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It's amazing how writing a book helps your batting...

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Or so Ed Smith would have it, anyway.

Steve Waugh told me that writing a diary coincided with his best seasons. Peter Roebuck produced his best season (1702 runs with seven hundreds) in the year he wrote It Never Rains. Mark Wagh was one of only five Englishmen to score 1000 runs in the first division in 2008, while he was writing Pavilion to Crease… and Back.

And now, best of all, the Tasmania and Australia A opening batsman Ed Cowan has produced a happy ending to top the lot. He kept a diary of his 2010-11 season for Tasmania, now published as In the Firing Line.


Let's see if we can test this philosophy out. It won't be too long before the routine of pre-season coaching and practice starts off for 2012, and whilst I've done a few seasonal diaries before, and used the "Your Season" thread at some depth, I hope this will be a little different - more of a stream of consciousness than an attempt to set off with anything particular in mind. It may include technical observations, coaching points, psychological waffle, or ranting about umpires.

I wonder what it'll do to my batting.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I think it does help in other professions too. I know several people in the sciences who keep an informal account of their life (a diary of sorts) who say it helps them focus. When you write something down, oftentimes you are forced to analyze and think about what you've been doing which usually produces more insight.

I think that's why many people recommend writing down goals - just the process of writing them down kind of 'focuses' you in many ways.

Obviously it's not going to improve your hand eye coordination but I wouldn't be surprised if it does turn out helping you.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
I'm not in favour of these performance enhancing books tbh. Need to be banned, like other artificial aids.
 

WallSt

New member
I think it does help in other professions too. I know several people in the sciences who keep an informal account of their life (a diary of sorts) who say it helps them focus. When you write something down, oftentimes you are forced to analyze and think about what you've been doing which usually produces more insight.

I think that's why many people recommend writing down goals - just the process of writing them down kind of 'focuses' you in many ways.

Obviously it's not going to improve your hand eye coordination but I wouldn't be surprised if it does turn out helping you.

George Soros, one of the greatest investors of all times, once said that he kept a daily diary of his thoughts on the market which helped him recall and test a lot of his theories
 

Hurricane

Well-known member
In general you are supposed to keep a diary on your life anyway - it makes you more intelligent by forcing you to think about your life once a day. The act of writing things down forces you to think further about your thoughts than if you just thought them in your head. Daniel Goleman in "emotional intelligence" recommends a diary.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
I went to my first coaching session of the new year the other night, at a local club in Oxford. This had a couple of aims - first, get a grip of the level of club youth cricket in the county, which I've rather lost touch with lately having concentrated on school, district and county sides, but second (and most critically) looking at developing a new approach to coaching. I'm going to be taking the same view in my school sessions, but I'd like to explore the idea in a wider context, too.

It's based on a lot of reading I've done lately, notably "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle. In it, he looks at "talent hotbeds", such as the Spartak Tennis Club in Moscow, Meadowmount Music School in New York, and the nature of "deep practice", a term which covers a number of ideas. The most important of these, to my mind, is the nature of practice - making it specifically focused on a skill and ensuring that it's done right, and not half-cocked. This includes working without the ball, and playing in slow-motion. The Music School has a saying - "if a passer-by can recognise the piece, you're doing it too quickly."

It's these ideas that I want to try to implement to cricket coaching, and probably batting technique in particular, over the coming weeks. Today reminded me just how weak standards can be below the top tiers, but also serves as a challenge to see what difference can be made through tightly focused coaching that targets the basics.

I only managed to look at a couple of little things in terms of applying this - in the really limited context of the one-handed underarm pickup and throw, although the ideas of slow-motion, pausing, and concentrating on specific technical points seemed to be making an impact. I do wonder now, however, how this can be applied to catching technique?

I meet the County U10 squad for the first time on Sunday morning - we'll be starting off in the classroom having a chat about the most important things to do over the winter - namely work hard and enjoy yourself - but also throwing a few thought-provoking questions their way.

* What is talent?
* What makes good practice?
* Why can mistakes be good?

* What makes a good captain?
* What do you think during a game?
 

KiWiNiNjA

Well-known member
In general you are supposed to keep a diary on your life anyway - it makes you more intelligent by forcing you to think about your life once a day. The act of writing things down forces you to think further about your thoughts than if you just thought them in your head. Daniel Goleman in "emotional intelligence" recommends a diary.
Can you write a diary for me please?
 

benchmark00

Well-known member
Well the author of the Grug series did average 95 in the South African tour just after this book was released:

 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
On Wednesday I took an extreme approach to breaking down the basics of playing straight with the very weak group I mentioned previously. I wanted to do it all in silence, through mime and copy, but when it started off with me holding my left hand up, and quarter of the group holding up their right, I realised I was going to have to talk. We spent probably 20-25 minutes in a group, concentrating on shadowing the shot through minute steps and trying to focus on "alignment" and "balance" beyond anything else: repeat, repeat, repeat, pause, slow-motion, pause again. At the end of the session, the shapes and balance were unrecognisable, and the degree of focus and engagement from the boys was above and beyond anything I'd hoped for.

Today we took a similar approach to drilling and practising the throwing technique - base, role of the arms, and follow through: a similar story. Technical focus and repetition brings improvement, and I'm finding myself constantly impressed by the degree of engagement that even young kids can get with a high level of technical input. I've always believed in treating kids with respect and not dumbing down unnecessarily, and this I suppose vindicates that approach.

The next target is to try to find the best way to help the boys retain the skills they've shown in these micro-coaching contexts into either game-style scenarios, and then fuller games. It does rather seem to go to pot when the pressure's on, but isn't that the story of life? Is there any other way to get skills into the subconscious memory without good, old-fashioned practice?

We'll keep it up, that's for sure - I wonder just how far I can take it?
 
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