Guy is the second player in the harrowdrive.com case study series.

Guy is club captain of his side in the Derbyshire County Cricket League. He is a middle order batsman (averaging around 21 last year). He has a part time off spin string to his bow taking 2 wickets last season. He is in his mid-twenties.

Guy will only be participating in the mental skills and captaincy part of the trial with the aim of improving his personal performance and helping the team gain promotion.

Mental Skills

Guy seems to have a positive outlook on his cricket, especially when it comes to working as a team. I got the impression from his initial questionnaire that he sets high standards for himself and the side that are not always met. This can frustrate him.

I will confirm this assessment and if it proves to be true I'll work on setting some specific, challenging but achievable goals for the coming season.

To his benefit, Guy has a strong understanding of factors he can control and factors he cannot. This stands him in good stead.

Guy also has a strong team focus. While this is excellent for his role as captain, as an individual player this has the potential to affect his performance with the bat. Together we will establish some basic techniques to allow him to concentrate on his own game as well as the team performance.

Team/Captaincy Skills

Guy has been captain for a while and is planning on improving the way the team work together. I'll show him some simple methods to foster a stronger team spirit. This is always a challenge in any environment but in a recreational sports team it is even harder.

I believe the way around this is through fitting methods around players rather than the other way around. This will minimise resistance to ‘team building' which is traditionally viewed negatively.

Progress

All Guy's individual and team progress will be tracked here. I believe the changes we are going to make will have a positive impact this summer. Stay tuned to find out.