This may come across as boring and lengthy to some but I really need the motivation and what better place to maintain a diary than this forum. Sessions are rather expensive so no new kit for me next season. I have decided to spend all coaching money on batting improvement only.
Sesison 1 – 15/10/2014 @ Cricket AsylumThis was more of an assessment session. I will add videos as soon as my pitch vision licence is sorted. Tom was absolutely brilliant and we started with some side arm throws. These things are brilliant and did take me by surprise at first.
I was rather good with back foot shots and defences. I was able to spot the slower deliveries and managed to block the Yorkers rather well. My weakness being the deliveries coming right in at me with some bounce and inability or lack of confidence to drive.
Coach then analysed the video with me and spotted my grip which was fundamentally wrong. My top hand didn’t wrap around fully, infact I had my thumb on top in line with the spine throughout. Also my bat was fairly straight but pointing to second slip, he suggested getting it straighter. Stance was fairly balanced.
Coach also made some notes about strengths and weaknesses. My natural inclination is to cut and pull and while cutting I was sometimes not waiting long enough or moving my right leg meaning my shots were going straight to fielder at point or cover. Also I ended up walking after every shot which is probably due to my head being too forward and not in line with rest of the body.
Next was some match scenarios. Like batting at number 3 and I have just come in and batting with number 11 where we need 20 runs off 24 balls with a combination of leg spin and off spin. I managed to get the situation right to the last two balls.
Coach’s feedback was to work on the grip, I need to get the hands together and top hand wrapped around fully, which I am finding really awkward at the moment but going to persist. He said that while we need to work on skills, he was happy with my temperament and advised me to be a bit more positive. He also commented about me being too wristy at times and my wrists naturally tend to turn for every shot, advise it to keep it straight for the drives.
Overall a good session, I am booked for some more and will keep the thread up to date purely for my motivation.
Session 2 – 22/10/2014 @ Cricket AsylumThis session was dedicated to getting those drives right. Bat grip is a lot better but there is still some gap between two hands which needs to go basically.
Coach started with getting me in driving stance, i.e. front leg lunging forward to where he was going to drop the ball, back leg almost straight, weight on front with head above the front toe. I was asked to drive on second bounce and stay in position to get muscles being used to driving. This was rather painful after 30 consecutive drops and as I got tired my grip suffered. He varied it with placing a squeezy ball under my front foot and then under my back foot. The whole idea was to hit through the line and keep head position. It felt like being in a forward lunge forever. We did this for about a hundred drops.
There was a bowler practising his stuff in another lane so coach asked if he could bowl to me and this was one of the best bowlers I have ever faced, regularly clocking 70mph+ I was happy to let the swinging balls go and managed to hit a few protecting the stumps and I would in a match situation. There was a nasty one which caught me on the thigh, aero stripper wasn’t covering that area and I regretted selling on the stretton [note to self, get a larger size aero or another thigh guard]. It is still stinging. We watched the video after that and I could see that I was moving even before the ball was released and that I was not committed to driving a few times. Coach said that he is happy with my discipline and would like me to go for the balls and not worry about edging/nicking. He also said that I need to commit to the shots and again head position was a concern. At times I was driving with head either too wide off the toe or too far back. Overall it was great facing the quickie.
We moved on to some more drop feeds but this time I was asked to be in my stance and step forward as the ball was dropped i.e. not in drive position as first drill. Again after 100 or so feeds I could really feel it coming together. We moved to some underarm rolls and things are looking better.
Now comes in the bowling machine, not sure what the speed was set up but it felt quick. The first ball took my middle stump away, obviously it was a jaffa of a delivery. By this time I was shattered and could feel the lack of commitment in shots. Again I was moving too early and instead of hitting straight, kept hitting in the cover region. The few perfect drives I managed were not captured in the camera
So things to improve:-
- Head position above the toe with body in line
- Both hands together in grip
- Move when ball is released and not before
- Not to turn body sideways and keep wrists rigid [I am too wristy at times which is not really a bad thing]
- Keep head down else it goes up in the air
- Commit to the shot, really commit to it
- Didn’t really play anything off backfoot or cut but the few I did, I got in to shot early, coach advised to wait a little
What I noticed already is that my top hand is doing most of the work now with bottom hand just acting as a guide for balance. This is new to me and I am very pleased with the result. I can feel the top forearm burning like after a gym session. Will be doing some exercises [not those kind] to gain some strength.
