12 March 2008

Very interesting conversation explains a lot

I've just had a very interesting conversation with a pal who was a Sussex II player and the grateful recipient of much coaching from Peter Moores. His view is that whilst Moores is a brilliant motivator his technical coaching is very precise and meticulous, not to say a little formulaic.

This explains how the batsman all seem to have adopted the same trigger movements with their backlifts (different from Duncan Fletcher's famous 'forward press') and how a lot of flair may have been supressed. That would certainly explain a lot about the first innings in the first Test - hope we never have to see KP bat like that again. As for trigger movements - much too technical for the likes of me , but I'll be watching our batting with wider eyes later on.

5 comments:

Viswanathan said...

Why is the coach meddling with technique?

Ed said...

I would have thought that Andy Flower's job as batting coach involves slight improvements in batting technique when necessary, but Moores less so....having said that in the past Vaughan has talked about the work Duncan Fletcher did with him, so maybe Moores is similar and likes to get hands on....

Peter Lamb said...

Didn't see too much of the "brilliant motivator" in the first test, most of them looked as if they couldn't care less and would rather be somewhere else.
I see that Hoggard has got the chop as well as Harmison. Granted he didn't bowl well, but by all accounts neither did Anderson in the state game he played in. Let's hope that Sidebottom can perform again, otherwise I can't see much hope of us bowling NZ out twice.

Anonymous said...

The role of the coach at that level is interesting.

It's not like players need technical help if they have all got as much experience as England's top 7.

I would be surprised if Moores started in messing with techniques, what does worry me more is the tactical approach. Something the coach does have influence over.

Ed said...

I'd be interested to understand more about sports psychology at elite level as it seems the England have problems in cricket, rugby and football in that regard - perhaps the role of the coach at elite level is as much about instilling the correct mental approach as anything else.

I'm a big fan of the way Woodward managed to get the England rugby team to really believe they were the best in the World prior to the 2003 World Cup, but English sport is struggling to continue in that vain, although I know that the England cricketers spent time with Martin Johnson to try and understand more about the rugby team's approach.

One day, when I have some time, I'll do some proper research on this!