Consistently good performances are built on the back of excellent planning and skillful and precise execution.

Given we are only around 10 weeks from competition it is timely that players wanting to excel this season begin their pre-season campaign.

The key to an effective pre-season is to train both hard and smart, so before you go out and start hitting, bowling and catching balls a little planning will go a long way to ensure your hard work is rewarded.

A thorough plan should cover all aspects of your performance requirements including:

• Game sense - strategy and tactics
• Mental - concentration, goal setting, relaxation and dealing with pressure
• Technical - batting, bowling and fielding/wicketkeeping
• Fitness - strength, endurance, flexibility and diet

Please find a link below to a 5 step planning model to assist with your planning for the season.

Masterclass: Planning For The Season

Also please find below a link to the strength program that Elite Cricket is using in the Sydney Tigers Cricket Club Academy programs.

Elite Cricket Strength Training Program

Click on the headings in red below for coming event and enrolment details.

WICKETKEEPING ACADEMY AND SPECIALIST BOWLING PROGRAMS START THIS SUNDAY

Wicketkeeping Academy - Event and Enrolment details

1 PLACE LEFT

Exclusively directed by Mark Atkinson this intensive program is most suitable for aspiring wicketkeepers who have already had some experience in match play situations, covers all aspects of the art of wicketkeeping and leaves players feeling confident and ready for their best season behind the stumps.

Specialist Programs - Fast And Spin Bowling - Event and Enrolment details

LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE

Elite Cricket has once again assembled a top line team of NSW’s finest coaches for our programs, including NSW Blues paceman Mark Cameron (Fast bowling) and NSW Blues Coach David Freedman (Spin bowling).

Cheers

Mark

The cricket season is fast approaching and Elite Cricket has a great range of programs to assist players of all ages and abilities prepare for the best season of their careers by working closely with an expert coach.

Simply click on the headings below to find out all the event and enrolment details.

JULY SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM - EVENT AND ENROLMENT DETAILS

Kick start your pre-season program this July

WICKETKEEPING ACADEMY - EVENT AND ENROLMENT DETAILS 

Exclusively directed by Mark Atkinson this intensive program is most suitable for aspiring wicketkeepers who have already had some experience in match play situations, covers all aspects of the art of wicketkeeping and leaves players feeling confident and ready for their best season behind the stumps.

INTENSIVE SPECIALIST PROGRAMS - FAST AND SPIN BOWLING - EVENT AND ENROLMENT DETAILS

Elite Cricket has once again assembled a crack team of NSW’s finest coaches for our programs, including NSW Blues paceman Mark Cameron (Fast bowling) and NSW Blues Coach David Freedman (Spin bowling).

HIGH PERFORMANCE INDIVIDUAL COACHING - PROGRAM DETAILS

For players trying out for representative, school, Green Shield and grade selection why not give yourself the best chance with a program of individual sessions where Elite Cricket will design and deliver a program for you over a number of lessons.

Cheers

Mark

Despite the fact that most of our cricket grounds are sporting football posts, there’s still plenty of cricket to be had.

It is great to have Test cricket back on the agenda after a long break and despite the big hitting of Twenty20 cricket, Test cricket still can’t be beaten for entertainment for me due to it’s ebbs and flows and the genuine contest of skill and temperament between batsmen and bowler.

Australia’s earned a hard fought win against a resurgent West Indies to go one up in the series.  It was great to see a close contest played out over the full five days and from a coaching point I think it is worth taking a close look at two of Australia’s key performers in the Test.

Ricky Ponting bounced back to form after a forgettable series in Australia against India and in the IPL tournament, with a brilliant century.  Significantly his performance was built on a lot of hard work, prior to the tour, in the nets at the Brisbane based Centre of Excellence using a giant video screen to analyse and then fine tune his game for peak performance.

Stuart Clark’s Man of the Match performance was engineered with meticulous preparation and his relentless ability to execute the basic skills of his game under pressure. Champion players, such as Clark, have the ability to execute the basic skills consistently and well and there is no better role model for a fast bowler than Clark in terms of relentless excellence in delivering line and length and although perhaps not spectacular, the pressure brought about through his level of skills enables him to dismiss the world’s top batsmen time and time again.

Importantly in addition to his wonderful command of line and length, prior to the Test, Clark made a point of studying video tape of Glenn McGrath’s previous outstanding performances in tours to the West Indies which underscores the value of preparation and shows no matter how good you are you can always keep learning.

The IPL is reaching the final stages of competition and has well and truly put Twenty20 cricket on the map.  How Twenty20 will change cricket is yet to be seen, but it is clearly an exciting form of the game and is certainly here to stay! For those players who’d like to have some fun playing this exciting form of the game, Elite Cricket will be holding a Twenty20 tournament in January 2009 – details and entry forms will be posted on the website in the coming months.

Elite Cricket has our annual pre-season Specialist Fast and Spin Bowling and Wicketkeeping Academy programs running in July, August and September. I will be running the Wicketkeeping Academy and I’m very pleased to let you know former NSW spinner and current NSW coach David Freedman will be one of our spin coaches and Mark Cameron NSW Blues speedster will be coaching in our Fast Bowling program.  The event and enrolment details for these programs will be posted on the website shortly.

