The Teesra

Category: bowling

  • “Four tent pegs” – twist

    Very interesting blog post from Steffan Jones (former County player/coach (Somerset CC, and Derbyshire CC, ECB Level 3 & UKSCA Certified) and a Strength & Conditioning expert), on the “four tent pegs” drill, as expounded by Ian Pont.

    “Drop step and block” (go on, buy the book!) certainly feels like a very dynamic start to an explosive delivery, and the whole drill offers a solid set of basic principles for bowling fast.

    But the video highlights one challenge I have to the tent pegs, and that is the transition from “tent peg 1” (essentially, back foot landing) to “tent  peg 2”.

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  • Performance goals – what do you want?

    An interesting initiative at our Club this year, in the form of a self-assessment form for all players – strengths, weaknesses, objectives and training needs.

    I don’t know yet how many senior players have actually completed their forms, yet (two weeks into our 18 match League programmes) and I do wonder if there will be a need for the Captains to provide a little direction, but I can see a lot of (potential) positives.

    In the absence of a Coach working with the senior Club, players will need to rely on self analysis and feedback from team mates.  But I suspect that the main benefit of the exercise will be a better understanding of strengths and weaknesses.

    It does not need to run to complex statistical analysis or psychological profiling; just a look at the stats on the Club website will show if you are bowled more often than caught, or if you really are LBW more often than anyone else in the Club.  And from that can come at very least a resolution not to keep hitting the ball in the air.

    This is definitely a project I would hope to be able to implement for the older Colts, maybe not now the season is under-way, but perhaps when we start winter nets, in October.  A little self-awareness is probably a good thing for a young player, if it is supported by a well thought out training and development plan.  More work for the coaches, to design group sessions that support multiple development needs (we won’t have the luxury of individual coaching), but a rewarding challenge, I hope, for coach and players.

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  • Dealing with pressure from “beyond the boundary” – so that’s why we need “connection and extension”

    “Slow down, and you will bowl straighter”.  I never appreciated receiving this advice when I was a young (never very) quick bowler, and I certainly don’t like hearing it now, from an experienced player advising a youngster who I have been encouraging to (try to) bowl fast.

    Bowling fast and straight is not impossible.  It is challenging, but anything worth doing generally is.  Being told to slow down does not make a fast bowler.  And the role of the coach has to be to encourage the exceptional.

    But how to deal with this (well-intentioned but ultimately unhelpful) advice from beyond the boundary?

    By making sure that everyone connected with the team – players, parents, other coaches, committee members – knows about “the plan”, whatever it might be.  Fast bowlers try to bowl fast; slow bowlers flight the ball and give it a rip; fielders are encouraged to try for run outs (so you had better be ready to back-up the throws).

    And that’s where “connection and extension” comes in. (more…)