Yesterday (Tuesday) was B&PCC U13's/U11's training night and as usual we were there putting in the hours practicing and Ben was excited about the prospect of using the homemade 'Training bat' which I was unsure about - imagining that he'd be in the nets for 20-25 balls and not hit one of them.
But, how wrong was I! Mike Blerkom was in the net next door keeping to the bowlers bowling at Harrison Morris and while he was doing that he was talking Ben through his batting telling him to leave the wide ones and to play with a dead straight bat getting his head over the ball and to watch the ball right on to the bat which was an interesting point, kind of like the Ricky Ponting tactic of saying to himself 'Watch the ball - watch the ball' repeatedly as the bowler runs in.
Ben did amazingly well, hit the ball not only with a straight bat, but also hitting the wide balls with cut shots leaving cherry marks in the middle of the bat! If only he could carry that same approach into the games and he'd do okay for himself. I just hope that as he gets older he's more interested in improving his batting, because he's a bit easy come easy go with his approach to training. But sessions like this are useful in improving his enthusiasm for it and he said while he was in there 'I'm liking this' to which I answered 'You can do this as often as you like in the paddock' to which there was no answer.
