Elite Cricket is very pleased to present this exclusive Masterclass article by former Tasmanian and Somerset captain and my former teammate Jamie Cox. Among other things Jamie scored 51 first class centuries and is now an Australian selector. Enjoy.
Cheers
Mark
An old batting mentor of mine once said that batting was 90% mental, to which I responded that I thought he had been hit in the head one too many times! However, the longer I played cricket, the more I realized that, if anything, at 90% he may have even underestimated the importance of the mind in batting.
The reason I say this is that I have seen some of the most technically gifted players fail time and again due to poor shot selection or concentration lapses, yet on the other hand I have seen players of very limited technical ability thrive at all levels of the game, simply because they had a positive mental approach.
Batting is a reactive skill, with often less than half a second available to react. With such a limited time frame there is no time to think and the response needs to be automatic. Training nets are not only used to train muscle memory; more importantly they are used to train instincts, which must be intimately trusted once competition starts.
Whilst a solid technique is an important part of batting success it is virtually useless if the mind isn’t in sync. Train the mind and batting success will follow more regularly.
Jamie Cox
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