a world class fielder who doesn’t like fielding. Fielding is a mindset first; and then a physical activity. If you don’t love it then you are unlikely to become a world class fielder.

The challenge that this young cricketer has is that he is very small in stature. His body gets into relatively good positions yet the ball regularly breaks through his hands and he drops too many catches. In order to help him develop and to give him a confidence boost I increased the challenge of a recent catching practice.

The weight of the ball that he was catching by nearly 6 times heavier than a normal cricket ball. It was a 32oz (907g) ball!

Initially, the fielder did not receive any technical information at all. He was simply asked to catch the ball either with 2 hands or 1 hand.

I was interested to see if the increased load had any impact on his technique, his movement and his catching shape; the shape of the arm. If we can retain a 90 degree angle at the elbow then it means that our head is close to our hands which helps control and precision. The catching shape also helps us to absorb the force of the ball.

The fielder in the video automatically creates as near perfect catching shape on all the balls thrown with the 32oz ball in the 1st round. He moves well to balls thrown into his right and takes the ball cleanly and consistently. A massive technical improvement.

The other thing that I noted whilst working through the round was that every time the ball went low, the fielder would catch the ball but pull his head slightly to his right which broke his head/hand alignment. Whilst he didn’t drop the ball in this exercise, it did take my mind back to some dropped practice catches by the same fielder during last summer.

This was my only coaching intervention in the session and he started to correct his alignment in the second round of catches when the ball went low which was good to see.

By increasing the stimulus (Weight of the ball) the fielder organised his body to withstand the increased weight. His catch became stronger and in review he recognised that this needed to be transferred into 156g cricket ball catching also.

He has been out every day this week doing exactly that with his best mate. Awesome stuff!

Which is Best: Nets or One to One Training?

David Hinchliffe — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:55:00 +0000

If you have cricket training options, which is best?

Most cricket training happens with groups or teams. We get together with our teammates and have a session. There is also the classic "one to one" training, where a coach and player get together for an hour or so to work on something specific. Finally there is the middle ground of small group sessions with two to five players.

With so much flexibility, it's important to know the up and down side of each way of training so you can focus on what is best for you. Let's go through them.

Squad nets

In a group, there is a lot you can get done in a short time with a lot of people. It's no wonder this is the most popular way of training. It's convenient.

It's suitable for very young players learning techniques and older players who want to bat and bowl against each other. I have had sessions with more than 30 players in attendance and been at sessions with only five (less than five and it becomes a small group). With larger numbers of players getting together it's excellent.

It's the only format you can realistically do middle practice. And team fielding practice is a good way to bond players together.

Traditionally, it's also good fun to get together with all your cricket mates for a bit of banter.

Aside from these benefits, there are some down sides.

It's hard to manage well. Players tend to bat for too short a time and bowl for too long. Perhaps the team leg spinner who bats 11 is happy with a few minutes batting and 90 minutes bowling, but the opening batsman who doesn't bowl will feel frustrated. At middle practice, not everyone gets to bat.

It's also difficult to do deliberate practice. Different people have different goals at practice and it's hard to match them up. You can't work on specific techniques or tactics if you are going against the wrong type of player.

One to one nets

The obvious answer to the issues of team practice is a one to one session.

Here you can focus 100% on your aim: Find the right person to train with and you are golden. A good coach can feed balls to you in the right areas, you can bowl at a cone or on PitchVision, or throw at a stump and get instant feedback. You can take your time to discuss things and try things in a safe environment.

In other words, you get a lot more done in a hour one to one than you would in three hours in a squad session.

That's not to say it's all roses.

Apart from the lack of team bonding and banter, your training is detached from the reality of the match. You don't have other people around to put the same pressure on you. The chaotic nature of a cricket game where anything could happen is removed as you hone in on specifics.

If you struggle with decision making and playing under pressure, one to one sessions have limited use to you (unless your coach is very creative and experienced).

Finally, it's a lot harder to set these sessions up. If your team has a coach he will be limited to how many one to one sessions he can run in a week. If demand is high you could miss out. It doesn't scale well.

And just to go back to the point about banter: It is important to train as a team if you want to play as a team. So, one to one training is never the ultimate answer for cricketers.

Small group nets

The middle ground is a small group of between two and five players. Here you get a lot of the benefits of both other types of training without losing much.

At my club, we run five small group sessions. They last an hour and are broken into batsmen and bowlers. The batsmen can work on batting skills against the bowling machine, sidearm, and bowlers (when they are available). The bowlers can do target practice and if the get fed up bowling can have a bat against their mate. I find a bowling batting against a bowler is more likely to "bat properly" (that is to say, play like a match situation rather than trying to smash everything).

