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Form and how to bounce back

Judging by the way that Paul Collingwood has been batting of late, if you weren't in the know then you'd probably ask what he was doing playing for his country. The bat looks foreign to him, almost as though he was plucked from the crowd, had it shoved in his hands and sent out to the middle. His problem is that he's suffering from a poor run of form, something which can affect all of us, from the Sunday slogger to 35 test veteran.

The question is 'what can I do to get myself out of a slump?' and to be honest there is no easy answer, especially as the drop in form may be caused by many things. It may be mental or a technique flaw through to downright bad luck. However, there are some things you can try, which we'll take a look at here.

It's good to talk
The first thing to do is to talk, talk to your coach, captain, team mates or whoever. Ask them is they have spotted anything which may be contributing to your undoing. Often it's hard to be truly critical of ourselves, but others tend to have no problems! They may spot something that you're missing or just be able to give your ego a boost, which is no bad thing!

The next approach is to simply get time at the crease, scratch around but no matter what try to stay there! Some people believe that it only takes one blazing shot to pull themselves out of the doldrums and fins form again, others swear by just being out there. I would say that it's best to try this approach in game with little riding on it, if possible. Though you may be chuffed with your 34 not out off 50 overs, others may not be!

If time in the middle isn't working out then it's going to be a trip to the nets. Get some nice juicy half volleys chucked at you and hit away or get the coach in and work on some flaws. The act of hitting balls away from the pressure of a game can work wonders and if nothing else will help to increase your confidence. It may be that you need to re-learn your focus or get used to watching the ball from the bowlers hand once more, whatever it is the nets are perfect for this.

The next solution is a cousin of where we started and that is more talking. You've worked through the steps above and it's still not coming together. Hang in there and talk some more. Think about your game, what is going wrong and what you can do about it. Sometimes, it may even help to look at others and how they are playing - analysing others can help sharpen the mind and may just snap you out of it.

A rest and hopefully some change
Lastly, and this is the most radical of the lot (or maybe it isn't?) and that is to do nothing. Walk away from the game for a week or two and have a break. Clear the mind and think about everything except your game. Wash the car, take the other half away for a weekend or catch up on your paperwork, no matter what it is, make sure it's not cricket! It's the approach that Collingwood has attempted to take (as much as an international can) and though it still has to work for him, there is no reason why it won't for you.

The key throughout all of this is to try to remain positive. Don't lose your love of the game and remember that it's just that, a game! Try to enjoy it and with a bit of work and some luck, your form will snap back.

So, there you have it, some thoughts on how to overcome a slump in form with the willow, or ball for that matter. You've heard my thoughts but I'd love to hear yours, so to tell me what you think then go to: Regaining form!

Seeing as we're coming up to the start of the county season, it's that time when a lot of places start to produce their 'ones to watch' columns.

I'm looking for some nominations from you lot so we can boil it down to the top 5 and see how they go over the season (and also see who the top talent spotter is amongst us!).

All you need to do is post a few players in this thread and we'll take it from there. Let's try to keep it to players under 25 years old but I'll allow a few older players, if you give me a reason Tongue.

My picks (for now):

Chris Jordan (Surrey)
Steven Finn (Middlesex)
James Hildreth (Somerset)

Ok, that's a few from me, so over to you!

Let me know your picks here - County Youth Picks

Welcome to the blog of the month for April (and little bit into May as well). This month I've chosen a blog that we've had linked on the forum for a little while now, King Cricket

King Cricket has been going since January 2006 and moved to its present home in the August of 2007 and continued to grow strongly. With an insightful look at cricket from the first class game to the test arena, not to mention the top feature 'Animals being indifferent to cricket', it provides a nice counter to the more usual cricket outlets. I mean where else will you find a cat doing a Ryan Sidebottom impression?

The latest posts are taking a look at the ones to watch in the forthcoming county season, with Will Jefferson currently being profiled, in the unqiue King Cricket style:

[quote]A lot of our better updates have been about Will Jefferson. This is partly why we're watching him for the third season in a row.

We're mainly watching him like a child with no concept of what's socially acceptable though; with our mouth agape, pointing and saying 'why has that piece of scaffolding got a face?'

In ancient history Jefferson's ancestors smote humans or enslaved them for the construction of gargantuan underground tunnels linking the continents of the world. Maybe this season Will Jefferson will smite county bowling attacks and enslave cricket supporters for thoughtful 'maybe Will Jefferson's ready for England' letters to the local paper.[/quote]

So, as always, pay the blog a visit and show it some love. You may learn something, you may not but as always, you can never have too many views on cricket.

Long live King Cricket!

