How Batting Philosophy Shapes Performance | Alastair Maiden

Batting is probably the most scrutinized skill in cricket. It’s technical, it’s psychological, and everyone has a view on it. But we don’t always agree on how it should be developed. So today we’re going to take a deep dive into the art and the science of batting. Not just how you do it, but how you think about it, how you coach it, and how you can prepare for what it really demands. Welcome to the Cricket Mind podcast.

Thank you Woody. Have we only got an hour? That sounds like a lot I’ve got to cover in an hour.

I think I might have to do a bit of editing, but anyway, we’ll see how it goes. So look, you’ve built a really strong coaching career at the very top of the game ⁓ without coming through that traditional route that I mentioned before. How do you think it’s kind of shaped the way that you now think about batting and also how you go about coaching it.

I think you could argue that some of the reasons that I’m a really good coach is possibly some of the reasons why I probably didn’t come through the traditional pathway. And I remember as a young batter watching other batters quite closely that I played against and looking at how they played and what they did and what was different. And I probably over thought a lot of what I did. Say over thought, that’s not the right word. I thought a lot about what I did, which meant that possibly at times that got in the way of my ability to perform and just play the game. I think that analytical ability to spot things, understand why things are happening is a really strong trait for me as a coach, particularly a batting coach, but maybe not for me as a player, or I didn’t maybe, couldn’t work out how to cope with that when it didn’t quite go well. So when things went really well for me, my playing career, the limited exposure I had at the top levels were either really big peaks of high performance or big troughs. And that maybe is linked to that really analytical approach that I had as a player that has stood me in good stead really in terms of helping players get over faults or issues or challenges.

So did you want to be a professional?

Yeah, I mean, played, so I went to Durham University and played first class cricket at university. I tried to, I was from a minor county. So when I was, here we go, this is me, I’m on a tangent with you already. coming through talent pathways, I was at a minor county, I was from Staffordshire and it was around the time when county academies were just starting to get set up. And so I was on the outside of one and counties were obviously trying to promote from within then because they got academies set up. So someone like myself was a little bit, on the outside. went to Durham University as a way of continuing my education, but because there was a university centre of excellence scheme that I wanted to get involved in and it was another avenue back then into, because you had first class cricket that you could play three games a year. And I played and did really well at times in that. Played a lot of second team cricket in a trial sort of basis. And again, did well second team cricket and did reasonably well at my account is and at the various levels I played but never really. I probably never did enough at the right time to get given an opportunity to make that next step to being a full-time player. So I had a summer gig with Worcestershire and at the end of that, I was 23 years old. ⁓ I was on the latter stages of probably my youth potential period. And so they expected me to be able to go in and average 50 in the second team so that I could go in and play first team cricket. And I probably averaged.

25, 30 as a player coming through. And I don’t think because of that minor counties background, I didn’t have the structured regular contact with coaches that players have nowadays. I had really good coaches, or what I would say is I had some really excellent coaches, I had played lots of men’s cricket and had lots of cricket experience in a variety of different ways, but didn’t have the regular performance coaching that people get now coming through. So yeah, I came out of that as a 23 year old and had luckily done, I’d been encouraged to do coaching badges from the age of sort of 16. So one of the great coaches that I worked with, John Moore, who was a wonderful man, teacher who helped to shape the level four back in the day when it first started, he encouraged me to do it as a way of helping my cricket. He thought it’d be really good for my game.

So I did my level one, then I did my level two at university, and then a called Gordon Lord helped me get onto level three at the back end of that sort of career. so by the time I was 23, I went away and played a winter abroad overseas opportunity where I was a player coach, and I played particularly badly, but did a lot of coaching with the kids and did a perceived great job and enjoyed it and then that was the start of it. I had a crossroads really then. I was still trialling to be a professional but had to earn enough money to make a living. I was living at home with mum and dad and the sort of the obvious route that I struggled initially to get my head around was to go into coaching. I didn’t really want to just fall into the obvious path, ⁓ but actually felt I was quite good at it. And so it was quite a natural move. ⁓ Yeah, sorry. That’s long answer.

No it’s really useful context because, you know, so many people sort of, as you say, sort of fall into something else when they don’t make it. But to make to come to that crossroads and actively make that decision is quite a kind of different path, especially if you’ve been to university and everything as well. I mean, I don’t know what you studied, but I guess there was probably a third option when I was there.

I saw I studied archaeology.

Okay.

So I went to Durham University to study archaeology because it was a degree that I knew I could get the grades to get in for. I, you know, I enjoyed history. So, you know, A levels, I was doing history, English, art. So I was doing those sorts of A levels. And the advice I was given by a guy at the university was just pick a subject that you can get in for. Because if you want to go to university, do that. And then you can change your subject when you get there. So I chose archaeology and quite enjoyed it, but I don’t really.

I suppose for my university experience was about playing cricket and having the opportunity to train in a professional environment and as a professional, semi-professional player. And was to have the university experience and to get a degree without it being a vocational experience, a vocational degree. I just wanted to go and I wanted to do something I was going to enjoy and going to find interesting reading about rather than I thought if I went and did sport, I’d just be bored by talking about lactose or something like that. you know, I was more stimulated by history and those types of things really. So, yeah, random, but yeah.

But interesting.

Am I right in thinking that you don’t play anymore and you’ve not played for a while? Is that right?

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Why? Why not? And do you prefer coaching them?

because the game hurt me quite badly, I think. I think the game hurt me. And so, especially then afterwards, once I’d stopped trying to like, better myself and beat the inner battle, which was ultimately what I was always trying to do, I was trying to play cricket for fun. The fun went and…

Yeah, okay.

Hmm.

Yeah.

I didn’t have any enjoyment from it. It was a bussiness holiday really, so was away all week with the second team coaching and then just started a young family and on a Saturday I was out all day playing cricket and it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. It was a shame because I do genuinely love the game but I think from a player point of view, I do think what I loved from playing was that mastery. It was trying to, you know, even, I’ll say even you know, my good days, when I sat down at end of my good days, I often felt I’d just done my job. Like I’d done, that’s what I’d done. It was never, I never celebrated, I’d never felt like it, and maybe that’s just, again, personality. I’m a little bit, don’t really like to heap praise upon myself or to hear it from others, despite your wonderful introduction, Woody. So yeah, I’d always felt like I sat down at end of a day and had done my job, and that was it.

Hmm.

It’s just what I did.

Does, does coaching hurt you these days? Cause you mentioned playing it, hurt you.

