Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
Interesting one here (well, I think it is, anyway).
We've got an under 12 all-rounder, good player, but could be so much better if he wasn't so easily influenced/distracted by other goings-on around him. Yesterday we were 109-3 needing 110 to win with 2 overs to go. Easy... just put the ball in the gap and let's go home, you'd think. But no.
The bowler bowled a fairly appalling delivery (short, slow, bounced twice), and he just hit it straight back up in the air to the bowler. Okay, one aberration we can let go. Next ball, same delivery, same shot, same outcome.
By now, the other boys on the boundary were shouting, "come on, hit a six", and that wasn't helping either. I told the non-striker to go and have a word and calm him down... third ball, same ball, same shot, and caught this time.
The whole mental side of the game is usually something I have a reasonable degree of success in working on with kids, but I'm struggling here to try to get onto his wavelength and take some steps to combat the fact that he's his own worst enemy a lot of the time.
Latest thing I've thought up is trying a bit of a comparison between him and Andy Flintoff in terms of injudicious shot selection (viz trying to hit Ramnaresh Sarwan into the Atlantic) as a bit of a permanent boost to fragile confidence.
Any ideas?
We've got an under 12 all-rounder, good player, but could be so much better if he wasn't so easily influenced/distracted by other goings-on around him. Yesterday we were 109-3 needing 110 to win with 2 overs to go. Easy... just put the ball in the gap and let's go home, you'd think. But no.
The bowler bowled a fairly appalling delivery (short, slow, bounced twice), and he just hit it straight back up in the air to the bowler. Okay, one aberration we can let go. Next ball, same delivery, same shot, same outcome.
By now, the other boys on the boundary were shouting, "come on, hit a six", and that wasn't helping either. I told the non-striker to go and have a word and calm him down... third ball, same ball, same shot, and caught this time.
The whole mental side of the game is usually something I have a reasonable degree of success in working on with kids, but I'm struggling here to try to get onto his wavelength and take some steps to combat the fact that he's his own worst enemy a lot of the time.
Latest thing I've thought up is trying a bit of a comparison between him and Andy Flintoff in terms of injudicious shot selection (viz trying to hit Ramnaresh Sarwan into the Atlantic) as a bit of a permanent boost to fragile confidence.
Any ideas?
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