Practice: How important is it?

In his book ‘Outliers’, published in the year 2008, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the ‘10,000-Hour Rule’ which postulates that for excellence in any field, be it music, sports and/or software programming, repetition of specific tasks for a 10,000 hour period is one of the key requisites.

So, where does that leave us cricketers? Ideally, practice involves some form of the following basic feedback-loop:

1.       Laying down specific goals for acquisition of certain skills;

2.       Repetition of tasks to hone those skills;

3.       Feedback with regard to actual performance of those tasks; and

4.       Adjustments are made in the way the tasks are performed (to get improved results).

All of us know that rarely does a cricket practice session follow the ideal requirements of practice. The demand of catering to all team members in limited time means that the batsmen get fixed timeslots at the crease while bowlers get rotated. Most of us also know that bowlers hate to be cannon fodder even if it is in the nets and will not willingly consent to feeding pitched up deliveries to the batsman so that he can groove his shots. In such an environment, the chances of getting in a large number of repetitions of a given task (while also getting feedback as to the success or otherwise of one’s efforts) can be pretty limited. Forget about hitting the 10,000 hours of practice in the nets alone.

So, from the batman’s perspective, it basically boils down to throw-downs – the average club cricketer in Pakistan would be lucky to even glimpse a bowling machine let alone practice on one. The issue with throw-downs is that they are often hell on the shoulder of the coach or partner feeding the ball. Secondly, there is often the problem of finding a partner who matches your drive and desire to practice.

If that is indeed the case then a ‘no-cost’ and ‘no-partner’ alternative can be found in a variation of Sir Donald Bradman’s childhood game of hitting a golf ball with cricket stump against a wall, repetitively. This is similar to playing tennis against a wall or kicking a football against a wall or like many squash players who practice their game alone while playing the ball on the rebound.

The Don in his book the ‘Art of Cricket’ states that any aspiring cricketer should take the opportunity to play as much as possible with a ball (no matter if it is a baseball, tennis ball, golf ball or a cricket ball) as it develops the brain’s capacity to understand the movement dynamics of the ball.

To try to match Sir Donald’s skill by using golf ball and cricket stump would be overwhelming for most of us (huge understatement here). It would be more appropriate to begin with a small plastic cricket bat (wider surface to control the ball) and tennis ball (slower and bigger target) and try to keep the ball in play on the rebound for as long as possible. As one’s skill level improves one can move to a faster ball and/or a smaller/narrower bat. Initially, it might seem odd and unnatural but if you stick to it you’ll observe a huge change.

As I’ve referred before in my blog, Mr. Anthony Shillinglaw has written a book titled ‘Bradman Revisited: the Legacy of Sir Donald Bradman’. He has suggested the following exercise in his book as a first step to practicing the way the young Don did. The point of this drill, that he calls ‘the Knack’, is to develop a habitual and automatic body response for the purpose of controlling a fast moving ball.

You stand opposite a wall at a distance of about 8 feet in a manner similar to a tennis player or a squash player. For a right handed batsman the bat is held in the left (top) hand and the ball is thrown at the wall with the right. At what height and speed the ball is thrown depends upon the skill of the one practicing. The ball rebounding from the wall should bounce once before reaching you and you should strive to hit it back to the wall to play again and again on the rebound.

The focus of the player should be on the ball which will aid automatic response to the moving ball. The effort should be to strike the ball with the full face of the bat and to try to hit through the ball and allow the bat to continue past the shoulder in a rotary/circular fashion to start back behind the shoulder. Compared to when you move the bat back after striking the ball, to start again at the top of the downswing, this saves precious time especially when the ball is moving fast. It also helps develops a full follow through which once acquired will aid you to hit the ball with more power in an actual cricket match.

As your skill level improves you may feel like moving on to playing with a faster ball and a narrower bat. Repeated practice in this manner will not only aid better middling but develop relaxed focus on the ball.