Make Bowling Simple by Avoiding these 3 Common Mental Game Errors

Bowlers of all levels can leak runs due to poor mental decisions in some cases costing their team the match.

Why?

I’d argue that often they don’t know how to systematically approach each delivery so that they have more control over their thoughts and emotions, and in turn their confidence levels. This article is set up to help you if this is an issue for you, where I share 3 common mental game mistakes that I’ve noted from supporting many cricketers.

1. Don’t analyze your technique when you’re in a match

Any thoughts about your bowling action, during a match is likely to be counter-productive to you bowling with rhythm and taking wickets, whether this is between deliveries or in your run up. Trusting what you have is far more important than trying to correct something or forcing a movement while bowling.

Trying to consciously control your body during any action makes the task a lot more difficult. Think about if you drove your car while consciously thinking about what your body is doing – “put my hand on the gear stick, now press the accelerator…” – you’d likely end up in a ditch or crashing into another car.

When you’re next bowling, simply look to trust your ability. Thinking about your bowling action while running in creates tension which interferes with your rhythm and timing. It’s fine to think about it in the nets when you’re practicing a new movement, but in a match, it’s dangerous. To play your best, I’d encourage you to play with a quiet mind.

Thoughts do usually creep in during a match when a few wayward deliveries are whacked to the boundary, this is normal, however a lot of bowlers then look to analyse their action and attempt to correct the problem. The result then is a lot of deliveries which fail to hit the lines and lengths that they are looking to hit due to tension.

Tension increases with the more control that you try to impart over your bowling action. So try to follow this advice, “Give up control of your body to gain control of your body”. Instead of being focused on your body’s movements, seek to be connected with your objective – to deliver the ball to a specific target with a pre-determined pace or shape, and then trust your body to do what you’ve practiced.

Some of the best thoughts to be able to trust your action, when you’re about to throw the ball are “one-two”. This is a very simply approach – “one” for when you take your arm back, “two” for when you release and follow-through. This should help eliminate a lot of noise in your head!

2. Don’t place too much attention to the scoreboard unless you really have to

Unless you’re in a situation where you need to know exactly what the score is for strategy, like during the closing stages of a match, when a specific number of runs are needed off a small number of balls, it’s often best to try and forget about the scoreboard. Some of the best deliveries in the history of the games have occurred when the bowler didn’t know what the score was. You’ll find that when you play your best, it’s like you don’t care about the team’s overall performance. You don’t get into “judgement” mode. You just enjoy playing cricket, the challenge ahead of you and bowling some great deliveries. This is a helpful mentality for all matches. The score is something that is external and out of your control.

Tying your performance to the score can create a roller-coaster of emotions. If the score is your goal from the match. How are you going to feel when you get smashed out of the park on your first delivery? Will it dent your ego and ruin your match? If you can shift your goal for each match from the scoreboard to executing a good process and simply enjoying the game and the challenge no matter what, you will perform much better. Shifting your focus from outcome to process is a great way to bowl at your best.