Cricket coaching, fitness and tips - Wicketkeeping

Wicketkeepers: Are You the Drummer or the Conductor?

David Hinchliffe — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 05:52:00 +0000

The conductor. The sergeant-major. The cheerleader. The Drummer. What is a 'keeper?

England and Kent coach Paul Farbrace tells us wicketkeeper is the drummer in the band: Keeping the beat of the fielding side with tidy glove work and unobtrusive, focused encouragement. Insightful, canny and reliable.

All good things.

He also says the wicketkeeper is the conductor of the orchestra: Controlling the entire ensemble. Energetic and obvious.

Kumar Sangakkara was a drummer: A keeper who goes about his work in a quiet way. If a bad throw comes in he didn't try and tidy it up, he just went about doing his job.

Former England and Gloucestershire wicketkeeper Jack Russell was a conductor: Standing up to all but the fastest bowlers, encouraging his team mates and keeping the pressure on the batsmen.

Split personality

Although all keepers are a bit mad (you have to be to want to do the job), whether they conduct or drum is down to personality: It's something that comes naturally one way or the other.

However, you can learn to do either, depending on the situation.

For example, if your seamers are on, but wickets are not coming, the drummer will offer the odd word of advice and encouragement. The conductor will gee up the fielders and try standing up to the stumps to make something happen.

Neither of these methods are wrong, but one might work better than another.

A bowler might prefer a quiet word (drummer) than a public admonishment (conductor). The batsman might have their fear of failure increased with a keeper chirping in their ear (conductor) or they might hate the silent treatment (drummer).

You can recognise when you need to be more conductor and less drummer, and vice versa.

So the question shouldn't be which is best, but which is most suitable?

Reverting to type

It can be tough for the keeper to have this flexible personality, because in critial moments we find it hard to control our personalities and revent to type. If you have dropped a catch or missed a stumping you naturally go quiet.

It's hard to try and conduct when you have dropped your baton.

That's why the keeper has to be the most resilient to mistakes in the team, because whether you are drumming or conducting, you can't let up the on the opposition, or allow the team energy drop because you have made a personal error.

And that's really what the good keepers are able to do; put their own personality traits aside and take control of the team, either as a conductor or drummer.

Which one are you and how can you develop some of the traits of the other side?

Use the Fumble Challenge to Create Classy Keepers

Millfield — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 08:31:31 +0000

I love it when a new coach comes onto my team, it means that I can start stealing his coaching drills!

Sharing is caring after all: Thank you to Millfield Assistant Coach, Matt Thompson for this incredibly simple, yet brilliant and progressive keeping drill.

The “fumble challenge” is a drill that Matt uses after the keepers have run through their warm up.

It acts as a keeper specific activation drill as well as helping to embed some really good basic keeping techniques and methods at the same time.

Use cones as a target and guide for the thrower. The intention to make other keeper fumble the ball with difficult length feeds.

The things that this drill promotes in its most basic form are crucial to the performance of any keeper when standing up to the stumps:

Good posture
Staying low until ball bounce
Coming up with the ball
Elements of lateral movement whilst staying low
Keeping relaxed as a ball approaches a cone (distraction)
Taking deflections off of the cone (simulating edges or ball reacting from rough patches on the pitch)

Progression: Overarm feed

This is the same drill, this time with an overarm feed into your mate once you have taken the previous ball. This simulates a ball that bounces more steeply meaning that your posture and movement out of your stance are challenged.

The thrower can vary their length mixing in length balls with fuller ones that are directly aimed at the cone. This simulates distraction, uneven surfaces and potential edges.

Progression: More cones

Additional cones can be added to the drill in order to increase the complexity of the various takes and challenges the keeper to stay relaxed as the ball goes into contact with the ground.

Add a cone in when the keeper has mastered the previous number. Some of the keepers that we work with do this drill with six cones on the floor at different lengths and lines.

Keep challenging the basics listed above. The number of deflections off of the cones increases as more are applied to the drill.

This progression is great for developing a keeper’s capacity to take standing up catches or dealing with uneven surfaces and excessive spin.

