CliMAX in coaching
Cricket: Is it Dead?
Tea for Two - Bell and Morgan head off for a cuppa
Ian Bell was given a reprieve after some sloppy cricket at Trent Bridge on Sunday led to his run out by the Indian Test Team. Bell was allowed to bat again after tea thanks to the generosity of MS Dhoni, captain and Duncan Fletcher (coach) who were asked to re-consider the Indian appeal by Andrew Strauss (England captain) and Andy Flower (England coach). Fletcher is a thoughtful coach and knows and understand the Laws of the game, such that he would have realised his team were correct to remove the bails and appeal to the umpires to give Bell out who was at the bowlers end having assumed the ball had gone for a boundary, was therefore ‘dead’ and that his next commitment was tea in the pavilion. In fact, hardworking swing bowler Praveen Kumar, unbeknown to him, had managed to keep Eoin Morgan’s shot within the field of play, though he finished up the other side of the boundary. As he staggered back into the field of play, Kumar looked around for the ball, eventually finding and throwing half-heartedly to the stumps. He shrugged and gesticulated as if to say he was unsure if he had saved a boundary or not. Abhinav Mukund, a relative new comer to test cricket had the presence of mind to take the bails off, forcing Marais Erasmus to send it upstairs for a decision. Not that he needed help on the run-out decision for Bell was out by the length of a pitch, but to check if the ball had be kept in the field of play by Kumar….and indeed it had. So it can only have been thought by Fletcher and Dhoni and the Indian players not to be in the ‘spirit of the game’ to enforce the decision.
The players of CliMAX were less gracious last Tuesday when newcomer Rory Coupland was batting. One of the endearing features of CliMAX is to play the game faster than cricket, which has become pedestrian at its fastest. To achieve this, the ball is rarely dead in CliMAX and so had Bell been in CliMAX mode he would not have trotted off to have tea until he was certain ‘time’ had been called. One of the frustrating delays in cricket occurs each time the bails are knocked from the wickets. By convention the umpires remake the wickets, though sometimes the players assist. Because the bails are only advantageous to the fielding side – bowled is only possible if they are knocked from the stumps and run out requires the fielding side pluck a stump from the ground whilst holding the ball – in CliMAX the responsibility for re-making the wickets lies with the fielding side. This discourages the fielding side from futile stumping and run-out attempts. Unfortunately batter Rory Coupland was not aware of this aspect of CliMAX and being a helpful fellow replaced the bails after a run out attempt had been given not out. Bowler James Hicks alive to the possibilities of CliMAX, bowled without a run up the moment he received the ball back from keeper Fred Rawlings. Coupland was only just back in his stance and so the ball must have been only a few feet away from him as he looked up. He had barely twitched by the time the ball struck the top of off. Coupland, realising that the bowler is not obliged to wait for the batter in CliMAX, trudged off to the mirth of Hicks and Rawlings. Perhaps, like Dhoni and Fletcher, Hicks and captain Ben Pigott could have reconsidered and offered Coupland a reprieve, though they were in their rights not to. Let’s hope Rory is not discouraged from playing CliMAX again from this harsh treatment.
Understandably Rory Coupland has much to learn about playing CliMAX, but surprisingly for one at the top of the international game, Ian Bell can learn lessons from the events at Trent Bridge yesterday. These seem to be along the lines of ‘take nothing for granted’, ‘don’t be casual’, ‘listen carefully for the umpires calls’. Perhaps Andy Flower might help by setting up some practice matches with CliMAX rules to increase the England players’ awareness and urgency. Meanwhile the CliMAX community can continue to dream of the day when the likes of Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan take on Praveen Kumar, Abhinav Mukund and MS Dhoni in competitive CliMATCHes. That really would be ‘peak excitement for cricket lovers’!