Yeah, no, but what I would say is, so franchise cricket was a different experience for me. So I think all of my previous coaching experiences have been very much, know, my philosophy would be about developing individuals, developing players, trying to, the team growth through individual growth. Franchise cricket was really different — you cobble a team together of stars and when we had a tough tournament at Phoenix and we lost like four or five games in a row, maybe more. And I found that really hard because I felt a little bit powerless in terms of what to do. Short and sharp, games come thick and fast. So that was tough actually and that hurt to a degree. But what I found with that was I’d be hurting a little bit and sulk, go home, back to the hotel, sulk.

Mm.

and then come up with a plan. And once I got a plan of how I was going to proceed, and I remember after one game, we had a little few days off, and my plan was to touch base with every player and staff member in the team and make them understand why I valued them in the team. So I messaged everyone around the table and did that. And that was, as much as anything, for me, my benefit, to give me a, am I going to do? That’s my plan. And once I got the plan, we did it and I did that. And then I was good. I’d sort of found a way forward. So yeah, I struggled until I made that plan really. But generally, like I said, I honestly think a lot of cricket coaching, there’s so much time involved in the game and there’s so many development opportunities that I’m always focused on the long-term player development more than I am on the short-term, how are we going to win the next day.

Mm-hmm.

And that must be quite tricky in the franchise stuff because it’s such a short window.

Always, you can’t, that doesn’t, no you don’t do that. You’re more just trying to get the environment right and hope that the players are in the right place to go out there and perform. so one of the real strong feelings I had at the end of The Hundred last year was how great we’d been as a staff team. So despite not doing brilliantly and losing quite a few games, the staff were amazing and we kept really positive and we turned the team around. So every game that I went to, I felt like we were going to win the game, like leading into it. And the atmosphere felt like we were going to win the game. So that to me was quite a proud moment because that said that, you know, we weren’t beaten by the results. So yeah, that was all we tried to do was stay focused, go back to how we wanted to play. So forget the results, let the results take care of themselves really, and then get back to.

Hmm.

to that and stay positive. And as I said, was really proud of how the team and particularly the staff did that.

So the first time I met you properly, I think, was at Blackpool Cricket Club. And from memory, you were there with the England Women’s team. And I came up to see you because at the time I was looking to appoint someone to lead the batting module for the ECB level four that you mentioned earlier and speaking to you over a coffee or two or maybe lunch, I can’t remember. But it became very clear to me, Ali, that individual difference was one of your kind of core beliefs when it came to batting. now that must’ve been eight or nine years ago now, and you’ve had quite a few different coaching roles and experiences since. So I guess my question is, do you still believe as strongly in individual difference now that you’ve been a batting coach and a head coach and you’ve had these different roles and what other core beliefs do you have, specifically when it comes to batting?

I still believe in individual difference, 100%. I think.

What I’ve built and what I generally feel I’ve built is ⁓ a log book of things that have worked with different people. I wouldn’t say I’m an, I don’t think I’m an expert at coming up with solutions for people who’ve got individual difference. don’t, I’m not brilliant. I don’t think I can go, that’s going to work for them. But what I do go have is like a decent memory bank of I’ve seen players that are like this person before and I’ve seen this work. So why don’t we try this?

Hmm.

So that’s, think what, and I think the game has trends. So I’ll probably find myself where certain things will be, will come out a little bit more at certain times with a number of players at the same time, because it’s a trend of something that’s fresh in my mind. But I’ll always be, you know, the players at The Bears I’d hope if you came and watched us practice, you’d see different styles across the piece. Some with triggers, some without, some standing with the bat up, some with the bat down.

And we’ll have tried, like I’m a big believer in it and the best players I’ve always come across have had a really good understanding and motor awareness so that they can feel what they do really well and they can change that really easily. And to me that only comes from lots of trial and error and trying things. So I’m really keen to go, why don’t you try that? don’t you try that? think often coaches are a bit afraid of that like change.

Whereas I think it’s an opportunity for growth. And like I said, all the best players I’ve ever seen can do a different, know, famous Sachin Tendulkar stories of six different trigger movements for different bowlers during a test match or whatever it is, you know, all the best players will, you’ll hear those sorts of things. And I think that comes from that, that openness to be different, to try different things and do different things. So yeah, I’m no expert at going that’ll work for you, but I have a memory bank of different things that have worked with different players and then I draw parallels and then I try different things with them and they’re changes. So, you know, had a player at the Bears recently who she, we worked on her bat being lower for a few, a year really, period of time to try and develop some rhythm and flow and some synchronisation between the bat and the footwork and we did that. And then now she’s got a bit better at that. We’re trying to then see if we can hold the bat up, whether that still retains those things or whether that adds power. So to me, again, I don’t think you should ever be set in a particular way. think you develop a way, and batters develop a way that works for them, and they have to remember that and be really clear on that, and then know where and when they can adapt that and adjust that. Because I don’t agree with, that’s just my way and I’ll do it one way and that’s it.

So yeah.

Yeah, and I guess on that, Ali, you’ve got experience coaching men, women, boys, girls, and we, you know, we are increasingly hearing that coaching needs to be tailored kind of to those contexts and they are different. Have you found that to be the case? there’d be trends between the different groups? And if so, what would you say are the kind of main differences and main similarities when you’re coaching in those kind of different environments?

Are you talking technical or broader? Do know what I mean? Are you talking technical? I think, so my… So, you know, I go back to when I first went into women’s cricket from men’s cricket. My philosophy has always been, I was always taught that, you you coach the person and the best, you know, great coaches, good coaches coach technique, great coaches coach people. So my first instance was always, you know,

Broader I guess?

How would you approach it differently?

I know there are some generalisations about gender and we can talk about those to a degree, but ultimately I’ve seen lots of similarities between two players from opposite genders. to me, you coach the person in front of you and you work out how they operate and you work out what their view of the world is and then you try and infiltrate that and try and influence it. And so, yeah, there are differences.

I think girls, in my experience with women’s cricket, be much more, obviously less ego generally. So girls will take things on really quickly and they’ll put it in, if you’re not careful, they’ll be doing quite literally everything you’ve said. Whereas a lot of lads, until you’ve built up that trust, they don’t actually, you know, it doesn’t happen. The thing you’ve suggested doesn’t happen and you have to keep going back, keep going back. Whereas the girls, generally, you get that instant and the girls want feedback and they want to know what you think and they want to know how you can get better. Whereas again, the men’s world generally not as bothered about that for a while. It takes a bit of time that and a bit of trust. And then there’s the social bit. again, huge generalisation, but the social thing is more important in a women’s team than it is. And I don’t mean going out for drinks. mean,

and

the feeling of attachment and the feeling of belonging and something to belong to I think is more important in the women’s team than in a men’s team where generally the men are more interested in and again it’s a big generalisation so they have to be careful but you know what they can get for themselves and the team then benefits secondary so the social thing.

