Custom Bats Cricket Forum
General Cricket => Cricket Training, Fitness and Injuries => Topic started by: Blazer on December 20, 2016, 09:24:24 PM
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Looking for some advice here, I am looking to improve few aspects of batting, fielding and bowling but don't know if it will be too much pre season. The key points I need to work on are:
1:Legside shots between midwicket and mid on, tend to hit these riskly between fine leg and square, been out many times LBW.
2: Bowling: very loose and only bowl occasionally but has prospect for improvement.
3: Fielding: all of my fielding needs working.
Current fitness level has the best it has been in many years and have been weight training.
Firstly is it feasible or ambitious, secondly is it drills mainly to improve or any other tips please, I will post a batting video for critique next time I net. Many thanks.
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You can improve anything you want if you have the right level of dedication and ambition.
You need to start playing more straight if you keep getting out like that. Simple foot to the pitch of the ball and drive, making sure you're heads over the ball.
Bowling - arm high, head up and everything going towards the target. Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Fielding - just look at some England fielding drills on YouTube and try some of those out.
If you really want to improve, you will.
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I tried replying but things crashed. But similar to above, try duct tape on a length to use as a target when bowling. And similar for off stump and leg stump a couple of yards in front of you to give you an idea of line (idea stolen from recent england in india net session videos)
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Legside shots - don't aim to hit it too fine, or you end up trying to play the ball with half a bat. As a starting point aim mid on-midwicket, then as you make contact you can use your wrists to place it further square if you want. Also try not to get a big stride in towards the ball like you would on the off side, or your front leg will get in the way, you can't get round it to hit the ball and hence the LBWs. AB DeVilliers explains it very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whrZOG5R1zc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whrZOG5R1zc) It's not difficult to make good improvements in a fairly short space of time on this if you can get in front of a bowling machine or some decent throwdowns, so definitely a good thing to practice.
With bowling I've always been a strong believer that the more you bowl, the better you get! If your bowling is inconsistent then your bowling action must be inconsistent. Repetition is the key as mentioned above - if your action is the same every ball then the ball you bowl will be the same every ball. Simple practice will obviously improve this until it becomes second nature to go through the same motion each time. Some people's actions lend themselves more to consistency and repeatability than others (think Glenn McGrath and the arms being very tight to the body throughout the action, with everything nice and relaxed) so you can always improve in that way, but if you're not a regular bowler then just plenty of bowling in nets should be best to get you in a nice groove. Key if you're not going to devote a lot of time specifically to bowling practice though is try and completely forget about the batsman if you're bowling at one, it's natural to focus on the batsman when for best practice you want to be focusing on your bowling.
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It's not unambitous and it's perfectly feasible to want tto be the best you can be
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Try to find someone else who is keen to improve or at least help you improve. A training buddy is always good.
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Looking for some advice here, I am looking to improve few aspects of batting, fielding and bowling but don't know if it will be too much pre season. The key points I need to work on are:
1:Legside shots between midwicket and mid on, tend to hit these riskly between fine leg and square, been out many times LBW.
2: Bowling: very loose and only bowl occasionally but has prospect for improvement.
3: Fielding: all of my fielding needs working.
Current fitness level has the best it has been in many years and have been weight training.
Firstly is it feasible or ambitious, secondly is it drills mainly to improve or any other tips please, I will post a batting video for critique next time I net. Many thanks.
Mate, couple of pieces here for you.
1. Batting
I have the same problem. One of the errors that most people make with hitting the ball to leg side, is trying to hit it to square. One piece of advice i received very early in my career, was trying to hit the ball as straight as possible early in your innings. This allows you to give the ball the full face of the bat and helps remove small errors in timing.
So essentially, trying to hit the ball to mid on or mid off early in your innings.
You still have to play the ball on it's merits, but this should help.
The other thing to consider, is that you could be playing across the line of the ball. Should it really be hit to mid-wicket in the first place?
This means you hit across the path the ball is travelling. Try keeping a high front elbow, as it is very difficult to play across the line of the ball this way.
2. Bowling
Practice makes perfect.
The mistake a lot of bowlers make, is trying too much variation.
To get your accuracy better, try bowling one, an only one type of delivery. For me, my stock ball is an out swinger. I bowl this delivery, pretty well 5 out of 6 balls every over.
You need to find your stock delivery and perfect this. Get to the nets (if you can) and bowl the same delivery over and over until you are happy with how you're landing it. Then work on changing the spot you're trying to land it. This accuracy makes you invaluable to a captain as he/she can rely on you every over to be able to bowl to the field they set.
After you have your accuracy, then start working on variations from your stock delivery.
3. Fielding
Again, practice makes perfect.
The more balls you field, the more catches you take, the better you will get.
I agree with the earlier comment about looking at professional drills online, but make sure you don't start too advanced.
Couple of things i still (after 23 years of organised cricket) remind myself of:
- when fielding the ball along the ground, chin to chest as the ball is coming in. This means you watch the ball right into your hands and you don't look up too early, causing a miss field
- Body behind the ball. I did my knee a few years ago so don't slide any more, but it means that i use the one leg down as a back like this: (http://i1320.photobucket.com/albums/u529/ClintonAndersen/CricketGroundFielding1_zps7c5kd4vr.jpg) (http://s1320.photobucket.com/user/ClintonAndersen/media/CricketGroundFielding1_zps7c5kd4vr.jpg.html)
You can see in the last picture that he has all of his body 'behind the ball' if he doesn't take it with his hands, or the ground is uneven and the ball kicks over his hands, it will hit his leg/body. Yes cricket balls can hurt if you miss with your hands, but not as much as being the fielder in the team the captain moves all the time as they don't trust your fielding. - Let the ball come to you. A lot of people snatch at the ball. You need to allow the ball to come to you and use it's natural momentum.
- While there is text book in how to catch, i've found a lot of cricketers need to find their way. Look at some videos on techniques for catching. Then try them all until you find what's most comfortable
- Keep - your - head - still! Keeping your head as still as possible, for any part of the game, gives you the best opportunity to see the ball. Our brain is a very powerful processing machine, but your head swaying, moving, bouncing, angled means it has to work harder and forces it to make assumptions. Keep your head still to take this out.
Mate, hope this helps and good luck with your improvement.
The day you stop trying to improve is the day you should give the game away!