Progression: Lateral movement

In the second half of the video, we see the keeper simulating leg side movement within the drill to both left and right handed batters.

The feed is delivered to the opposite side of the cone and the keeper moves across in a low fashion to take the ball.

Start with the low ball to promote good posture and low movement. Then introduce a throw from a different height and cones to increase the challenge.

Progression: Different ball types and reactions

We were using tennis balls this morning, just to get the body moving at the start of a session themed around the leg side take.

If you wanted to turn the drill from an activation one into the main theme of the coaching or practice session then you could use different balls to increase the challenge or to make the drill even more functional.

Different ball types bring different challenges and can be used to take the keeper to their next level of technical competence.

Tennis Ball
Taped Tennis Ball – Tends to skid on, great for simulating low surfaces or promoting someone to stay in a good posture for longer
Incredieball – excellent bridging ball for someone who has started with catching tennis balls as they build technique. Also great for confined spaces with windows!
Golf Ball – Ball bounces quickly and therefore a good challenge.
Cricket Ball – totally functional, good for pre-match preparation on a bowl through wicket.
Cricket Ball with thick rubber bands around the seam – Great for increasing the degree of turn and bounce off of the ground surface. Excellent preparation for bouncier surfaces where posture and ability to power out of a good posture from fairly fuller lengths are required.

Keep an eye on the basics listed above as you or your players go through the progressions.

You can then add challenge and complexity in a layering fashion as confidence and competence develops.

Top Drill Tommo!

The Crazy Catch Deflection Drill for Keepers

Millfield — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 08:39:46 +0000

I’m a huge fan of rebound nets for self reliant individual or paired practice when working with keepers and fielders. The Crazy Catch helps sharpen reactions, builds technique and can be used to unlock movement patterns.

The “sane” side of the net is a basic rebounder. The ball comes back in a consistent fashion to the participant. The “insane” side is a double strung rebound net that delivers the ball back randomly. It’s fantastic for testing even the best catchers in the world.

We have “Keepers Club” at Millfield every Tuesday morning before school day begins. It’s a great time for me selfishly as I’m surrounded by pupils who want to sharpen their keeping skills.

This morning we were joined by Ellie, it was her first time at Keepers Club. Ellie is part of our Girls touring squad heading to Mumbai in a few weeks time. Ellie has seen that there is an opportunity for her to keep wicket on the tour and wants to learn some basic skills before getting on the plane in December.

I spent 10 minutes teaching Ellie about the posture which we use as a starting point for Keepers, namely the “Z” position. Ellie is also a gymnast, has a good level of physical competency and found it relatively easy to connect with Keeping specific postures.

I set her up to work out of the “Z” position into a catching position using a Crazy Catch. She worked independently for 10 minutes and must have taken over 100 catches in that time.

I then asked Jamie to come over and show Ellie some of the rebound net drills he uses to simulate standing up to the stumps. Jamie is a County age group keeper-batter. He has been keeping wicket for just over four years.

Ellie stood to the side of Jamie and threw into the “sane” side of the Crazy Catch rebound net. The great thing about the “sane” side of the rebound net is that it gives a consistent reaction meaning you can groove a movement or Catch type and build up significant repetition numbers. This was perfect for a keeper such as Ellie who is starting out on her journey as a keeper.

The ball springs back off of the net and either misses leg stump or clips the stumps, simulating an edge or deflection off of a thigh pad. It’s great practice.

If the ball misses the leg stump then the keeper needs to find a way of moving that allows them to take the ball comfortably and then return the ball to the stumps for a potential stumping.

Notice how Jamie returns the ball in a rhythmic fashion back to the stumps. His body is relaxed as he takes the ball.

It was a great bit of role modelling that an inexperienced keeper could learn from. Ellie learn more from watching Jamie do this drill than I could teach her in 1000 words. That’s the beauty of role modelling and pair-based work.

Ellie then did the same drill with Jamie throwing into the rebound net. The only change I make was to turn the stumps round slightly to reduce the number of deflections and to give her the sense of moving to take a leg side ball. This is a movement pattern that Ellie wouldn’t have done before given that this was her first ever Keeping session.