Yeah. But that is what the research actually shows even from a young age, that connectedness is such a big motivator for girls and then women, whereas it is less of a kind of salient factor for the men.

And the girls actually care more what the coach, you know, I remember doing some, we did like an amateur bit of recent, like where do you get confidence from when we were working with England team? So Mark Robinson like asked the girls, where do you get confidence from? The amount of girls that said we get it from the coach. And that’s like, does that, that’s not, that’s not.

Hmm.

That shouldn’t be right, that’s not. But actually what the coach thought and whether the coach backed them and supported them actually mattered quite a lot. ⁓ then I think ⁓ outpourings, so in terms of the pressures of the game, is shown differently. So I think in the men’s world, I think if you go back to the 80s and 90s when all the great stories of lack of professionalism in men’s cricket, a lot of the stuff that you hear is from a ⁓

Yeah. Okay.

how people dealt with pressure and how people dealt with having to perform is my view. You don’t see that same thing in women’s cricket. You see much more anxiety and ⁓ much more emotion. Whereas the men, I think it builds up inside and then they go to the pub and they drink or whatever, you’ll gamble or those things. It’s a different way of dealing with those emotions.

In my experience in women’s teams, generally, you do see a lot of emotions and that’s okay. You know, more so than in men’s. And then the last thing I would say, while we’re talking about batting, be, think generally, and this is something I’ve probably picked up on more so more recently and learned more recently, is the girls generally have more rotational power than they do straight line power. So you see a lot more of that. And that’s something that is how you develop more straight linear power.

Mm.

whether you need to, you know, it’s that classic ongoing debate of, do you work with the strength of that or do you try and develop another way? Because again, in my view, it’s sports all about competitive advantage. So your biggest strengths when they’re overplayed and when the opposition know them are your biggest weakness. So if you’re only able to hit square of the wicket, because that is you and you stick to that, and they set a field that’s square of the wicket, you lose the game.

That’s something that we battle with a little bit, probably. yeah, there’s some generalisation. My over-idea would be, go back to the start, be I don’t like to generalise between the two genders. I think you treat people as individuals because I’ve seen lots of people from the two different genders that you end up coaching very similarly and you think they’re more closely aligned than you’d think at times.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so then looking more broadly, if you’re not going to generalise, what would you say are the kind of key mental demands when it comes to batting? And how do you try and equip your players? And how can anyone listening who may be a coach help equip their players to be able to cope with those demands that come with batting? Because we know how it’s so there is pressure or there’s perceived pressure, there’s scoreboards, there’s stats, you know, how, you know, all the different things that come into play, what kind of

Yeah, what are those ⁓ key demands and how can you players be prepared?

Well, I think because the game is so, there’s so much variety and variance in the game, there’s lots of mental demands. I think the biggest overriding issue from a mental side of things is managing expectation and dealing with expectation. So as a young player, often, you know, go in and there’s two ways. You either have no expectation because you’re young going into the game and so you play with freedom or you put too much expectation on yourself, then nobody else has and that day don’t match up. And then throughout your career, you go on and I used to think that as you got more senior, it got easier because you could deal with the game because you understood and you could cope better. But actually the expectations grow because as you get more senior, everyone expects you to do well. And people used to say, my generation, a lot of…

Yeah.

professionals would talk about how the hardest runs to score would be when they went drop down into club cricket when everyone’s expecting them to score runs. And I think that as a batter is ultimately the biggest challenges and that expectation, like I said, can manifest itself in so many different ways. It can be external expectation, internal, whatever it is, but that from a batter is, I think often the biggest thing. And often those goalposts change, you know, all of a sudden expectation grows on players.

Yeah.

Yeah, I-

I’d be interested to hear your opinion on retirement because we work with quite a lot of young people who are in the county pathways and they have retirements, you know, often at 25, 30 probably gets a bit higher as they move on through. And so if they are a really strong batter, they actually don’t get used to getting out because they retire. So they sort of in the way that when you talked about your own batting, you felt you’d done your job. They’re sort of capping out. They literally couldn’t have done any more. Whereas I feel like a lot of what lot of the pressure of batting is you could always have done more or there’s always a sense you could have. So do you think that the retirement process sets up children well for that getting used to that feeling or do you think it’s it’s harmful?

Well, think there’s a point where that has to change. When I’m talking to coaches about developing young batters, always think that around 14 or 15, I think is when you would start letting the game teach a bit more. So I think up to that age, you’re playing pairs cricket and pairs cricket and retirement is all about opportunity and letting people have equal and fair opportunity. So at that point, I think with young batters, you’re trying to set them up with the best possible method to be able to deal with batting in all those different situations because the game doesn’t find them out because they don’t get out. It’s pairs cricket or whatever. So things happen and they retire and there’s no challenge from that point of view. Then they get to

Yeah.

when you’re out, you’re out and it’s a proper, ⁓ the environment’s changed, the constraints are changed. And then the game starts to set constraints that require different strategies. And I think then you’re into a bit more problem solving from the player. I think, going back to your question, I think it’s healthy because ultimately I believe, I’ve got a 10 year old and eight year old and I think, know, sport,

And young players develop from opportunity and lots of touches of the ball and lots of chances. You know, I’ve seen, I’ve got two lads, one is a good footballer, is doing quite well. And he’s developed because he’s had great teams and great volunteer coaches who’ve just allowed for lots of touches of the ball and lots of opportunity to play. And then another, my other lad who’s not so keen on football because he’s been in environment where it’s been more about winning and he’s had not as many.

Yeah.

many times to the boys and he’s been, he spent a lot of time on the subs bench and he spent a lot of time doing drills where he stood at the back of a line waiting for the ball to get kicked to him. And so he hasn’t developed his love of the game. he’s so, so for me, I think the past thing’s really important and the retirement thing is really important, but there is a point where you have to, you have to move that on. not sure whether there’s a right age for that, but I do think once you get to 14 or 15, the game should be more, more like what they’re going to have to do as they get older. Because ultimately, I was playing men’s cricket at 13 and that was great for me. I had the balance and again, sorry, I think balance is really important with all these questions. What you want, so again I’ll go back to Finlay, my eldest, he plays good standard of football where he’s tested on a side, but then on a Sunday he plays a lower level where he’s really good and he can build confidence. takes all the corners and takes all the free-kicks.

