One of my previous Masterclass articles is entitled Don’t Make A Good Ball Into A Bad One where I discuss the importance of shot selection in the context of a great player who I was fortunate enough to play a lot of first-class cricket with David Boon.

Basically, this article talks about how 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.

I was watching the 1st Ashes Test 2009 and noticed that at one stage Australia’s Mitchell Johnson bowled a 6 over spell where not one of the 36 balls bowled challenged the stumps, which allowed the batsmen to leave all of his deliveries.  Amazingly, Andrew Flintoff the England batsman decided to defend a ball that was missing the stumps by 70cm and nicked it straight to second slip!

Don’t make a Bad ball into a good one!  Flintoff made a bad ball into a good one in this case by defending a ball that could have been left alone.  In defending a ball he didn’t have to he was increasing his risk all for no reward!  Importantly, for a technical perspective when you defend ball wide of off-stump the bat face has to open up to reach the ball and you are playing away from your eye-line which further increase the risk associated with this already risky and pointless tactic!

As Marcus North demonstrated so well in his outstanding century in the same Test the only ball worthwhile hitting outside the line of off-stump is one you can score from.

Please find below an except from another article entitles The Art Of Leaving The Ball Outside Off-Stump and although leaving the ball may not sound like the most exciting part of cricket if you can master this skill it will make you harder to get out and give you more time at the crease which will make you more runs – which is exciting!

Here are the benefits of leaving balls outside off stump that you cannot score from:

• You are minimising the risk of caught behind the wicket by leaving ball wide of off stump and effectively making the slips fielders a wasted position.
• You can pressure the bowlers into changing their tactics and bowling straighter line, which will create leg side scoring opportunities.
• You are demonstrating to the bowlers that you will be selective in your choice of shots and therefore tough to get out.
• You are demonstrating that you value your wicket.
• You are giving yourself time to get comfortable at the crease.
• You can begin to develop a feel for what attacking opportunities will be available outside off-stump later in your innings by having a good look at the bowling while you adjust to the conditions.
• You can get your eye in and establish yourself at the crease at the most difficult part of your innings, the start.  If you bat for long enough you will make up the runs later as your confidence grows and the bowlers tire.

Cheers

Mark

It’s great to finally hear the crack of willow on leather as cricket season kicked off last weekend after a long and wet winter.

For those of you seeking some high quality practice and great coaching in the October school holiday period, now is the time to enrol with Elite Cricket for our High Performance Academy (limited places available), School Holiday and ‘On the Ball’ programs.

October 2008 School Holiday Program – Event and Enrolment details

Please note that our Early Bird offer (details below) expires this Thursday.

Your chance to win:

* 3 x HIGH PERFORMANCE INDIVIDUAL COACHING SESSIONS
* AERO LOWER BODY PROTECTOR (STRIPPER)

Enrol with your payment for any of our October programs before Wednesday 17th September 2008 and you’ll go into the draw to win 3 x High Performance Individual Coaching Sessions PLUS an AERO Lower Body Protector (Stripper) – TOTAL VALUE $300!

Cheers

Mark

One of my favourite sayings is, ‘It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get up that counts’.

I think that this is a very relevant expression for us as cricketers. Basically it means that in order to succeed you have to be prepared to accept and learn from failure.

Although failure is not a pleasant part of your job, it is nevertheless part of your job and as such you will need to deal with it and learn from it. Anyone who has tasted success in any field in my view has been prepared to get up at least one more time than they were knocked down! If you give up or admit defeat you risk never tasting success and let’s face it success in any field does not come easy and one of the main challenges in successfully attaining your goals is coping with failure!

You need to develop the belief and mental toughness not to be beaten by failure, you need to develop persistence. In order to succeed you need to summon the courage to pursue your goals and dreams, despite failure in the short term, after all ‘Form is temporary, Class is permanent!’

I will detail three brief examples of persistence, where successful cricketers have turned adversity into success by persistence.

• Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Matthew Hayden were all dropped from the Test team in the mid-nineties and came back years later to be devestingly, effective Test players
• Shane Warne’s comeback form suspension and personal crisis to achieve his best ever Ashes series wicket haul of 40 wickets since his debut in 1991
• Ricky Ponting comeback from a disciplinary suspension to become Australian captain and one of the world’s best batsmen

If these guys gave up when faced with adversity, disappointment and defeat they would never have gone on to achieve the wonderful success they did. These guys had the belief, courage and persistence to keep going when they were seemingly knocked down! Persistence is a key attribute of a champion and has very little to do with your outswinger or cut shot and the beauty of it is anyone can be persistent! Persistence does require courage, discipline and effort, but the effort is well worth making if your dreams and goals mean a lot to you.

How is your persistence? Is it strong enough to help you achieve your goals?

Cheers

Mark