Monday 1 August 2011
The players of CliMAX were less gracious last Tuesday when newcomer Rory Coupland was batting. One of the endearing features of CliMAX is to play the game faster than cricket, which has become pedestrian at its fastest. To achieve this, the ball is rarely dead in CliMAX and so had Bell been in CliMAX mode he would not have trotted off to have tea until he was certain ‘time’ had been called. One of the frustrating delays in cricket occurs each time the bails are knocked from the wickets. By convention the umpires remake the wickets, though sometimes the players assist. Because the bails are only advantageous to the fielding side – bowled is only possible if they are knocked from the stumps and run out requires the fielding side pluck a stump from the ground whilst holding the ball – in CliMAX the responsibility for re-making the wickets lies with the fielding side. This discourages the fielding side from futile stumping and run-out attempts. Unfortunately batter Rory Coupland was not aware of this aspect of CliMAX and being a helpful fellow replaced the bails after a run out attempt had been given not out. Bowler James Hicks alive to the possibilities of CliMAX, bowled without a run up the moment he received the ball back from keeper Fred Rawlings. Coupland was only just back in his stance and so the ball must have been only a few feet away from him as he looked up. He had barely twitched by the time the ball struck the top of off. Coupland, realising that the bowler is not obliged to wait for the batter in CliMAX, trudged off to the mirth of Hicks and Rawlings. Perhaps, like Dhoni and Fletcher, Hicks and captain Ben Pigott could have reconsidered and offered Coupland a reprieve, though they were in their rights not to. Let’s hope Rory is not discouraged from playing CliMAX again from this harsh treatment.
Understandably Rory Coupland has much to learn about playing CliMAX, but surprisingly for one at the top of the international game, Ian Bell can learn lessons from the events at Trent Bridge yesterday. These seem to be along the lines of ‘take nothing for granted’, ‘don’t be casual’, ‘listen carefully for the umpires calls’. Perhaps Andy Flower might help by setting up some practice matches with CliMAX rules to increase the England players’ awareness and urgency. Meanwhile the CliMAX community can continue to dream of the day when the likes of Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan take on Praveen Kumar, Abhinav Mukund and MS Dhoni in competitive CliMATCHes. That really would be ‘peak excitement for cricket lovers’!
Monday 1 August 2011
CliMAX in coaching
One of the most powerful coaching tools I have found is ‘the scenario’. A favourite is to have a centre practice and have two batters against a fielding team and ask them to score one run off one ball. The scenario is that they are batting second and the scores are level and wickets are level with 9 down and hence a run wins for the batters, a wicket loses and a dot ball ties. The scenario is over in a few seconds and then I bring the players in to discuss. I encourage positive comments first from the batters, bowler and fielders about themselves, positive comments about others in the training squad next and finally critical remarks from which we take the positive action of planning the next scenario or coaching drill to improve. The discussion is usually animated and the squad tend to focus on the general elements which contribute to good performance.
Throughout a season, players will only come across a last ball situation like the scenario a handful of times, perhaps just once or twice, but it is on those occasions that they are most obviously able to influence the result. I have been pleased to see that teams I have coached with this technique have almost always come out on top when the situation arises and as a coach we are unlikely to have any impact on games where there is a wide gulf in ability between the teams either in favour or against the team we coach, so we should strive to make a difference for our team when they are against well matched opposition. I presume the reason my teams do well, is that they do not react adversely to the situation. We feel that games tend to be lost by a mistake rather than won by some special play and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Faced with the last ball scenario in a real match the unprepared player recognises the pressure, feels the stress and ‘bottles it’, i.e. does something wrong. The prepared player recognises the situation, remembers preparing for it, realises they can only “control the controllables”, knows what to do, relishes the opportunity to put into practice what they have rehearsed, have heightened awareness, are confident in their team-mates and therefore are more relaxed.
Cricketers have uniformly enjoyed this drill and the most common reason stated is that it has helped them discover the intensity with which they feel they should play more or their entire cricket. Thence the cry for an ‘increase the intensity’ on a Saturday afternoon has some meaning with players relating to it and behaving as they did after a few run-throughs of the scenario described above.
The general principle here is of mental overload in rehearsal making performance feel easier. This confidence leads to physical and mental relaxation which almost invariably leads to better performance. The coach creates a training situation that is more pressurised than most match time situations, but the challenge is always to get all the players to take it seriously. However, as the drill is competitive with fielders against batters, the squad usually polices it themselves with pretty harsh comments coming out in debrief if any players are giggling, not watching or taking calls on their mobile.