The cricket season will roll around quickly and keen cricketers should soon be thinking about and planning their preparation for the season ahead. With this in mind I have posted a new series of articles on the website to help you think a little more about your cricket and would suggest you take some time to read them leading up to the season.

Cheers

Mark

Although many of you will be knee deep in football of varying codes through the off season, this period can be used very well by cricketers wanting to be the best they can be, as it offers an opportunity to work on correcting technique and developing skills away from the competitive environment which can be a great chance to experiment and expand your capabilities.

This period is also a great time for an evaluation of your game to ask yourself key self-development questions such as: What did I do well? What can I do better? And… What do I need to do to get better?

I would invite anyone who may want to discuss developing a strategy to become a better player to contact me by phone or email for a chat and you may like to check out my article entitled Off Season Coaching Program on the website.

HIGH PERFORMANCE INDIVIDUAL COACHING

Our High Performance Individual Coaching program focuses on acquiring and mastering critical technical skills to optimise performance.

• Great for building confidence in your own game
• Learn, improve and hone new skills away from the pressure of match play
• Correct bad techniques (particularly those that may cause injury) before they become an integral part of your game and are difficult to change
• You can book for one session or as many as you like however we recommend a minimum of 5 sessions over consecutive weeks to enable a stronger understanding and knowledge of your game
• Our High Performance Individual Coaching program will continue during the winter months at Gladesville and Five Dock.

To book a session call Mark on 0422 787 727.

Cheers

Mark

The end of the season offers a break from match play and a chance to reflect on your recent performances while they are still fresh in your mind. It is also a good time to set some goals and start planning for next year. I have outlined below a simple 5-step plan that you may like to try when you are ready to start planning your success for next season.

For those of you who would like to get started on developing and implementing your plan and correct any problem areas that you identified last season, Elite Cricket can assist in two ways.

Our April School Holiday Program will specifically focus on identifying the tactical and technical areas of your game needing improvement. Participants will leave with a report on areas of their game requiring attention and the program is a great way to wrap up this season while offering a good pathway to the next one.

High Performance Individual Coaching will be running through the off season at Gladevsille and Five Dock and a program of HPIC sessions over winter is the ideal way to focus on correcting your technique away from match play pressure to emerge strong and ready for the next season.

Step 1 - Situation Analysis (Where are you at right now?) is a “stocktake” of your game and involves reflecting on a few simple ideas including what you did that worked well last season, what you did that didn’t work last season and overall a summary of what you learned. In this type of approach I would look at the following areas of your game: tactical (shot and delivery selection), technical (balance and alignment), mental (concentration and thinking) and fitness (strength, endurance and flexibility).

Step 2 - Goal Setting (Where do you want to go?) is to determine what you want to achieve. A good model for your goal setting is the SMART model. Your goals should be S - specific, M - measurable, A - attainable, R - realistic and T - time oriented. The best goals can be measured, because if you can’t measure something, how will you know if you have achieved it or not? When you have set your goals you can then progress to Step 3 of your plan. The difference between a dream and a goal is that a goal has a deadline. Write your goals down, it gives them a better chance of success!

Step 3 - Strategy (How will you get from your current position identified in Step 1 to where you want to go identified in Step 2?) This will involve you identifying what you need to work on and as per Step 1 this may include a range of areas such as technical, tactical, mental and fitness and then developing a structured program for yourself.

Step 4 - Implementation (Doing it) Having the greatest plan in the world will be of no use to you if you don’t do the work and put it into place. The biggest challenge of your plan will be having the desire and discipline to go out and make it happen, so while it is important to make the plan, the next step is to make it happen. Cricket is a tough game and I would love to tell you it is easy. Keeping it simple is not the same as it being easy. About all I can say here is that all the great players that I have played with over the years were both hard and smart workers, so if you want the success you will need to do the work.

Step 5 - Review (How are you doing?) You do not want to be chopping and changing you plans every week, however it is wise to review your progress from time to time in order to see how you can improve. Every game and training session will be an opportunity to learn and grow, so make sure you’re using your time and effort effectively.

APRIL SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM - PATHWAY TO NEXT SEASON

The program will focus on reviewing your performance this season and identifying areas of your game requiring improvement.

Working individually and in small groups over two days, players will work with Elite Cricket coaches in the nets, with the bowling machine and in game scenarios to identify what work needs to be done to improve tactical and technical skills critical to their game for next season.

Players will receive a detailed report including technical and tactical analysis and key recommendations on areas needing improvement.

SPECIAL OFFER: The off-season is an excellent time to work on your skills without the pressure of gameplay. All players in the program will be offered the opportunity to purchase a special promotional package to attend over the winter months a series of 5 High Performance Individual Coaching sessions but only pay for 4.

April School Holiday Enrolment Form

HIGH PERFORMANCE INDIVIDUAL COACHING

Why not give yourself the best chance of success?

Our High Performance Individual Coaching offers an intensive specialist coaching program for players of all ages and experience.

• Great for building confidence in your own game
• Learn, improve and hone new skills away from the pressure of match play
• Correct techniques (particularly those that may cause injury) before they become an integral part of your game and are difficult to change
• You can book for one session or as many as you like, however we recommend a minimum of 6 sessions over consecutive weeks to enable a stronger understanding and knowledge of your game

Cheers

Mark