Club batsmen get themselves out many more times than the bowler does.

That's the theory of Jeff Moss, a former first class batsman who played one Test for Australia in the 1970s and carved out a long career as a club batsmen, scoring at the rate of a man half his age well into the 1990s.

Jeff had an answer to this, which he revealed in 1994 and makes total sense from a sport science viewpoint: Review how you are getting out and look for patterns.

It's a simple matter of writing down after each innings your score, how you were out and what happened for you to get out.

As Jeff says:

"Of the 14 times you bat over a season you will probably be Not Out once or twice. You will have one piece of bad luck that might mean you get run out or someone takes a freak catch that normally wouldn't happen. The Umpire will fire you once or twice. Finally, you will get one or two genuine good balls that are a too good for you.

"That means that of the 14 times you bat there will be about 8 times you will be dismissed where the main person responsible for your dismissal is you. If you reckon you are getting 5 good balls a season or 5 pieces of bad luck then you are either kidding yourself or playing too high a Grade for your ability."

Perhaps you find you are getting caught in the slips a lot early on, or play lazy shots when you get to 20 or 30. Whatever it is, the act of writing it down will focus you on areas you need to improve, be they technical, fitness or mental.

Then you need to get in the nets or gym to work on it.

Jeff is right. You will never stop getting yourself out, even with this method. But you can use the patterns you find to get more runs before the inevitable happens.

Based on an idea found at The Chappell Way