In the off-season

Winter training

In general, you should work on the technical aspects of your game during the off-season, and the tactical aspects during the season. Technical is working on such things as how to bowl the ball (your action) and how to play various strokes. Tactical is where to bowl the ball and where to hit the ball.

Be careful, if you are a pace bowler, not to try too hard on hard, unforgiving indoor surfaces. Work on refining your action and developing rhythm rather than emphasising pace and bounce.

In the month before the start of the season, weather permitting, you will be able to practise outdoors, where you can finish off the technical improvements gained during the off-season.

Playing Indoor Cricket

By all means play indoor cricket as:

• it is fun.
• it is fast paced, some calling it the indoor version of twenty20 cricket.
• it is beneficial to your cricket fitness, agility and reflexes.
• it helps improve the speed of your decision-making under pressure.
• all levels can play together and teams can be mixed.
• it will help you transition to the summer game, with skills honed in the indoor version.

Read about the game

There are dozens of coaching books on the market and in your local library. Take some time in the off-season to read one or two of these. You will learn a lot of tips and advice to help you become a better cricketer.

View coaching videos

Many excellent cricket skills DVDs are on the market and viewing them is an excellent way to improve your technique as you watch international players demonstrate particular skills.

Get a junior umpire’s qualification

As you get to the later teenage years you will need to start umpiring your own games. In many competitions it is a requirement that you have a player umpire qualification. Players as young as 12 years of age can gain these badges through attending a series of lectures and passing a straight-forward written exam. Your coach will advise you when these courses are available.

Apart from being a qualified player umpire, you will learn much about the laws of the game that will help to make you a better performer on the playing field.

Set goals for the coming season

Achievement goals provide motivation and can be long term, such as to win the competition or be selected for a rep team, or short term such as winning the next game. These goals need to be realistic and attainable. If you set them too high and do not achieve them, you may lose motivation. Discuss your goals with your coach.

Performance goals are more under your control. An example of this will be to learn to bowl a leg spinner. A performance goal describes the process or actions that lead to achievement goals. Again, discuss these with your coach.

Your goals:

• should be clear and should be written down.
• should be measurable. For example, bowling no more than one ball per over down the leg side.
• should be challenging but achievable.
• should be flexible. You may become more skilled at not bowling balls down the leg side and may want to re-set your goal to just one leg side delivery every three overs.

Develop your own personal improvement plan based on areas you believe need attention. Again, seek advice from your coach on what areas of your game should be in your personal plan.