Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today we're talking about top mistakes, club cricketers repeated this year, different seasons, same old mistakes, mate. Absolutely on so many different levels.
James Breese: Me personally, people I hang out with, club cricketers, the same old conversations. It's what makes cricket great.
Sometimes just talking and hearing the same old things people say is like, yeah, it's brilliant. So, um, but we've made a good little list and few categories, haven't we today? Exactly of the things that we've seen, well, I've seen specifically at uh, not just Cardiff, but all the teams I make, but the things you hear on year on year out.
And moaning, whinging, whining or whatever. Brilliant. So, yeah,
Josh Kennedy: let's, I think it's gonna be quite fun to go through, actually. Indeed. Let's, let's, let's start with the mindset and preparation. What are some of the mistakes that you've come across this year?
James Breese: Yeah. I think the key thing is hearing conversations around the changing room is always comparing yourself to teammates instead of competing with yourself.[00:01:00]
Like they're always focused on, oh, such and such is doing this, such and such is doing that. It's like, hang on a second. You ca you ha you aren't playing at a higher level. You're playing two's cricket instead of one's cricket. Stop focusing what they're doing. Focus about what you are doing. Mm-hmm. So it's sense of maybe jealousy is, is a key thing as opposed to thinking about growth.
So again, always comparing yourself to other players or why is such and such getting a chance. Stats don't lie sometimes and stop focusing on them. Focus on yourself and how what and what you are doing to improve your game. Mm-hmm. Which kind of ties into the idea of like another one where. You let one dismissal or one bad game snowball.
It just builds and builds and builds and builds. Oh, I got out unlucky from A LBW. I was a poor umpiring decision, but it keeps happening. Well, that's not just a technical issue. It becomes a mental block and you're worrying and letting one thing affect it. And again, that ties into [00:02:00] the other thing of mindset and preparation is as no one reflects.
Post match about how their performance is, what the team's performance was. Mm-hmm. So therefore they do make the same mistakes again the following week. So again, mindset and preparation I think is a big thing. The continuing mistakes they make time and time again is 'cause they don't reflect. They let cricket mother cricket effect mentally.
Mm-hmm. Which then carried on into other parts of life. And then they can keep comparing themselves to other teammates or worrying about what other teammates are doing, where you just compete with yourself, focus on yourself, develop your side of things. Yeah, and the results and the. Your impact on games will take care of itself?
I think so. It's a very high level one to think about as opposed to like funny and funny and joke, thought mindset and prep is a big thing here. 'cause it, it's a big part of cricket in how you recover between games and stuff like that. So something to think about. What, yeah. Nice. What about fitness and physical prep?
[00:03:00] Well, this is interesting again. Let's start with a very simple comedy value. Ones where the number of players who I see rock up hung over from a Friday night is huge. Well, is that the best physical prep you're gonna have? You're not gonna stop that. People love it. They wanna have a good time. I get totally get that.
But if you wanna improve and you know, getting back at 5:00 AM to get ready to go at 9:00 AM is maybe not the best prep you can do. So look tongue in cheek. We've all been there. We've all done it. We totally get it. Yeah. But if you turn up physically underprepared, right? Hungover. Well, it's a big part of it, isn't it?
So you can look at it Now, another one I see is from lots of players is zero warmup or warmup routines. Mm-hmm. So how do you expect to start playing at the highest level? If you've done zero warmup or you know how to warm up or what your warmup routine is, you ask a top golfer how many balls are hit in the driving [00:04:00] range.
Before they go and play on the course, they'll tell you an exact number. Yeah, it could be anywhere between 30 to a hundred balls, but they know they're gonna hit, they need to hit that, that number as a minimum. Same as a baseball pitcher, right? How many balls are they gonna throw before they go out and pitch?
So again, a lot of bowlers who start bowling wides in the first over. Yeah. Like I can, I can tell you this now, one of the most frustrating things this year at the start of the season was watching some bowlers bowl and we're already conceding five to 10 runs in an over without the bats on laying a laying bat on ball because they hadn't warmed up properly.
Yeah. You know, so it's, and you need to,
Josh Kennedy: to reduce your injury risk as
James Breese: well. Well, exactly. So again, so many people have ignored and ignored niggles. Yeah, and they've ended up becoming massive issues. So again, it's a common mistake. Oh, I'll play through the pain. Hmm. Is that really a wise thing to do? Right.