So whilst her movement pattern is slightly different to Jamie’s (a longer single stride instead of a double movement), it was brilliant to see how quickly Ellie learnt and adapted to the drill.

What a great start for Ellie’s keeping career!

So how can we adapt and scale this drill to open it up to keepers of any experience level or ability?:

Move the Crazy Catch closer or further away dependent on the ability or experience of the keeper. The closer the Crazy Catch the quicker your reactions need to be to move and then catch the incoming ball.
Adjust the speed of the throw.
Shift the vertical angle of the Crazy Catch, this changes the way the ball reacts off of the net.
Experiment with slight turns in angle of the Crazy Catch in relation to the thrower. Notice that we had a couple of different angles during Jamie’s montage which meant that the ball ended up either in line with the stumps or missing leg stump.
Change the type of ball. We used a 4oz bowling machine ball today but we can use tennis balls, Incrediballs or normal cricket balls.
Turn the Crazy Catch around and have a go on the more random “insane” side. Nothing is normal here, the ball could deflect up/down/left or right. Once you feel comfortable with the “sane” rebounds then it’s time to go “insane!”

Rebound Nets are brilliant for so many catching and keeping drills. Use these different scaling options to sharpen kickstart your keeping career. Just like Ellie.

Wicketkeeper Standing Up Drill

Millfield — Thu, 05 May 2016 07:10:00 +0000

Following on from the positive feedback on the standing back keeping drill using the multi-stumps I thought I would follow up with another keeping drill that was given to me recently by one of our International players here at Millfield School.

Tom has developed this drill with Iain Brunnschweiler in a recent England tour to the UAE.

You'll need a Katchet Ramp, multistump, Bat or Skyer and some cricket balls.

The aim is to simulate standing up to the stumps to both medium pacers and spinners, focussing on areas such as posture, hip and shoulder turn, catching area, and the ability to react to significant deflections from a realistic "nick-distance". In other words, to push back the boundaries of what is possible when standing up to the stumps.

Anyone who has seen First-Class Fielding, will be aware of my insistence on coaches continually developing their hitting and feeding drills to fast track the development of batters, fielders and keepers.

The hitter stands close to the Katchet board and aims to hit the ball from the bat onto the board at a relatively consistent pace.

Sounds easy eh?

Practice makes perfect, trust me on that!

My first focus in this practice is to hit the board with as many hits as I could. I actually failed on one occasion at the outset of the video yet because it was the only "miss", Tom perceived it to be part of the practice rather than feeling that I had made the drill breakdown. While it's important that the keeper can adapt to different challenges yet this cannot be every 3rd strike otherwise the flow of the practice will be impacted the keepers experience will be a negative one.

My second focus was to watch the take itself and to pick up on any technical areas that we could probe or question. I often keep a video running so Tom and I can review after a round of 20 balls to see what worked well and what could be sharpened up in the next round.

Standing up drill outcomes

We got some highly realistic deflections in the session off the Katchet and the stumps. The deflections are random and Tom coped well with all that was thrown at him.

The secret to Tom's success is his starting position and posture. He managed to maintain excellent posture throughout the session which provided him with foundation to power and speed to move his catching area to the ball. This posture has taken a lot of work over the past 2 years so it was good for Tom to see this stand up to stress-testing within this drill.

Tom has excellent hip and shoulder rotational ability. He can separate his hip and shoulder girdles very easily and this helps him to ride the smaller deflections inside the line of his body and to open up for a one handed take when the ball deflects significantly.

Tom stretched the realms of possibility with a couple of those wider, fast takes. We saw Sarah Taylor take a brilliant one handed catch up to the stumps in a recent Women’s Ashes series. If we practice under pressure like this with more keepers then can we make such catches more commonplace?

Two Essential Wicketkeeping Drills for Powerful Posture

SamLavery — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 05:40:15 +0000

“Stay down!”

It’s the age old call of the coach; often used as a go-to phrase when something has gone wrong and they’re not entirely sure what.

Maintaining a body position that keeps the keepers head close to the height and line of the ball is important, so how can we help?