This way, you get some of the team bonding of a squad net, but almost as much focus on specifics as a one to one session. The also coach needs to commit far less time (in my case, five hours instead of 20) meanings they are more realistic to put on.

Naturally, this compromise is not perfect. If you want a fully focused session, one to one is the way to go. If you like to interact with the whole team then you need squad nets. For everything else, small groups are a wonderful choice.

Summary

If you have a choice of the way you train, there are lot of options. Often the coach defines exactly what you do, but if you can you will benefit from all the different methods:

Squad nets ideal are for team building, role setting, larger groups, fielding practice and middle practice.
One to one practice is perfect for working on specific skills with less pressure.
Small group nets allow greater focus than squad nets and allow some team building and role defining elements.

For me, the "best" solution is a combination of all three, balancing out things depending on what you need to do to improve. Work with your coach or captain to work this out on both an individual and team level.

50 Catches Drill and Analysis

Millfield — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 09:19:57 +0000

The days are getting longer, the grass is growing and the groundstaff are rolling the square.

This can mean only one thing.

It's not long until we start bruising our hands in the field!

One of the drills that we have used to increase catching volume, to harden up the hands and to increase the fielding competition within the Squad has been the “50 Catch Drill”. It does exactly what it says on the tin!

Rules of engagement

The hitter has 1 ball (in this case a 3oz bowling machine ball to gradually increase the ball weight as the hands become better prepared – we started with a hard tennis ball in the previous week and will progress to soft cricket balls, and a lesser number of catches, as well head into season).
The hitter has a catching mitt and a tennis racquet (will become a bat when we progress to cricket balls).
The hitter starts the stopwatch just before hitting the first ball and will stop the clock when the 50th ball is caught cleanly.
If the ball goes wide or short of the fielder then “that’s the luck of the draw”. If the ball rebounds of a mat or one of the cupboards behind the fielder and pings 10 meters away then the fielder has to run after it and the clock keeps running. Cricket is random! Just like my hitting.
hit from the same place every time, using the same ball and racquet as to make the drill as consistent as one can. Some strings do ping better than others. Just like some bats go better than others!
The times are shown on the board so players can compete against each other.
After the session, I create a video with notational analysis on it. This helps to identify “Sweet-Spots” and “Weak-Spots” in each person’s catching zone. This helps the player and the coach to clearly identify development areas and technical interventions to help the fielder to become a more rounded and effective catcher.

Here are some highlights from Jules’ 50 catches with notational analysis applied to the video.

Now, these balls are flying! If you don’t believe me then feel free to come along and have a go. There are a number of drops in there but also some incredible catches from a rapidly developing athlete and cricketer.

So what does this notational analysis tell us about Jules?

The still image of Jules’ mark sheet demonstrates that he has a significant “Sweet-Spot” to his right hand side above his waist. His technique and repeatability is sound. He caught beautifully in this zone.

We know (through testing and observation) that Jules can track the ball better with his left eye than he does with his right. So when the ball goes to his right hand side he is forced to rotate his body to visually track the ball most effectively.

As a result, his movements have more purpose and he aligns his hips, thighs and glutes and moves powerfully to intercept the ball. This is a common thing that I spot in many catchers. They are better catchers of fast moving balls that go their non-preferred eye tracking side.

He was 100% when the ball was waist high on his right hand side and above and has a 78.4% success rate when the ball goes to the right of his centre line.

His weaker spot is from knee to toe level. Jules’ catching % was 43.5% in this area. Our technical interventions are now to get his head closer to that height of ball, creating a more acute catching shape angle at the elbow whilst encouraging a more effective dip of the head to help him track the ball for longer.

Secondly, there is a left to right split that can help us to load his future practice and the visual imagery on the screen helps us to identify some technical interventions which will help him to be more successful on his left hand side. Again, the head dip will help Jules to track the ball better and a balance between rotation (to align himself better to his target) whilst not taking his left eye away from the incoming action are our key points to increase his Left hand side catching percentage from its present level of 43.5%

Interdisciplinarity:

Other areas of exploration include Jules having an updated movement competency screening with our practitioners at MISW (Millfield Institute of Sport). It worth knowing if there are any mobility or strength deficiencies which are restricting Jules ability.

Jules is presently ranked 5th in the Meyers XI Squad on the 50 Catches Drill stopwatch but the drill is also helping us to identify development opportunities whilst making his hands game ready for the upcoming season.

Are those hands ready?

Crash Mat Spin Bowling

Millfield — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 08:38:30 +0000

As you may be aware, I love working with Spinners, especially leg-spinners. I’m lucky to be able to work with a few Leggie’s which includes 14 year old Michael.

I think that the shift from U13 Cricket into U14 Cricket is one of the most difficult transitions that a spinner can face. They move from 21 yard pitches to 22 yards and have to do this when using a ball which is bigger and heavier than the one that they used the previous season.

