Jonny Wilkinson's kicking coach, Dave Alred talked to me recently about the experience that has shifted the way that he goes about his coaching.

Dave had the opportunity to coach the dolphins in Miami. He learnt that the way you teach a dolphin is to reward it with a fish when it does the behaviour or action that it is being asked to perform and withhold that fish if the behaviour is not completed effectively.

The development in that highly intelligent and powerful mammal was incredible and over the course of a few days, the dolphin was spinning, diving, bowing and swimming on its back to order.

I watched and listened to this story and through how can this impact upon my practices?

I came up with the Consequence Session Approach.

For example, yesterday I had a pair of batters working on the spin bowling machine (you can do it with bowlers competing against the batters too).

The rules were:

• Play each ball on its merits, yet the intention is to score frequently and to send positive messages back to the bowler in order to pressurise him/her.
• The ball has to bounce before it hits the side netting on all front foot shots.
• The Ball has to be heading in a downward direction as it hits the net on back foot shots.
• When hitting over the top of the bowlers head then the ball must be launched into the final 5 roof netting squares. If it hits Netting Square 1,2, or 3 then there is a consequence.

• If you are hitting over straight mid wicket or extra cover then the ball must be launched into the gap between the Net Pole in the frame and the line of netting that hangs down. If the ball misses this launch gap then there is a consequence.

• When the batter hits a well executed shot with power and control into the "Good Areas" he can raise his hand and claim a reverse consequence and the bowler - or in yesterday's session the coach - performs a consequence.

The consequences that we use are found within our prehab programme.

1. 4 x 15 Second Press Up into Side Plank
2. 12 Alternate Anterior Lunge with a Tilt
3. 12 Deep Squats with Arms Raised (using bat or broomstick)
4. Sprint a 3 - Jog 4th to face next ball
5. 12 Table Tops - Alternate Leg Drops
6. Plank with 3 point contact - 15 second on each missing point

What we have found over the last few weeks is that the precision of practice has increased hugely, decision making is more effective and that the number of consequences for the batters has dropped per session.

Also, the consequence challenge is now perceived as fun that the players are getting stronger, quickly!

Can you adopt this approach in your coaching sessions to get the same results?