So it's a major thing. And the other thing, the big thing I see all the time is hydration and nutrition on match days, where all the time Tesco meal deals are the thing, [00:05:00] that's what everyone loves to do. They get sweets, they get Jaffa cakes, they're eating cr honestly, in like the change, the cricket room, changing room table is full of food.
Like from cakes and sweets and various different things, which is great. It's all part of fun, but my God, you can get fat on that alone. So no wonder you put two kilos on season. Exactly. No, it is seriously straight up. That's despite exactly why I've put on two kilos. And then hydration. Most of 'em don't drink enough water.
They just have a bit of squash in between. No one's thinking about how much stuff here is. So again, it's the same respect, repeat year after year after year, and until it happens to you, you probably aren't aware you're doing it. But again, it's something simple you can do. But yeah, just the same mistakes as repeated.
So there you go.
Josh Kennedy: But at least some of them are, uh, amusing.
James Breese: Yeah. Any har, any Haribo on the tables mate? Loads of Haribo Mushes, all sorts. Um, malam all, all sorts going on the table.
Josh Kennedy: Great. Let's move on
James Breese: to, uh, potential bowling mistakes. Uh, bowling [00:06:00] mistakes. They don't think about the field or it's, it's, you know, again, can't hit a consistent length under the pressure.
You know there it's simple, thi simple things overcomplicating the game. Like now they wanna bowl back of the hand, slower balls, knuckle balls, leg cutters, off cutters, seamers, mixing up too much. We're not playing international cricket. Mm-hmm. We're playing club cricket. Whereas sometimes simplicity wins, keep it simple, stupid.
It's like just
Josh Kennedy: consistent line and length. Right.
James Breese: It is. And that's harder than it sounds like. Yeah, it's easy to say that, but. They're just overcomplicating things. And I've see at times that games lost because people try and do stupid things in the heat of the moment. Uh, too emotional. Yeah. After getting hit is, is a classic example.
They go, oh my God, they or somebody's dropped the catch. Let it go. Just let it go. Uh, and also the same thing is it ties into batting as well a little bit. So ignoring conditions. So if you're constantly bowling [00:07:00] indoors or in club late nets where it's a consistent bounce and pace coming through. They don't realize that pitchers in club cricket particularly differ from place to place.
Mm-hmm. So you've gotta bold different, slightly different lengths in different conditions. You've gotta focus on, you know, lines in certain, certain pitches. Same with batting. Everyone goes out and tries to bat like it's an indoor lane where it's the perfect. Uh, you know, uh, carry, bounce, everything.
Whereas sometimes you gotta put certain shots away. You can't always play a pull shot in South Wales when the ball doesn't get above your ankles, you know, you just can't do it. Put it away. Yeah. So those are, so those are some of the, you know, the bowling mistakes we've seen year and year out. So just keep it simple, stupid, adapt to the conditions and just control your emotions.
But again, that comes into batting control, your emotions. I was gonna say anything else to add to batting mistakes as well? Well, yeah, you've got like poor shot selection early, I think is a, is a classic, you know, if you're trying to play like in an [00:08:00] indoor school as opposed to out outdoors, you know, no plan of what you're trying to do early, early in ings.
Uh, the big thing I see always is no intent running between the wickets. Mm-hmm. That really does my heading really does my heading, particularly if you have somebody who doesn't want to run, 'cause it just causes carnage. So yeah, there's, yeah, there's many things, but again, controlling emotions, shot selection, and adapting to game scenarios.
Those are the main things. And just, just losing the head. Like that sounds losing. Trying to just block bot, block swipe, oh, oh shit, I'm out. You know, that's, you see it time and time again. So it's, again, there's loads of other mistakes people make, but that's on, on the overall side of things. That's what we tend to see.
Yeah. That in bowling. Nice. What about, uh, fielding, obviously, oh, I'm gonna started on this. Not an, not anticipating the ball switching off in the field. Uh, lazy movement. You know, no communication [00:09:00] or practice, I think. Mm-hmm. That's, that's the, that's the, that's the starting thing. You know, everyone focuses on batting ball and they leave the field chance.
Uh, yeah. You could argue poor throwing technique. Well, I can argue that because my shoulders hanging on for dear life. Mm-hmm. Uh, so it's, you know, just practicing certain things of like, just picking up the ball, fielding it, getting your body behind it, attacking it, practicing, picking it up. So it's, there's lots of little things here, but the big thing is lazy movement in the field between overs between balls and no anticipation.