Yeah.

Mm.

Mm.

So I think you want to balance. What you want is them to play pass cricket or retired cricket where they get 25 every week, build that confidence. And then they play a bit of men’s Sunday cricket on a Sunday where it’s when you’re out, you’re out. And then that gives them the variety of skills that they’re gonna need. And that’s how I would approach it, is trying to get balance to the cricketing diet. ⁓

and

Mm.

And then so as they do move up, how do you begin to manage those expectations? You know, as you say, that’s such a hard part of, of, of coaching battles. How do you help them do that?

Yeah.

Well, perspective is important. So firstly, perspective is really important. I think as a coach, often I feel I’m trying to manage perspective, so give them perspective, because often the perspective is gone. They’re thinking too far ahead or whatever it is. Stay in the moment, stay present and have some perspective on where they’re at and where they’ve come from. So that’s important to me. I would say I’m always trying to play the long game.

Hmm. Hmm.

And as I said at the start, so rather than thinking about instant wins in terms of performance, I’d be going, it’s a learning opportunity to then, and it gives you the, you know, if you fail, it gives you the context to go and work at that in the week and you have that context and then you go back to try and try again. So trying to keep it as a learning opportunity as much as anything is important to me. What else would I say?

Mm-hmm.

How do you find doing that

in the context of a competition?

Well, like I to you, so The Hundred is very hard. You know, that is very tough. But in a county season, you know, depending on expectations from, and pressures on me from above, but what my experience of last year would be that, you know, when you’ve got a young team and you’ve got that, and you’ve managed expectations of what the team can achieve, and people understand that development is at the heart and that’s part of the culture of the team.

Yeah.

I think it’s relatively straightforward because what you’re trying to do then is ⁓ give a level of consistency and not get up and down with emotions, not leave people out when things are going too badly, trying to keep consistent and try and reward behaviors as much as you are in outcomes. So I always use the example of developing play of spin. The worst thing you can do as a batting coach is ask them to come down the wicket against spinners and be positive and use their feet and hit over the top. And then the first time they do it, they get stumped. And you say, well, no, that was the wrong decision. Because as soon as you question decision-making, then they’re in a right pickle. Because ultimately, cricket and sport is like instant decisions. They’re flashes in the moment of time. And it’s not a logical, it’s not always like a rational thing, it happens through feeling. I think what you’ve got to try and do is make sure whatever you have in terms of philosophy of play, so for me it would be being positive and being aggressive. I generally would always guard against trying to ⁓ pick apart decision making. I generally don’t, I would very rarely go with poor decision that because I think that really sets a…

It’s like this double-edged sword. You want them to play positively, but you can’t get it out. You’re doesn’t work. I would generally, yeah, make the right. And there’s no right or wrong decisions. In that instance, the right decision is the one that they commit to, really. Commitment is probably more important than anything. So I would say, I would be much more inclined to say, didn’t execute that quite well. You’re quite right. The decision, and we talk about coming down the wicket or sweeping and those types of things a lot.

and want them to trust themselves. You want them to trust themselves.

You know, the old, you know, going back, people always talked about not premeditated and, you know, picking the flight or the ball and seeing it. And that doesn’t, that doesn’t happen at the top level. You know, that basically batters commit to their decisions and they make them make it work. So they have an ability to adjust when they get into those positions to, to then get themselves out of trouble or to get themselves in that perfect position. So again, it’s that it’s trying to commit, make them help them commit to those things and the removal of doubt, which is, know, without getting into it, but that’s the basis of Bazball really. It’s probably then got a bit extreme in its ⁓ narrative in the press and the way that people judge it. But ultimately what you’re trying to remove is the element of doubt, of the fear of failure and trying to get players to commit fully.

Mm.

to

what they’re doing. And I think that’s the challenge as a coach, but ultimately is what you’ve got to try and do. And you can’t, you have to be really careful about like that double-edged sword second-guessing yourself situation with players, the way they don’t know what to do, they don’t know which way to go.

So when a batter is struggling mentally, such as being low on confidence or overthinking or, know, whatever’s going through the minds, what are the first signs that you notice as a coach? Is there any kind of pattern that you see in players?

think it’s, again, it’s very individual, so at the top level, some will want to hit more balls, and want to practice more, and want to get more volume, and then that can work, but sometimes that, you for that individual is not right, and can lead to overthinking and all, and, or over-analyzing, not overthinking, over-analyzing. And I say, I keep correcting myself on overthinking, because I believe that if you don’t think you’re dead, you have to think. So for me, overthinking is a poor term because you want people to think instinctively. And part of that then as you develop in is, as a batter, is learning to think instinctively. But to learn to think instinctively, you have to think. So I’m really cautious of using the word overthinking. But anyway, overheating, desperation to be better, as opposed to relaxing and trusting what you do. You see a bit of that. Sometimes you might see the opposite. I’m all right, I’m all okay, it’s fine, I’ll be fine. But you know the signs are going the other way and that things are trending that way. And then I think often with any of those things, my view is you’re trying to break the cycle. So there’s a cycle of behavior, whether it be I’m all right, I’ll be fine, I’ll come out of it, or I’m hitting balls, I’m hitting balls, I’m hitting balls. And for me as a coach, you’re trying to spot that and change the cycle. So, right, today we’re going to do something completely different. You’re going to do sweeps. Let’s do something different. Let’s hit some range hitting. Let’s…

Thank you.

just let’s not train, let’s go to some fielding. Or the opposite would be, why don’t we just hit a few balls and I’ve got something for you, I might want you to, I want you to try something, see if you can encourage them to do the track, to come and do something that you feel. Or you’ve to provide the evidence then also. So I’m a big believer in, with players, that if you want them to do something, often you need to provide the evidence. So whether that be there’s a technical flaw or something, but you have to provide them with the evidence to get them to buy into it.

You mentioned that for the women and girls, little informal research that you did showed that they rely on the coach as more of a source of confidence. How do you manage that, maybe sometimes, seeking reassurance and getting new confidence from you with also equipping them with the ability to have innate confidence in themselves and trust themselves and back themselves when they’re out there? How do you balance that?

I think that is tricky. ⁓

I think one of the things I’ve and again, I’ve had more success of this and more need for this in women’s cricket than I have in men’s cricket, but that may be a little bit to do with the levels of experience and exposure of the teams I’ve worked with. But certainly in the women’s game, think when players know how they’re going to be judged by you, that allows more freedom and more confidence then.

