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Cricket coaching, fitness and tips - PitchVision Academy

3 Ways to play swing bowling 4:08am

Good swing bowling can literally be unplayable. If a ball swings late enough nobody, not Sachin, not Lara, not Bradman, has ever had good enough reactions to counter the movement. It's a physical impossibility.

Yet somehow great players manage to build epic innings when the ball swings. How do they do it?

While science has no answers yet, there are some interesting theories to explore.

A reaction time limitation means that it's impossible to watch the ball right onto the bat. What distinguishes the good players from the average ones is their ability to correctly predict where the ball will be and move into the correct position. That is according to Bob Woolmer and Tim Noakes coaching book.

Greg Chappell says that it's all about watching the point of release from the bowler. If you see the ball released late it will be short, if you see it released early it will be full. Additionally, the bowler can give you subtle clues in their grip, run up and delivery stride that can help you. If you see an angles seam you know the bowler is at least trying to swing the ball.

Those blessed without a great talent for this can improve their ability by practice. This is one reason why facing a bowling machine is less beneficial than facing real bowling: You don't get the clues from the bowler.

2. Get to the pitch of the ball

Swing bowlers are usually going to pitch the ball up to you. Without doing that they will not get the swing they need. This means you will usually be playing forward to them.

If the ball swings later than you ability to react you will be more likely to miss it or edge it. To reduce this risk, it's important to get as close to the pitch of the ball as possible. This will reduce the amount of time the ball has to deviate. It might be enough to stop you catching the edge.

The idea is not to over step. You still need to lead with your head and shoulder while having your weight over your front foot. You should be trying to get in as big a stride as possible though. The closer you are to the pitch, the safer you are.

If you are facing a good swing bowler there will be times you will be beaten. You can reduce the chances of getting out either nicking off to the slips or bowled through the gate by playing defensively with soft hands.

In modern limited over cricket it is often beneficial to push the hands and bat towards the ball so you can hit the ball into a gap and steal a single. While this is an excellent tactic, against a late swinging ball edges will carry comfortably to the slips or gulley.

Instead of trying to 'punch' the ball, play the defensive shot as intended: A way of killing the pace of the ball. If you do this correctly it is much harder for an edge to carry to the slips.

Are you a swing bowler? What frustrates you most about the batters who play you well? Perhaps you are a good player of the swinging ball. What are your secrets? Leave a comment.

Photo credit: ufopilot

Should club cricket still have declarations? 4:09am

A recent article in Wisden looked at the format of club cricket, questioning whether the game should be played in a declaration or limited overs way.

In England at least I feel there is no choice in the matter. One day declaration cricket is more fun, more challenging and leads to better games.

Playing declaration cricket in a day makes it harder to win games. With the draw always a possibility, sides have to do much more than set a huge total and defensive fields. To win you must bowl the opposition out. In order to do that you probably need to declare on a target that is challenging but appears to be within reach. That is unless your bowlers are in the unusual position of being supremely better than the opposition batsmen.

That means captains need to be more tactically astute, which can only be good for the development and fun of the game.

It also means players down the order have to learn to bat. Playing out for the draw is a skill. Young bowlers can develop their ability to play straight if they have to save games. My own club 1st XI have had a poor year, yet one of the benefits we have seen is a dramatic improvement in the batting of two of our younger bowlers because they have had to bat so many games out. Both players have gone from specialist bowlers to genuine all rounders due to this opportunity. If they were playing limited over cricket with no draw they would probably have got out hitting out.

The down side of declaration cricket is negative play. Sides can choose to bowl first then not go for the target if they feel they have no chance of winning. For me this is just another challenge to a captain's tactical skills. If a team bowls first and seems weak batting, you have the control to declare far too early making them think they have a chance after all. If you declare later then you can still bring a side back into the game with some deliberate poor bowling too. Controversial? Risky? Yes, but that's what makes declaration cricket so great.

Declarations give you that control of the game.

Limited over matches are essentially just a numbers game. You spend more time calculating the rate per over than you do trying to take wickets. This is because there is no direct benefit to bowling the opposition out. It's just as important to keep the run rate down and you can do that well with defensive fields and defensive bowling.

What format does your team play? Would you prefer to see win/loss games or declaration cricket where you play? Leave a comment and let me know.

Photo credit: pj_in_oz

Do you have the skills to apply for cricket captaincy? 3:27am

Today's article is a mock 'job description' for a cricket captain. If you were applying would you get the job?