So you're not focusing on the ball, you just switched off. You just like, oh crap, it's come to me. Oh, drop catch. Which could then lead to losing the game, which we saw a few times this year. Where people drop a catch, the guys wanted to score a hundred, we've lost the game. Whereas if we've taken that catch 'cause someone had been concentrating, we've been fine.
So, you know, those, those are the main batting bowling field and mistakes you've seen. And yeah, I'm sure people can drop comments down below what they've seen as well in, in how things, but they're the things that we saw the most. [00:10:00] Uh, what about, uh,
Josh Kennedy: what about training habits? Anything to, uh, any mistakes there?
James Breese: Yeah, there's quite a lot in this. I think this, this is the big thing. Training reduces during the season as the season goes on because they think they're playing enough cricket, whereas in fact, you should be continually practicing the whole way through. So again, you start off with all the intent and purpose in the world, but then either form dips, you know, the enthusiasm, maybe dips a little bit.
So you don't train to the same extent. So the back of the season tends to curtail and tails off for a lot of people. So you know, that's the big thing is your training drops. And also the big thing is no purpose in the nets. I've seen so many people just going in, just whacking the ball. Yeah, it's a bit of fun, but.
Your training dictates how you play and what you score on Saturdays. It's as simple as that. Yeah. If you don't practice properly, [00:11:00] practice the scenario, you're gonna be faced it. It depends whether you're opening a batting or batting at number six and seven. It depends. So if you've got no purpose to your training, which most people don't have, it's just gonna hit some balls and hope for the best, then it's not gonna happen.
And again, again, it's a little, you know, skipping your fitness work, mobility, some strength working between to maintain it, to keep you resilient. And keep you fit, willing to go. But I think the, the big thing now is we've got no excuse now to see how well we're doing. It's like, well, are you tracking practice?
Are you tracking how often you're, you're training? Are you recording your sessions? Sometimes? 'cause again, just getting your phone out and recording yourself can make a huge difference. Yeah. To how you play. 'cause you can spot mistakes straight away. So again, that's, that's some of the things you see all the time.
Training up and then, then you just like. Oh, my bat's not working. I need a new bat. Like I see that time and time again. Your bat's not working. It is. I've seen that this year. Like god knows I've lost count of how many times that's happened this year. Brilliant. [00:12:00] They focus on getting new gear, thinking it's gonna bring in a new bit of luck or something.
So they buy new bat, new, some new blues, new gloves, shoes, whatever you wanna call it. Think it's gonna turn things around when in fact it comes down to training habits. How are you training? It's always called to buy new stash. I'm all for that. Right? Absolutely. Massive cricket badger love getting new stash.
Love it. But it comes back to basic training. Yeah. That's, are you training accordingly, or you just hoping so, yeah. A lot of them rebellions are built on hope mate. Exactly. I know it's Star Wars up behind me here called Look at that. Someone for the, for the guy who commented last week and saying, I'm loving the COP podcast, but I'm loving the fact that you're Star Wars fine.
More let's even, even, uh, absolutely. You know, we're loving it. But look, there's, there's loads of other things, simple things from batting people not watching the ball properly. Uh, I think that's, that sounds ridiculous. Are you actually watching the ball? Yes. Most people aren't. Um, it's, I think the key thing is not taking ownership from results, uh, [00:13:00] again, in team environments and assuming experience.
Equals improvement when experience does help. But improvement comes from trading habits and making changes accordingly to improve game. And then, yes. And do you know what? Sometimes I'm guilty of this as well, playing without enjoyment. Like just have fun. Cricket is meant to be fun. The more fun you have, the more you enjoy the game.
And winning fun as was this list of stuff. This was meant to be fun at all. Exactly. I know. I kept, I kept, kept me super boring. There we go. But look, that's just like a, you know, I'd love to hear what other people foresee. Top mistakes, club, cricketers, repeat year after year, the conversations you hear. But these are just kind of the.
Some of the key things we've, and I've analyzed this year to what may be happening. So, bit of fun. Exactly. Bit of truth in it at the same time. But hopefully you can learn from this and not repeat it next year. Exactly.
Josh Kennedy: Uh, food for thought or Haribo for thought, potentially. Exactly. Uh, that is it for today.
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