This post is part of the Cricket Fielding Drills Week series. To go to part one click here.

It's the last day of the great big list of cricket drills. I thought it might be interesting to remember a key warning about using drills:

Be careful: Drilling in the wrong way is just as bad as not drilling at all.

For an explaination let's turn to Vic Braden with a golf example:

"Theres nothing more dramatic than watching golfers on a driving range hitting ball after ball until their drive is 250 yards and straight down the middle. At that point, the golfer normally decides that its time to head for the first tee and display the great shots that he has mastered on the driving range. However, the first tee is normally made for filmmakers looking for funny sound and video bites for television. Why is that so? For one thing, the brain gets a little confused on the first tee when it asks, what happened to the rubber tee and the firm mat on which I was standing on the driving range? The brain then notes that the footing is not very firm on the left foot and a little higher on the right foot. So, the brain must send down a completely new electrical package to the muscles. This often results in the weirdest shots one could imagine. I have watched golfers hit cars and neighbourhood windows, even though they were king of the driving range drills."

So the answer is simple: Practice by playing first, and when you do drill, make it as close to playing as possible.

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