Cook’s Successful Recipe
What a difference a day makes!
As Alastair Cook walks through The Hobbs Gates at The Brit Oval this morning, he will have a spring in his step, and a degree self-assurance unimaginable twenty-four hours ago. Confidence in one’s ability can only be maintained over time, when top performance supports the belief.
His fighting century yesterday may not be enough to save England from defeat in the 3rd Test, but his credentials as a Test batsman have been restored. A place on England’s Tour to Australia to retain the Ashes is now a certainty, subject to a clean bill of health on departure date.
Cook’s commitment to a positive mindset rather than being overly concerned with his current form and technical imperfections, highlighted how well the body moves when the brain gives it a clear, simple message.
Our Director of Mentoring Dr Ken Jennings, has consistently outlined to sportspeople that London County has the privilege of mentoring that: ‘‘the mind leads, the body follows’’.
With mental clarity, the body can respond more instinctively, and one’s natural ability can then emerge to produce top performance. The opposite is when a performer’s mind is scrambled with conflicting thoughts which create so much ‘mental traffic’ and ‘noise’. Learning how to quiten the mind is an essential attribute to develop for every top performer in sport, and life.
Ken Jennings introduced me to Tai Chi and Bikram Yoga when we began working together at London County in 2004, as part of the Bespoke Mentoring Programmes we have created for people seeking improved performance and greater balance in their lives. The activity lends itself to developing an inner calm and greater balance physically, mentally and emotionally. Understanding ‘oneness’ and how to integrate mind and body together in action for long periods of time requires one to remain ‘fully’ present throughout. Sportsmen talk about being ‘in the zone’ when they have produced peak performance, and regard it as a rare experience. However, with commitment to engaging in Tai Chi and/or Bikram Yoga, one can learn so much about oneself and develop the ability to deal with distraction by having more of an ‘internal’ focus in action.
Ken Jennings and Nick Compton stretch at Bikram Yoga, Johannesburg
Alastair Cook has experienced a miserable time with the bat recently. The ‘noise’ in his brain must have been deafening the night before his century, with so many factors weighing on his mind.
From a technical perspective, one of my concerns about Cook’s game has always been his tendency to play defensively towards extra cover. As a left-hander, it means that the bat is never travelling into the path of the ball after its release from the bowler’s hand. The angle of the right arm over the wicket bowler to the left-hander, means that the outside half of the batsman’s bat is at risk of being exposed unless the batsman lines himself up in a way that enables the bat to hit the ball back past the point it came from. In the left-hander’s case, this means aiming to beat the stumps at the bowler’s end. When a left-hander does this, it enhances the possibility of the whole of the bat’s width coming into play and increases the possibility of scoring on both sides of the pitch. This will increase the prospect of the opposition Captain needing to split his field more evenly between the offside and the legside, which in turn, opens up more scoring areas.
Many left-handers love playing the extra cover drive and it is one of the most aesthetic sights in Cricket. David Gower was one of the most elegant and successful batsmen England has ever produced. His extra cover, and cover driving, were a joy to behold. However, the downside of being seduced into driving through the cover region is that the outside edge is vulnerable if the head position and body weight doesn’t get ‘fully’ into the ball, thus allowing the ball’s angle to increase the longer it travels in the air. When the body moves more into the bowler’s space, the angle of the ball becomes less.
Understanding angles is essential to being a consistently successful cricketer. Presently, Andrew Strauss is having a difficult time against left arm over the wicket bowlers. I suggest that the difficulty is the different angle presented by the left armers, meaning that Strauss has to re-align himself and be clearer about what balls to play and what balls to leave. If he doesn’t England will struggle in Australia because their opening attack is likely to include two of the same variety in Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson.
Cook has an excellent temperament for batting and for life in general. For one so young (25) he has played a high number of Tests (55), all of them consecutively. His run looks set to continue, and with an introduction to captaincy on England’s Tour to Bangladesh last winter, he appears to be earmarked as Strauss’ eventual successor. It is important that Cook builds on the success he enjoyed yesterday, and benefits from the lessons he has learned during his recent barren period. As a future Captain, I imagine his recent travails will enable him to develop a greaterr empathy for his fellow players in due course. Cook works hard at his game, and knows that he does not possess the most perfect of techniques. However, a strong mind can often overcome an imperfect technique providing the fundamentals of batting remain intact. Having a ‘world-class’ defence is one of the fundamentals for Test Cricket, and Cook has been working harder on his basics with his trusted advisors for some time now, ever since the Australians unpicked his game last summer (2009).
England Batting Coach Graham Gooch, was a devotee of hard work himself as a player. He believed in the old sporting adage that ‘‘the harder I work, the luckier I get’’, (which was originally attributed to golfing great Gary Player) and was particularly good at working even harder at his game when he was in good ‘nick’. Complacency was never a factor in Gooch’s career when he was playing well. He trained and practiced assiduously and was a great example to all who aspired to be the best they could be. The flipside to Graham’s commitment to training and practice was revealed in his leadership when his attitude to others with a different approach to his showed some inflexibility. His dis-regard for a more ‘laissez-fare’ approach, saw the early termination of David Gower’s stellar career, which was very sad for David and the many admirers of his graceful play and delightful demeanour.
I hope Graham can inspire the current England players to find their own way to be successful. There is a danger in the modern ‘professional’ sporting world that individuals can ‘over train’ and become ‘over-coached’ and in the process, lose some of their individuality and creativity. What worked for Graham, didn’t work for David Gower or Ian Botham and certainly wasn’t the approach of a Denis Compton or a Garry Sobers from yesteryear. I trust Graham’s increasing wisdom about coaching, and his vast experience of high performance Cricket, will continue to add value to the next generation of England’s batsmen.
Understanding the uniqueness of every human being is a key aspect of good coaching.
For the individual, understanding oneself, and trusting one’s own intuitive ‘feel’ as well as one’s own ‘way’ of performing is essential to being a consistent achiever in top sport.
Preparation is important, but more important is the need for individuals to understand the best way to prepare to get the best out of themselves.
Alastair Cook will have learnt a great deal about himself over the past twenty-four hours. If he can apply the wisdom he has gained through adversity, and continues to progress as a player, (aswell as becoming increasingly resilient as a character), he can become one of the most prolific run-makers in the history of English Cricket. Cook’s recipe for success will have some new ingredients from now on. He will feel a different player today.
Another low score yesterday, and it could have been a very different story for Cook’ England career. Such are the fine margins in the careers of top sportsmen.
Isn’t it amazing how one performance, one random event, or one piece of information, can seemingly transform an indivdual’s life?
