This article is an excerpt from the Graham Gooch Runmaker eBook available on PitchVision Academy. For more details, click here.

Anyone can score 30 if they can play a bit, but to make a big score your concentration has to be better and stronger. Whether it's a long match, one day match or even Twenty20, it doesn't matter. If concentration is sharp, alert and in tip top nick, then you make less mistakes.

Mistakes normally come in batting from the batsman. Sometimes you get an unplayable ball, but generally it's batsman error that causes a wicket. Often that is from a lack of concentration; lifting the ball in the air, playing a wide ball, playing outside the plan that you set yourself. So it's a skill, not a by-product. It's something you can work on.

The first thing about training for concentration, is that you've got to institute in your player the same system in practice as is done in the middle. The player has to create a mental system at the crease. I, or any coach, can't give the player a complete system. You can't tell someone what to do between balls because everyone's different. It's like your technical set up. Creating a "concentration system" is also individual.

But one thing is right, it is absolutely certain you have to have a system where you can refocus each ball.

Whatever words you say to yourself, you've got to be able to step back in, clear your mind and deal with that ball. Then you create the same thing for the next ball. So, you can highlight that for the player. You can't give him the exact things that's going to work for him, but you must make him aware that he has to have some system to stop silly mistakes.

Sport is about enjoyment, sport is about fun. If you play well, you have more fun and more enjoyment, and that's the cycle. Generally, if you have a cycle of hard work, it will give you confidence. The harder the work, the more confidence you will have. And the confidence will help you be successful. Not only in your practice and in enjoyment, but also it will cut out lapses of concentration. Understand that it's not a defined art, working on these things.

What are the things you can do to start this cycle of work and concentration?

You can find your mental triggers. You see lots of superstitions in cricket. Some people I've played with will walk around the stumps before they bat. Some people walk off to square leg. Some people adjust their gloves or cap. They do all sorts of things. The common factor is that they get you in the right frame of mind. If you watch golf, you see golfers have the same ritual before they putt the ball, and it's very similar for a cricketer. It's more than superstition when it gets you focused.

Another thing that helps is being fit. If you're fitter and stronger, you're a lot more likely to have more mental stamina. You feel fresh and alert, you feel more alive, and you feel good about yourself. These attributes fit well with concentration because if you're unfit and you're not in shape and you're listless, you're likely to fatigue quicker. And if you fatigue quicker, you're likely to lose your concentration quicker. If you lose your concentration, you make a mistake and as a run maker. it's one of those jobs where one mistake and it's the end of your day.

The way I like to describe batting with confidence and concentration is that you're in your own little world. You need that ability to shut everything out when you're batting. So when you're out there it's you, and the bowler, and the opposition, and that's the contest. Your player must shut out any outside influences off the field, in the dressing room, in the crowd or something that might be going on on the boundary.

It boils down to the ability to focus on the ball, but that takes a lot of work.

This article is an excerpt from the Graham Gooch Runmaker eBook available on PitchVision Academy. For more details, click here.