clarity of thought training

In previous eras, a key area batters focused upon was something known as ‘batting in your bubble’. The premise being, batting within an imaginary bubble which you didn’t want to burst.

The intention was geared to batting with control, managing your key strengths and adopting accuracy in shot selections / decision making.

I’m not sure the last time I heard anyone mention it, with batting being far more aggressive and risk laden in the modern era. Not a problem, just how it is.

I had a coaching session with a young u15 cricketer recently who displayed great control and in essence ‘batted within his bubble’ throughout the session. His shot selection and accuracy in execution was tremendous. Batting within the bubble supports a ‘waiting for the ball’ mindset and this extra time allows players to select their required options with clarity of thought. Watch, wait, play.

The lad played as well as I’ve ever seen him bat. Rather than add any extra challenges to the session, I decided to simply throw balls and watch. He played better and better.

As the session progressed, he talked about bulking up and spending more time in the gym. I asked him to consider how big and strong, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli are? Does everyone need to be muscle bound? He’s not the tallest of batters, so we discussed the merits of Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman etc… Improve your fitness for certain, but does eevryone have to be a body builder?

In essence we landed on being the smartest cricketer on the pitch, not necessarily the biggest and strongest. The clever players have scope. The clever players understand their strengths and have an acute awareness to scoring runs by manipulating balls into unprotected areas.

Batting in your bubble doesn’t mean being defensive. Clever players are especially proactive, yet still make judgements based on game phases and what is demanded of them at any given point in time. Soak up pressure in the face of quality bowling. Counter-attack when offered any opportunity. Be creative to push bowlers out of their comfort zones. Run hard to eke out every little run possible.

I remember a professional team not selecting their best batter one season in the t20 competition as they felt he didn’t hit enough sixes. Interesting. I followed them closely that season and they averaged two sixes per game. I’m not convinced that’s a clear thinking piece of planning. Yes t20 demands a lot of boundary seeking, yet surely there is more to the game than sixes? An average of two per game every one hundred and twenty balls is a poor return. Especially if you don’t even take into account how many players were caught trying to hit those elusive sixes.   

The key thing is that the game should be able to embrace a wide range of capabilities and there must still be a place for players like Root, Williamson, Kohli and others who are experts at clear thinking and playing within their bubbles. And they have been successful in all game formats.  

We’re spending plenty of time focusing on boundary seeking and innovation and rightly so. Building a platform of stability to support this comes with confidence and trust in a set of skills that can cope with many facets of the game not just a few.

The lad that batted within his bubble recently displayed the highest level of trust in his skills I have seen in any session from him so far. And not only will he learn to trust himself, others will too. 

As a coach that focuses a great deal on structural player development I have been required to open my mind to new era thinking. I have certainly done that. I simply hope that all coaches open their minds to skills and approaches that have proved the test of time, not just what is perceived to be the fit of the modern game.

Be the cleverest player...