CRICKETER | The 1% that robs you from being your best.

During a recent coaching session I had an interesting conversation with a 10 year old cricketer.

As I do with any one on one coaching session… I asked this young cricketer what he wanted to focus on in the session. For the past few weeks we have been working on batting against spin. Up until this time we have covered advancing down the wicket hitting long off and long on, quicker feet when picking the short ball to set up the pull, making room to back foot punch and cut and getting back across the stumps to work the ball to square leg for one.

In this session the cricketer wanted to focus on working the ball on the front foot into the gap between mid wicket and square leg.

During the first few throw downs I observed that he attempted to work the ball into square leg by getting his front pad across the stumps to the off side. With his front foot in this position he then had to play around his front pad causing him to miss the ball regularly and making him an LBW candidate. We started working on getting his movement more towards mid on, allowing him to meet the ball inside the pad and out in front of his body…

This worked well as he could start choosing between hitting to long on, mid wicket and square leg based on the line of the ball, it got his pad out the way and therefor reduced the chances of getting out.

Every now and then though, he would move into the new position and just as the ball lands he would either move sharply (jumpy) towards the off side with both feet to let the ball pass behind his legs or he would remain in the new position but then be jerky (pushy) in his swing resulting in no control over the ball, sometimes his hands would dab defensively at the ball with no control.

I was curious to know what was happening for him… here is the conversation…

‘Hey, what’s happening when you move like that?’

‘I am afraid of being hit.’

‘Ok… and what exactly are you afraid of?

‘Uhmm… the pain of being hit.’

‘Ok, I understand that you can be fearful of being hit and that the feeling of pain is not necessarily enjoyable… I get that your mind will want to keep you away from the pain and it then results in this movement.’

I was then curious to know how often this happens… so I asked.

‘How many balls have you hit in the past year?’

We did some rudimentary math and estimated that he hit between 6500-7000 balls in the year.

‘How many times have you been hit this year by the ball?’

‘Uhmm… about 15-20 times.’

‘Ok how many of those 15-20 times you were hit in the past year have been really painful?’

‘Uhmm… about 7’

‘That’s 1%.’ I said…

In the back of my mind I am thinking wow only 1% of the balls he faced is so powerful that they dictate the rest of his game at times.

‘So if you think of these 7 times where it really hurt… what is the result of that now? At this point in time, right now do they still hurt?’

‘Uhmm… Nothing really at all. The pain actually went away quickly.’

‘What are you aware of now that you didn’t think about before?’

‘Uhmm… instead of thinking about being hit I can focus more on overcoming the challenge that the bowler is giving me.’

During and after this conversation I keep thinking about how small inconsequential things can at times grow into something big inside our minds to the point that it derails our ability to practice, prepare and perform to the best of our ability.

This boy let the ‘fear of the pain’ completely influence his ability to execute his skills in the moment, yet the pain itself is actually not that bad. No one wants to be hit. Being hit though is not as bad as we make it.

We also emphasized that the better his skills becomes by doing the skills in such a way that makes him more effective, there will be even less chance of him being hit in the future.

And so I leave you with these two questions…

1. How often do you let a 1%-er affect your ability to be at your best.

2. How can you reframe (think differently) about that 1%-er so that it has less of a hold on you?

Have a great day!