Nicknames are funny things aren’t they? For me, they encapsulate a given time and a given place as you end up acquiring a number over a playing and coaching career.

Most people know me as “Garas”.

My Hampshire CCC nickname was “Teen-Wolf” in my early years then upgraded to “Wolfie” when I hit my 20’s.

Graeme Smith nicknamed me “Wee-man” at Somerset CCC after the character in TV series and movie, “Jackass”.

Thanks Biff!

In India, I am known as “Gadget Garaway”. A name given to me by my great friend Sachin Bajaj, managing director of Global Cricket School. Sach called me this as I have always got the latest coaching gadget in my kit bag.

My latest gadget is the speed gun. It’s amazing and is already giving us objective data at Millfield.

After writing last week’s article on different lines of movement in the outer field I thought I would get some objective numbers on both our throwing velocity and accuracy using different approach methods.

I also had a go at “implicit numbers coaching” to see if the individual players could come up with their own solutions when given objective data feedback.

It was a brilliant experiment. Here is how it went.

Objective Outer Ring Throwing Practice

We focussed on three different lines of movement to a ball hit into the outer ring with a throw of about 50 metres back into Matt, the other coach working in the session.

We were working with five pupils with differing levels of cricketing experience from a County U17 cricketer to a B team level enthusiast who is giving himself a great chance of becoming an A team player at the school.

Measurements recorded:

• Peak ball velocity from the gun.
• Accuracy rating between 0 (missed the coach completely) to 3 (coach not moving with the ball stump height of below) for each throw.

First Intention to the player: To get to the ball as quickly as possible and return it to the coach as accurately as you can. a.k.a. The tiger line!

This gave each player their first, personal numbers both in velocity and accuracy. There were a number of missed balls as the players misjudged the pick up or approach speed of the ball. These were indicated by “-” on our notations.

Second intention to the player: To start directly behind the line of the incoming ball, move smoothly into pick up quickly and return it to the coach as accurately as you can. a.k.a: Linear Alignment into Pick Up

Naturally, the pick up wasn’t challenged as significantly as the first intention as angle and body speed were far more controlled which led to a reduction in “-” on our monitoring sheet.

The interesting thing for the players was the significant increase in both ball velocity and accuracy. Not a surprise for me but a revelation to them.

The average increase in peak ball velocity were between 15 - 17 mph. Accuracy scores increased on average by 0.7 per person per throw.

I then asked the group to have a chat between themselves for 1 minute to discuss why this had happened: What caused the change in performance?

They returned a minute later and talked about alignment, being able to keep the body on line with the target (Matt, the other coach) and all forces going in the same direction.

Spot on, in layman terms.

Final Intention to the player: To start at the same angle as intention one but get to the ball as effectively as possible in order to optimise your peak throwing velocity and return it to the coach in an accurate fashion. a.k.a J-shape approach

I asked the group to think about the numbers they had produced to date and let those inform their next movement strategy.

Tom went first, moved quickly but moved laterally rather than directly to the ball. He then curved his run once he got closer to the ball, approached it from almost directly behind it and delivered a 3 on Accuracy and a 68 mph peak velocity throw.

A massive smile beamed across the floodlit court.

Jacob copied Tom’s movement to the ball and achieved a three on Accuracy with a 57 mph throw. This was only a two mph reduction on his Linear Alignment pick up throw despite having to travel 15 yards to his left to get the ball.

The session continued in a similar vein. Not all throws were a three but they weren’t far off.

At the end I asked the group to tell me what they knew as a result of the numbers and the session structure. This is what they said:

1. If you align your body to the target then your peak throwing speed and accuracy increases.
2. If this is allied with movement into the pick up in a lined up fashion with the coach then speed increases again.
3. That you can’t always get behind the ball as ball speed, angle, boundary position, running batters intention and match circumstance sometimes dictate a different approach is needed by the fielder.
4. That it’s good to practice all three so you can have options.
5. The challenge now is to get better accuracy and peak ball velocity numbers for all the different approach options through effective practice.
6. We only practiced from one side. We should practice picking the ball up on both sides of our body.
7. Introducing a pair of batters running against the fielder would increase pressure.

Basically, I asked about five questions all session and the technology gave the feedback to the pupils. They were able to work out their own solutions and come up with their own conclusions and ideas for future progressions for the drills.

Can you use gadgets and data like this, or from PitchVision to have a similar effect in your sessions?

I’m sure you can!