As seen with most sports, cricket has different levels of play. The very lowest level is recreational, where people enjoy just to watch the games and be involved as an observer.
Then there’s lower-level competitive play, like club cricket that are played by organized teams at various levels. These clubs can be anywhere from winter season through spring and summer leagues, up to international competition.
For more advanced players, there’t professional league play. These are mostly during the cricket seasons in Australia and England, and some other countries have them as well.
These leagues are for elite level players only, so they are quite expensive to enter into. But for top players, it’s worth the money since they get paid good salaries and benefits.
And finally, we have World Cups! These are the highest level of play for cricket. They last around two months and occur every four years. During those two months, the world comes together to see what kind of cricket will win the championship.
Not only does each country put forth their best team possible, but also their best individual player.
Practice batting
When you practice your batting, make sure it’s for an appropriate amount of time! Too little will only leave you feeling frustrated, while too much will give you nothing but bad habits.
Regularly practicing net bowling can help improve your game, but only if you do it right! You should aim to bowl at least six balls per session, with no more than three being full deliveries.
These sessions should last around five minutes each, with one minute between rounds to recover and change equipment. This is called the break technique.
After this, repeat the process until you have completed the number of nets prescribed in your training plan. Sometimes people get distracted and spend less time on their breaks, which could be why they lose motivation later.
Practice bowling
While practicing your batting or fielding skills is very important, practice pitching with a cricket net is even more essential! This is because as mentioned before, the top professional cricketers spend a large amount of time training in nets to improve their game.
Net practice is an efficient way to develop your wrist strength, muscle control, and accuracy. Not only that, but it also helps you hone your reflexes by having you react quickly to various balls thrown at you.
Practice throwing the ball hard and fast will help strengthen your muscles needed to do this. All of these things contribute towards improving your net play.
Tips: Try not to overwork your arm during net practice. A gentle motion should be used when tossing the ball. When your hand is completely extended, stop throwing!
This will give your body a chance to relax and work less strenuously.
Practice fielding
When you run out of the field to practice your skills, what kind of skill you are practicing is heavily influenced by the type of ball that you use. A soft throw-in bounceball will ask you different questions than a fast bouncer or a low hit-the-net-hard.
The best way to improve your fielding is to play as many cricket games as possible. This can be done in several ways, either with an actual game, a live net session, or through online multiplayer modes.
In these settings, there are usually options to pick which position you want to test yourself at. You can try being goal keeper, wicket keepers (or kookies), second striker, third striker, outfield, or even head coach!
Your choice does not really matter too much unless it is very clearly indicated where the player is positioned professionally, but any of those positions can prove helpful for you.
As mentioned before, choosing how to practice your fielding depends mostly on the type of ball that you choose to challenge yourself with. The best way to do this is by trying various types of balls during training.
Practice hitting
While practicing your batting is great, there’s something that many beginner players get stuck on. It’s trying to hit a ball as hard or as far as you can!
Practicing your swing with a soft bat is important, but once you reach the advanced stage it will slow down. You have to shift your focus onto power instead of distance. This is where practice comes in!
Power swings are much more difficult to do properly so most people don’t learn how to until later in their cricket career. When they do though, things start to come together quickly!
There are several different types of powerful shots you can work on, depending on what type of bowler you face.
Practice catching
When practicing your catches, you should try to only practice with empty nets or soft netting that can be pulled out. No matter what kind of ball you are trying to catch, it is not worth risk damage to the net.
If you are too nervous when practicing your throws, then you will likely make some bad ones which could hurt yourself or someone else. So, remain calm and level-headed during practices so your throwing skills do not suffer!
Throwing towards the net instead of away from it will help improve your throw as well since you will have more power behind it. The same goes for jumping; if you want to perfect your dive roll, just work on it in a low fence area first before taking it outside.
Practicing with different types of balls will also help you hone your skill set as most cricket games use either leather balls, hardball, or tennis balls.
Practice running
While practicing your batting or bowling, you can add another element to your training by incorporating some kind of intensity. This can be done through practice games with real balls or bats, doing drills at full speed, or even having competitions against yourself or others.
Practicing cricket net skills is great because it helps you work on different types of shots and strategies in a relatively short amount of time. You will also have more fun doing this as there are no distractions like when playing actual cricket.
Speed up your improvement by practicing using all parts of your body and getting good feedback from coaches or teammates.
Practice jumping
When you are practicing your batting, you should be doing it as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. Too slow is better than rushing and dropping a ball or hitting an empty field.
Practice diving for a catch in front of the net with the net up. Try to time your drop just right so that you hit it at full speed!
Diving into the ground can help toughen up your feet and legs, but make sure to do it slowly unless you know how to dive efficiently.
You can also practice heading the ball when it comes towards you either from short pitched balls, over-the-top bowling, or even kicks after a throw.
Practice patience
Even though it may feel like you are wasting your time practicing, this is actually one of the most important things for cricket net practice. While some people may be able to pick up the game quickly by just diving into the pool, that isn’t always the best way to learn how to play the sport.
By being patient with your own skills, you will save yourself lots of heartbreak later in the season when the professionals start picking up the ball. They have invested years in their craft so they should be respected!
Practicing as hard as you can while also having enough self-confidence in what you know already makes sense.
