Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

[mardo]

Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

Hello guys kinda new here but have been visiting this site for a year now......alright guys back to the thread.........I'm an all-rounder who opens the batting for my team and a change up medium-fast/fast-medium bowler the problem is that i haven't scored a lot of runs this season as compared to the last season i.e. when i got the man of the tournament. This year i don't know why but i haven't clicked/batted well, like when i try to hit the ball i tend to miss it often and even when i try to just stroke/time it it'll just straight away go the fielders. due to this i think that we lost in the semi's cause i scored 19 from 42 balls in a 20/20 game while chasing.Worse of all in that game, i recieved quite a few of sledging from the opponents saying something like "don't get this guy out playing like this, only his feet are moving but don't know where the ball's moving and can't even hit the ball". so as it is i'm just thinking these past few days after the end of the cricket season here, that if i'm good enough to be playing cricket or just out of form.btw just started playing with the duke ball only for two seasons now i.e. last year and this year used to play with tennis ball only.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

There is no doubt that playing with a tennis ball has inhibited your development some what; your going to need to work on this in the off-season.

Firstly a few things:

1) How old are you?

2) What format of the game are you playing (20/20, 2 day games, 50 over, etc.)

At a guess I'd say you are still pretty young. I honestly don't think 20/20 is a good format to play if your seriously trying to develop your game.

If your opening the batting you need to get used to building an innings. Unfortunately, the 20/20 format doesn't allow that.

Your better off concentrating on the longer form of the game, and here is a problem, if your underage you may not get the chance to play in longer matchs (ie, 50 over, 2 day games). Playing in longer cricket matchs will allow you to build an innings in the traditional way. Getting your eye in, leaving the balls early, working the singles, and then expanding your shot selection as your innings progresses.

Perhaps you can look at playing in 3rd grade, 4th grade teams against older men. Here in Australia it is very common for young guys (15, 16, 17) to have a hit in grade cricket as well as playing underage cricket. Often underage cricket is played on a Saturday and grade is on a Sunday, or underage cricket is played in the morning and grade in the afternoon.

That will give you more exposure to better players and will improve your game.

If you were player of the comp a few years back then your obviously got a bit of talent.

I'd suggest getting fit in the off-season and getting in the nets and having a hit against bowlers bowling with a hard ball. Grab some mates together and go down to the nets and have a net.

Don't underestimate the fitness side of the game. Batting for long periods requires fitness, so go for a run every afternoon and build up that fitness base. As players get tired their reflexes slow and the footwork becomes more cubersome. Getting fit can help you in that regard.

 

[micoach]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

LtD is bang on target with his advice.

It's certainly a mental thing. The easy way to look at it is to say: play one ball at a time.

Trouble is, that's much easier to say than do. You need to work on your mental game as hard as you work on your technique and fitness. In particular you need to learn how to:

Ignore sledging
Deal with negative thinking as soon as it pops into your head
Develop a strategy that works for you to score runs
Trust your technique

Until you do that, you will always have doubts and when you have those you are making it impossible to score runs consistently.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

LtD is bang on target with his advice.

It's certainly a mental thing. The easy way to look at it is to say: play one ball at a time.

Trouble is, that's much easier to say than do. You need to work on your mental game as hard as you work on your technique and fitness. In particular you need to learn how to:

Ignore sledging
Deal with negative thinking as soon as it pops into your head
Develop a strategy that works for you to score runs
Trust your technique

Until you do that, you will always have doubts and when you have those you are making it impossible to score runs consistently.

Totally agree, but I have always found that in all aspects of life the first thing you need is discipline and self-motivation.

Going for a run every afternoon and cutting crap out of your diet is a good start. That is a simple way to build discipline, and this in turn crosses over into other aspects of your life, including your cricket.

20/20 doesn't provide the basics to produce good cricketers, and this guy needs to play other form of cricket to further his game. I can't stress that enough.

 

[mardo]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

1. Just turned 21.....Is it too late...
2. 20/20

This is my 2nd season with the hard ball.

I got called up by the higher grade teams before the start of the season but got advice by some close friends not too,cause i might get sit out in the bench and not play any matches.

