Method 2: Better learning leads to a better technical method

Developing fluent and powerful batting performance is a long-term process of playing, learning and practising. So says Bill Moore, a maths teacher and coach, in his new manual, a piece of work that has been 20 years in the making

In Method 2, there are more realistic principles applied from the beginning for teaching players to bat, whether they are just starting or already at a high level. Moore is confident that the end result is a technically outstanding batsman, and, crucially, one who understands their game.

He says that current coaching rules are limiting to players. Other options that were used by the great players should be sought. Present day players, without necessarily being taught physical detail, can show really good movements but often intermittently.

LEARNING

According to Moore, juniors should begin through informal ways, and not be instructed in procedures. They can pick up and hold the bat and get started on learning by an enjoyable “swing and hit” approach. The child begins to have a good feel of body, bat and ball.

When formality comes in, a young batsman adds a particular task to the way in which they presently swing. They learn the “plain swing” first then begin to absorb technical points.

An already competent player will start the same way but will be quicker in running through the early practices tasks.

PRACTISING

A child will make it clear when they are ready for structured practice. They could do it themselves by hitting a tennis ball, or have deliveries presented to them.

The player must be allowed to practise. Instructions should be few and to the point, so that a movement or position is identified, isolated, repeated and incorporated into the method of the player.

For older players, practice sessions require repeated hitting in the same way: they should not practice “shots” which are graded on a final outcome, but go through particular tasks that add technical abilities into the player’s existing method. At certain developmental points, whole shots are practiced.

^{Initially, children should be allowed to grip and hit the ball however they feel comfortable}

UNDERSTANDING

Method 2 is appropriate in every respect for either children or professional players. It develops understanding of batting technique by using its own terminology, a number of models, and identification of numerous parameters – these are constants that adopt one of a few possibilities during the hitting process.

The entire method is built in a sequence. A player can drop back one or two steps in the sequence whenever needed. Understanding requires items to be present that can be related to each other. Such items are identified through breakdown and reconstruction of the process and labelled for memory purposes.

Understanding grows from a beginning, when relations between person, bat and ball are made by working in three dimensions rather than two.

Current coaching rules are limiting for players. Proper large-scale understanding requires knowledge of how the body works to achieve relevant performance standards. The dominant and non-dominant sides of the body must add their required contributions to a shot.

Method 2 really looks good, in use, to an observer. It feels good to the player carrying it out. It was used, but not under this name, by some of the leading stars back through the history of cricket. By replicating M2 learning and practice, the performance
style of the masters is also replicated.

Almost everything in Method 2 is the opposite of what comes from having the bat face always held flat on the line of the ball.  Recent amendments to standard technical guidance do not deliver what’s wanted.
 
COACHING

M2 formalises alternative rules. It sets out to guide players to isolate particular points, positions and movements, and repeat actions of a straight lofted hit as a first way of fixing relevant ideas into memory, one at a time. Accumulated capability can then be applied in other kinds of hitting and shots, where variables can be amended for other trajectories that are delivered.

Coaching has to allow for everything that’s said to the player being part of his mental and physical structures for batting, and not delivered in isolation. This demand requires the coach to understand the method himself as far ahead as is needed, and to limit remarks and requirements to those that build the technical structure.
 
PERFORMING

By working through Method 2, Moore believes that players will acquire batting skills and technique from the correct fundamentals upwards. However performance has to happen from the “top” as is understood by the player at any point in time.

M2 adds technique to whole batting action. Performance happens under technical guidelines by acting to the ball’s movements and adjusting the player’s movements along the way that fit these and fit in with where the ball will go to. Selection is that of individual movements or components in general, some always present in any shot and some for the particular case.

To find out more about how your game could be improved through M2 and to obtain a quote for coaching, visit www.batsman.net