If you get out caught mid off and mid on trying to hit the ball over the top, you don’t worry. That’s fine. That’s part of that’s the way the game is. And I’m a big general, like I like rules of thumb as a guide. So I’ll say, what’s the wicket doing today? If the wickets not spinning, so therefore the ball’s traveling, going straight on, hit the ball up the ground. If you get out hitting the ball up the ground, that’s absolutely fine. If the ball’s turning square, hitting the ball up the ground is more difficult. So then our square shots sweeps and those things are more in the game.

So as a general rule, if the ball’s not spinning, let’s hit the ball down the ground. If the ball’s spinning, let’s hit the ball square. And therefore, then you’re sort of giving some direction around shot selection, decision making, acceptable failure. Because I do think that, know, lot of, and if you talk to a lot of the men’s batters, top level men’s batters, they’ll often talk about accepting a mode of dismissal as a way of coping that you can’t like…

You can’t have every mode of dismissal. can’t be LBW, bold, caught behind because you’re just going get out. So you’re trying to remove modes of dismissal and that helps from a confidence point of view. And I think that’s for me, rules of thumb, general rules of thumb and some light direction around what acceptable failure is, how you’re going to be judged is a really strong and powerful tool for allowing people then to go out and be free to play and have confidence with some guidance, some direction around that. So that would be sort of my way.

because they…

I guess they then know what to expect when they come off, when they got out and they come off, they know what to expect from you as a coach. Whereas I think something that can loom over people a little bit is this, no, like what’s someone gonna say? What’s someone gonna think? Are they gonna, you know, and so to know that this is kind of acceptable and this maybe isn’t, I can imagine that’s very kind of reassuring for those players.

Yeah, we had bit of one with running between the wickets last year where, like I remember, in the women’s game, running between the wickets is so crucial because of the lack of power is not the right word, but the boundaries are big enough that actually people who can hit the ball overfield is rare. So hitting the ball into the outfield and getting two, so maximising twos is so important. And we talked a lot about it we tried to change and have a philosophy that was built around something I called green light running. And the girls, the really pleasing thing was the girl, like I taught this rubbish and the girls like, have bought into it. It’s like part of their, you know, the things that we like, we want to play the way we want to play. But green light running is instead of traditional cricket is, I believe red light running where it’s not a run unless it’s a run. So, and don’t get run out. Like it’s red light. Oh, is it a run? No, it’s not too late. By that point you’re gone.

Our philosophy is green light running. So every opportunity is a run, whatever it is, unless it’s not a run. And I think that’s a different sort of approach. So we’re trying to say, and I said, look, I don’t mind if you get run out. you get like run, getting run out is like, like getting caught behind. It’s everything in cricket is a risk, everything as a batter. And there’s like acceptable risk and unacceptable risk. And, but there’s still risk attached. And to me taking on a fielder on the boundary for two is an acceptable risk because we need to score runs. So you’re trying to maximize that. So again, that’s my approach to try and to allow people to understand how they’re going to be judged and what failure looks like. So if we get run out and people get run out, we don’t have a problem with that. It’s not a problem because we’re trying to score runs, as I said.

Hmm.

Yeah.

So back in the day, Ali, long time ago, when people used to compare Australian batters with English batters, and you’ll know this analogy, they used to say that English batters, when it used to go out, the first port of call was I’m not going to get out. Then I looked to score one and maybe a two and a three and a four, whereas the Australians, they flipped it. You know, I’m going to look to hit this ball for six. If I can’t hit it for six, I’m going to hit it before.

Is that where you’ve got that green light, red light? Is there parables there? The green light is the Aussie way, the red light is the English way.

Yeah, I think so. think, so, you know, my background, said my first like job in coaching full-time was at Durham. And one of the things, you know, we were coaching kids who would block the ball or then try and slog it off the spinners and get caught. And so we just said, look, what’s acceptable here? Well, that’s not acceptable because we keep, we’re not very good. We need to teach them to play spin better. So if we can teach them footwork to come down the wicket to spin, that’d be good. So we’ve got to accept getting stumped. And if we can teach them to run between the wickets, we’re not going to have to slog it. So if they come down the wicket at a bobbly club ground and hit the ball to mid off and run, the chances of getting run out are so slim, but they won’t take that on. So we’re going to encourage that. So let’s encourage the things we want to see. So it started there really as a, this is just like, yeah. And I’m not, my philosophy, I’m not very, I think I’m a positive coach, which is really weird because I used to bat really defensively, but my approach is quite, is quite positive. So.

I want the positive intent rather than, and you you go back to the looking to hit the ball for four. I believe a lot of the problems that are solved with batting are solved by an intent to score better. So footwork against spin is often slow and sluggish and cautious. And you can coach, you can try and coach the mechanics around it to make it faster or whatever you want. But if you just tell someone that they have to try and hit the ball for four off the back foot.

Their footwork gets faster automatically. the intent actually can coach a lot of the mechanics and the stuff you see. So for me, I was always more successful as a player when I was positive. it didn’t have to mean, the old people coach used to say, doesn’t have to mean slogging, it just means a positive intent. And so that’s why I’m keen to always promote is that positive intent. And as I said, so many times I’ve seen coaches and I’ve been in those coach education sessions and people are talking about footwork and spin and I’ll just say, do think if you asked them to hit the ball for four that you’d get the same reaction? And they say, and you would? Because it has to be faster. If you want to be, if you want to have fast footwork, if you want to be aggressive, you have to get into aggressive positions.

In terms of talent ID, and you mentioned motor awareness earlier, didn’t you? I think you said something like the great players, they all have fantastic motor awareness. terms of talent ID, when you’re identifying or signing new batters what are you looking for beyond, you know, the obvious numbers and the technical ability? I’m guessing motor awareness is one of them. What else?

Batters, I mean, all I could do really is reference the ones that I’ve seen coming through. So I remember seeing Bethell as a sort of 17 year old and I thought at the time he was the best young batter I’d ever seen. And the thing that stood out was just this naturalness, just so natural. It looked, it didn’t look coached, it didn’t look like he’d been taught how to play. It was a naturalness that was there.

Yep.

And that’s generally what I would always look for. I would always guard against players that look like they’ve been put in positions. Because to me, so I always, my philosophy was all again, thinking back to my playing time and again, I was quite analytical of other players. I always thought that batting is meant, especially red ball batting, is mentally tough, right? Really mentally straining. If your method of doing that is really forced because it’s been coached to you, that makes it doubly difficult to do, because you’re working mentally to deal with this, but also mentally to deal with the stuff that’s going on. So for me, players who have a naturalness to the way that they play, that doesn’t look over-taught or over-engineered, I think have a lot going for them generally. And there’s no guarantee because there’ll be people who really naturally haven’t gone on to play, but I think that is something that I’ve seen in a lot of very good players. And then the other things I would say that are interesting, so I’ve been asked about two players that I’ve worked with over the years that have ended up being very good players. I’m not going to name them, by the way.