During off season i used to go to the gym and do some morning walks with my fellow teammates.

The only problem is that i tend to defend and just feel the ball instead of smacking it every ball and cannot score/hit freely like i used to do in the nets.Is it only a mental thing or ?

Btw 1 more question..........what would you do if you can't see the ball(heard that, u can't really see the ball 100% all the way to the bat) early in the innings ? and what are the things to help improve it ?

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

What do you mean 'can't see the ball'?

Are your eyes a bit dodgy?

Sometimes early on some batsmen can have trouble picking the ball up in the background but you just need to watch the ball closely.

A good tip is too watch the ball in the hand of the bowler as he is running in, just really focus on watching the ball straight onto the bat, make sure in your stance that you are getting both eyes fixed dead ahead to the bowler rather then looking over your shoulder.

Cricket is a game that is very much played in your head. A game situation is a lot different to the nets, the best advice I can give you is to play each ball at a time and have a plan.

The best plan is the most simple one.

1) When you walk out to bat make sure you get your eyes adjusted to the light by looking around.

2) Take guard

3) Look to leave the ball early - hopefully this will force the bowler to bowl straighter at you and then you can work him to the onside and get a single and get off strike.

4) Look to play straight early on in your innings.

5) Once you get to set look to start playing a few more expansive shots but don't forget the quick singles.

6) Run hard.

As I said earlier, you need to have a decent degree of fitness IMO, because when I played I remember facing bowlers after having to run a 2 or a 3 and just being stuffed, really puffing hard as the bowler ran in.

Being tired will crossover to affect your reflexes and footwork.

Keep it simple.

 

[Boris]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

The not seeing the ball is a point of mine that keeps coming up.

I have been used to playing with sight screens lately, albeit small, but in A Grade we got the good fields with them and you could see the ball easily.

Now that I have moved regions and now in a different comp I'm down to C Grade, and I'm not sure if even the A Graders get sight screens here. My average has dropped 20 points (from 24 unfortunately ) on the new grounds with low bounce, not so predictable bowlers in lower grades and having to pick out a dark red ball against trees and occasionally buildings and on one ground against red dirt on a hill. No wonder the region has no higher representatives if this is where the batsman get to perform.

Thoughts that may help the original questions on this thread?

 

[bboy0001]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

Ok i open the batting myself and ill give you a few tips on seeing the ball.
i had this problem early in my career, when the bowler is running in do you watch the bowler or the ball in his hand??, you really should be watching the ball right out of the hand, this helps me see the ball better, and you mentioned a couple of treads up that you sometimes try to smack the ball as hard as you can, this is great(if your have your eye in) but as an opener smacking the ball early isnt really a good thing. and another tip, just before the bowler releases the ball take a small step forward and if the ball is short you have enough time to step back, this helps you pick the length of the ball Greg chappell used this to perfection,and it also works for me so give it a try.

Good luck mate

 

[mardo]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

What do you mean 'can't see the ball'?
Are your eyes a bit dodgy?

Not dodgy but sometimes i think my concentration is off a bit. btw i'm using contacts while playing i.e both for bating/bowling........What are the exercises/steps to help improve one's eyesight/reaction when not playing.......does playing cs(counter strike) help improve eyesight/reaction while batting.

The not seeing the ball is a point of mine that keeps coming up.

I have been used to playing with sight screens lately, albeit small, but in A Grade we got the good fields with them and you could see the ball easily.

Now that I have moved regions and now in a different comp I'm down to C Grade, and I'm not sure if even the A Graders get sight screens here. My average has dropped 20 points (from 24 unfortunately ) on the new grounds with low bounce, not so predictable bowlers in lower grades and having to pick out a dark red ball against trees and occasionally buildings and on one ground against red dirt on a hill. No wonder the region has no higher representatives if this is where the batsman get to perform.

Thoughts that may help the original questions on this thread?

Same here boris .

Have any of you guys had a bad season, if you do........what would you do to overcome it....

Btw Thanks for all the tips and comments and if you have some more please post 'em.

