panic running

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notrunout

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panic running

How can I stop panic-running? You feel that you have to score runs fast, the balls only go to fielders, so you take a chance and run. This usually results in a run-out, a result which I am trying to make some kind of plan or resolution about as you can see by my name
 
Re: panic running

If a ball goes directly to a fielder you have to call 'wait' and see what happens. If the fielder is fielding close and picks it up clean then you can't take a run. However if the fielder is in the deep or makes a mess then you can take him on.

When you DO take runs there are some important things to take into account:

1. The other batsman has to buy into it and must know your intentions - he has to backup. He should be down the wicket like lightening once you decide to go for it.

2. The calling must be loud and clear. A lot of run outs occur when batsmen do not speak up and their partner is unsure. As a junior coach, I always tell my batsmen that I want to hear their calling from the boundary. If I dont hear the call, I give them some 'advice'.

3. TRy to run on the balls of your feet - not flatfooted, and stay balanced when running.

4. Hold the bat across in both hands to reduce the wobble and drag.

I could go on but the main thing is COMMONSENSE and UNDERSTANDING between batsmen.
 
Re: panic running

Do look out for the strong and weak fielders and take ur call accordingly.
Also be very carefull abt the close fielders.One wrong call and ur partnership and match situation can turn.
I had a similar kind of exprience where in i was batting very well and had put a partnership of 50+ runs together and looking very strong.
But one wrong call from me and i got run-out and after 2 overs my captain also got out.then later on the lower order somehow managed to score few runs...if i had not commited the mistake we both would had scored big runs for our team...
SO calling is very important and pickign up the weak and strong fielders and watch out for the close fielders.

Virender
 
Re: panic running

Yes. thanks.

this is good advice for the running aspect of my problem, but I think I also have a problem with panic.
I think one of my problems is that I feel that I must get a run somehow.
I therfore will take a fielder on even though there is no run there just to relieve some inner tension within myself: in that moment I think I will get away with it but experience has shown that I never do.

You see professionals taking on a suicidal first run to get off the mark because they panic. What advice have you for dealing with the panic?
 
Re: panic running

It's one of those things you gradually get a sense for: How deep the fielder is standing, which is his strong hand, how far he is from the ball and how hard you have struck it.

I think the main problem is that noone practices running between the wickets. We jsut all turn up to the net, have a hit, have a bowl and go.
 
Re: panic running

I am a generally weaker player, don't bat or bowl much, with relatively little prolonged experience of batting but I am desperately trying to learn.
I just get into a panic in these type of pressure situations
 
Re: panic running

Yes, that's a good idea. But complicated to practise.
However, what about the panic aspect? I think there are two components to this:
1) the panic created by the game situation- how many runs have to be hit each over, and how many off this next ball, etc.
2) The automatic way in which I hit the ball then immediately run, as though it is part of the shot to start running, as though it was a necessary part of the follow-through, as though there is an unwritten law which says: it's a good shot so there's bound to be a run. Then I might work out later where the ball has gone and whether it actually is a run , but being so blind and anxious I would continue with my first instinct: to run first and call later.
I think that this lattter component is a big part of the problem. How do I stop myself doing this? I am afraid that if I take too long to assess the field (as correctly advised by Akkkers' posting above) I will have missed the chance of a run.
Help!
 
Re: panic running

At the risk of repeating myself: Practice running.

Sorry if I'm sounding a bit like a broken record but the only way to get better at something is to do it until you are better at it. The human brain is incredible at solving problems but you need to give it chance to work.

If you wanted to be a better road runner would you sit on a running forum eating sweets asking for tips or would you get up early every morning and run on the road until you worked out how to do it?

No-one on this forum can help you solve your problem, even though we love to help, because no amount of tips are going to make the blindest bit of difference compared to actually doing it.