It's pretty clear that many people on here are keen and take match preparation seriously but I'm willing to bet that most neglect post match analysis, which can be a very useful tool.

How are you supposed to improve if you fail to look at the things that went well, went averagely and maybe more importantly went completely awry?

Also, a team that is able to communicate well is a team that will progress and one that will learn to handle match situations better as time goes on.

The best thing about post match analysis is that it doesn't have to be a post mortem or a blame session but a constructive 15 minutes looking back over what happened, making notes, sharing ideas and trying to improve performance for next time.

Also, don't get mislead by the post match tag - it's also a useful tool post practice, especially if you have a coach or teammate to bounce ideas off.
If you'd like to give it a go then try the following:

Get together as a team and have a look over the scorebook, detail individual performances and talk about how you could have done better

What new strategies could you put in place? Were there other options to stem the flow of runs or help the scoring rate, for example?

If you've noticed that a person is struggling against a certain type of bowling then pipe up, it's better to have them work on in it in practice than a match and it might be something that they haven't picked up on

Talk about the opposition. Often in leagues you'll meet the same guys year after year, put a little note next to their name if you spot potential weaknesses

Spend a little time chatting about what went well.

Don't forget to analyse yourself as an individual as well and more importantly don't be afraid to ask teammates for feedback. It is also very important that you remember to mark up the things you did well and not just concentrate on the negative; the idea is to look at your whole game and get a thorough understanding of it.

Nobody is perfect but it is only by learning from our mistakes that we can progress and ultimately become better cricketers.

Looking at the forums it seems that the first thing people ask is the old favourite - 'how do I increase my pace?' What do you feel is the best way for the average club player to do this?

The great news is that everyone has the ability to bowl faster! The secret is understanding what parts of the action work in which way.

As an overview, the hips (core area) of the body generate a power blast to the action. This is in the same way as a boxer throws a punch. It can be accelerated by driving the bowling hip towards the target.

In my experience, the common areas for improvement are:

Line up of the feet so everything goes at the target

Full shoulder rotation (finish off the action)

Driving towards the target with the top half (chest drive) and not leaning back too far

Also ensure that you keep moving through the crease from back foot to front foot (momentum) and pull the ball like a javelin thrower would. Arm pull is created by imagining a bow and arrow, and the further apart your hands, the greater the arm pull will be.

The LAST thing you do is bowl a cricket ball, so hang on to it, let your body get ahead of your bowling hand and then accelerate the ball to the target hard.

What is the best drill/practice for improving accuracy? Also, what do you think is more important, line or length?

If you run up straight, go through the crease straight, and then follow through straight, there's a high chance the ball will go straight. So I always do bowling drills that encourage a bowler to focus on lining up to the target and driving down a 'railway track' so everything stays at target. It's a simple thing to think about and helps with delivering a consistent line, which is far more important than length.

Length is simply a result of when you let the ball go and if you bowl an excellent line, you can really eliminate scoring opportunities for batsman. For a good bowler, leg stump and middle stump shouldn't exist. The focus is top of off stump and the 3-4 inches just outside. I use a foam channel target placed on the top of the stump to bowl at. It concentrates the mind and creates a zeroing-in effect to the delivery.

We get a lot of members asking about the importance of a good follow through and I know that it is something which you talk upon in your book (The Fast Bowler's Bible). What are your thoughts on what makes an effective follow through?

Follow through is the result of the bowling action and momentum. If you have a small follow though chances are you haven't driven out of your action to the target. If you follow through towards the offside or gulley, then that's where your momentum is also going.

A poor follow through would usually be caused by either the top half pulling away to the offside, or the legs not powering through down the railway track to the target.

A follow through is not something artificial therefore, it's an indicator or where your power goes as you release the ball. So a good follow though is important because it reflects how well you have used what you've got and how well you have carried your momentum through your action. As a rule of thumb, it should be about 50% of the distance of your run up.

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Was reading an article in Wisden magazine which suggests that we are heading back into an age of pace, especially since the retirement of Warne and the fact that Kumble and Murali are both the wrong side of 35. It's also the case that their replacements have yet to shine - indeed, witness the Australian struggles to replace Warne and you can see what may be in store for the future.

If you look at the pace bowlers around at the moment, they far outweigh the numbers of spinners. Just look at this list:

Ishant Sharma
Brett Lee
Dale Steyn
Morne Morkel
Lasith Malinga
Mitchell Johnson
Mohammad Asif
Makhaya Ntini
Fidel Edwards

All of the above are capable are reaching the late around the late 80mph mark, some of hitting the 90's, all are capable of winning matches for their team.

