Here are 2 more participants in the Case Study series this year.

James

James is another unique member of the trial. He calls himself a 'specialist fielder' although he does bat and bowl at 3rd XI level in the West Sussex Cricket League Division 4. He has little experience in the game having taken it up for social reasons last year. He has no ambitions to play at a higher level, just to have more success at his current standard.

Mental Skills

James is an enthusiastic character who has low confidence in his own ability. This is probably due to his lack of experience in the game. He has set himself a goal for the season and I will help him break this down further to make a series of steps towards this. I will also show him how to draw on his previous successes to give him confidence and what to do if he starts to panic about failing or losing.

Fitness

James goes to the gym regularly and stays active on other days. His main focus is cardio work with 1 weight session a week. I would like him to focus more on cricket specific training, cutting back on the slow cardio work and doing more interval training and weights. This will give him more speed, power, concentration, recovery and reactions on the pitch.

Nutrition

James eats a fairly standard diet for a club cricketer. Like most players he could do with getting up to 5 portions of fruit and veg from his current 2-3. He also has a lot of his diet from processed carbohydrates like packaged cereals, bread and biscuits. I will help him balance this better giving him eating options for unprocessed carbohydrates, healthy fats and lean protein.

Simon

Simon is a 20 year old 2nd XI bowler playing UK Premier League cricket. He balances cricket training with running. In his 12 games last year he took 16 wickets at a healthy 14.06. His aim is to break into the 1st XI.

Mental Skills

Simon has a good commitment to improve and trusts himself to perform. He naturally uses some very effective mental tricks to allow him to perform well. He sets high standards for himself and can be over critical if things go wrong. I will try and show Simon how he can deal with this to stop it affecting his performance. Goal setting is a big part of this, especially around the key issue of his bowling action.

Fitness

As a runner Simon has to decide what type of training is more important – cricket or running. At the moment he runs a great deal with only 1 weight session a week. This is not good for his cricket so we need to find a balance. I would like at least 2 full body resistance workouts and some sprint training to replace some running if possible as this will help his cricket.

Nutrition

Simon probably has the best diet of anyone in the trial. He gets regular fruit and vegetables (about 4 portions a day), healthy fats from nuts and lean protein. I would like to see a couple of changes with him: more omega 3 fats, a little more lean protein, get the fruit and veg up to at least 5 a day and a little bit less junk food. This will boost his body and give him more energy for cricket and running.