 

[Liz Ward]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

...what would you do if you can't see the ball(heard that, u can't really see the ball 100% all the way to the bat) early in the innings ? and what are the things to help improve it ?

Hi Mardo,

You are quite right, you cannot track the ball all the way to the bat. Some people think they can but it is impossible from the third dimention; easier from two.

How the ball is tracked is what distinguishes the quality of the player. I wrote a piece on an Oxford University study about four years ago but cannot for the life of me remember where . Similar studies have been replicated many times since from all over the cricketing world and all came to the same conclusion:

HITTING THE BALL: WHEN BATSMEN DON'T NEED TO KEEP THEIR EYE ON THE BALL

In most sports, which involve hitting a ball, the coach's advice is to 'keep your eye on the ball'. However, when a ball moves very fast, this strategy may not always be possible or even appropriate. And now a fascinating study carried out at Oxford University has revealed that, in fact, cricket batsmen do not watch the ball continuously but operate a distinct eye movement strategy of viewing it at crucial moments during its flight.

Researchers Michael Land and Peter McLeod measured the eye movements and field of gaze during batting of three batsmen with head-mounted eye cameras as they faced balls delivered at 25m per second from a bowling machine. The batsmen, selected for their widely varying abilities were: Mark, a professional cricketer who has opened the batting for Warwickshire; Charlie, a successful amateur who plays Minor Counties cricket for Oxfordshire, and Richard, described as an 'enthusiastic but incompetent amateur', who plays low-level club cricket.

Despite their widely varying skills, Mark, Charlie and Richard's overall visual strategy was observed to be similar: they fixed on the ball as it was delivered, switched their gaze to the anticipated bounce point before the ball got there, then tracked its trajectory for 100-200 milliseconds (MS) after the bounce.

However, within this common strategy, there were differences that seemed to reflect their abilities. Mark, the best batsmen, used more pre-bounce pursuit tracking than Charlie or Richard. Richard, the least-skilled batsman, was slower to respond to the appearance of the ball and to anticipate the bounce point, and the researchers concluded that he would have been unable to manage faster deliveries. By comparison, even with very short balls, Mark and Charlie reached the bounce point with their eyes 100m before the ball.

'In comparing the good (Mark and Charlie) and the poor (Richard) batsmen,' comment the researchers, 'we suggest that the main aspect of oculo-motor behaviour that is related to batting performance is the speed and variability of the initial saccade [a brief rapid eye movement between fixation points].

'The skill difference between the expert batsman (Mark) and the good batsman (Charlie) is possibly due to Mark's subtle combination of pursuit tracking and saccadic movement as he locates the bounce point. There seemed to be no systematic differences in the way the three batsmen tracked the ball after the bounce.'

Another factor to consider is colour blindness, considering 8 - 12 percent of males [of european decent] have this condition. Have you had yourself tested for this Boris? If you are unfortunate enough to be colour blind, it is impossible to pick out the red ball on a green background. It would then be discriminatory not to provide screens. However, funding is limiting... depends on how much you pay for subs .

 

[mardo]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

HITTING THE BALL: WHEN BATSMEN DON'T NEED TO KEEP THEIR EYE ON THE BALL

In most sports, which involve hitting a ball, the coach's advice is to 'keep your eye on the ball'. However, when a ball moves very fast, this strategy may not always be possible or even appropriate. And now a fascinating study carried out at Oxford University has revealed that, in fact, cricket batsmen do not watch the ball continuously but operate a distinct eye movement strategy of viewing it at crucial moments during its flight.

Researchers Michael Land and Peter McLeod measured the eye movements and field of gaze during batting of three batsmen with head-mounted eye cameras as they faced balls delivered at 25m per second from a bowling machine. The batsmen, selected for their widely varying abilities were: Mark, a professional cricketer who has opened the batting for Warwickshire; Charlie, a successful amateur who plays Minor Counties cricket for Oxfordshire, and Richard, described as an 'enthusiastic but incompetent amateur', who plays low-level club cricket.

