Nets | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

How Smart Captains and Fast Bowlers Can Stop the "Batsman's Game"

Most changes to ODI Rules are made to increase scoring opportunities for batters and teams to make the game more of a spectacle. The great thing about the latest rule changes is that captains and bowlers have the chance to hit back!

Here are a couple of options around one type of delivery, the short ball.

How to Play Spin like Rahul Dravid

It's no secret that it's easy to struggle against spinners in the Sub-continent. England's batsmen have failed for decades.

Here is the inside guide to playing spin in slow, low turning conditions so you can coach your players to be a little more like Dravid.

Standing Up Drills for Wicketkeepers

 

The great thing about standing up sessions is that they should never be dull: you can create lots of distraction, different spins and bounce types with the overall aim to be to overload the keeper so that the practice is tougher than the actual match.

We still need to keep the drills relative and functional to match play, yet feel free to let that imagination run wild.

Yes, Yes, Yes: How to Effectively Assess Each Shot

I don't know about you, but I work with a number of talented players who are prone to overanalysing their technique and outcomes when they are batting.

 I even did this myself!

 The result is that their over-analytical findings impede their ability to learn from the previous ball or shot yet also be focused and ready to play the next ball to the best of their ability.

IPL Skills: How to Teach the Yorker

Yorkers will single-handedly win games of cricket in this year’s edition of the IPL. And they will do the same if you coach it well because the yorker is an exciting ball that can be practiced and developed through coaching routines and practices.

Malinga has made himself into one of the most valuable T20 players in the world in the IPL over the last 2 editions.  It’s no shock to learn that he attempts over twice as many yorkers than any other bowler in the IPL. 

Malinga is a diligent trainer and is often seen aiming his yorkers at targets before matches with unerring accuracy. Here’s how your bowling unit can copy his success.

Preseason Drills for Spin Bowlers

Just as with the pace bowlers in a previous article, we are concentrating on drills and progressions in pre-season. This week it's the turn of the spinners.

Bowling from the Delivery Stride Drills

27 Preseason Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Nets That Actually Improve your Cricket

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Preseason nets are looming and this year you are determined not to waste them. You want to take every last drop of improvement in time for that first game in the spring.

That means this year talking to the coach or captain and getting him to copy some of the practices of successful club, academy and school sides. As you already know, being an amateur player is no longer an excuse for amateur practice.

So let’s use some of that determination with these changes to nets:

3 Delightfully Simple Ways to Spice Up Net Practice

There no worse practice than when a set of bowlers practice one element of the game; and the batters try to work on another element entirely. 

Disjointed net sessions are counterproductive because nobody gets what they want: least of all you as the coach.

The ABC of Nets

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Whether it’s once or twice a week, indoors or outdoors, on turf or synthetic, nets are the bedrock of every cricketer - from local club player to international superstar.

So if cricketers have to go to nets, why not make them work for you?

How to play like an Academy cricketer

Many young players dream of making it as a professional cricketer. How do you give yourself the best chance of making it to the top?

One simple way is to play with the intensity and enthusiasm of a player who is in an Academy.

You see, Academy players know that talent is a flexible thing. You can be born with great natural hand-eye coordination or you can learn how to improve it over time.