So: Practice, then practice and when you have finished practice some more. Get you mates to help, get your sister to practicing calling with you in the back garden, pay a coach to show you, go to nets early, play low quality evening games for any team you can find, go to the park when the sun is out and ask the kids playing with the plastic set for a knockabout. practice! It's the only way.
 
Re: panic running

That is true, I agree that practice is the way to proceed, but we must first know what to practice. Wasn't it MIchael Vaughan or Nasser Hussain who said that five minutes good practice was better than an hour's bad?

I think that I need to look at why I panic and precipitate run-outs in the first place, and that might be due to not having any escape shots to keep me relaxed and the scoring rate reasonable.
 
Re: panic running

looks as if you are having physcological issues. these can be fixed by both practice, as has been said here, and by many mental things, which just happens to be the one thing in coaching i am certain on and have learnt a lot on.

many people underestimate and shrug off the mental side of sport. it has long not been regarded as an essential part of sport and not been called upon for coaching situations. this is where many people go wrong, and as such make the same mistakes again and again despite hours and hours of physical practice.

now i could go on about how to do this for 1000s of words, but i will try to sum it up.

every skill that is involved in cricket has an associated level of acquisition to go with it. there is debate as to what they are, but the ones that i use are the cognitive, associative and autonomous levels. at the cognitive stage you are just beginning to use the different sub routines required to successfully complete the skill and you are not completely sure of what to do to get there. this is purely for beginners and is a small step in the process of perfection. once you stop making as large an errors as you were previously you can then move into the associative level, where you know what to do, how to do it but are still making some mistakes and are not completely consistent and cannot branch that skill into more skills in order to further improve your overall ability. you can be in this level for many years, and is normally the highest skill level required if you were to play cricket at club level. the autonomous level is one that is rarely reached, but when you are there you can perform skills without thinking about it and you know exactly how to do it as well as know exactly what happened if something went wrong. such as a fast bowler being able to bowl a full pitched ball outside off stump, but they dont have to think about doing that it just 'happens' and instead they can set their mind to thinking about how much to swing or cut the ball instead. this level is reached regularly in domestic situations such as learning how to walk. once you are at the age of about 10 you normally would be at the autonomous stage for walking, you can do it without thinking whatsoever and if you trip you know exactly how it happened, for example your back foot collided with your front foot and you went tumbling. having said that though, once the autonomous stage is reached very few errors are made. out of the hundreds of steps you take each day how many errors do you make? not that many i am presuming. you are at the autonomous stage of walking. now just to reach the autonomous stage of making a run in cricket.
the best way to practice the physical side of things for MOST people, not all, is when practicing, for example batting in a net session for half and hour, spend the first 20 minutes facing multiple bowlers in random order and really really concentrating. concentrate where you put your feet, whether to play forward or back, try to read the ball, spend all of your time picking apart the game and really concentrating on every single aspect of the game. force knowledge into your brain and make it feel as if its about to explode. then take a two minute break and for the last ten minutes play as if you were to do so in the middle. just forget everything and let your body play itself. the only thing you would do is watch the ball out of the bowlers hand and onto the bat. obviously you may want to extend your practice session, but then just change the times to suit. this way you are getting your body set for the autonomous stage, you are helping development through to that stage. it also helps your confidence a little, the greatest factor in performing well, because for that first 20 minutes you are trying your hardest and will quite often make mistakes because you are trying to perfect every little part of the skill. this will force things into your memory (another huge topic altogether that im happy to share if you want) and as such will make things clearer for your body to react to when the situation arises. but you wouldnt play that way in a game so it is pointless in a way to be practicing something you wouldnt do. that last ten minutes is letting your body using your short term memory to play itself. clear your mind and think of one thing and one thing only. it is a hard thing, and i will tell you techniques later, but it helps so so much. your body will begin to make itself think that you can do this without thinking, that you are progressing, and you will most likely find yourself playing better for those ten minutes. but because that information is only in your short term memory you will most likely lose SOME of it by next time round, so you have to start again and slowly build up more and more.
