"You Can't Teach Judgment"

[wfdu_ben91]

Stereotypes are so good for some people, clearly.

Reality is many players know perfectly well how to do what they need to do before they even hit their 20s. I know how to bowl and\or bat at international level, and have done for years - I just don't have the ability to do it. And no matter how much I hone whatever ability I have, I won't ever get near international standard. I haven't ever really come close to making the most of what ability I do have either, because I don't practise and analyse myself very much - often at all.

Some players are more talented than others, some are better at honing their skills than others and some enjoy different advantages in skill-honing than others. Consequently, different players develop, and deteriorate, at different rates, at different starting ages and to different extents. There is no real template - but the idea that all or most players in their early to mid 20s need to experience anything to know what they need to do is nonsensical. All you need to do to learn that is to have seen it, whether your name is on a teamsheet or not.

Of course there are going to be exceptions to the rule from time to time. But to say that players haven't honed their skills in their early 20's when they've already made International level cricket is absurd.

Experience and maturity comes with knowing when to pick your spot, when to play particular shots and when to bowl specific delieveries at the most appropriate time. Experience is having dealt with various different situations in the past, which gives players an advantage in the future when they are confronted by a similar situation. Their skills don't get better, because if that were the case then you'd see bowlers being able to bowl 170kph and batsman facing it with ease. The only skills that are honed after the age of 20 is the mental side.

 

[dikinee]

I think a lot has to do with parental encouragement and what kind of coach they have at a junior level. A lot of parents wont let their kids practice obsessively, which is kind of a prerequisite for early success at the higher levels, and a lot of coaches dont have the ability to spot potential and therefore dont do the extra work required with a gifted player.
My opinion for what it`s worth.

 

[Richard]

Of course there are going to be exceptions to the rule from time to time. But to say that players haven't honed their skills in their early 20's when they've already made International level cricket is absurd.

Experience and maturity comes with knowing when to pick your spot, when to play particular shots and when to bowl specific delieveries at the most appropriate time. Experience is having dealt with various different situations in the past, which gives players an advantage in the future when they are confronted by a similar situation. Their skills don't get better, because if that were the case then you'd see bowlers being able to bowl 170kph and batsman facing it with ease. The only skills that are honed after the age of 20 is the mental side.

Not really - there's nothing mental about increasing your ability to bowl the ball at the spot you're aiming at, it's just something that gets better and better the more often you do it. Some skills are those which can generally be honed quite quickly (ie, the ability to maximise the pace you can bowl at), some generally take much longer (ie, accuracy). Equally, being able to pick gaps in the field and play appopropriate shots to appropriate deliveries is not a mental thing but a case of honing your instincts (because when you're facing 70mph+ deliveries you don't have any real time to think and act almost exclusively on instinct), and the only way to get better at doing it is to do it.

Ergo, the more you bat the better at batting you're likely to get, and the more you bowl the better at bowling you're going to get. Not a case of gaining experience but just getting better. If you practice with considerable intensity at a young age you can push your own ceiling at 23; if you're more lazy and practice less you're not going to push it until later, if at all.

As for knowing when to bowl which deliveries, that's just a case of watching the game - you don't need to have played it at all to do that. There is also the small matter of being able to develop the deliveries in question which again will only be achieved by bowling them over and over again until you're proficient at them. And mostly the best place to do that is in the nets when you're not trying to help win a match for your team.

 

[Richard]

I think a lot has to do with parental encouragement and what kind of coach they have at a junior level. A lot of parents wont let their kids practice obsessively, which is kind of a prerequisite for early success at the higher levels, and a lot of coaches dont have the ability to spot potential and therefore dont do the extra work required with a gifted player.
My opinion for what it`s worth.

Certainly there's plenty in that. Many people have said to me that the reason for England's relative paucity of high-class players is principally down to poor coaching standards at lower levels. Participation levels in the UK are, relative to most other cricketing countries, massive, even though cricket is compared to football a tiny minority sport.

High-quality grassroots coaching is so important when it comes to producing players who can have long careers rather than just a few decent years in their late-20s.