match preparation

A young cricketer I coach, Leo Kaichura, who plays for Sidmouth CC and Devon u15s has asked for me to write an article surrounding match preparation. Not the hours, days, weeks, months, years that go into supporting skill specific development and game situation understanding, but game day preparation.

Similar to the hours, days, weeks etc of ongoing learning, the game day match preparation will also have its trial and error. How far back do we go? The day before? The night before? The morning of the game? The pre-match warm up? Waiting to bat? There is more to it than meets the eye.

How much can you actually control? If you are at school, or work, there will be much distraction – probably a good thing – but little time for match consideration. The night before might be a good time for some mental rehearsal depending on how much you know about the ground you are playing at, or the opposition. I had a season where I didn’t have a practice net once. I preferred to rely on mental rehearsal and practical home visualisation. In fairness, I was 52 and training as well as playing was physically challenging, so I chose to train in my own controllable manner. I had a very good season. I wouldn’t recommend it in place of physical training for younger players, but I would certainly recommend it as an addition.

I used to say to players, imagine you have a big final at the weekend, but you find yourself stranded on a desert island (random, yes, but for a point to be made)! You know you will be saved and can make the game. How will you prepare though? The point being you still can – visualisation / physical muscle memory activity etc… Match preparation, although not game day specific.

Some players are more nervous than others. Rather than avoid the nerves in advance of a game, embrace them. Nerves will only last so long and you may find you exhaust them in advance of the day, especially for a big game. Deep breathing helps. It slows everything down – our thinking, our heart rate, we relax. I would even do that between balls in matches. A walk towards square leg and a few deep breaths. Simple but effective.

We all know people are very different in a multitude of ways. I’ll simplify now to extroverts and introverts. The extrovert will thrive on life. Music, chatter, activity. The introvert generally prefers some quieter time, reflection, solitude perhaps? How often do we hear noisy dressing rooms? Who are noisy dressing rooms for? Everyone or just a few? With experience I could close the noise out. I had to find my quiet place. How many others need to? How often didn’t I execute my preparation as well as I needed / wanted due to external influences? What performance impact did it have? Were any mistakes I made during the game, technical, skill acquisition failure or preparation disruption?

Playing professionally as an opening batter, I wanted to have finished my on-field pre-match training thirty minutes before the game. I would grab a coffee (routine or ritual) and find my space in the dressing room seeking solace. I would pad up early and visualise / shape a few strokes. The nerves would increase. A few deep breaths. The five minute bell would ring and a nervous jolt would kick in. However, wherever I played, the moment I walked onto the playing field, all nerves dissipated. How much of that was my thirty minute preparation? Never mind the ninety minutes to two hours prior to that. The final portion was ‘mine’ and ‘mine’ to control.

As I mentioned earlier, I never precisely noted how often my final thirty minutes was disrupted and what impact it had? How often did late conversation derail me? How often did late advice throw my thoughts and preparation? How often did the noisy dressing room not allow me to find my quiet place? At the professional level, most players recognised my nature and knew to leave me. Understanding coaches recognise players are different and let mature teams dictate dressing room behaviours. Not so easy in junior cricket. As long as coaches recognise some players will want peace and some will want life. Tough balance.

If I was batting later in the order, I would forego the specific thirty minutes and I actually relaxed more because of the fact that I no longer knew when I was going to be involved. However, waiting to bat, I watched every ball. I wanted to soak up the information on offer – the pitch, bowling styles, field placements etc… When a wicket fell for me to go in, there was a similar sensation to the five minute bell. Once again, a couple of deep breaths and as soon as I walked onto the field of play, the nerves disappeared again.

Some players liked to sleep before batting. I guess it’s hard to be any more relaxed. If it works more often than not, then brilliant. Whatever fits the individual. Probably not the best developmental approach. Something a mature player may find works and Mark Waugh was an outstanding test match batter who was known to sleep before batting.

All of this was based around routines and habits that helped form my behaviours and focused my mind. It wasn’t based on luck or rituals. Of course, like everyone else I had little habits, like which pad I strapped on first. Routine or ritual? Scrambled eggs for breakfast? Routine or ritual? Coffee thirty minutes before the game? Routine or ritual? If the habit changes based on performances, it is a ritual. A preparation routine is something we learn to trust, just like any other part of our entire game. What the ritual cannot do is derail the player. The batting pad is always there. The breakfast bar has run out of eggs? The coffee pot is empty? These cannot derail the player.

Mine is not a tried and tested one fits all method. It seemed to work for me and its consistency gave me comfort. My preparation helped me find a place I felt I could compete from. It wasn’t magic. Some days I scored 100s, other days I walked back after the first ball – was there some form of disruption on those days?

For me, the days before can be managed in a multitude of ways. Some like nets, some prefer more manageable environments. Some like to think deeply before the game, some prefer not to and trust their instincts. Some like an early night, others can’t sleep if they go to bed early. Some like a hearty breakfast, some can’t eat (All University students eat, funnily enough)! All of these factors help develop a routine of behaviour that makes you find a place you feel you can best operate from. All pre-match preparation should be geared to allowing each individual to feel their best. Very difficult in team environments with a multitude of characters. Tough for coaches too.

As a professional I recall one phase where we played eleven days consecutively without a drop of rain. It’s very tricky planning ahead for each day specifically. All you can do is manage your emotions, your self-belief. Consistency in preparation helped.

As a junior? I turned up, changed, chatted to a few mates and then played the game. I do not recall a single warm up session as a junior, whether it was youth school, youth club or adult cricket. It was only playing professionally that I learned the value of routines and good habits. Would it have helped earlier in my playing days? Would it have over complicated my learning? Would it have helped develop plans sooner? Would it have stunted my enjoyment? I can’t answer any of the above. What I do recall is whatever preparation I did have was geared to being happy to play cricket and that was all I wanted then.   

My match preparation became condensed into the final thirty minutes. If I could control that, I often felt as well prepared as I wanted to. And if I was stranded on a desert island, no worries…

Please share your own match preparations as the more ground we cover, the more likely we are to help players find their best routines. If you have some match preparation plans you want to share please send to: enquiries@runmakavr.com (subject matter – blogs)