when you are out in the middle try to think very little. clear your mind and visualise. when you see international players playing shadow shots in the air after they mistake a shot they arent just swinging the bat as youngsters do. in their mind they have blocked out every single thing from outside sources and then pretending and imagining themselves playing that ball again. they very avidly then re-enact that shot by playing an air shot. this forces the muscle groups to correct themselves and you are adding things to your memory that you havent even done. the night before your game sit on your bedroom floor cross legged with a bat in your hand. make sure there is absolutely no distractions and everything is quiet. close your eyes and visualise yourself, even fantacise about your performance the next day. visualise yourself playing a shot then making the run, then turning and making another quick, safe and perfectly judged run to win the game. think of the praise you will get. think about this everywhere you go, believe that you yourself are a great runner, and, although this can be a little dangerous, tell people that dont know you that you are a great runner, that you can judge it to perfection, even though you cant. then play air shots and make your take off while visualising. do this before and throughout the game. make sure in these situations you are slightly exaggerating to yourself, that you are completely calm under these situations. make yourself believe that people have always called you a good runner. play fun social games with friends often if possible and as it is a relaxed atmosphere you feel calmer anyway. work out in the nets with your normal batting whether you respond better to positive or negative reinforcement. if you mess up a shot tell yourself that you screwed it up and you did that horribly and that you have to start again and do it properly, actually get angry at yourself. if you find that works then use that in all situations if it improves your game. otherwise calm down and give yourself positive pep talks. tell yourself that a small part of that was right and that you are almost there to making yourself the best player you can be. batting is the easiest way to determine this as it is very error based, one error and you are out. then apply this to running, in a relaxed atmosphere if you misjudge a run or make it half way then send your partner scrambling back, or even if you run your partner or yourself out give yourself one of these 'talks'. reinforce your performance with a correction.
some cricketers are referred to as busy cricketers and others as relaxed cricketers. that is because their mental style of thinking allows them to perform at their greatest when they think in that style. i myself am a busy cricketer and i constantly think about things when doing everything and really rattle my brain for every inch of brainpower i have. when i make a run i assess everything i possibly can, but this is not necessarily the way to go. a busy cricketer is almost constantly panicking, wanting to make sure that everything is alright. this is a rare thing to be able to do, but, including myself, often it drags people down. a lot of people behave that way when they shouldnt and its doing them no good at all. they are playing outside their comfort zone and that is a bad thing to do. you sound like you are playing like a busy cricketer. you are very worried since you have just started that you have to perform to make sure you fit in with established players, which you do. the thing though, is that you sound like a relaxed player. a relaxed player gives themselves time to think without wasting actual time on the field. they take periods of time between balls to get settled, and they settle themselves well. a busy cricketer will look at the run rate and say that it needs to be lifted and to do that we need exactly this many runs an over, and they will play for that. a relaxed cricketer will simply lift their own run rate, but not by looking at stats. they will play their own game and lift the run rate as it suits themselves. a busy cricketer is needed in every team, but it is often better to be relaxed. pick a style that you are going to play, not a run rate you have to reach. tell yourself that you are going to be aggressive or defensive and so on. tell yourself that you will play all balls that land in a certain area and expand that until you are playing the shot YOU want. run when the ball goes to the place YOU want. dont face up to the next delivery until YOU'RE ready. set yourself the task to watch the ball and watch the ball only. then do it, and concentrate on it wholly. make sure that you know the rules of calling inside out, like if you hit it in front of square you have to call, like i said if you know things and they are in your long term memory you dont have to think to do, you just do. if you feel like you have to run on every ball, then think the opposite for an over. make yourself try and stay on strike even if there is a run somewhere. make yourself not want to run. then next over play normally. do this again until your mindset is right. reinforce yourself if you make a mistake and go outside the limits of your goal setting. play your OWN game.
also i noticed you said you are a bit of a nothing player. that is wrong. pick a thing you like doing the most. then do that. if you like batting and bowling evenly pick the one you are best at. get someone else to decide if you have to. even if you change later you need a goal to work towards. set yourself to become a fully established no.5 batsman or whatever. then once you reach that goal make another one, like you want to become first change pace bowler, if you want to be an all rounder.

