Another fascinating webinar in Stuart McErlain-Naylor’s Science of Cricket series on YouTube — Oliver Runswick on anticipation and perceptual motor skill in cricket.
For me, two things stood out from Oliver’s presentation:
Here is a simple game to play in the nets, to encourage batters to do more than “just have a hit”.
Each batter faces a round of bowling, one ball from each bowler.
First round — “have a look” — batter is challenged to leave as many deliveries as possible (1 run) or, if he plays the ball, to play it with soft hands so the ball does not hit the net (also 1 run).
Second round — acceleration — score 1 run for every ball that hits the net after bouncing.
Third round — “get on with it” — 4 runs for hitting the ball back out of the net.
Bowlers score 5 for every time they hit the stumps — if this unbalances the game too much in favour of bowlers, score 3 or 4 per wicket — the intention is to encourage bowlers to bowl as straight as possible, at all times, but the points are an added incentive to bowl properly.
If the batters are padded up, face all 3 rounds, then have remainder of batting time; compare scores at the end of the net session.
If using a soft ball and batters not padding up, rotate after each round and compare scores at the end of each phase.
Inspired by “Going through the gears” by @ImSporticus, and conversations with @DavidHinchliffe about net practice.
Fascinating article from Connor, Renshaw & Farrow on batting expertise from the perspective of elite coaches.
Rather than an analysis of the technical and physical actions, the paper looks at the mental process of batting, following the scheme I first encountered from Greg Chappell, of shifting focus from the broad before facing each delivery, to fierce as the bowler approaches, before relaxing again between deliveries.
In this paper, Connor, Renshaw & Farrow highlight the crucial contribution of what is described as “The Plus”, what goes on between deliveries, where the elite batter is able to reflect on what has just happened, recalibrate and revise expectations and intentions and then relax, before switching back to the intense focus needed to face the next ball.
So it’s not enough to be technically highly competent, tactically aware, physically fit, and to maintain that rolling focus for the duration of a long innings. Even in the “down time” between deliveries, the elite batter will be calculating the next challenge, the next advantage.
No wonder I sometimes struggle to hit the ball off the square…
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The Teesra 