Wicketkeeping

[Captain Cricket]

But injuries in sport aren't usually self-inflicted. They are almost always accidental.

[Matteh]

Harden up son. Oh wait....he did.

[Engle]

Originally Posted by Captain Cricket

But injuries in sport aren't usually self-inflicted. They are almost always accidental.

I have never injured myself from diving, winded yes, injured no. Trust me. You will not get injured from diving.

The worst injury was when I stood up to a fastie. The batsmen swung on a ball on middle/leg, missed it, and I got hit in the face.

The point of practise is to make it more difficult than the match situation, so that you could handle the match situation easily, i.e. if you have a swimming pool, that's not the place to practise your diving

[Captain Cricket]

Originally Posted by Engle

The worst injury was when I stood up to a fastie. The batsmen swung on a ball on middle/leg, missed it, and I got hit in the face.

Did you learn anything from that?

[Captain Cricket]

Anyway some tips if you want to fail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbHW86REAmM

[vic_orthdox]

The thing about diving on concrete or other hard surfaces is that you learn how to dive and brace yourself, so that you don't land heavily and jar the ball out when you make contact with the ground.

[Engle]

Originally Posted by Captain Cricket

Did you learn anything from that?

Yeah. Stick to typing. But not too fast, might injure the pinkie

[Engle]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

The thing about diving on concrete or other hard surfaces is that you learn how to dive and brace yourself, so that you don't land heavily and jar the ball out when you make contact with the ground.

Heck, if I only told you the circumstances of where we played and close calls, diving is the least of my probs. Well, OK, once while diving for a ball on a road where we played, almost got run over by a horse-cart !

[shortpitched713]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

The thing about diving on concrete or other hard surfaces is that you learn how to dive and brace yourself, so that you don't land heavily and jar the ball out when you make contact with the ground.

You'll be too cautious though in a real match situation if you practiced diving on concrete though, imo. Actually wicket keeping on grass you should be willing to throw yourself at anything remotely close to you, and sometimes at balls screaming close to the ground. You'll be too cautious doing that sort of thing if you learned to dive on concrete.

[Engle]

You have to focus on catching the ball, ignoring everything else. Even pain. This is no diff from a fielder catching a ball at full blast. When the catch is taken, the pain will wane.

[Anna]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it

Had a session with a bowling machine at Edgbaston (before I started work) earlier & it went really well; was even better when Keith Piper came down to give me a few tips!

Originally Posted by Neil Pickup

Personal #1 tip is ensure you don't close your hands too early on catching as that will lead to finger-enders and breakage, which hurts.

Did that 1st ball & now can't feel the end of the 4th finger on my left hand Oh well!

[James90]

I reckon wicketkeeping is about three things:

1. Footwork. Being on the balls of your feet so that you can move quickly and cover a lot of lateral ground. How far you can move will often set you apart from other keepers with similar glovework

2. Body height. As Neil said, stay low for as long as possible. Especially with spinners you need to come up with the ball. In fact when I was keeping I found it easier just to stay low and move your gloves up with the ball without changing body height. So often with inexperienced keepers you see them lift their body height too early and end up with no chance of getting to the ball.

3. Hands. As a wicketkeeper you sole task is to catch the ball. You want to give yourself the best chance of this as well as protecting your hands. For this reason you should get your gloves well in front of your body and look to take the ball on your inside hip so that you have more room to brace the ball. This is where lateral footwork becomes especially important.

[Anna]

Had a 'keeping session with Keith Piper & Richard Johnson (Warwickshire 2nd team 'keeper) on tues Improved a lot within the one session, so things are looking promising! Will hopefully be having another one this week.