for some of this you may be thinking that it is all psychological mumbo jumbo and that its all crap, but it really isnt. believe me if you knew what international players do when they are alone you would believe straight away. these are relatively new things in the world of sports, but they are absolutely essential.

feel free to ask about any of this if you dont understand or want more. i could talk all day about it, its one area that i actually specialise in :D
 
Re: panic running

notrunout;357381 said:
That is true, I agree that practice is the way to proceed, but we must first know what to practice. Wasn't it MIchael Vaughan or Nasser Hussain who said that five minutes good practice was better than an hour's bad?

I think that I need to look at why I panic and precipitate run-outs in the first place, and that might be due to not having any escape shots to keep me relaxed and the scoring rate reasonable.
Click to expand...

I sort of agree. The principle is right.

I still maintain an hour of bad practice is better than no practice. You can only work out what's wrong by practising. You will practice wrong a few times but that's Ok because at least you will be working out what NOT to do (which is as valuable as working out what TO do).

PS. nice post Boris.
 
Re: panic running

Thank you all.

Some interesting points here.
1. The importance of self-image: adopting a role as a good runner, and convincing yourself of that and changing my visualisations to incorporate that. I will try that. Thank you.

2. The kin do of reinforcement you give yourself: praise or punishment. It seems that I am a self-punisher who constantly criticise myself and looks for the mistakes all the time. I probably do respond better to praise, but if I praise myself, will I believe it?

3. Practising air shots. This is reconstructing stuff at the autonomous level, but you have to go through the cognitive level again first.

4. Busy versus relaxed. When I first started out I was a busy cricketer. Too busy - in fact I was so busy I was over the top in arousal and could do nothing because of fear of failure. Now I have failed a few times and had the occasional half a success I am a relaxed cricketer who is trying to make myself busy again or who is being made to be busy. It's a bit of a rude awakening.

5. Reversal imaginary: very good idea. I'll try that.

6. Nothing player. That's right I need to set myself some goals.

7. Need to practise. Yes, that's true. I think I know the rules of running, but as was said earlier, I need to practise not running as well. I must learn not to have to go for everything, because runs aren't always there.

Thanks
 
Re: panic running

very good article. i call myself a good runner... but now im not sure with that article. i have some things to work on...
 
Re: panic running

Thanks micoach. Very good article.
1.The business about sliding the bat in under a practice hurdle. Very good aid and similation.
2.Sussing out the fielders: does it really make that much difference if you are a slow runner anyway
3.Both batsmen have to agree to go and be ready to take runs. If there is no common agreement then there will be a run out
4.Judging a run: presumably you don’t run if the fielders have got the ball. What if the ball is 5 yards from a fielder? Or ten yards? Or fifteen? Presumably you are safe if the ball is twenty yards away from him.
 
Re: panic running

notrunout;358090 said:
Thanks micoach. Very good article.
1.The business about sliding the bat in under a practice hurdle. Very good aid and similation.
2.Sussing out the fielders: does it really make that much difference if you are a slow runner anyway
3.Both batsmen have to agree to go and be ready to take runs. If there is no common agreement then there will be a run out
4.Judging a run: presumably you don’t run if the fielders have got the ball. What if the ball is 5 yards from a fielder? Or ten yards? Or fifteen? Presumably you are safe if the ball is twenty yards away from him.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the feedback.

Sussing out fielders does make a difference. For example, a guy not really paying attention is a lot slower than one waking in and fully focused. With experience you get a sense for when a player is 'on his heels' and you can make it easy. You can also sense when someone is not to be messed with.

You do need good, decisive calling to go with that, but the basic rules cover that if you do it properly.
 
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