Despite their widely varying skills, Mark, Charlie and Richard's overall visual strategy was observed to be similar: they fixed on the ball as it was delivered, switched their gaze to the anticipated bounce point before the ball got there, then tracked its trajectory for 100-200 milliseconds (MS) after the bounce.

However, within this common strategy, there were differences that seemed to reflect their abilities. Mark, the best batsmen, used more pre-bounce pursuit tracking than Charlie or Richard. Richard, the least-skilled batsman, was slower to respond to the appearance of the ball and to anticipate the bounce point, and the researchers concluded that he would have been unable to manage faster deliveries. By comparison, even with very short balls, Mark and Charlie reached the bounce point with their eyes 100m before the ball.

'In comparing the good (Mark and Charlie) and the poor (Richard) batsmen,' comment the researchers, 'we suggest that the main aspect of oculo-motor behaviour that is related to batting performance is the speed and variability of the initial saccade [a brief rapid eye movement between fixation points].

'The skill difference between the expert batsman (Mark) and the good batsman (Charlie) is possibly due to Mark's subtle combination of pursuit tracking and saccadic movement as he locates the bounce point. There seemed to be no systematic differences in the way the three batsmen tracked the ball after the bounce.'

Yup i think i've seen this somewhere .................ummmm if i'm not mistaken i think it was on natgeo but it was a long time ago

Edit: it's called "Science of Sport - Cricket" you can find that on youtube.............it's close to what you're saying.

 

[Boris]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

Colour blindness has run in the family, but I have had tests and nothing has shown of it so that isn't the case. There is another batsman in the region who is, though, and see's the whole field as brown and the ball as brown, yet for some reason he is one of the better batsman in the region

With the article you have provided above, what do you reckon is a technique to enable yourself to pick out the landing position more quickly?

Does watching the ball as close as you possibly can and trying to watch it onto the bat as much as humanly possible the right technique to begin with?

 

[Liz Ward]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

I should have said that as I was unable to locate my report, the one quoted is from Peak Performance . Thank you for locating another source Mardo.

The player you mentioned Boris has become good at timing because he does not rely on watching the ball... however, that is another post, which would probably turn out to be a magnus opum .

It is, I believe [others disagree] easy to train this whilst young. Most people agree that it is harder in adult life. However, you owe it to yourself to try...

Do not try to track the ball onto the bat, you would be on a hiding to nothing.

It is vitally important to watch the ball at delivery. Trying to second guess the bowler by clocking the wrist also helps.

You then need to work really hard at training your eyes to refocus, refocus, refocus. This is really hard as the ball is coming towards you. The worse thing you can do is try to stare the ball out [which I have seen many times]. Your eyes need to move extremely rapidly from ball to predicted bounce point, back to ball then to [recalculated] predicted bounce point, back to ball etc as many times as possible during flight.

The more you do this, the more accurate you will become... and faster. You may start only being able to refocus twice, then thrice etc etc etc.

The answer is being able to predict the bounch point as early as possible and it will come if you practise.

 

[Boris]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

How about eye exercises in particular to help this?

Any exercise that speeds up the focus time?

 

[mardo]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

How about eye exercises in particular to help this?

Any exercise that speeds up the focus time?

Yup....that would be really helpful to find some exercises to train our eyes.

 

[Liz Ward]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

Actually, training peripheral vision is excellent but we are getting a little out of orthodox cricket training here.

I am not sure how easy these are to get hold of but they are the kind of programmes used by opticians. The idea is that you look ahead and when you see a red or green dot in the periphery, you press a button.

This trains your ability to [practically] focus on two or more positions at one time. Actually what you are doing is using saccadic movements. It appears that you are focussed ahead but the eyes are moving extremely rapidly around the area of view.

Quite often when you start, you will miss quite a few dots. After practise, you will spot them all. After more practise, the speed at which you see them [measured by the time taken to press the button] increases.

Perhaps I should market such a product .

I am afraid, other than this, you just need to practise on the field... unless somebody knows better....

 

[Boris]

Re: Am I Good Enough ? Or Just Out Of Form

You market the product and I will buy it!

Thanks for the help once again.