We have covered some standing up to the stumps drills in recent weeks and now we turn our attention to standing back drills.

Basic Hitting Drill

Variation of drill is one of the big challenges for a coach working with keepers. As we discussed last week, we should always remember that we need to keep the practice relevant to the match as possible.

The great thing about standing up sessions is that they should never be dull: you can create lots of distraction, different spins and bounce types with the overall aim to be to overload the keeper so that the practice is tougher than the actual match.

We still need to keep the drills relative and functional to match play, yet feel free to let that imagination run wild.

The legside stumping is one of cricket's finest sights. I know as a former wicketkeeper I’m biased, but it’s a skill that turns games. It’s achievable by all keepers if these sound rules are followed:

80% of balls that are missed by a keeper go under the hands!

This is a finding from from the study I did in 2008 monitoring 52 high performance keepers from Under 11 County Age Group keepers to MS Dhoni and Mathew Prior in Test Cricket.

Wicketkeeping is a tough job. It’s made more difficult when you have been keeping a lot because your hands get bruised and sore.

When the ball thuds into your gloves hard and you wince, it’s only natural to become reluctant to catch the ball. When that happens you start making simple mistakes and looking foolish.

Just ask MS Dhoni.

Burners is away again this week, but big cheese Richard steps in to give us the full story as begun last week.

A good stumping changes a game and makes the keeper look like a hero. But miss a chance and everyone looks at you out of the corner of their eye like you have just insulted their mother.

Top quality keepers know what to do to make sure there is much more of the former than the latter. You would think there was some complicated method, but it’s so simple you might not even believe it.

Ego has been the downfall of many a cricketer. Consider the good batsman who gets himself out against a part-time bowler. The bowler doesn’t have to do much because the batter loses concentration against someone with lesser skills.

A decent league cricket keeper can easily stand up to the average medium pace bowler on the average club wicket. Yet time and time again ego gets in the way.

You never see a good side with a bad wicketkeeper.

By definition a team that is taking wickets has to have a brave, alert and vocal gloveman who holds his catches and keeps fielding standards high. Despite this, wicketkeeping skills are often ignored at practice.