The details have been supplied by Ryan Maron, Assistant Coach to the Netherlands national cricket team, VRA player coach and Director of Ryan Maron's Cricket School of Excellence in South Africa.

Job title: Club Cricket Captain.

Job Requirements

Practice and pre-match

• Able to attend practice regularly and lead by example.
• Able to attend selection meetings and be confident to have a say in the balance of the side.
• Willing to discuss game plans with coaches and/or senior players.
• Take the time to talk to each player about their role in the team.
• Able to make last minute changes to the team due to injury or other reason.
• Have a number of player contacts to call up due to last minute drop outs. 

During the match

• Prepared to make practical arrangements for players where needed including provision of meals and transportation to matches.
• Able to assess conditions including the pitch, weather and local rules.
• Decide whether to bat or bowl and toss up with opposing captain.
• Analyse strengths and weaknesses of opposition, sometimes on little information.
• Decide a batting order and let everyone know the plan.
• Calculate bowling changes based on conditions and match situation.
• Set the field for each batter in combination with your bowlers.
• Willing to set unusual fields or use unorthodox tactics based on hunches.
• Keen to watch the match, even when not directly involved (i.e. Have just got out).
• Able to encourage fielders and bowlers at all times.
• High levels of concentration on captaincy as well as your own skills.
• Able to keep the game flowing and not let a situation get out of control.
• Calmness under extreme tension.
• Have a 'play to win' attitude, fighting to the last ball. 

Post Match

• Able to listen to and process advice.
• Willing to learn from mistakes.
• Develop a 'thick skin' to criticism and look forward to the next game whatever the result.
• Able to smile and stay positive even in defeat.
• Be a polite and friendly host to the opposition. 

If you are thinking of becoming a captain, consider this 'job description' as a checklist to all you have to do. It's a job you can only learn through experience and you are bound to make mistakes on the way. Sometimes those mistakes will be very obvious too. 

It can be a thankless task sometimes but the benefits outweigh the costs when you get it right.

Remember this is just for fun, don't apply and thanks again to Ryan Maron for contributing the majority of the tips in this article.

Photo credit: ervine_wa

2 Reasons you are planting your front foot you may not have thought of 10:03am

Take a look at the picture of Sachin above. It's another drive from the Little Master executed with precision, balance and timing.

He is certainly a world away from the common technical error of planting the front leg: The practice of landing your front foot to play a shot too early locking you into position, risking getting out and restricting the range of shots you can play.

What causes this and how do you stop it?

From a technical point of view, a good coach will examine every aspect of the batsman to find the error. Sometimes it can turn up in a place you might not expect at first glance.

In the first photo below you can see me in my normal stance. The second my head is too far to the off side.

Right: the eyes are level and the heaviest part of the body, the head is over the front foot.

Wrong: the head is too far to the off side causing the batter to overbalance when executing a shot.

You can see how this error can cause you to put your foot in the wrong position as putting it in the right place will mean you overbalance, planting your foot. The important point to remember is to keep your eyes level and head over your front foot in your stance.

This is the point where you begin your shot. The bat is lifted and you take a positive movement onto your front or your back foot at the same time. If the timing of this is correct you will be hard pressed to play a poor shot.

As you can see from the pictures below I am playing a front foot drive as an example. The first pictures show me leading with my head and shoulder, in the second the front foot leads causing it to be planted in the wrong place.

Right: the head and shoulder are leaning towards the ball, weight is over the front foot when the shot is played.

Wrong: the foot is forward of bodyweight, locking the upper body into position.

A simple way to avoid doing this is to drill the shot thinking about leading with the head and shoulder. The foot will automatically then move into the right position.

A more controversial area is the nature of the backswing itself. There is some debate as to how wide the backswing should be. Most coaches settle on a backswing or backlift somewhere towards the slips, then rotating at the top of the backswing before coming down straight:

The key here is not so much how the bat comes up as where it is coming down. A backlift is a very individual thing and you see players have great success with angles that are just not supposed to work. However,  a backswing that is too much over leg stump or too much towards gulley can cause the bat to come down at an angle.

As you will then be playing 'around' your pad to get to the ball, it may seem as if you are planting your foot. In fact, the error is all in the downswing.

Here is a wider backlift with an angled downswing. You can see the shoulders too open as the bat comes down:

Here is a narrower backlift with an angled downswing. You can see the bat behind the pad as the shoulders are too closed off:

I have shown you examples with front foot shots, but the same can still apply to the back foot.

Over to you...

