Welcome to the new look Junior Gladiator section!
A Junior Gladiator knows that good cricketing skills are acquired with lots of practise. It is important also that correct technique is taught from the off. Increase your batting, bowling, fielding and catching techniques here with the help of our age group coaches at Gloucestershire Cricket Board.
Increase your batting skills with help from our coaches at Gloucestershire Cricket Board.
Increase your bowling skills with help from our coaches at Gloucestershire Cricket Board.
Increase your fielding skills with help from our coaches at Gloucestershire Cricket Board.
Increase your catching skills with help from our coaches at Gloucestershire Cricket Board.
Batting
Front foot batting
Front foot batting shots such as the drive is played to balls that are full in length such as a straight drive or cover drive.
A good practice for this is to have a partner feed you under arm bobble feeds (a feed that bounces 2 or 3 times before it reaches you) and to try to hit the ball through a goal straight ahead of where you are batting from.
Key Points
When playing a straight drive your shoulder should lead you in to the ball.
Your head should be over the ball at point of contact (the point that your bat hits the ball).
Your front knee should be bent.
Bowling Pace and Spin
Bowling a good length?
Bowling is a skill in cricket that is hard to master; the best bowlers are able to do the same thing over and over again. Many players have heard about bowling good line and length but what and where is that exactly. Good length bowling is pitching the ball in an area that a batter is not able to play an attacking shot and stay in control of the ball. For the professionals this is an area between 6 and 8 yards. This will vary for some of you guys and you may need to bowl a touch fuller to maybe 5 yards from the batters stumps.
Set up some cones (12 or so) or any markers in an area that you believe is a good length and bowl 2 overs. Each time you hit one of the cones you take it away see how many cones you can hit in your 2 overs.
Fielding
Catching
Fielding will take up a large part of your game so to be the best in this discipline can make you stand out from the rest.
Catching like all other aspects of cricket requires good technique so to practise catching properly is vital.
In a pair take 20 catches and do so at a realistic match pace though still throwing under arm, ensure you have your legs bent in a powerful position with your hands ready, fingers pointing down and have your eyes level. Once you have caught 20 with 2 hands used the same technique with your right hand only, then with your left hand only. Once you begin to find this easy increase the intensity of how hard you are throwing, how close you are standing etc until it becomes a challenge again.
Field Positions
Know the field positions of cricket
Fielding is a vital part of the game and part of that are the cricket fielding positions. These can be quite baffling but try learning the layout from this image.
This image shows the standard cricket fielding positions for a right handed batsman, which are mirrored for left handed batsman. These positions can vary depending on the tactics. They are decided by the captain and considers the bowler in place.