Thank you for reading and hopefully I will get some videos this week.
Session 3 - 19/11/2014 @ Cricket AsylumIt has been a few weeks since last update. The sessions have been off for one reason or another but I have been shadow practising drives, running and trying to gain some strength.
Third session yesterday:-
We started with front foot drives on the bowling machine and the feedback was that my body balance is everywhere really. Otherwise the drives are coming on nicely, from no drive to some drives, so there has been progress.
Then we did some drop feed and underarms.
This was followed by another bowling machine drill where the coach will shout high or low, meaning I have to play a shot for 6 or 4. This was quite fun.
At this point, we decided to take a break from front foot drives and coach wanted to see how I do with short balls. See some videos, I was absolutely rubbish even though I always thought this is my area of strength.
The feedback from yesterday was to have confidence and belief in myself. Coach repeatedly says to me that I need to stop playing check shots and follow through. My problem is that the more power I try to generate the more balance I lose, I also feel a searing pain in my triceps when I follow through too hard. I keep trying to play away from the body and rarely play in line with the ball.
This time we got the videos working, a selection below, they are only about 5secs long.
Full
http://pvgo.to/bzgqkrhttp://pvgo.to/buwmbbhttp://pvgo.to/nnkcsehttp://pvgo.to/cybusuhttp://pvgo.to/sqmyvmhttp://pvgo.to/exodoihttp://pvgo.to/jjnarphttp://pvgo.to/aloyibhttp://pvgo.to/tucvkahttp://pvgo.to/xxnqjghttp://pvgo.to/amfxmchttp://pvgo.to/dvhdxfhttp://pvgo.to/eteoquShort
http://pvgo.to/bloeqchttp://pvgo.to/bvtbkjhttp://pvgo.to/qfoyfwhttp://pvgo.to/dqflsahttp://pvgo.to/ybkgikhttp://pvgo.to/fmfqwjClassic
http://pvgo.to/mkwmqeSession 4 – 23/11/2014 @ Cricket AsylumWell it was an early morning session and I turned up at 9AM as promised but the coach had double booked himself so he asked if I mind waiting for an hour. He set me up on bowling machine with auto feeder so I was happy to practice on my own for an hour.
By the time we started our session I had already practised a lot of drives so we went straight to some drop feed drills and facing short balls. Coach pointed out that there is still a wide bat pad gap causing me to lose my balance. He was impressed with the progress I had made and wanted to get to the crux of my technical problems.
He highlighted two main problems
1. Foot not moving in line of the ball and wide bat pad gap
2. My right shoulder turns in and I end up facing the bowler, he insisted that I play side on as much as possible and that my left shoulder should be pointing towards the direction of shot
For number 2, we did some underarm throws, where I was already in a position for back foot drive towards cover with my shoulder pointing the correct way.
It was a fairly long and tiring session but I get the feeling that we have narrowed the areas of improvement down to a handful. I will be doing some drills at home to get muscle memory.
Session 5 – 03/12/2014 @ Cricket AsylumFinal session for this year. Coach focussed on gap finding. We started with a bowler bowling at me and I was asked to play my natural game and find gaps in hypothetical field settings. Then we moved on to do some drills using soft balls and stinger machine. Started with playing on drives between two cones, then same for off and straight drives. Target was to find the gap 50% of the time before moving on to next drill.
Coach suggested I stand up a little straighter and more side on.
That’s it really, we have a good idea of areas I need to work on i.e. bat and pad gap, head position, balance and confidence. Signed up for another 5 lessons to be scheduled during new year.
Our Team nets start today and then some more nets booked at Headingley in January. I am not going to have any money left to buy any cricket equipment next year
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Topic: My Training Diary 2014 – 2015 - updated with videos (Read 4954 times)