When the squad are performing well in the “one ball – one to win scenario” the pressure on the batters is increased with “two to win”, “four to win” and finally “six to win”. To be honest I have rarely taken a squad that far as it takes a long time to have all the batters work through the earlier scenarios. In the latter scenarios the pressure is less on the fielding side, though they must consider fielding positions and where to bowl. An alternative is to extend the scenario to two balls, an over or several, but the coach must impose realism by making the batter leave the pitch if he is out. This may be the “9 wickets down” scenario or where the squad has sufficient players, batters may be ready to come it at the fall of a wicket.
CliMAX provides an opportunity to achieve much of the above simply by arranging a match in this format for the squad. The matches can be as short as the coach likes. Short games gives opportunity for proportionately more reflection and this generally is the key to learning. In CliMAX there is more to gain and more to lose on each delivery. A wicket falls and all the runs are lost and the batters are starting all over. A shot out of the ground – a MAXimum – and the batting team may be on to a sequence that amasses a huge score. Both these can happen at any stage and may prove to be the most significant events in the match and may not.
The coach determines how may he wants in the batting team and how many in the field. For example, batters may be in teams of two and hence when a wicket falls, the batters merely swap ends (as in Pairs Cricket). This may keep enough fielders to make the batting a comparable challenge to an eleven a side game. The batting pairs compete against other batting pairs for the highest final total from a pre-determined number of deliveries. In CliMAX-Pairs, the worse the batters do, the more the pressure builds on them, where as in cricket the worse the batter does, the more the pressure builds on their team-mates. This may be why many batters do not appear to take responsibility for their actions, such as getting behind the required scoring rate. Coaches using CliMAX-Pairs as a coaching tool may when help players face up to their responsibilities as batters.
Bowlers sometimes seem unconcerned having bowled wides or no-balls. Apart from the one run penalty the consequences are not immediate (unless a wicket is denied). A boundary form the extra ball is rarely noticed by anyone except the scorer and even provides an opportunity for a wicket. A free-hit on the next ball is an excellent idea taken from professional one-day cricket to increase the immediacy of the penalty, but CliMAX goes further and the penalties mount up geometrically if extras (including byes) are conceded on consecutive deliveries. A game might well be lost by a sequence of a wide, no ball and bye and it will be apparent to all playing and watching. There will be nowhere to hide!
In traditional cricket, the game rarely comes down to the last scheduled delivery. Usually the batters have several overs to get the winning run or the bowlers have many balls to clinch the final wicket. The game tends to fizzle out and for some, if not all players, the intensity drops towards the end. In CliMAX the intensity must be maintained to the last scheduled delivery at which point a wicket will usually decide the match or a MAXimum keep the batting team with a hope of overhauling the opponent’s total. A mistake by a bowler – wide or no ball – or a fumble by the keeper leading to a bye also keeps the batting team in the game.
Using CliMAXas a coaching tool will produce great pressure scenarios for your players and the situations thrown up by the league game on Saturday will seem a ‘doddle’. They will take with them the confidence from the successes in CliMAX and the knowledge or how to do better from situations that have not gone so well. What is more, they will love it! I promise.
Peter L Gregory
(ECB Level III Coach)
Throughout a season, players will only come across a last ball situation like the scenario a handful of times, perhaps just once or twice, but it is on those occasions that they are most obviously able to influence the result. I have been pleased to see that teams I have coached with this technique have almost always come out on top when the situation arises and as a coach we are unlikely to have any impact on games where there is a wide gulf in ability between the teams either in favour or against the team we coach, so we should strive to make a difference for our team when they are against well matched opposition. I presume the reason my teams do well, is that they do not react adversely to the situation. We feel that games tend to be lost by a mistake rather than won by some special play and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Faced with the last ball scenario in a real match the unprepared player recognises the pressure, feels the stress and ‘bottles it’, i.e. does something wrong. The prepared player recognises the situation, remembers preparing for it, realises they can only “control the controllables”, knows what to do, relishes the opportunity to put into practice what they have rehearsed, have heightened awareness, are confident in their team-mates and therefore are more relaxed.
Cricketers have uniformly enjoyed this drill and the most common reason stated is that it has helped them discover the intensity with which they feel they should play more or their entire cricket. Thence the cry for an ‘increase the intensity’ on a Saturday afternoon has some meaning with players relating to it and behaving as they did after a few run-throughs of the scenario described above.
