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[InternalTraining]

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. 

[KarlPennington]

The only thing I'm nervous about in my job, is getting told off for writing blogs on cricket forums in works time

[InternalTraining]

^ hehe

[Manormanic]

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...

[KarlPennington]

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.

[TangoWhiskey]

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.

[praguetaz]

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...

[shane]

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

Wise words in any case.