Custom Bats Cricket Forum
General Cricket => Cricket Training, Fitness and Injuries => Topic started by: KarlPennington on April 17, 2015, 01:25:22 PM
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Ok. So our first league game is tomorrow. I have been netting in various ways since November. I think I've improved, my confidence has definitely improved in the nets and I think I've gained a little more respect from my teamates... BUT the nerves (and the accompanying thoughts) have already started to take hold. 'What if I get a duck? what will people think? The senior players who haven't seen my progress in nets will just have their belief confirmed that I'm rubbish and I'll get dropped next week. I'm not going to bowl tomorrow so if I get out early it's going to be a long day and an even longer week waiting to bat again. I will have wasted £10 subs that I can't afford and my average on the clubwebsite is going to drop even further.'
As the thoughts circulate the pressure builds. I read somewhere once to try and visualise yourself playing a positive innings but all I can visualise is the ball hitting the stumps, me getting trapped LBW, getting caught out and walking back past my team mates to the changing rooms too embarrassed to give me eye contact.
These nerves, this cycle of thoughts will keep on swirling until I get to the crease tomorrow at which point all the things I have learned in nets, all the positive stroke play I have practiced, all the confidence I have gained will desert me and once again I'll be stood like a rabbit in the headlights as the bowler starts his run up.
During the bowlers approach my negative self-talk will be suddenly and desperately replaced by positive affirmations. 'Relax, you are more than capable, stay solid, play straight, no need to panic, back yourself...'
Inevitably the ball will be full and straight ( I never get a rank full-toss first up or a long-hop, always full and straight) The same ball I will get a hundred times in nets. I know to watch the ball, I know to play straight, I know that I don't need to score of this ball, I know to wait for the bad ball especially so early in my innings.
What happens next is a mystery. My adrenalin kicks in, my eyes light up, the thought of getting off the mark consumes me and I play the shot I have never, ever, ever played in nets - the cross batted lofted hoik over mid-wicket... I miss, the ball hits the stumps. Thanks for coming, you've been great.
So I guess what I am asking is, how can I be relaxed and confident at the crease, how can I take my mentality in the nets into a match situation. How can I consider myself a peer of my teammates and my opponents and not like the biggest idiot on the field?
All advice welcome.
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Come play for my side, subs are only £8 and ducks guarantee you a bat the next week for our viewing pleasure! ;)
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Ok. So our first league game is tomorrow. I have been netting in various ways since November. I think I've improved, my confidence has definitely improved in the nets and I think I've gained a little more respect from my teamates... BUT the nerves (and the accompanying thoughts) have already started to take hold. 'What if I get a duck? what will people think? The senior players who haven't seen my progress in nets will just have their belief confirmed that I'm rubbish and I'll get dropped next week. I'm not going to bowl tomorrow so if I get out early it's going to be a long day and an even longer week waiting to bat again. I will have wasted £10 subs that I can't afford and my average on the clubwebsite is going to drop even further.'
As the thoughts circulate the pressure builds. I read somewhere once to try and visualise yourself playing a positive innings but all I can visualise is the ball hitting the stumps, me getting trapped LBW, getting caught out and walking back past my team mates to the changing rooms too embarrassed to give me eye contact.
These nerves, this cycle of thoughts will keep on swirling until I get to the crease tomorrow at which point all the things I have learned in nets, all the positive stroke play I have practiced, all the confidence I have gained will desert me and once again I'll be stood like a rabbit in the headlights as the bowler starts his run up.
During the bowlers approach my negative self-talk will be suddenly and desperately replaced by positive affirmations. 'Relax, you are more than capable, stay solid, play straight, no need to panic, back yourself...'
Inevitably the ball will be full and straight ( I never get a rank full-toss first up or a long-hop, always full and straight) The same ball I will get a hundred times in nets. I know to watch the ball, I know to play straight, I know that I don't need to score of this ball, I know to wait for the bad ball especially so early in my innings.
What happens next is a mystery. My adrenalin kicks in, my eyes light up, the thought of getting off the mark consumes me and I play the shot I have never, ever, ever played in nets - the cross batted lofted hoik over mid-wicket... I miss, the ball hits the stumps. Thanks for coming, you've been great.
So I guess what I am asking is, how can I be relaxed and confident at the crease, how can I take my mentality in the nets into a match situation. How can I consider myself a peer of my teammates and my opponents and not like the biggest idiot on the field?
All advice welcome.
I have the same problem as you... I get nervous when walking to the crease.
A lot of your nerves are not about being rubbish... Sounds like you're being nervous about being nervous. I will suggest a few things :
1. Do what Sehwag does. As the bowler is running in, sing a song or hum a tune to yourself. That's it. Every ball, for the rest of your innings. It will automatically clear your head and you'll be too busy singing to be actually thinking about anything else.
