Everyone is a bad starter at the crease. Nerves jangle, the feet are not moving as fast as the brain and you are keen to get off the dreaded duck.

But some batsmen are better than others at getting off the mark. Have you ever wondered why players like  Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar and Jonathan Trott look so composed right from the off?

Here are the 3 main reasons, and how you can employ them in your games:

Unflappable Temperament

Players like Sachin seem at home at the crease. Whatever goes on around them makes no difference. They could cream a ball for a boundary or be dropped at slip. It’s all the same to them. They are in the middle doing a job.

In this mindset certain things just stop happening. You don’t rush into shots. You are not desperate score off every ball. You wait for bad balls and put them away ruthlessly. Having a good temperament will keep you from throwing your wicket away and stay at the crease for a very long time.

But you can’t change your personality. Not everyone is built to ruthlessly grind out scores. Some people want to smash their way to victory in a blaze of glory.

Actually, it doesn’t matter which way you are inclined. You can still use simple mental tricks to get into the zone and put distractions out of your mind. That way whether you are a Boycott or a Botham you can get on with playing in your style without distraction.

Start to eliminate distractions today by enrolling on the online coaching course “How to Use Mental Training to Boost Your Game”.

While you are new at the crease, you are rusty. You don’t have the exact idea of how the wicket is playing; therefore many deliveries will surprise you. To counter that you must develop your hand-eye coordination and ability to read both the bowler and pitch.

The better your hand-eye coordination gets the less likely you are to be surprised by odd bounce or turn.  The best way to do this is through hitting a lot of balls in the nets (and in middle practice). You can accelerate it further through highly specific batting drills designed to get you watching the ball closely. You can find these as videos in Gary Palmer’s online coaching courses, specifically this introductory course on playing front foot drives.

Strong Defensive Technique

Even the most extravagant stroke-makers need to block the odd ball if they want to pile up runs. When you are fresh at the crease, you cannot score runs every ball. That will just get you out sooner than later.

Most players assume they have a sound defence but still make basic mistakes like playing at balls that can be left or getting bowled through the gate.

But if you accomplish a solid defensive technique you can bat at any position and win matches for your team in multiple roles.

Good defence is as much a mental approach as a technical one though. You have to be able to make spilt second decisions and that take work and sound technical awareness. However, once you have practiced you defence in pressured environments you will be aable to employ the same skills in the middle.

Then, your average will soar, you will become the rock of every innings (be it as the anchor role, the finisher or the slogger) and you can move on to higher levels and better successes. You can find out the exact practice drills to do this by clicking here and buying Gary Palmer’s online coaching course.

Putting it All Together...

The moment you walk out there to bat, start watching and observing the ball. Even from the non-strikers end. This would help you in picking out movement of the ball and behaviour of the pitch.

Naturally you are far less likely to be dismissed by a loose ball if you watch the ball onto the bat. If you have good defence, you know where your off stump is and you watch the ball you become very hard to be dismissed. And once you are settled in you can start playing your strokes, scoring runs and improving your batting average so you get noticed.

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image credit: gordon.b.anderson