I think competitiveness is something that stands out with the players that I’ve worked with. More in the men’s game possibly than the women’s game. We can talk about the difference in a minute, but certainly the men’s game, two players that I worked with who were exceptional. Just…

And it’s interesting as they’ve got older, the change, both of them, like form didn’t seem to be a thing because they would just compete. So, you know, form is based on the history, based on what’s happened to you before. And there was never a, it was never about that because it was always a battle. they’re two individuals who I would have said like they’d, have a, they’d be desperate to win a game of Tiddlywinks if it was against, you know, they’re that type of individual. And so.

Mm.

Mm.

what’s gone on before and form and confidence is irrelevant. They’re just going to win this battle with this guide to win the game. And I think that’s important ⁓ as a batter and as a sports person, I think that’s really important. ⁓ I think in women’s game, ⁓ I’d still say naturalness. I’d still say naturalness. In the women’s game, you obviously spend a lot of time.

The diet in women’s cricket is much more, I believe, coming through the age groups. Men’s cricket, play a lot of games. Kids play a lot of games and then they get decent amount of coaching. Women’s cricket, it’s a little bit the other way. So much probably heavier coaching to play in. So the danger is you produce the forced style. So people who can maintain a naturalness. I generally have always enjoyed a full…

Hmm.

swing of the bat, some flow and some rhythm. again, that’s that image of naturalness to me. That a flow has some naturalness rather than a forced bat swing. And I think in the women’s game, sorry, the last thing I was going to say in the women’s game was I think generally because of that inexperience or lack of exposure to games, the ones that stand out are the ones who are game players, the ones who can

Do you think, do you?

drop and run a single because they’ve identified there’s a gap here. Whereas because ⁓ a lot of the girls have been over-coached or had a bigger diet of coaching, they just play this like internal game rather than the external one. Anyway.

Mm.

And as you say, if

women tend to be more open to the feedback of the coaches, if they have a lot of coaches, that’s a lot of feedback they’re trying to take on and it becomes more of an over coaching thing. from your kind of, if you were advising coaches, then would you encourage a lot of game play, a lot of hitting, actually hitting the ball rather than like lots of drills and technical work?

Absolutely. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And I think you can do that. you know, I’ve generally stuck to as a head coach, especially winter programs, which is the worst. mean, indoor schools are the worst because there’s no context. know, there’s never… don’t… Cricket’s interesting because we don’t train. We’re the only sport I can think of that doesn’t train anywhere near the environment that we actually play in. So, but I do think you can…

Yeah, we’ve talked about this.

If you’ve got a bowler versus a batter in the net situation and you could create an imaginary field, I think you’re halfway there actually. And I think that, you know, a lot of players, I’m interested in a lot of players want like the visual where’s point, where’s cover. And I think a lot of, as a batter, the ability to see that in your mind without looking at the field is actually quite a big skill. So I think that’s a really, visualization and the imaginary field is a really important part of it. So I would do that a lot. ⁓ We would generally work on, and this is something I’ve used.

Okay.

all the places I’ve been a head coach in the winter as a sort of blueprint for a week would be we have a competitive day, so a competitive Monday, where we will come up with scenarios. Sometimes the ones at the minute, they’re all related to our style of play that we want to achieve. So will be, we need to score a five and over. We need to run between the wickets well and get extra points for twos, because that’s something that’s important to me, get extra runs for twos. So rewarding the things you want to see. So we have a competitive day.

Then we have a theme day, which will be a batting theme where that’s our day as coaches, we’ll dictate, ⁓ we’re playing spin, we need to develop this skill. And then we’ll have a IDP day where it’s their day, where they decide whatever they want to do that’s linked to their IDP. And I’ve generally used that quite a bit as like a blueprint of, you know, live scenario, contextual based, and then themed and IDP. But a lot of those, and the IDP sessions I would say also, they’ll still have a lot of live scenario, bat V ball, they’ll still have a lot of, or at least coach throw out the hand. So, you know, a lot of this is about developing batters. know, I’ve said a lot on courses. If I was a young, coaching young players, or I had a club team with a great junior section and I had a team of 15 players, if I had three nets and I had three coaches throwing on their knees at the hand from the full length of the pitch at the stumps, I think we develop batters. And then you add a field in, so giving some context, because you’ve got a throw out the hand gives the cues, relevant cues. You’ve got feed from the relevant height at a relevant distance with a high diet of balls at the stumps, which is what kids don’t get because they get bowlers bowling at them that spray the ball all over. So the batters would have to, the batters challenge would be more.

Hmm.

relevant and realistic to what they get in a game. And I think if you did that over six weeks, you could do spin, you could do seam, could do whatever you wanted to do. I think you’d do all right developing batters. And then, go on.

So in a nutshell, Ali, all you’re saying here is try and make training as close to what they’re to experience in the game at their stage.

Yeah, yeah. yeah, absolutely. And there’s nothing wrong with some other types of training, but I think as I go back, there’s balance and I think you have to have some game element to it because if you don’t, I’m really against coaching batters without context. I think if you coach a batter based on an indoor net on a baller machine, you’ve got no idea how they play. So that’s completely wrong in my view. You have to have context. So at the very least, let’s start off with bowl versus a batter field. Let’s see how they play. So I’m a big believer in the context. then, so a lot of our work will, you know, in the week plan that I gave you will be, they’re doing some IDP work that probably started pre-Christmas. And what we’re doing is we’re trying to get them to apply that in a game. And then we drop back out of that. they, you know, they don’t apply it quite however they want to do it. So they drop back into an IDP session where they’re doing that. And then they drop back into the game so that then it happens. And we’ll often have just again, whether this is interesting to people or not, but we will always have the game going on and then we’ll always have nets on the side with coaches or machines so that they can, if they get out trying to do the thing they want to do, they can then go and try and do it in a closed way, in a controlled way, and then they can apply it again. So that’s the sort of method that I have used for it.

quite a long time really.

I’m conscious of time, Ali, but if you had two players who had a I think you like natural flow of the bat, you mentioned competitiveness and they had similar stats, what else would separate the one who you picked from the one who you didn’t? What are the other characteristics that you like in a batter?