Sometimes the simplest things can be overlooked in the quest to find faults with technique. If you go back to the basics of setup, backswing and first step to the ball you may find your problem is not as complex as you think.

Now it's over to you.

Have you had problems with planting the front foot (or coached someone with problems. How did you get around it?

6 Golden rules of success from professional cricket 4:10am

Whether you aspire to play at professional level or not, there are many things you can learn from first class players.

Professional players rely on their form for a living. Without it they would be out of a job. More often than not that means they are doing everything they can to stay on top of their game. Even if you only play on the village green, you can apply some of this determination to improve your results.

What does this look like? I have come up with 6 golden rules.

First class teams always have a coach and the players are not afraid to use them. For some reason, this is less prevalent in the club game once you have gone beyond the age of 16 or so. This means that if you swallow your pride and ask for help from a decent coach you will be streets ahead of most club cricketers.

You don't need to enlist the help of a talented ex-player. Most club coaches are more than qualified to work with you on your game, even if it's just to setup a video camera and give you some throwdowns so you can analyse your own technique.

Most coaches can help you learn new skills (nobody has every shot in the book and can bowl a handful of variations accurately). They can act as a training buddy, motivator and councillor if you so desire. If the pros are doing it, what is stopping you?

Professional cricket has the luxury of being able to focus on cricket every day. Whether this is playing, training or hitting the gym. You may not have as much time, but you can still do something every day to improve your game.  Visualisation takes less than 20 minutes, a trip to the gym is an hour, training could be a little longer but with creativity and application you can do the same as the pros in spirit at least.

Ask yourself every week: Am I doing something every day in the coming week to improve my game?

Top players range hugely in personality and habits. Most successful cricketers know what works for them and what doesn't. England's Alec Stewart was famous for eating grilled chicken breasts and having early nights. Other players might prefer a couple of drinks to relax of an evening. As long as your routine is allowing you to score runs or take wickets there is no sense in changing things.

This also applies to what happens during the game. According to his autobiography, ex-England captain Nasser Hussain was very nervous waiting to bat, but it allowed him to get his mind ready for the task and he often scored runs at crucial times. His team mate Michael Atherton, also very successful, used to read the paper and take his mind off the game totally to relax.

The point is, find out what works for you and stick with it.

No matter how dishevelled and untidy a professional is off the field, when they train and play they look the part.

They are fortunate to have fresh kit supplied on demand, where you probably have to pay for your own whites and washing bill. That should not stop you looking your best on the pitch. Laundered and ironed whites and clean equipment put you in a professional frame of mind.

If you have ever experienced the difference in feeling between slipping on a fresh shirt and one that has been left unloved in a kitbag for a week you know what I mean. Take the time to look good on the field and you will feel a little more like a professional cricketer.

Failure is inevitable in cricket. Even Bradman got out for a duck in his last innings. Professionals learn to cope with this quickly, especially if they play county cricket where the sheer number of games is bound to bring a few bad days.

Good players remind themselves that mistakes happen and don't let it get to them. They know that a mistake does not mean you will lose the game. You or someone else can still perform exceptionally to make up for the error.

Good pros are also quick to help players who have made mistakes. A few positive words at the right moment can make all the difference to a player who is dwelling on their error. There is certainly no rule that says club players can't do the same for themselves or others.

As part of a team, the professional has access to good social support. Other players know what he or she is going through and can help each other. Granted, this help might often just come in light hearted relief such as practical jokes or shared ribbing of someone else. However, strong bonds are also formed in the dressing room waiting to bat or for it to stop raining.

This is harder for the club player as teams spend much less time together. You may only see an occasional team mate once a year. However, club players are usually friends away from the pitch too and a good cricket chat over a post-match pint in summer is one of the best ways to get the support you need.

There is also online support. Coaching forums and sites like miCoach exist in part to give support to you. In fact, the slightly more anonymous feeling of online help can get you to open up more than 'in real life'.

Whatever support you go for, make sure you have some way of venting.

Image credit: Free-ers

Fielding Drills: Big circle, little circle 4:56am

Purpose: To practice throwing and catching under pressure and to develop cricket specific agility/coordination.

Description: On the call of 'go' from the coach player A sprints around the inner circle. At the same time the players on the corners of the outer circle throw the ball around back to the start position without dropping it. Player A must attempt to get back to the start before the ball. Players then change places.

Ask the Coaches: Getting out in the twenties 4:52am

 This week's Ask the Coaches is a question from Madhavan:

Of late I have been getting out in the twenties and thirties after playing fluently. I having been giving away my wicket and failing to convert those good starts in to big scores. What do I need to do to convert those good starts in to big scores and get that three figure mark?

