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Last week, I wrote an article which led to significant debate on the site. This is brilliant, exactly what we are looking for.
The drill that I wrote about was an option to use when you’re faced with a fast bowler who sweeps the back leg under the line of their body going into Back Foot Contact (BFC). Pitchvision Academy fast bowling coach, Ian Pont gave some views and opinions in the comments section and offered another set of drills that can help bowlers to deal with the same technical challenge.
Having viewed Ian’s excellent courses, I have taken on some of the drills that Ian uses and had some success with players both in the professional and development game.
Equally, I have had success with the drill that was featured last week and also had success with other drills that I have picked up from the likes of Troy Cooley, Kevin Shine, Alan Donald, Stuart Barnes and Otis Gibson. All are options for the same technical challenge.
"The most effective people in the world are the ones with the most resources at their disposal" – Louise Deeley, Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner.
The reason why it is vital to have a number of approaches, drills and methods for any given coaching situation is that we are dealing with human beings, with a variety of motor profiles, preferences for learning, preferences for language with a need for variety of styles and methods of input.
At the most simple level, there are 192 different personality types (a mishmash of 16 styles with 12 combinations of motivations) and this is before we even factor in the influence that external stimuli has on the way that humans behave at any given time.
As a result of this, the requirements for any person (bowler in this case) are likely to be different from others in their peer group.
Does the Magic Bullet exist?
Paul Erlich developed the concept called the "Magic Bullet" that stated a specific disease-causing organism could be targeted by a specific chemical without harming human tissue.
This was back in the early 1900’s and was the precursor for treatments such as Chemotherapy.
Yet the view of many human performance scientists and many of the world’s leading authorities on education and learning is that there is no Magic Bullet for teaching and coaching.
If we were machines, without emotions or differences in the way we walk, talk, think and move then a Magic Bullet approach would be perfect, yet (thankfully) this is not the case.
How boring would coaching and, in fact, cricket be if everyone was the same?
Would there actually be a need for a cricket coach if everyone was the same?
"The Player is the University and the Coach is the Student" – Bertrand Théraulaz
The “great” coaches have lots of tools.
They also take the position of the student. Taking time to learn about the athlete and then choosing the resource, drill and approach based on the needs of that person.
I talk and write about this all the time and make no apologies for that.
So my advice is to learn from the excellent advice and drills that Ian Pont refers to in his coaching courses on the site, add in the drill that I mentioned, seek out others and continually develop your own ones. Then apply the ones best suited to any given player or athlete.
I love discussion and debate. Discussion often leads to the development of alternative and additional resources from which we can all benefit.
So bring on your views, especially if you disagree!
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This article is part of the "Streetwise Bowling" series from PitchVision Academy. To view the full list of tactics 
