Whether it's studying for your exams or cooking up excuses for why you’ve arrived home at 3 am after a long drinking binge, concentration is key. You might annoy your girl best friend for having only half a brain cell, but you need to use 100% of any number of brain cells you have to succeed in any walk of life. As a batter in cricket, there’s not one, not even two, but three levels of concentration that you need to learn and master before you walk out and set fire on the pitch.
We talked to the legendary Australian powerhouse batter Greg Chappell about the three levels of concentration, and how important it is to improve your overall batting performances on the pitch.
Start from the base, the crux of the matter. You don’t teleport from your house to the pitch as your name is called out. The first level of concentration is in the dressing room, when you’re waiting to go and bat. It’s not just mentally preparing yourself to go out, it’s more of scanning the pitch to see if the opponent team has more gaps in their field than the stories your ex told you. While doing that, there’s also some positive affirmations, breathing exercises to get in the zone, and situational awareness (knowing your role depending on when you’re called upon). Might seem like a bit, but as your dad said when he sent your childhood dog to a “farm in northern Kodaikanal”, it’s for the best.
Also Read - Competitive Cricket: Greg Chappell's Guide to Mental Mastery
Our Aussie coach claimed the second level of concentration to be a bit more passive; it’s the one you maintain when at the non-striker's end and in between balls. This is different to the level of concentration that you need as the ball is about to leave the bowler's hand, but we’ll get to that later. The second level is when you’re more of a catalyst in the game than when you were in the dressing room. It involves part of the same work where you have to analyse the field and read the opponent’s game, but at the same time being mindful of your own actions due to being indirectly involved. Just imagine yourself to be in the middle of a beef between your two best friends; you’re not directly involved, but your actions have more consequences than you know.
The third and most important level is as the ball is about to leave the bowler’s hand. At this moment, you’re the main character, the SRK of the Bollywood pitch. Rather than getting terrified, it’s best to believe in yourself and use the situation to your advantage. Even your chemistry teacher should be proud of the catalyst you are. Throughout the game, you’ll have to read your bowler’s game to see any sort of variations that might surprise you. Master this level, and you’ll be the raid boss that your opponents will fear for years to come.
“I worked out that I had those three levels of concentration, and from the day I realized that it was so important that I trained, that was the day that my game started to improve. Not that I learnt to play more shots, or that I came up with something fancy, but what I was able to do was to produce my best at every opportunity,” says our mentor from down under. To conclude, it's not just the technical aspect of the game that will help you achieve glory, but the level of concentration you show at each level.
