I heard an expression that made me think recently, it was ‘95% of people turn up’. I think that the application of this expression to cricket is that in most cases 100% of people turn up to a game, but how many of the 24 people at the game turn up to do what it takes to win or to play the best game of their lives or to take responsibility for their team winning the match.

I believe that great performances don’t just happen, they are a result of making the effort to plan carefully and having the courage to make a disciplined effort to execute the plan with precision. People don’t play for Australia or achieve any great success by accident it is the result planning and effort.

I think the easy thing to do is just turn up to a match and go with the flow of the game taking the attitude that if your team and team-mates have a good day you can cruise along with them. It’s easy not to think! (95% of people turn up!)

The tough but rewarding thing to do is to make the effort to take the responsibility for being the very best you can be. This path does not guarantee you success, however it does give you the chance to be the best you can be and if you never aim to do something, how can you achieve it other than by luck and let’s face it you could be waiting around a long time for a lucky break!

To be the best you can be means you need the courage to take the risk to commit fully to carrying out your game plan and accepting the consequences no matter the result. You need the courage to test yourself and see how good you can be and this means taking the risk to fail. However, failure is not a bad thing in fact I see it as an opportunity and if you can be honest with yourself every performance is an opportunity to learn weather you succeed of fail. For example if you failed under a certain set of conditions or against a certain bowler what did other people do that worked in these circumstances that you can learn from or how can you do it better next time.

When you turn up to your next game, will you be prepared to be the best you can be? Are you prepared to play the best game of your life or better your personal best performances? If the answer to any of these questions is YES, then have you got the plan, discipline and courage to make the effort that it requires?

Good luck

Mark

I suppose the best place to start is what are the benefits. Well I reckon the main benefits of staying in are as follows. The longer you bat; The more bad balls you receive. Say on average you receive 1 bad ball for every 10 your face. If you bat for 10 balls you get 1 bad ball but if you can bat for 100 balls you get 10 bad balls. Assuming that you hit all the bad balls you face for 4, if you face 100 balls you’ll have 40 runs and if you bat 10 you’ll have 4!

The more tired the bowlers will become, which will accelerate the rate at which you receive opportunities to score. As bowlers tire their techniques can deteriorate which is likely to more opportunities for you. The more comfortable and confident with the conditions and the bowlers you become. You can’t beat time in the middle and you can’t score runs from the pavilion. When you are well set at the crease is the time to cash in and make a big score. The more fun you have. The next question is how do you make sure you bat for as long as possible, well I believe the answer is to minimise your risk.

What are the best ways to this, Have a plan that is realistic, that you can achieve and stick to it. My plan is defend balls on the stumps and leave the wide balls until I want to score from them. For example if I don’t want to score off a ball that I know is wide of the stumps, I don’t take the risk of hitting or nicking it for a reward of no runs!

Technically, stay balanced, play as straight as possible and restrict your swing in defence and full swing in attack. Be patient and wait for your opportunities instead of trying to force them, remember the longer you bat the more opportunities you will get.

Relax and enjoy the challenge, if scoring runs was easy you’d do it all the time!

Good luck

Mark

Cricket can be a very tough game at times and consistent success doesn’t come easy.

One thing for sure is that all players no matter their skill, experience or level struggle for form at some stage of their careers. When this occurs it is very easy to make excuses and feel sorry for yourself, however the tougher and more worthwhile road is to accept the great challenge that cricket presents and tackle it head on.

A key element in succeeding in the face of the challenge that struggling for form presents is to remember to enjoy the challenge.

After all when you enjoy something you do it well, so feeling upset, uptight or thinking that the game of cricket has got it in for you won’t work! When we play well we enjoy it and when we don’t play well we tend not to enjoy it, after all not performing isn’t much fun.

However while form may be temporary class is permanent and as such it is very important to continue to enjoy the game despite a personal lack of success in the short run. If you let a lack of short-term success destroy your enjoyment of the game you simply won’t play well.

Key tips for enjoying the challenge.

• Remember what you love about playing the game
• Think back and remember how you play best and how good it feels when you play well
• Enjoy the challenge of getting back to form and when you overcome it this time it will help you to do it better when it occurs again
• Realise everybody misses out from time to time and this is a natural part of the game
• Enjoy your teammates success and keep contributing to the team effort

Good luck

Mark

Discipline is a word that is used a lot in sport and in this article I will explore how I think discipline applies to cricket.