One area of wicket keeping that has improved is awareness of posture, encouraging a keeper to adopt the power position: knees bent close to 90 degrees, with similar flexion at the hips, keeping the chest a little more upright.

Assuming this position is one thing, but maintaining it whilst on the move is another. Pressing outside the off stump or shuffling down the leg side whilst maintaining that same flexion in the knees and hips requires significant strength in the quads,hamstrings, glutes, core and lower back.

Here are a couple of drills I use that work wonders in increasing a keeper’s mobility whilst maintaining their posture and body position.

The goblet squat shuffle

A goblet squat involves holding a dumbbell or anything else of weight in two hands with both forearms held vertically. Squatting down into a power position the keeper shuffles left and right, repeating the movements in each direction before resting.

Have a look at this video to see one of our Portsmouth Grammar School cricketers doing the goblet squat shuffle:

Keeping Ponting style

While not known for his wicketkeeping, if you picture Ricky catching you’ll immediately get drawn to his “fingers to the sky” method, almost regardless of how high or low the catch is. This requires a low squatted position where your head is drawn close to the height of the ball. Asking a keeper to catch everything using this method forces them to retain a lower position as they move.

While the catching method may not be one you’ll want your keepers to retain, the principle of how they move is one you will want to stick!

Check out this video and see just how it works.

Sam Lavery is Cricket Professional at Portsmouth Grammar School

Is Tradition Holding Your Wicketkeepers Back?

Millfield — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 08:35:10 +0000

When I first started to take wicketkeeping seriously, I started to study and copy all the greats of the game. The likes of Alan Knott, Bob Taylor, Jeff Dujon, Rod Marsh and more contemporary at the time, Jack Russell.

I used to get into a classic full crouch position ahead of ball release, often spending what seemed like ages in this position.

I never questioned if it was the best thing for me or not.

I just did it because everyone else who was any good seemed to adopt a full crouch position as their stance. (You know the one, it's where you bend your knees so much your thighs touch your calves)

Coaches told me that I needed to be "low and come up with the bounce of the ball". This deep squat would help me to do this.

I got brave

Towards the end of my career I started to experiment with different starting postures, both back from the stumps and standing up.

I found that by walking in a little I would then get into a position where I briefly touched my fingers on the floor.

This felt as if I was in perpetual motion rather than being held in a set stance awaiting the bounce of the ball. I felt as if I could move in any direction and dive (even when up to the stumps) to cover every line of ball.

It was great fun.

Occasionally, I got my timings wrong and ended up not quite ready when the ball reached the 'nick zone' but the more I did it, the less this happened. Life was good.

So, I ended up doing the opposite of how I started.

I had asked some logical questions - mostly 'why do we do it like that' - and then I was brave enough to do my own thing.

Eventually!

I now know why.

Different stances

I have a plyometric (bouncy) body organisation, the feeling of being stuck in one spot waiting for the ball causes me discomfort is away from my preference for motion.

We also have biomechanical research that suggests the deep squat is a position that many adopt through tradition and history rather than being a performance enhancing technique for wicket keepers.

The paper suggests that if a keeper is to use a deep squat then it should be as a position of rest rather than a powerful posture position.

If it is to be used then it should be before adopting the less energy-sapping and joint-stressing more dynamic 'semi-crouch' posture. In this position you keep your heels down, bend the knees less and keep your hands off the ground. A variation is to touch your fingers to the floor (touch and go).

Try different positions

My rest position was an upright stance rather than deep squat. Matt Prior of England adopted the full crouch rest position.

Both can work for different individuals. So make sure your keepers give both a go and find out which is a better fit.

One key point is the full squat should only be used for a maximum of two seconds before fatigue and negative joint stress in the knee is exhibited.

If your keeper goes with a semi-crouch, get them to have a go at both hands off the ground and 'touch and move'. See which one gives the greater sense of preference.

Make sure you are feeding straight on and wider balls to also weigh up the outcome perspective before making a decision.

Video the players to get another angle.

Keeping conclusions

Convention is good if there is irrefutable research which tells you there is only one way. The more I coach, the more I realise that there is often more than one way to do most things in cricket.

