I'm a firm believer in training. Otherwise, why would all professional sports do it!
I know myself, as a self taught player that in three seasons I have gone from having never really picked a bat up 9or played cricket!) to where I am today. Purely by training and netting so much. I've not had coaching (a few pointers from people (one from nickauger) along the way), but generally just watching pro's, watching the masterclasses on tv and picking things up from watching other players.
I've gone from that to playing div 1 in northants and now playing what is basically div 4 in wepl. Now, I know I'm better than div 4 but it just happens to be the club I'm at. Is it talent? yes and no. I think it's more to do with confidence and training. I'm netting 3 times a week now and during the season I net about 4 times (not including games on wed, thur, sat and sun). This year I am aiming to hit 500 balls EVERYDAY. My stats are shooting up year on year and I expect another rise this year as I learn, improve and more importantly.. learn how to open!
on the subject of others.. last winter I helped a guy who was ok but that's it go from avg'ing 16 and not really regarded in his club as anything but a lower order slogger into someone who is arguably the clubs best batsmen.. all in one winter. Now, he had the talent and the eye but had never trained, had never had someone really help him.. a winter netting twice a week on the machine took him to over 1000 runs for the season and avg'ing 41... Now if that's not an advert for training then I dont' know what is.
People say 'you can't do everything on the machine'.. I disagree. Yes you should aim to do 'live' nets as well as it helps but if you spend your life on the machine you can become a decent player. It's much harder if someone is randomising the ball at 65/70 on teh machine than it is facing a live bowler at 75.. you have far less reaction time for a start.. plus, it's a darn site more accurate so the feeder can set you up.. spot a flaw.. etc etc IT helps me pick up line and length so quickly that a county 2nds bowler just last night said 'my god you are hard to get out, unless I bowl where you want me too I'm wasting my time'.. that's purely machine training.. he's at 80 ish mph too which while not express is plenty fast enough for me thank you very much.
sum up... if you want to improve ... net If you want to become consistent.... net
If you just want to turn up and see hwo it goes then stick as you are. Maybe you are just a superstar.. or maybe you are playing below your level so are getting away with it!
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Topic: Repeated netting is great for batsmen..? (Read 4037 times)