On the otherside of the coin, true match winning spinners are thinner on the ground, with only really Kumble, Murali and possible H Singh being the standouts. True, the likes of Panesar or Harris (SA) may develop but the odds are stacked against them. The one irony may be that in Adil Rashid, England may have one player who will buck the trend but he is still very young (even more so in spinners years) and there will be a lot of twists in his tale to come.

Maybe these things are cyclical (and the leading wicket taker stats by decade do seem to suggest that being the case) but I also think that a few things have aided the fast bowlers cause in recent years.

Firstly, a greater understanding of the most common pace injuries and how to prevent them, means that we should see them on the pitch more often than not. This may not always ring true, but I do think that coaches understand these things better than in previous years and will no longer flog their strike bowlers into the ground, as well as being prepared to manage their workload away from the test team better.

Secondly, the number of dead pitches that are being prepared around the world. What else can you do but employ someone who may be able to hurry a batsman out or use pace to hopefully extract that little bit of extra bounce or movement out of an otherwise dead wicket? There is no guarantee that the pitch will break up, especially as most grounds want to see cricket played for the whole 5 days (in order to maximise profits)

Thirdly, is the greater emphasis on pace by India. Over the years India has often been the spinners paradise but the various programmes and institutes like the Dennis Lillee bowling school have meant that a number of quality pace men have emerged over recent years. Indian youth will always follow their heroes in the test team and try to emulate them, and we'll more than likely see a growing number trying to bowl pace rather than spin.

So where will all this end up? That is a good question but I reckon we could be in for 10 - 15 years of pace bowlers dominating team line ups with only a token spinner being played (much like the 80's,. It'll take a great spinner to turn the tide (a'la Warne in the early 90's) as well as the current crop of kids who have been inspired by Warne and co to come through before we start to see a shift back towards to spin. It may also be the case that places like Bangladesh realise that the best way to win at home is to neutralise the oppositions pace attack and counter with a spin based attack of their own. That is all guess work but the one thing I'm pretty sure about is that pace is back, at least for now.

Having had a chance to chat to a friend who is lucky enough to play grade cricket we got talking about my batting woes and ways in which I could improve. One of the things that he suggested (as well getting some one on one coaching) was trying to develop a pre shot routine.

To be honest it wasn't something that I had ever really thought about (despite having an interest in the mental side of cricket), so after doing a bit of research in order to found out what it was all about and how it could benefit me, I went back to my friend to pick his brains further on the matter. It turns out that a good pre shot routine is a very effective method of improving one's focus on the task at hand - in this case batting and in particular focusing on the next ball. To put it another way it's a routine designed to help get the mind ready for an event through familiar actions.

These actions are likely to vary from person to person and be unique in their details; however that is not to distract from their usefulness which is eliminating all thoughts other than the ones needed for the task at hand. Doing so helps the batsman to deal with the problem as hand (namely scoring runs) without having to take on board outside stimulus, which in turn can use up mental energy reserves. My friend was able to talk me though a few international batsmen's and the routines (some would say jerks, tweaks or ticks in some cases) that they perform before every ball. Once these things are pointed out, you soon realise they typically perform these actions time after time (and it adds an extra dimension to watching the cricket).

Having learnt that this method is unique to the individual, I started to analyse the types of movements and actions involved. What became clear was that there was no right or wrong method to use; indeed, the majority seemed to use a mixture of the following: gardening (prodding the pitch with the bat), shot visualisation (playing an imaginary cricket stroke), wiggles of the hand on the bat, checking the gloves, looking at target areas in the field or muttering to themselves. My friend then went on to explain that a key element is matching the pre-shot routine to how you are as a cricketer. For instance, a player who is methodical and unhurried is going to benefit from a similar pre-shot routine, rather than one which is short and full of bluster. Each of us is different and we need to make sure that any mental aspect reflects how we play the game and not how we would like to play cricket.

All of the above moves me on to the point of this and that is how to go about developing your own pre shot routine. Coaching evidence suggest that there is no set time scale for this, some will find their method straight away, others will spend a while searching for the correct routine. What I do know is that it will take some decent practice where you are fully switched on and also a coach who understands what you're trying to achieve. A good tip is to really look at how you are as person and how you play the game (ask your coach on this as well) but most of all consider your natural tempo. The idea is to put yourself at ease through a routine which inspires comfort and familiarity and helps the mind focus on only the task at hand rather than your home life, work worries or what to have for tea. Once you have achieved this you find that your concentration should improve as well.

Start developing your own pre-shot routine and once its part of your game you will notice an improvement in your consistency of your cricket and feelings of confidence as well as hopefully a better ability to deal with the game on a shot by shot basis.