Give the different rest positions and postures a trial. Find out which one is for you and kick start your keepers

Let me know how you go.

Wicketkeeper Drill: The Wall Game

Millfield — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 08:50:31 +0000

In a few short months during the summer of 1988 I went from being a 5 foot 5 inch aspiring club standard fast bowler to playing U15 International cricket as a wicket keeper. This came about through a combination of a number of factors.

The most important factor was luck: In my 3rd game as a keeper I was watched by an incredibly influential person within the English game who pulled some strings. This fast-tracked me into a trial for the West of England squad. It was ironically held at Millfield School.

I went to the Bunbury Festival and kept wicket well (for a novice) over the next 4 days. I was then I was informed that I would be playing for England U15s against Scotland U17s the following week.

Bonkers eh?

I had received no specialist coaching as there were no wicket keeping coaches anywhere in 1988, let alone from my home on the Isle of Wight.

So how did I learn the movement patterns and skills that seemed to pull the wool over the eyes of selectors and coaches alike in 1988?

The wicketkeeper wall game

Effectively, I taught myself to keep wicket in my back yard. We had a brick extension at the back of the house which fed onto a patio area.

In this space I used to pretend that I was keeping to my fast bowling heroes: Ian Botham, Neil Foster, Malcolm Marshall; and spinners such as John Embury and Phil Edmonds.

I did this by throwing golf ball or old tennis ball against the extension wall whilst keeping behind some home made stumps. The ball would come back at good speed off the wall, often deviating off of the brick wall and sometimes hitting the edge of the patio slab as well.

I created some rough patches with old bits of carpet and placed them on a length. Again, the ball would take some funny bounces off of those surfaces.

My cricket bag was a fantastic "batter" in front of me when I practiced taking leg side balls to different types of spinners and seamers.

Every ball was taken as if I was in the middle of a Test Match.

I could sense the crowd, feel the pressure of the game around me and would even commentate to myself as I threw the ball into the wall and received the ball back off of it.

I used to do this for hours each day. In many ways, I had already kept wicket in 20 Test Matches (in my head) before I actually put on gloves in a game for the 1st time!

What a unique drill.

Or so I thought!

Many years later, I had a conversation with the great Australian keeper, Ian Healy about this "unique" drill and how it kickstarted my career.

Ian just laughed and then showed me the golf ball that he used to take with him on every Test tour to do exactly the same thing.

He also used to visualise the opposition players batting infront of him with Warne, Gillespie and McGrath being "bowlers in his head". He would find the most difficult surfaces that he could, and practice for hours on his own. He would end up in all sorts of weird and wonderful places around the cricketing world.

I still use the drill with players at school. It provides them with a self relent drill that they can make their own.

I encourage them to build layers of distraction or different bounce types (from different balls or surfaces) to test their movement, speed, balance and catch.

Here is James Seward using the drill on the Pool shelf in the Aquatic centre last week.

Watch the way that he chases the ball to prevent a quick single and maybe create a run out opportunity. James is creating his own reality and practicing really well.

I now know that the drill is not unique.

But it's a great one nonetheless.

Give it a go.

Increase Catching Area with this Funky Drill

David Hinchliffe — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 08:19:00 +0000

How big are your players catching areas?

Super slow motion cameras are great for noting the size of catching areas in both keepers and fielders. Often, we see that catchers line the ball up with one open hand and more closed one, this is great if judgement is spot on or if the ball does not dip or deviate in the air.

Yet as we know, we are human and sometimes our judgement is not 100% precise.

This drill will help to increase player's catching area on flat catches, nicks to slip and edges to the keeper, giving the catcher a bigger margin for error.

And believe me, this is a good thing!

Opposite Side and Dip Drill

Put your right hand behind your back and ask your coach to feed underarm balls into that side of your body aiming between your hip and your shoulder initially.

The aim is to catch the ball with your left hand by dipping your left shoulder, turning your hips slightly and twisting so that your left hand faces the oncoming ball.

The more your dip, the more catching your hand will have to take the ball.