No wonder the ECB and Cricket Australia are adapting their practice to incorporate shorter pitches to enhance skill development in younger players.

I see many leg spinners at this age muscling the ball down the other end of the extended pitch which takes most if not all of the previously acquired skill out of the young bowler.

As a result of this, I have challenged myself to help young spinners to develop stronger actions which then give their fingers and wrists the opportunity to do the job that is intended (spinning the ball) rather than adding more “ooommmpppphhhh” to help the ball get down the other end.

The best way that I have found to achieve this is by asking the bowlers to run up and bowl on soft crash mats. Despite looking a bit odd, the drill really works a treat.

In this case, I decided to create instability under Mike’s feet on deep crash mat which overloads his technique and encourages adaptation by increasing stress and physical challenge.

The increased level of stress encourages the body and the brain to facilitate change, encouraging accelerated skill adaptation and progression.

The video demonstrates the process that we went through the other day. Mike was a little labored in his early deliveries, he was finding it difficult to generate sufficient energy and momentum towards his target.

Whilst we were focusing on the process (with him bowling into the net) rather than the outcome of the ball landing and reacting off of a surface), Mike reported back to me that he didn’t feel as if he was creating a huge number of revolutions on the ball.

So after showing him the first couple of Slo-motion videos, I dragged a couple of crash mats over to the net and asked him to repeat his process bowling drill into the net on the crash mats.

This implicit drill worked wonders for Mikes energy through the crease. The way he used his legs, torso and shoulders to “bowl” rather than “muscle” the ball was pleasing to see.

England Lead Fast Bowling Coach Kevin Shine is a big fan of this way of coaching his fast bowler. Kev looks to create problems to develop the need for the bowler to solve the problem. This is exactly what we are doing here with Michael and his leg spin.

The video shows excerpts from Just 20 minutes of one session. We will be continuing with crash mat bowling as part of Michaels drill routine tomorrow morning. The the intention is to monitor how Mike uses his action to support his wrist and fingers as he rotated them around the ball into release when bowling on the crash mats. We will then compare the action on the mat to his one when he is bowling on the gym floor.

Finally, once we are happy with his action we will put a mat on the floor and check out how Mikes action, flight and spin loom over the 22 yard pitch.

I’m hoping that his action will be strong and his wrist can concentrate on making the ball spin rather than helping the ball make the “adult” distance!

I shall keep you posted with Mike’s progress in the coming weeks.

Get On With It!

Millfield — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 08:26:41 +0000

This week is all about being able to “get on with it!”

“Get on with it!” has become a bit of a strap line for me over the years as I have applied the saying to so many cricketing situations in so many different environments.

Here is a list of situations that the “Get on with it!” Mantra has helped to shift mindsets and kickstart incredible practice sessions over the years:

Somerset CCC 1st XI Batting: The Team we’re used to batting on exceptional surfaces at Taunton yet were often exposed technically and mentally when we travelled away and played on seaming wickets. So we used to rake up old wickets to get them seaming and spinning and thenk practiced away from the county ground on greener wickets. I got a lot of funny looks initially but once the players heard “Get on with it!” enough then it was incredible to see players challenging themselves and eventually embracing the difficulty of the session.

England Fielding Team: We were in Guyana for ODI preparation with 3 days to go until the next match. Typically, the clouds developed and the heavens opened leaving puddles all over the pitch and the call came from some of the players to get the Team Bus back to the ground so that they could sit in their rooms back at the hotel.

I picked up my baseball mitt, my hitting bat and a bag of balls and said “if anyone fancies doing some slides and dives through those puddles then follow me!”. As I frog marched out of the changing room, I heard the spikes of one players boots following me down the stairs. PD Collingwood, our best fielder, skipped onto the ground wearing an England vest (he still wears them!), a pair of shorts and his swimming goggles!

Colly was diving through these puddles practising his landings and taking some of the best catches going. Water was being displaced everywhere much to my amusement and Colly had the biggest grin across his face. It was brilliant. Within 5 minutes, we were joined by 5 other players and we stayed out in the rain and puddles for a further 30 minutes of fantastic fielding fun.

Colly’s message to his team mates was to “Get on with it!” was inspirational and then the other players started to look for opportunities to work on their fielding on rainy practice days.

Millfield Cricket: No indoor facility and the “Beast from the East”

As with many places in the UK this week, we have been trying to cope with the impact of the “Beast from the East” weather system. It’s been -3C for the last 5 days and now we are snowed in. No cricket weather you may ask.

On the contrary when you have a “Get on with it!” attitude.

