The Mental And Psychological Side Of Cricket - Batting

Summary: When you watch cricket on television, it can appear to be quite an easy and simple sport, but under the helmet of the batter, there is a whole different game going on inside the batters mind in an attempt to banish any possible distractions, and focus every bit of mental energy on the ball as it is released from the bowlers hand, this is the psychological side to batting. As a batter, your aim is to score runs, stay in and help your team reach a certain particular target. ...

When you watch cricket on television, it can appear to be quite an easy and simple sport, but under the helmet of the batter, there is a whole different game going on inside the batters mind in an attempt to banish any possible distractions, and focus every bit of mental energy on the ball as it is released from the bowlers hand, this is the psychological side to batting. As a batter, your aim is to score runs, stay in and help your team reach a certain particular target. To achieve this, you need to be in the correct mental state. To help reach this state of fierce concentration there are several things that you must do. Firstly, you need to be clear your mind of any possible distractions, distractions can come in many forms; these may be concerns about the pitch, fielder's comments, being scared of the ball, fear of getting out etc. These matters need to be cleared out of the head prior to the start of the bowlers run up to allow for the stages of concentration that will soon follow, this is vital, if there are distractions floating around your mind, you are sure not to be focussing to your optimum level and are more likely to male a mistake. Every ball requires you to concentrate at your highest possible levels, and in so you should have a strategy to help you concentrate. I was taught by a prominent cricketing figure this following method that I find extremely useful in exploiting my maximum concentration levels. Firstly, after clearing all distractions from your mind, as the bowler starts to run up, you should enter a state of fine focus, in this state, your mind should have no negative thoughts and be concentrating on the top half of the bowler, you vision should be like a television, only focussed in on the top half of the bowler as her approaches, in this period you should have constructive positive thoughts, for example I say to myself over and over "Focus, watch the ball, focus, watch the ball" etc