2. Before your innings, don't try to suppress your nervous energy. Don't try to talk yourself into thinking positive. Research shows the more you try to suppress your negative feelings the harder it becomes. Instead just describe your feelings to yourself. "I am feeling very nervous, my mouth is drying up because I'm afraid I'll get out for nought." I haven't personally tried this, but research suggests that describing your own negative feelings to yourself has a significant effect on moderating them.
That's all I can help you with. I doubled my average last year but still struggled with this certain games... The first tip helped significantly...
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Just do some deep breathing before you go in. I try to do some meditation night before to relax myself, I def. sleep better after that :)
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A few nerves are a good thing it helps you concentrate your mind. In fact i would be more concerned if any of my team weren't nervous at the start of there innings.
As an opener on arrival at the crease i say to myself watch the ball if in doubt get foreward but if it is possible I will always leave the ball outside off stump till I have hit the ball in the middle of the bat once that's achieved the nerves are gone.
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Good advice.
I'll have a game of Tiger Woods 2007 tonight to take my mind off cricket. Tomorrow I will accept and embrace my nerves whilst humming a tune at the crease.
Here is something else though. Me personally, I play better when I'm playing aggressively. My timing is Ok and I've got a bit of strength in my shoulders so I'm one who can clear the boundary rope. Which in nets is fine but on match day the risk of losing my wicket sends me into my shell, I become a very defensive player but my defense is rubbish so doing this is detrimental to my performance. I almost feel like I wish somebody would give me a green light to go out and look to score from ball 1.
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I used to get nervous, hated waiting to bat, would be on edge. And it would effect me in the middle. Although once of the mark I'd then be fine.
A few times I'd score big would be midweek, when I'd literally arrive, pads on and go straight from changing rooms to middle as a wicket fell
Then I was asked to open, dreaded it, and insisted other guy took strike. Again once of mark fine.
Until I sunday game when I opened with an u15. He was petrified, so I had to take the strike. Was nervous, what's he gonna now, what will he do, Arrrggggggghhhh.
But Nice loosened from the bowler shrot and wide, slapped for 4 through cover.
Randomly I've been fine since, still open, and always try to take strike, and even if I go in down the order, I'm very rarely nervous.
It's crap advice, but all I can offer is, get out there and in as soon as is possible, and crack on, the nerves will soon subside with some runs, and if you bat better aggressively, be aggressive. Tis your game.
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I take your like as acceptance on my offer and a signature on on a contract to come play for us. First game is next Saturday, 2pm start. You're opening. First game is free but bring your £8 for Sunday as I've marked you down for a double.
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The effects of nerves are very similar to bring excited. So just rename your feelings: tell yourself you feel excited, tomorrow you've got a chance to score runs and do well (you really have!).
And another thing if that doesn't help - no one else cares about your scores as much as you do - in a week's time most of your team won't remember how you played.
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I've got my first game in about 12 years tomorrow - wasn't nervous until I read this. Now a quivering wreck :D
But seriously, I get nervous walking in to the net or out to the square but then it goes. Generally try and get bat to ball early and will know fairly quickly whether I'm in good nick and how to play from there on.
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Relax, cricket is supposed to be enjoyed.
As someone else said, no one else cares whether you score 100, or 10 outside your group of mates. You can play premier league or div 8. It's utterly irrelevant as no one will 'make it' anyway. Remember you are paying to be there so just enjoy it and see what happens.
Leave the idiots to worry about the level they play at and worry over avgs etc. I remember, chances are they'll get less time actually playing in the top leagues and have all the worry.. Oh and still won't make it.
Each ball as it comes, play with a smile and don't take it seriously
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Good advice.
I'll have a game of Tiger Woods 2007 tonight to take my mind off cricket. Tomorrow I will accept and embrace my nerves whilst humming a tune at the crease.
Here is something else though. Me personally, I play better when I'm playing aggressively. My timing is Ok and I've got a bit of strength in my shoulders so I'm one who can clear the boundary rope. Which in nets is fine but on match day the risk of losing my wicket sends me into my shell, I become a very defensive player but my defense is rubbish so doing this is detrimental to my performance. I almost feel like I wish somebody would give me a green light to go out and look to score from ball 1.
Maybe Karl you should bat when possible when there s runs on the board or quick runs are required .Also with regard to defence practice with your bat in front of a mirror with your pads and gloves on at taking a big stride forward with your head in front of the pad and bringing your top hand down so that it brushes the top of your front leg pad doing this will stop you being bowled between bat and pad also unless the match situation demands it leave balls alone that you don't need to play until you are in. Good luck.
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TangoWhiskey - I'm there it's not every day you get an offer to join a new team based solely on your ability to guarantee a duck :(
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TangoWhiskey - I'm there it's not every day you get an offer to join a new team based solely on your ability to guarantee a duck :(
Maybe I miss informed. As a distinctly average group of cricketers, quite often the most enjoyable part of the day is the beer afterwards, particularly if someone managed to snare a jug or two. In any rate, ducks are presided over with glee as a topic of jest for the after party and the after party only, they have absolutely no bearing on whether you'll be in next week or not!