Well, if you’re talking modern game, they’ve got to field. So the best fielder would be one.

The way the game’s gone, I would go down that route as one thing. I think, I mean, it’s difficult because what I said about competitiveness, you’re into then, well, what do they show? What are the traits that they show? Do they have that ability to win games from nowhere? Do they have an ability to be robust? Because batting is a tough key.

So actually to have some resilience and some self, I mean, all, the old self independent thing in cricket is really important. So batters who can look after themselves. And I mean that as in off the pitch, as in stay confident, as in manage themselves from that side of things, but also then to think clearly under pressure and those types of things. I think is a really important part of batting.

Hmm.

So I’d be looking for that really is what are those strategies, what are their strategies like for dealing with the game off the pitch and on the pitch? I’ve seen, think one of the things, I probably didn’t say this earlier, one of the things that I’m a big fan of and would look out for is how quickly people learn. So some of the better players I’ve seen also, they don’t make the same mistake as often as others.

Mm-hmm.

they’ve changed and that goes back to that ability that I said to you that motor awareness they have an ability to change something that’s getting them into bother or and they don’t have a fear of doing that and so I’d be looking at that you know ⁓ how often do they make the same mistake do they learn how quickly do they learn coach abilities is important to me because of that aspect not because I want them to listen to what I say but because the quicker they learn the better they get quicker

Mm.

Hmm.

So that’s what I’m interested in.

Mm.

So you’ll know, you’ll know Dave Levine, won’t you? Who, date for listeners, Dave Levine is a world-class mentor, actually, in my opinion. And he’s a mentored in lots of different sports. And he used to talk about, you get competitors and you get achievers and the competitor, and he put it in a frame that is a swimming competition. So the competitor would be in one lane and he is all about, she’s all about beating that person to the left and the right, that’s all they’re interested in. Whereas the achiever isn’t necessarily about beating the person to the left or right. It’s about actually getting better, you know, and producing the best performance that they can do at the time. And then the result would kind of take care of itself. Do you see that in your players? And do you have a preference in terms of as a professional sports person? Do you think we need a team full of competitors?

Yeah.

Achievers, a blend, know, it’s cricket’s a difficult one, isn’t it? It’s a one-on-one sport in a team environment.

think it’s balance, isn’t it? It’s the key to it all. Balance is the key. You do see it. I mean, you can see it in the players that are playing at the top level now, can’t you? And you go back through the years and there’s always been people, know, there was a great line that Viv Richards, if Viv Richards was bothered about records, he’d have broken them all, but he wasn’t, whereas Brian Lara was. So, you know, that’s a great example of that. My, so, and this is an anecdote, you know, people…

What is up?

Yep. Yep.

People, a few years ago, I was probably on a level four course. I was asked like, who’s the best player in the world? And at the time, my view was that Stokes for about 12 to 18 months was the best player in the world. And the reason he was the best player in the world, because you got Kohli getting millions of runs and you got all these other players doing fantasy. But the reason he was the best player in the world was because in a World Cup final, he got 90 odd to win the game and was there at the end in a 50-yard World Cup final.

And then in a T20 World Cup final, he got 50 odd to get to the game, win the game. And in an Ashes under pressure, he got 140 odd to win. So for me, I prefer and fave, I say prefer is a wrong word, because I love both, because I love batting and I love batters who score runs. But to me, the thing that I value the most is batters that score runs to win games and that make a difference and make match winning contributions. That’s what I value the most.

Do you ever feel that players who are very competitive, they’re not necessarily the best people to have around one, they might have lost or not done as well. Does that ever have an effect on the wider team do you find?

Who aren’t as competitive you mean? Did you say? Who aren’t as competitive? No, the opposite. No, I’d have the opposite. I would have the people who just want to win, the competitors. Often they enjoy other people’s success as well. In my experience, they love the team winning. You’d find the people who are more interested in beating themselves, as I probably was, I think would be more…

No, re- no, those really competitive people who just want to win the battle. Okay.

Okay.

less bothered about the team winning, more bothered about themselves. But that’s a bit unfair, I apologize. I’m generalizing massively. And I’m just talking about what I value. I think the traditional cricket methods of success around batting of stats averages, I think are a bit old fashioned. And I’ve thought that for a long time, but we don’t get away from them. And so, you know, I don’t like that because I think it fuels a very individualist selfish point of view, which is why I love the competitor, because I love, whether it’s 30 to win a game or 65 or whatever it is, I love the contribution that people make to winning. That’s, to me, what matters the most and should be the judge of batting rather than you can have people who score thousands of runs in losing situations. Does that make them good players? To me, that’s not

Hmm.

really the point is to win. So that’s why I would go back for that period. Ben Stokes to me was the best player in the world because under the most pressure on the biggest stages, he put in significant contributions to winning games of cricket for England

So to finish off, Ali, if you could give one piece of advice to a young batter who wants to become a pro ⁓ in a few years time, what would it be?

Big question.

You’ve got 20 seconds.

Thanks mate ⁓

Be open to change and to don’t, if you stick with what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got. So you have to be prepared to think. And it doesn’t mean you go to every, like do everything. It means you think carefully about what the skills are that you see that you might need or that you might be struggling with. Be prepared to adapt and change. And you’re gonna go look at England’s greatest Joe Root, his biggest strength is his adaptability and his constant desire to evolve. And that is the great example for me. So that would be my biggest advice.

And a question from a coach and parent perspective, if you could change one thing about how we coach and develop batters, what would that be?

The bat on the floor.

Go on.

I’d have all players under the age of 12 starting with the toe of the bat on the floor.

I mean I’ve heard you say this but listeners might not understand why, what’s the reason for that?

Because to me, because I’ve always thought that in any striking sport, a backswing is really important. So golf, baseball is interesting, know, slightly different, but I’m a big believer in a backswing and a step and creating a backswing and step and backswing. And that goes back to, you know, what I said at the start about the people I think who are the best young players, that ability to create flow and rhythm and timing and balance. mean, ultimately batting, you’re trying to…

you’re responding to a ball and, ⁓ you know, first of all, a bowl has run up and then a ball come into you. So you’re trying to get in sync with that. And to me, a backswing is a really important part of that. And it also allows your body to sync in lots of other ways and create flow and power and timing. So to me, that’s really important. And the best way to encourage that for me is with young players with the bat down on the floor, like a golfer, and encouraging them to pick the bat up and step and hit the ball. And then…

Obviously they can evolve as they get older into different styles that we see because the game and the environment and constraints change as they get older, but they will then always have a backswing and they will always have developed that. So I would go, yeah, my two kids hate me, but I keep saying to them, I also forgot this could go on for a long time by the way, but it also solves a lot of problems. Everyone’s issues as a coach are with back grips or it’s the wrong grip, et cetera.