Thanks for the question. If you have one of your own you can ask away.

My first thought is have you scored a hundred before?

If you have got to three figures, it makes getting back there easier. It's far harder to scale a new height than it is to get back to where you have been before. Think back to that time when you made a good score.

This is a technique called visualisation. Remember how you felt moving through the score you feel you are getting stuck on now. Play that way when you are out in the middle. Old hands sometimes call this 'backing your technique'. Remembering you have been there before keeps you focused on getting there again.

If you have not scored a hundred it is harder, but you can still do it.

Bob Woolmer used to put problems like this down to 'Danger Points': Parts of the innings where you are more likely to get out through lapses in concentration.

For example, if you have scored a breezy thirty you may feel you have your eye in well enough to cut the ball you have been leaving until now. The leave has kept you safe, the cut could be a weak shot and suddenly you have edged to the keeper.

You may also decide to get going in your normal way then go into your shell until you are through to a better score. This is negative thinking which can often lead to a physical change. Your shoulders tighten up, you grip the bat more firmly and you grimace in defiance. This also changes your technique and errors creep in as your timing goes.

Either way, it's a change in your thinking that brought about the wicket.

As you may have heard many times, the answer is to play each ball the same: on its merits.

 Whether you are on 5 or 105, play the game depending on the match situation and your own skills, not on how much form you are in.

Simply get to twenty and start again as if on nought. Do that five times and you will have your hundred!

Innovation or waste of money: How useful is special training equipment for cricket? 6:54am

Attend any top level cricket match or coaching session these days and you will see all kinds of multi coloured training aids on show.

A brief search online provides even more options for the budding cricketer to improve their game. Some, fankly, are more believable than others. Marketers know we are desperate to get better and want something to help us. If they can convince us something works so we buy it their job is done.

It doesn't actually matter if it works on or not to the unscrupulous ones.

So what training aids should you go for to get the best 'bang for your buck'?

Here is the lowdown on a few options.

Massively popular, cheap as chips and great fun, the Powerball is sold as way to develop power in the shoulders, arms and wrists. Yes, it burns when you use it but does that mean it's making you more powerful? It's something I have been sceptical about before.

My instinct is distrusting of the Powerball claims. Especially as I have found no research to back it up.

You may want to try it for yourself, especially if you feel your grip is your weak point and your budget is limited. Personally, I would spend more time on free bodyweight exercises as the results of those are proven.

The Katchet is a bright orange wedge that you can use for catching practice. It works like a catching cradle. However it's cheaper and more flexible. You can see it in use here:

I love this little plastic device. It's simple, easy to use, portable and gives excellent practice for slip fielders, ring fielders and wicketkeepers. You can even combine it with a bowling machine (legs removed) to fire balls and great pace in random deflections.

If your side needs to hone their close or infield catching (and who doesn't) then it's time to invest in one of these.

Coaching mats

As you can see from the video below, coaching mats are designed to teach batting strokes to children or beginners. As a tool for beginners it works well because you can set it up for any shot and grove your muscle memory with it.

I do have some reservations about it. There is nothing the mat does that a coach with some batting tees, plastic stumps and chalk could recreate for less money. It is also limited to only allowing you to play with a stationary ball. That means as soon as the beginner has got the hang of the shot they move on to a moving ball being fed by a coach. The mat then becomes useless.

That means it's a useful product for complete beginners, but not for anyone who has learned the shots and needs to improve technique.

Heavy balls/ Bat weights

The theory goes that is you use a heavy object to bat or bowl with, you will get stronger. As a result some players attach weights to their bats or use heavier hockey balls to bowl with.

The possible problem with this is that it can mess up your technique as you try to 'heave' the ball or bat rather than using your normal smooth approach: What the sport scientists call neuromuscular adaptation.

Research into it has found little in terms of strength improvements in bowlers using heavy balls so the benefit probably does not outweigh the cost. I'm still open minded as I feel evidence is not conclusive either way.

If you are looking to get stronger, a normal workout would probably be more beneficial, but as an add on to regular training, you could certainly give it a try. The trick I stick to to use balls/bats no more than 20% heavier than you would normally use.

I have saved the best until last. This is an essential bit of kit for any coach or team wanting to improve. Put simply the Skyer is a small cricket bat with a rubber face allowing the ball to spring off it very quickly. The video below shows it in action:

As England assistant coach Mark Garaway says, it's versatile for almost any fielding practice and the added accuracy means you are not wasting time with bad feeds from the coach.

