Coaching | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Acceleration is the most desired trait of a good cricketer (after skill)

It makes sense to be fast.

The quicker you can run the more singles you can steal (or save in the field). The faster your arm moves when fast bowling, the quicker the ball comes out. The faster your bat moves through the strike zone the better you time the ball.

Acceleration is useless without technique, but when the two are combined you become a significantly more formidable player.

Brain power: Discover your learning style and accelerate your cricket performance

Have you given serious thought to how you learn?

Your ability to master new skills is directly related to how well you do on the cricket pitch.  But when it comes to learning we are all different.

There is no one way to learn anything, cricket is exactly the same.

If you can tap into your unique learning style you will be able to develop your technique, mental game, and athleticism faster than you ever thought possible.  

Cricket bestseller list

Every now and again I reveal what books are selling fastest through the Amazon store we have here on miCoach.

As you may already know, I get a small commission (about 4%) every time you buy a book, DVD or anything else through this site. I use the vouchers Amazon sends me to buy more books and help make miCoach better (and to keep it free).

So here are the latest bestselling cricket books through miCoach, in order of popularity:

How technically perfect do good cricketers have to be?

Filed in:

Widely considered to be the greatest one day batsman ever, Michael Bevan seemed to have two or three shots to every delivery. If he had stuck with the recognised wisdom he would not have been half as effective.

Nowadays he is not alone. Twenty20 is breeding batsmen and bowlers who are doing things that the authors of the MCC coaching book would baulk at.

So is it time to throw out the copy book and just play with natural flair and freedom?

How to bowl a hat trick

A hat trick is quite a paradox.

On the one hand, you would love to get one at almost any point in your spell, but how many bowlers plot to do it?

Most of us consider it a stroke of luck, perhaps a once in a lifetime thing.

Yet we all know proper planning and preparation is the way to success so why not plan how you are going to knock down three in three?

Season Starting - Some Thoughts

With the cricket season starting, I thought I'd just make a couple of remarks regarding selections, performance and attitudes during the first few weeks of the season.

This is addressed to those players who have worked solidly through the off season and preseason periods. Players who have made significant changes to their games and players who are approaching the start of the season proper with optimism and positivity.

Concentrate on routine on the morning of a match

Imagine it's the morning of your biggest game of the season. What do you do to focus your mind on the task at hand?

It's all down to routine.

Whether you bat or bowl, we all feel better when we are in control and are able to predict what is going to happen. You can't do that about the game, but you can do it about your preparation right up until the start of the match.

Showing the show ponies up: The art of tail end batting

Batsmen eh?

All they do is stand in the outfield looking pretty then when it comes to the crunch they get out leaving it up to the tail to win or save the close games.

Where is the justice?

There's none. If you bat in the tail you just have to suck it up and consider yourself an all rounder. Even number 11 has a job to do in the batting order: At best it's to swipe a single off the last ball, at worst it's to bat out for the draw in an epic last wicket stand.

How to warm up for cricket: The video

This 2 minute video has been created to help with your cricket warm ups. You can see more on warming up for cricket here and here.

 

Variety and spice: How the arm ball can turn you from stock spinner to strike bowler

The arm ball, or floater, is probably the single best weapon an orthodox finger spinner can have. Ray Illingworth says he once took 41 wickets of 135 in a season just with the arm ball.

At first the ball seems counterproductive. Spinners should spin the ball hard, hoping to impart enough revolutions on the ball for it to dip late in its flight and move off the pitch. This is true for the stock delivery and is what you should do at least 80% of the time.