Mm.

If you put the bat down, toe down on the floor, the grip’s fine. The grip’s never an issue. The grip only ever becomes an issue when people hold the bat up, because it changes in this position. So to me, it would solve so many problems from an early age.

Mm.

Hmm.

Well, two batters you mentioned earlier, Viv Richards and Brian Lara, you know, they had the toe down and who comes to mind, Mark Waugh beautiful batter, you know, the producer that swing didn’t they? They were able to generate power and they were able to, you know, face the fastest bowlers in the world.

2005 Ashes series when Australia scored at four and over and England did as well. I think all of the top six had the bat down on the floor in Australia. you know, there’s a trend now to pick the bat up and the thing is time, you know, it’s too fast, bowlers are too fast and power. But to me, people were doing that then. look, I’m not precious about it happening at the top end.

I just think if you did it at the bottom end, it would solve a lot of problems later on. People can evolve. You can get your Harry Brooks, all those things later on, but they’ve developed a step and backswing, an ability to generate rhythm and timing with the bowler. And in terms of timing, it’s nothing to do with reaction times because if you start with bat on the floor, you just start picking the bat up slightly earlier before the bowlers actually let the ball go. So you sync your timing with the bowler anyway. So to me, it wouldn’t be a problem.

But I’m not bothered about the older age. I’m saying probably up to 13, I’d get everybody with the bat down on the, toe of the bat on the floor. Because what we used to teach, what we used to teach doesn’t have to be wrong, just because it was done in the past. There was reasons why it was done.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

Yeah. But I mean, I mean, there was a time when everyone used to coach people to about like Graham Gooch because he was the best player at the time and it was battle, wasn’t it? And you had these young kids holding very heavy bats, you know, and it was all through the balance. So a lot of it can be, you know, trending the game who’s doing well, you know, et cetera. But look, I have always respected how clearly you think about batting. And I think today’s conversation has shown that.

to you.

You know, there’s a real clarity in your principles, some good thinking. I will challenge you off there about the overthinking. think thinking is good. think people can overthink, but that’s discussion for another day. But there’s also a flexibility in how you kind of apply those principles. And I think that balance is something that a lot of coaches from grassroots, you know, all the way through to the international game can learn from. So.

Good.

Thank you very much, Ali, for coming on the show. I know you’re a busy man, a very important man these days, but we’ll be trying to spread the word. And I think there’s a lot of great advice that people can take from this conversation. So, you know, thanks for being on the pod.

Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much, Briony and Nathan. Very good.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ali.

So we have had a couple more listener questions come in for us, which we are very grateful. The first one is for you, Nathan, definitely. This one comes from Martin in Birmingham. Do you think it’s possible to actually make it these days without coming from money? My daughter goes to a state school and got into her county squad this year. She’s never had a one-to-one and most of her squad mates have them weekly.

Plus they have all the fancy gear and there’s all these academies cropping up everywhere too at vast expense. She wants to be a pro but I just wonder if it’s realistic. What are your thoughts? Great question from Martin now.

Hmm. Okay.

Martin. Okay. Well, thanks for the question, Martin. ⁓ well, firstly, congratulations to your daughter, you know, for getting into the countryside. I do hope that she feels proud of herself for this, but in answer to your question, the unfortunate truth is that money can help because it gives players access to more coaching and some more opportunities, but

That doesn’t guarantee success. What really separates the best players in the long term is how well they learn, how well they adapt, how well they respond to setbacks. And we talked about in the first episode how much desire they have to keep putting the work in. And over a long period of time, I have seen a lot of players with every advantage kind of fall away.

Whilst I’ve seen others with very little resources who’ve kind of gone all the way to the top because they’re resilient and hungry to improve. is it harder without money? Probably. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. ⁓ Great question.

I think like we talked about last week, you can be over trained in the nets and one to ones can contribute to that. Whereas if your daughter’s able to get out there and play kind of for different age groups in club, play more match play, maybe get involved with some of the MCC foundation stuff, which I know is for state schools only, then she can get more matches under her belt. Because it’s not necessarily all about that kind of technical drilling in those one to ones.

Yep, absolutely. Right, great question, Martin. I hope it goes well with your daughter. Did we get her daughter’s name? Don’t think we did, did we? Okay. Right, and I’ve got a question for you. We’ve got two questions this week. So the second and final one is, well, this is from Max on Instagram. And I’m going to ask you this, Briony So when you see someone like Steve Smith do all these little behaviors before batting,

None.

Mm.

Is that actually part of his pre-ball routine? I always thought it was just nervous habits, but now I’m learning more. I wonder if it’s deliberate and helps him to stay focused. What do think?

a great question

and I bet a lot of people have had the same thoughts when watching him play ⁓ but he has actually spoken out quite a lot about this and about how it is a proactive choice that he makes. It has got quite extensive I think there’s 23 components to his kind of ritual now, his routine. It is but he said that

Amazing.

There’s so much going on. There’s so much noise mentally and around him when he’s batting and it just makes him feel more in touch with himself and more in control and he talks about finding his hands as well. So like really kind of tuning into where his hands are amongst all that noise and what’s going on. yeah, for him, it is actually deliberate. I think he’s also talked about some of it is quite automatic and maybe a little bit superstitious at this point, but ultimately it’s his way of focusing when there’s so much noise going on around him. And from the outside it might look a bit funny but it’s obviously pretty effective for him.

Yeah, for me, the key thing is, you know, it’s not about how those kind of routines look and I don’t have to, you know, I don’t know whatever textbook is in that world. They just have to work for that person. Don’t like if it helps them focus and perform, you know, it’s about 23 number or 21 things that he does. It’s doing its job. Okay.

Yeah, his just happens to be very visible. Other people could be having thoughts or saying things to themselves, you just don’t see it, but his is so overt.

Hmm. Yeah. It’s quite entertaining to watch actually. I love it. I don’t know about you, but anyway. Right. I think that brings us to the end of today’s show. So a big thank you to everyone who’s been sending questions in. We genuinely love hearing what you’re thinking about. So, you know, do keep them coming in. And if you’ve been enjoying the podcast so far, we’d very much appreciate if you could just take 30 seconds to

Yeah.

to rate and review the show. kind of helps more players, parents and coaches to find these conversations. So thanks for listening.

Briony, let’s call that stumps.