If you could only get one thing from this list, the flexibility of the Skyer makes it the coaching aid to buy. I strongly recommend it.

What are your experiences with coaching aids?

I'm interested in finding out if you have any tips for other readers about the best or worst coaching aids. What is value for money? What is a waste of time? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Can you improve your cricket fitness in 15 minutes? 4:37am

Everyone is busy these days. It's tough enough to find enough time to play cricket, let alone train.

But you already know how important it is to be fit for cricket.

One simple solution might be to cut back how long your workouts last. If you can get a full workout in a few minutes why bother going into the gym for an hour?

This is the idea behind many training plans that promise impressive improvements in as little as 4 minutes.

In all honesty, very short workouts do little to benefit you in the long term. If you really want to feel the benefits you need to be working out for longer periods regularly. But there is a compromise (which I will get to in a moment).

Why super short workouts never work out.

If you are very unfit, a very short, intense workout will improve your fitness levels. This is because any exercise is better than no exercise.

Sadly, due to the principle of adaptation, you quickly adapt to short training sessions and within a few weeks you will see the improvements stop whether your goal is fat loss, strength increase or anything else.

With longer training sessions you have more flexibility to keep improving such as increasing the number of sets and reps of an exercise. You can also do more exercises. This is important, because no matter how clever a short workout plan is, it has to lose out somewhere as you can do enough in the time available.

You are always much better off with a proper training plan with workouts lasting between 30-60 minutes.

Sometimes you just can't get to train for an hour.

When this happens, it's better to squeeze in a short workout than to skip training altogether.

Short workouts can be used as a short term solution to an immediate problem.

You can also use shorter workouts as a way to rest from harder training. For example, if you have just finished your season and want a couple of weeks off from anything too hard you can switch to a twice a week 15 minute workout just to keep your body moving while it recovers from the stresses of a tough season.

• Use whatever equipment you can find. Sometimes you will be able to use a fully equipped gym, other times you will just have your bodyweight.
• Look for exercises that train a number of muscles at the same time such as squats, chin ups or rows.
• Superset 2 opposite exercises together by completing a set of each exercise without rest. An example of opposite exercises is press ups (pushing) and inverted rows (pulling).
• Keep rest between sets to 30-60 seconds.
• Always include at least one exercise that trains core stability such as planks or ab wheel roll outs.
• Increase the power element of the workout by having at least one power based exercise such as cleans, squat jumps or clap push ups.

Short workouts are far from perfect, but as a compromise they work well. Use them wisely and you can keep your fitness eye in when all else fails. A good source for workouts like this is Turbulence Training. 

Photo credit: Alison007

Some miCoach housekeeping 4:53am

I want to take a break from new articles for a moment to give you a general update on how everything is going since miCoach was born.

• The new site has settled in well and the number of new subscribers has almost doubled. It took over 2 years for the first 1,500 and less than two months for the next 1,500. If you are a new subscriber, welcome. If you have been reading for a while, thanks!
• That said, feel free to tell your team mates about the site. The more the merrier, right?
• You may have noticed a regular weekly cricket show that available for you to download. Although I missed a show, I'll continue to do this for you as long as I can find willing people to interview. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
• The show is in need of a co-host. If you would like to be considered drop me an email. I'm looking for someone with about an hour a week to spare on the phone (I'll call you) and a love of playing cricket. If you are a coach all the better but it's not vital.
• The forum is up and running and you can join the conversation. I check it every day so if you have a question or comment please feel free to post it.
• I'm also still looking for feedback on my online coach section. You can win a free membership so it's worth taking 10 minutes to fill in the form.
• There is some top secret stuff coming up in the next couple of months. Stay tuned to find out what happens next in the miCoach story.

As always, your feedback, questions, comments, ideas and rants are welcome. This site is for you and as long as I know I am helping you play better cricket I'll keep producing new content for you.

Thanks for reading and listening!

Cricinfo cricket news

BCCI fixes deadline for registration of foreign players 7:58pm

South Africa overpowered in 20-over thrash 2:27pm

Holding calls Stanford Super Series a 'farce' 2:00pm

Runs galore as Sri Lanka dominate 1:57pm

Rudolph and McGrath flay Glamorgan 1:32pm

Sussex swoop for Sami's services 11:18am

Dravid to play in Buchi Babu 9:18am

Panesar commits to Northamptonshire 9:08am

West Indies board to focus on player development 8:22am

Universities stripped of first-class status 7:41am