Cricket coaching by online video
Cricket-blog gets a lot of reciprocal link requests (hence the insanely long blog roll in the right margin). Not long ago, I received a link request from wattacoach.com and was intrigued by the website. They sell video coaching lessons from a team of coaches who've all played or coached first class cricket. You upload a video of your own bowling or batting action and one of their coaches sends back a video lesson analysing your technique and providing drills to improve it.
I asked if they did a video lesson on my legspin action, could I post it on Cricket-blog. They agreed. Not having a video camera, Wendy and I took our digital camera (it takes short, low-rez movies), went into the backyard and set up the Ricky Ponting beach cricket stumps. I bowled a few leggies which Wendy filmed from side-on and front-on. The front-on was a little tricky - I had to be sure I didn't accidentally strike Wendy or the camera. I then downloaded Windows Movie Maker and quickly edited together the following epic movie:
I uploaded the animation onto the Wattacoach website and a few days ago received a video lesson by David Freedman, a wrist spinner who played for and currently coaches NSW (I won't hold it against him that he lives south of the Tweed). Their two wrist spin coaches are Freedman and Beau Casson who seems to be busy at the moment playing for Australia or something. Here is the lesson in full YouTube glory:
Most interesting was the side-by-side comparison with Beau Casson's bowling action. I can see why Aussie cricketers have a plasma TV in the nets - it's very useful (and fun, bordering on narcissistic) to see a replay of your technique. Even better to compare it side by side with a Test legspinner. I can immediately see how my bowling stride is too long - fixing that has already improved my follow through.
Next is a series of drills explained by Freedman and Casson. I haven't had a chance to try them out - I'll have to give them a quick run through before the club's weekly net session tonight. Plenty of homework to work on anyway.
The cost for most of the lessons is $60 which seems pretty good value considering how useful and content rich the lessons are. The Freedman lesson is $70 but of course wrist spin is going to cost more - legspin after all is cricket's greatest and most difficult artform. Plus bowlers pay once to have their technique analysed - batsmen get 4 batting strokes analysed in a lesson. So if you're having trouble with a whole range of strokes, well, maybe you should consider becoming a bowler.
WattaCoach is an exciting idea - a sign of the post-Buchanan era where nerdy technology is another indispensable tool in our kitbags alongside thigh guards and linseed oil. Whether the tips in my video lesson will help me take more wickets on Saturday, well, we'll just have to wait and see. I may have to go back and ask for some help developing my googly.
| Posted by JC on Wed 30 Jul |  9 comments |
Still can't imagine how to get a ball down the other end in one go from a standing start but!
Posted by virtualgaz on 2008-07-30 20:31:32
Its really good to see how technology is enabler of so many things in life. With access to right resources everyone can work on to improve their game.
Thanks for sharing
Posted by unsuidojo on 2008-08-01 00:54:48
Posted by JC on 2008-08-02 18:32:34
Posted by unsuidojo on 2008-08-05 12:42:51
http://thevillagecricketer.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/an-open-invitation-to-the-aussie-bloggers/
Posted by The Village Cricketer on 2008-08-12 20:28:40
Posted by thecricketingleague.blogspot.c on 2008-08-26 21:45:53
Posted by JC on 2008-08-26 23:42:10
Cricket coaching by online video is very usefull for cricket loving fans... They too can get practised like their international players... In this we can learn lots of tricks and many things. Real credit goes to JC. But we have to practise well to make the things perfect.
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John
Wide Circles
Posted by john1 on 2008-09-18 18:59:45
Australia begin their competitive cricket in their four-Tests tour of India with a two-day practice game against Rajasthan Cricket Association's Centre of Excellence team at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday.
Since landing in India on Monday, the World Champions have been camping here to acclimatise with Indian conditions with the RCA generously opening doors of its state-of-the-art Future Cricket Academy, which has 24 different outdoor pitches of every kind, besides five artificial pitches.
After four days of practice, Ricky Ponting and his boys will gear up to competition mode against a team led by former India One-Day player Gagan Khoda. read more on www.cricketnirvana.com
Posted by swopnil on 2008-09-27 21:34:53
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