Catch 5 on the right side with your left hand and the 5 on your left with your right hand.

Repeat this 3 times and note both your catching ratio/% and the comfort level as your body starts to process the movement.

Increase the pace gradually as competence rises.

Introduce your other hand

This time, catch the ball with both hands, yet maintain the process of dipping and twisting the hips.

Note how big your catching area feels as both your outside hand (the one that you have been training) and the hand nearest the body are now pointing at the ball for longer as it travels towards you.

Get someone to video your catching before you start the process and then compare the outside hand 'shape' and catching area with the footage after you have trained it using this drill. The results are brilliant.

Drill progressions

Underarm throw or hit from a length off of the pitch to simulate a wicketkeeper standing up to spin or medium pace. You get in your stance as you would normally yet put one hand behind your back as outlined in the drill above. After a number of one handed, dipping drills bring the other hand into play and note the difference in catching area. Brilliant for catching the big nicks that often elude keepers.
Throwdowns bouncing into length to the keeper.
Spin bowlers bowling into length to the keeper.

These drills can also be used in a warm up as they are fun, it's good to get players doing something that they wouldn't normally do i.e. keeping wicket. Also it's improving technique in an implicit fashion.

For more general fielding and keeping worj you can use the following progression:

Get the player into into the ready position and hit a tennis ball randomly to either side (between hip and shoulder). The drill is to only use the opposite hand to catch the ball and only use this dipping motion. Then after 5 goes each side, bring in the other hand and notice your catching % rise.

It's great fun and massively productive. Now that's a good drill in my book!

Use One of These Methods to Get More Leg Side Stumpings

David Hinchliffe — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 08:03:41 +0000

This is a guest article from Iain Brunnschweiler.

There is more than one way to perform a high-class leg side take. Which method works best for you?

Recently, I have been working with some talented wicketkeepers. The more time I spent with them, the more I noticed these guys were highly effective at leg side takes standing up to the wicket.

I also noticed that they do it differently.

In fact, there are two distinct methods for leg side takes. When you work out which one is "yours" you will improve your leg side work dramatically.

So, give both a try and it wont be long before you are doing the right thing for your needs, and boosting your keeping.

Hands first. Set up as normal, but when the ball goes down the leg side, keep your head and feet on the off side while moving your hands to the leg side.
Whole body. Again, set up as normal, only now when you go to the leg side move your hands and feet together.

Some principles remain the same for both; watch the ball, come up with the bounce, and move as late as possible with haste.

So, which are you: Hands first or whole body?

A Simple Tip for Improving Leg Side Takes for Wicketkeepers

David Hinchliffe — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 08:48:00 +0000

Inspired by Mark Garaway's standing up drills, I did some work with some wicketkeepers on standing up to seamers.

We duly set up a drill with a bowling machine to work on leg side takes.

The machine was previously set up for right arm over, pitching on off stump, so rather than adjust the machine we:

Set the swing to 3 to send the ball down the leg side
Set the speed on 55mph
Moved the stumps forward in the net to allow space for the keeper

In a group of three; one person fed the ball into the machine as normal, one keeper acted as batsman and the third keeper was performing the drill standing up behind the stumps.

This should have been a great practice.

The problem was that even the best keeper was missing most balls down the leg side.

The basic drill was just too difficult and so it was hard to make improvements. The ball was swinging after it had pitched (a common trait of a bowling machine delivery) and was swinging away from the gloves.

The solution

This was de-motivating the players, but I wanted a reliable way to practice leg side takes using the machine. I spoke to Garas when I next saw him.

The solution was simple; drop the length back to shorter than you would normally get in a game. This makes it much easier to see the ball pitch and gives the keeper a better chance.

As he gets better, the length can be pushed up again to a more normal length for the bowler.

The success rate should be around 80-85% before increasing the difficulty. It’s also possible to drop the speed back for the same reason (although on artificial surface nets you may have to watch the excessive bounce, we find 50mph is about as low as you can go before the “tennis ball” effect kicks in).

The new drill seems to be much more effective with good reports coming from the games played this week about the leg side work of the keepers who did the drills.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.