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To be fair to my club, they probably have the same mentality. I just get too intense about such things as village cricket >:( I just need to lighten up, enjoy, see ball, destroy (see even had to throw destroy in there :-[)
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If you i'm not enjoying it, then it's not worth playing cricket. Go home. It is not your job. You have a job. And, that's where you should be nervous. I had an excellent session recently with a very good coach and that has helped change my perspective on my batting. I just go out there to have fun. All the naysayers and stress junkies can go to hell. In my minds eye I see my bat's handle giving the naysayers a nice and deserving treatment. :D
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The only thing I'm nervous about in my job, is getting told off for writing blogs on cricket forums in works time :D
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^ hehe
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Here is something else though. Me personally, I play better when I'm playing aggressively. My timing is Ok and I've got a bit of strength in my shoulders so I'm one who can clear the boundary rope. Which in nets is fine but on match day the risk of losing my wicket sends me into my shell, I become a very defensive player but my defense is rubbish so doing this is detrimental to my performance. I almost feel like I wish somebody would give me a green light to go out and look to score from ball 1.
That's all well and good but you need to give yourself the chance to succeed with those kinds of shots - its all well and good leathering a ball that has been bowled onto a pure concrete surface indoors, quite another to do that on an early season damp grass wicket when the speed and reaction of the ball are, if not subject to an absolute lottery, certainly difficult to read from the get go.
Even Chris Gayle plays himself in...
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I do agree with you Manormanic and this weekend has shown me just how different batting on a grass wicket is to batting in the nets. In our game on Sunday I went in at 5, we only had about 30 runs on the board. The first 3 balls I faced I tried to defend. The first two narrowly missed the outside edge, the third caught the edge and went to the slips luckily along the ground. That was the end of the over. At which point I thought Karl this doesn't work for play your shots. I went on to do Ok and got out to a dubious LBW (aren't they always)
I think the mentality switch I need is this, when I'm batting in nets my instinct is to score first defend second yet out in the middle it's defend first score second but I get out when I'm playing that way. So from now on I'm going to look to score off every single ball and defend if need be as opposed to defending every ball and waiting for the bad one to come along.
Does that make sense.
So like as the ball is travelling I'll be like 'score, score, score...no... defend' instead of 'don't get out, don't get out, don't get out... whack it' OUT.
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Have a look at Ricky Ponting's batting masterclass on the Sky Player mate. Interesting concepts on his style of batting and train of thought.
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Have a look at Ricky Ponting's batting masterclass on the Sky Player mate. Interesting concepts on his style of batting and train of thought.
This is good advice which I follow.... I don't have a 10 point plan which I write down before going to sleep e.g. I'm going to get a 100 etc but saying 'watch the ball' helps me focus as the bowler is about to release.
I sometimes open for my team and am happy to face the 1st ball so the most important thing for me is to get an idea of what the bowlers are trying to bowl the first few overs and see myself in (nothing extravagant but if there's a ball to hit i.e. to drive along the ground or that's clearly wide of my stumps then I'll go for it as I don't want the bowler to get settled or feel like he's on top) adjusting to the pace of the strip (generally slower and lower than the net we train at).
Played a one-off trophy game on Saturday where I opened and faced and the bowler was very accurate so had to wait for the bad ball. Luckily my fellow opener has the ability to punish average/bad balls for 4s and 6s, which takes the pressure off me as i'm more of a driver/cutter so I see my job as to keep rotating the strike and if 2's/4's come along then even better as this takes the pressure off him to hit big. We were chasing a lowish total in a timed game so had 41 overs to play with which also helped us as we knew we were aiming for 5 runs an over and even with the maidens we knew that an over going for 8+ was going to bring us right back on track or even ahead of the run rate.
If we as openers get close to 50 or more without loss then that's a good start for our batting and even though we had a bit of a middle order collapse we comfortably got the total we needed with 8 overs to spare and a couple of wickets in hand.
Chewing gum helps me when I'm batting as does releasing my focus in between balls where I enjoy the view etc until it's time to focus again. When you're in the middle that's all you should ever think about so keep the negative thoughts out and if you have a close shave with the previous ball then think of 1 word to correct it next time or practice the shot before the next ball.
Hope this helps...
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Some sage advice from grandad. Not that I'm suggesting this comes from your grandad (I think you'd be getting better tips from your family if he were), nor that he's my grandad (pretty sure about this one) and definitely not that I'm your grandad (that one I'm certain about).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2227003/Nick-Compton-recalls-grandad-Denis-advice--Alan-Fraser.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2227003/Nick-Compton-recalls-grandad-Denis-advice--Alan-Fraser.html)
Wise words in any case.