The general principle here is of mental overload in rehearsal making performance feel easier. This confidence leads to physical and mental relaxation which almost invariably leads to better performance. The coach creates a training situation that is more pressurised than most match time situations, but the challenge is always to get all the players to take it seriously. However, as the drill is competitive with fielders against batters, the squad usually polices it themselves with pretty harsh comments coming out in debrief if any players are giggling, not watching or taking calls on their mobile.
When the squad are performing well in the “one ball – one to win scenario” the pressure on the batters is increased with “two to win”, “four to win” and finally “six to win”. To be honest I have rarely taken a squad that far as it takes a long time to have all the batters work through the earlier scenarios. In the latter scenarios the pressure is less on the fielding side, though they must consider fielding positions and where to bowl. An alternative is to extend the scenario to two balls, an over or several, but the coach must impose realism by making the batter leave the pitch if he is out. This may be the “9 wickets down” scenario or where the squad has sufficient players, batters may be ready to come it at the fall of a wicket.
CliMAX provides an opportunity to achieve much of the above simply by arranging a match in this format for the squad. The matches can be as short as the coach likes. Short games gives opportunity for proportionately more reflection and this generally is the key to learning. In CliMAX there is more to gain and more to lose on each delivery. A wicket falls and all the runs are lost and the batters are starting all over. A shot out of the ground – a MAXimum – and the batting team may be on to a sequence that amasses a huge score. Both these can happen at any stage and may prove to be the most significant events in the match and may not.
The coach determines how may he wants in the batting team and how many in the field. For example, batters may be in teams of two and hence when a wicket falls, the batters merely swap ends (as in Pairs Cricket). This may keep enough fielders to make the batting a comparable challenge to an eleven a side game. The batting pairs compete against other batting pairs for the highest final total from a pre-determined number of deliveries. In CliMAX-Pairs, the worse the batters do, the more the pressure builds on them, where as in cricket the worse the batter does, the more the pressure builds on their team-mates. This may be why many batters do not appear to take responsibility for their actions, such as getting behind the required scoring rate. Coaches using CliMAX-Pairs as a coaching tool may when help players face up to their responsibilities as batters.
Bowlers sometimes seem unconcerned having bowled wides or no-balls. Apart from the one run penalty the consequences are not immediate (unless a wicket is denied). A boundary form the extra ball is rarely noticed by anyone except the scorer and even provides an opportunity for a wicket. A free-hit on the next ball is an excellent idea taken from professional one-day cricket to increase the immediacy of the penalty, but CliMAX goes further and the penalties mount up geometrically if extras (including byes) are conceded on consecutive deliveries. A game might well be lost by a sequence of a wide, no ball and bye and it will be apparent to all playing and watching. There will be nowhere to hide!
In traditional cricket, the game rarely comes down to the last scheduled delivery. Usually the batters have several overs to get the winning run or the bowlers have many balls to clinch the final wicket. The game tends to fizzle out and for some, if not all players, the intensity drops towards the end. In CliMAX the intensity must be maintained to the last scheduled delivery at which point a wicket will usually decide the match or a MAXimum keep the batting team with a hope of overhauling the opponent’s total. A mistake by a bowler – wide or no ball – or a fumble by the keeper leading to a bye also keeps the batting team in the game.
Using CliMAXas a coaching tool will produce great pressure scenarios for your players and the situations thrown up by the league game on Saturday will seem a ‘doddle’. They will take with them the confidence from the successes in CliMAX and the knowledge or how to do better from situations that have not gone so well. What is more, they will love it! I promise.
Peter L Gregory
(ECB Level III Coach)
How to get yourself out on a free hit
Peter L Gregory jogs to his downfall
Peter Gregory hits the ball in the air to long off. The catch by CliMAX-Kid Nathaniel Gregory counts for nothing as it follows a wide and so is a 'free hit'. But instead of following the adage 'run the first one hard', Peter jogs along tempting a shy at the stumps. Four overthrows might well have resulted, but a pin point accurate throw took out middle stump and so ended a promising partnership.
Lessons: -
Run faster if you can!
Get fitter if you can't.
Don't be cocky, these fielders can be very good.
Be aware of the ways you can be out on a 'free hit'
Lessons: -
Run faster if you can!
Get fitter if you can't.
Don't be cocky, these fielders can be very good.
Be aware of the ways you can be out on a 'free hit'