Mastering Cricket Mental Training is dependent upon your ability to understand your brain and learn how to master your mind to perform optimally.
As a brief introduction to your brain, lets take a look to get a basic understanding of what is running your life, your body and your cricket game.
The brain weighs 3lbs, it is divided into two halfs, two hemishperes, a right and a left, each half of the brain has different functions.
The mind reflects the physical brain and operates out of these two hemispheres.
The brain has four brain waves, Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta. Everything we do falls into one of these four categories.
We shift from one to the other continuously during a day depending on the task at hand. If we are at ease, the brain is probably somewhere in the Alpha range.
If anxiety is present the brain shifts to higher Beta and it becomes necessary to find a way to guide it toward calmness and focus.
Focus Synchrony and a Relaxation Response are the ingredients to a winning performance in the “Zone”.
Synchrony means balance and is a mental state where both sides of the brain hemispheres are equal. In this state there is no distraction, no analyzing, no anxiety.
The brain is focused and intent.
Relaxation is a useful state to all. Freedom from stress, fear or worry is a coveted mental state.
Using the Relaxation Exercises for at least 30 minutes daily will remove stress and improve mental and physical outlook.
Fear of failure, performance anxiety and panic are all due to the inability to relax and logically view the situation.
Cricketers in all disciplines will benefit from the improved Focus, it is the integral ingredient for success in all areas of endeavor.
Learning to grow a better game plan and skill execution requires mental focus and storage of information.
Only a calm, peaceful mental state will produce a learning atmosphere for performance learning.
This lovely diagram explains the dominance of both hemishperes.
The right side of the brain is the creative, problem solving side, it is spacey, rhythmical and artistic.
The left side of the brain is analytical and logical, it is structured and sequential.
The cricketer and all performers need balance and communication between the two hemispheres for optimal performance.
The brain is a goal setting mechanismand a connection machine, it hardwires everything.
The brain is given the building blocks by nature and nurture does the hard wiring.
The Cricketers Brain: A Goal Setting Mechanism and Wiring System
The brain sets goals, this is a creative function, it then breaks down the steps to achieve the goal. This is wired into us, it is central to the design of the brain.
Both hemispheres are essential to this, the right for its creativity and the left for structuring goal fulfillment.
Cricketers universally have the same goals, it is to score runs, preferably hundreds and to take wickets, lots of them.
The cricketers brain selects the goal and then goes about working out how to achieve them.
The best cricketers are not necessarily the most physically talented, they do know how to use their brains better though.
Many of the cricketers I have worked with have been right brain dominant, their motor skills for performance are there, they find it very easy to get into their game, they don’t over think too much.
Where they battle is when they want to break their goal down into structured steps and then focus on these, till the goal is achieved.
Batters who lose their sense of where they are in their innings and what they are working toward, then play an inappropriate stroke and get out, may suffer from this.
The bowler who forgets where he is in the over or in their spell and bowls a ball that lets the pressure off. They haven’t worked out how to structure an over or a spell.
They are habitual under achievers, they get good starts and yet cannot manage their innings or their spells.
Conversely, the left brain dominant cricketer can over think their game, paralyze themselves through over analyzing what they need to do to achieve their goal.
Their performance gets crippled through analytical self talk, anxiety and disrupted focus.
These cricketers battle to quieten their minds to self calm and focus, they find it difficult to be present as their minds switch between the past and the future.
Brain Synchrony
The worlds elite cricketers have learnt how to select their goals, break them down into sequential steps and then keep the mind quiet so that they can pay attention to them without over thinking.
The Challenge is in managing their mental state so that they can manage their game.
They have learnt how to use both sides of their brain, creative and structure.
The key goal in Cricket Mental Training is to naturally and effortlessly maintain an optimal state of mind-body balance.
When the right and left brains are working together in synchrony the cricketer is able to think clearly and calmly, make good decisions and set and complete their goals.
This state of brain synchrony is our goal, it is the door to the zone.
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About Richard Pybus
I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.