David Hinchliffe's Articles | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Venue Profile: Cricket Asylum

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There are few better locations for an indoor cricket coaching facility than the heart of West Yorkshire in England.

Sowerby Bridge is a town surrounded by a huge number of cricket clubs, and nestling there is Cricket Aslyum: The first venue in the world to feature PitchVision coaching technology built in to the net lanes, allowing access to all to the best facilities.

Do a Job: How Ordinary Cricket Achieves Spectacular Success

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Picture the scene: you have just had a stellar cricket season.

You get a trial and you do even better than you could have dreamed. Everything goes to plan and you are man of the match. Becoming a cricketer, you realise, is just a matter of time.

It's possible.

But it's also not going to happen.

You can't plan for insanely good performances at the right time. Cricket is hard, opponents are just as keen to show their potential as you. Pitches and weather are variable. You could be the next Tendulkar, Warne or Dhoni in talent, but lack the luck to show it off at the right moment.

That means you need another idea, an idea that is less about the headlines and more about a quick mention in paragraph 5 of the match report.

Because the fact is that even the most spectacular cricket heroes base their game on a consistently stronger performances than anyone else. And that comes through many small successes alongside the occasional mind-blowing performance.

Quick Tip: Measure Control to Score More Runs

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Here's a quick way to measure batting beyond just run scoring.

In the scorebook, a run is a run whether you edge it and get dropped or blast a cover drive out of the middle: It doesn't tell the whole story of how you are playing.

That's where a new stat comes in: control.

Control gives you a broader idea. Here's the description from Cricinfo:

Batting Warm Up: How to Make the Most of Pre-Match Throwdowns

This is a guest article from batting coach, Gary Palmer.

What is the purpose of the pre-match batting practice?

The aim is to build confidence by consistently hitting the ball out of the middle of the bat while exaggerating perfect technique. To feel good in the middle you can use throw downs to capture the feel of the correct shapes of your shots.

The better your preparation the more confident you will feel. This leads to being more relaxed at the crease when you finally go out to bat. You will have confidence in you technique and ability to execute shots successfully because you have prepared well and have a feel for the correct shapes.

Can You End Cricket Frustrations by Understanding Motivation?

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What motivates you to play cricket?

It's a question worth considering, because the reason you play will help you - and if you coach or captain, your players - to reduce the frustrations that come about when aims don't meet actions.

Cricket Show 264: Competition Winner

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This week's winner of the Cricket Show podcast question competition is Cups. He wins a free coaching course from PitchVision Academy.

The winning question was:

"In the IPL this year we have seen some incredible chases, again, from the likes of de Villiers, Faulkner and Dhoni and every time I wonder to myself how do they keep calm every game under the pressure and the expectation of having to take their team over the finishing line? Also after seeing the Mumbai Indians chase 190 in 14.4 overs largely due to Anderson's 95*, is it the situation the players are in that allows them to free up and go for it?"

To enter your own question for the chance to win your choice of online coaching course send your questions in here.

PV/VIDEO Weekly Highlights: So Close!

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Welcome to the PV/VIDEO Digest, your highlights summary of the weeks best videos from PitchVision Interactive

You can share these videos by email or onto facebook, and post your comments right here: From serious analysis to Friday fun. Here are the top videos uploaded from PitchVision systems around the world this week.

The Art of Mankading: The Comprehsive Guide to This Cricketing Controversy

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Is there anything that divides opinions more than "mankading"?

When England's Joss Buttler was run out at the non-striker's end while backing up in an ODI, the range of reactions went from "quite right!" to "downright cheating!".

Whatever you opinion, there are some important coaching lessons we can glean.

3 Skills Every Cricket Coach Should Secretly Work On

Most players think coaching is easy: You rock up, set out some cones, do some drills and go home. While that's part of the story, there are certain skills the coach needs to practice to be effective.

How to Score a Twenty20 Hundred

A strange thing happened in the final of IPL 7.

Batting first against KKR, King's XI Punjab had two in form overseas superstars ready to go in and start crashing boundaries. Maxwell looked primed. Miller was itching to biff it. Instead, a slight wicketkeeper with a traditional technique - best known for not being MS Dhoni - was sent in after 5 overs.

Wriddhiman Saha looks every bit the anti-T20 player. His batting was once said to have "the look of an accountant passing journal entries." Solid. Reliable. Safe.

He ignored this cliche about himself, and proceeded to smash a blistering Twenty20 hundred. Read on to find out how you can emulate this story in your Twenty20 cricket.