Cricket is a game full of challenges. Every time we go out onto the field we face skillful opponents in a range of challenging conditions. For every ball you are out on the field you face tough competitors whose main interest is to stop you doing well! As a batsman you have 11 members of the fielding team aspiring to take your wicket for as few runs a possible and as a bowler you have batsmen aiming to make sure you don’t get any wickets and that they score lots of runs from your bowling!

In other words, as a cricketer there is something at stake every ball. There are risks in that something can go wrong for you at every stage of your performance.

Discipline is a critical weapon for you as a cricketer to ensure you combat the risks you face to the best of your ability. By this I mean having the discipline to do what it takes to succeed in an innings is critical in establishing a good performance. Having the discipline to do what it takes over a season and a career is the key to strong and consistent performances in the long term.

The discipline to succeed comes from your desire to succeed, as this desire will drive you to do what is necessary to succeed. Remember that this is not an easy road to travel, but nothing worthwhile (including runs and wickets) comes easy. However, making the effort to have the discipline to do what it takes will be worthwhile if you really wish to achieve your goals.

For example, the major risk a batsman faces is getting out. The most likely forms of dismissal statistically speaking are bowled, lbw and caught behind the wicket. These forms of dismissal occur from balls that are challenging the stumps in terms of line and length. A batsman can take a major step toward managing this risk by playing straight, that is hitting the ball on the line of the stumps straight back down the pitch with the full face of the bat, as this will maximise the surface area contact with the ball while significantly reducing the possibility of missing the ball (bowled and lbw) or an edge behind. This is a simple tactical concept, however the real challenge after you understand the tactics involved is to have the discipline to carry out this process ball after ball over an innings, game, season or career.

Consistent actions lead to consistent results, so if you have a plan, your tactics are good and you have the technique to back them up (you should have!), maybe an area you should explore is your discipline.

Have you got the discipline to do what it takes to succeed ball after ball and season after season?

Good luck

Mark

Our April School Holiday program was a big success. The application and skill on display throughout the program was outstanding. Well done to all.

For those players wanting to keep the ball rolling and get a head start on the coming season feel free to email or call to discuss your program report or to work out an off-season program.

Also don’t forget our special offer on High Performance Individual Coaching.

SPECIAL OFFER: All players who participated in our April program have the opportunity to purchase a special promotional package to attend over the winter months a series of 5 x High Performance Individual Coaching sessions but only pay for 4.

Cheers

Mark

Skill acquisition experts tell us that it takes around 10,000 hours or 10 years of focused practice to develop expertise in a skill!

Whether your goals are to play for Australia, recover from a bad season, take your game to another level or simply get the best out of your ability, these goals will not come easily or without effort.

The best investment you can make in achieving your cricket goals is to put in the time and effort to develop the best possible skill set you can. Let’s face it, to score runs for example, is a huge challenge when you have 10 ways to get out every ball and 11 opponents whose job it is to see you fail! Your best protection against this challenge is an excellent array of skills that you understand and can apply consistently. To attain them you have to put in the work, there is no way around it, however, the benefits of striving to be the best you can be are well worth the effort required to achieve your goals.

The off-season presents an ideal opportunity to make the effort to invest in your skills, whether it is to build consistency and precision around your existing strengths or to work through a change strategy to turn your weaknesses into strengths. The benefit of working hard through the off-season is that the out of competition period offers an opportunity to experiment and work through change or extend your capabilities away from the competitive pressures of a match. It also presents you with the chance to accumulate the hours of focused quality practice you will need to master your skills.

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

Cheers

Mark

SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM

School Holiday Programs are cricket coaching events that offer an enjoyable and challenging program of both individual and group skill development cricket activities and match play for players aged 5 -14.

School Holiday Programs are hosted annually during the April, July, October, December and January School holiday periods.

The highly successful and popular programs are conducted from 9am to 3pm in both 2 and 3 day formats across a range of venues.

HIGH PERFORMANCE ACADEMY PROGRAM

This program has a minimum skill requirement and is specifically designed for cricketers playing at representative level or its school equivalent.

Successful applicants for this elite program will also possess high levels of cricket skill and fitness, be self-disciplined, highly motivated and aged 12 years or above.

Over 2 days our Academy players train like first class cricketers and are challenged by an intensive multi-disciplinary program to further enhance their existing skills and match awareness by a range of high performance coaches.

THE ‘ON THE BALL’ BEGINNERS PROGRAM

‘On the Ball’ is for girls and boys from 5 -7 years, who have perhaps never played cricket or who have just begun their cricketing career. In these sessions our aim is to have some fun, some fitness and learn about the game of cricket.

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