Masterclass: Don't Make A Good Ball Into A Bad One!

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

An expression that I often use in the batting coaching context is ‘don’t make a good ball into a bad one’. Boony rarely, more so than any player I have played with, attempted to hit a good ball for runs. If you bowled him a good ball, he would respect it with a fortress like defensive stroke. However, if you bowled to Boony in one of his key scoring areas, cut, drive and off his legs, he would pick off runs with machine like efficiency. This was part of the skill set that allowed him to play 106 tests in Australia’s top order against teams including the then formidable West Indies.

Boony’s greatness as a batsman was not brilliant strokeplay or rapid scoring (not that he didn’t play great shots or score at a good pace), his key strength was an understanding of what he needed to do to make runs against the world’s top bowlers and the discipline and courage to execute it.

Boony had a simple plan (defend the good ball and score off other opportunities) that allowed him to succeed and he was able to consistently execute it.

Keep it simple!

Good luck.

Mark

Mark Atkinson

To date Mark has amassed extensive professional experience as an elite player with the Tasmanian, the Prime Ministers XI, Australian XI and Australia ‘A’ teams and an array of clubs in the United Kingdom and New South Wales. Mark’s elite level cricket experience is complemented by a Bachelor’s degree in physical education, which has enabled him to apply his knowledge of bio mechanics, skill acquisition, sport psychology and learning methodologies to his own career as a professional player and coach. His coaching credentials and expertise have been further enhanced through the attainment of his Level 3 cricket coaching accreditation from Cricket Australia. Mark has a Master’s degree in Business Administration, from Southern Cross University, Australia.