The players have really embraced getting out in the cold, wrapped up in their multiple layers as they realise to coin a phrase “Today I will do what others won’t. So tomorrow I can do what others can’t”.

Whilst it is going to be great to have a market leading indoor school next year, the growth and development that people get from pushing their boundaries of comfort out in the frozen and snowy outdoor nets is not lost on me or them for that matter.

Some of the Millfield videos from this week show how you can use “Get on with it!” Conditions to develop growth mindsets for tough conditions and circumstances.

Stop Insane Mistakes With Sane Post-Game Reviews

David Hinchliffe — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 06:44:00 +0000

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Yet how many times after a game have we "reviewed" performance with a bunch of fleeting clichés about bowling better, taking our catches and taking responsibility as a batting unit?

How many times do we actually do something about this complaint other than hope things will change next time?

In my experience, that's rare. We think we are simply out of form and having a net will help the magic fairy sprinkle us again with the sparkling form dust.

But if you really want to stop the insanity, you need a good review after every game.

Reviews don't need flipboards

Of course, the classic image of a post-game review is a team, after getting thumped, are locked in the changing room by an angry captain (or coach) and made to under a death by flipboard rant.

That's not a review, that's someone letting off steam.

A good review doesn't need to be after a loss. It doesn't need hours of discussion and spreadsheets of data. It can be done in a few minutes and - more importantly - has some action to take away that will help in the next game.

Makr Garaway uses a very simple template of "Stop Start, Continue" to bring ideas to the fore quickly. I like that method because it can be applied at any level.

An example of a sane post-match meeting

So let's say your team have just been thrashed, and you are in charge of reducing the chances of it happening in the next game.

So you call the guys together while it is still raw. However the goal here you start to pull out actions to take into training and tactics for the next game.

Maybe a batsman wants to work on something technical (a "start" action). Make an action to cover it off in nets. Not just for one week though, give it three at least. And really make an effort to make the difference.

But mainly, it's not going to be technical changes, it's going to be about attitudes. For example, perhaps the side crumbled under the pressure of an attacking batsman. The "Stop" would be reacting differently under pressure to when you are on top. The action to take is to spend a number of practice sessions adding pressure to nets.

The take-home point here is that if discussion is vital, it's actions that make the difference. Do something with the outcome of the meeting or it's just hot air.

Remember to sing when you're winning

The other big mistake about reviews is that they are only undertaken in extreme losses. The theory goes that when everything is going according to plan there is no need to rock the boat. Just carry on doing what you are doing. You only need to review things when the plans are failing.

Of course, this is nonsense.

It's even more important to "stop, start, continue" review when things are going well because,

It allows you to keep improving
It allows you to prevent a turnaround of form before it happens

So review things after the game, or before a training session, or both no matter what the result.

Make is short, efficient, friendly and - most importantly - sane.

The Buvuma Run Out Drill

Millfield — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 09:52:03 +0000

The guys at school have been working so hard over the past couple of weeks building up their throwing workloads and developing their capacity to create run out opportunities from different angles and positions.

You have seen the attacking and defensive pop up throws in the last couple of articles and to finish off the “going to ground” set we have “The Buvuma”.

Temba Buvuma performed an incredible bit of athleticism to narrowly run out David Warner back in 2016 and we have been inspired to create our own practice drill ever since.

I set up some crash mats and ask the kids to pick up the ball and then dive and throw in one motion. The results are naturally a bit scattergun to start with as they are battling with their momentum, their ability to establish dynamic stability in mid air and trying to focus on a target whilst flying isn’t easy. But over a pretty short amount of time, their competency improves and some sparky things begin to happen.

The key coaching points that I used were:

Attack the ball fast - the more momentum you have, the easier the dive.
Use your last step to launch you into the dive. Temba uses his right leg to create a split second of “hang time” which allows he sequencing of the throw to take place and most crucially gives him time to get visual fix on the target.
Getting even the smallest amount of visual fix on the target will help enormously.

Lastly, learn from your experiments. As you can see in the video, there were a few epic fails at the start of the 1st 20 minute session.

If you accept those failures are a key part of the learning process then you will consciously and sub-consciously use those experiences to build a better technical model which will impact upon the eventual outcome.

We played a couple of games to help fast track both Ned and Tom’s development. The scoring went like this:

Clean pick up 1 point Miss target but still hit the fielding net 2 points Direct hit on the target 5 points

Have 5 goes and see what the points are at the end. Internal competitive players can track their progress from session to session by comparing their scores.

Externally competitive people can simply look to beat their mates

The second game is nearest the Bull!

Just as in darts, nearest the bull wins. 1 throw each.

Last week we had 2 direct hits on the target but their is only one winner!

Here is some footage from the session.

Can you emulate Temba Buvuma and complete a “worldy” Run Out? Give it a go.