I love it when a new coach comes onto my team, it means that I can start stealing his coaching drills!

Sharing is caring after all: Thank you to Millfield Assistant Coach, Matt Thompson for this incredibly simple, yet brilliant and progressive keeping drill.

The “fumble challenge” is a drill that Matt uses after the keepers have run through their warm up.

It acts as a keeper specific activation drill as well as helping to embed some really good basic keeping techniques and methods at the same time.

Use cones as a target and guide for the thrower. The intention to make other keeper fumble the ball with difficult length feeds.

The things that this drill promotes in its most basic form are crucial to the performance of any keeper when standing up to the stumps:

1. Good posture
2. Staying low until ball bounce
3. Coming up with the ball
4. Elements of lateral movement whilst staying low
5. Keeping relaxed as a ball approaches a cone (distraction)
6. Taking deflections off of the cone (simulating edges or ball reacting from rough patches on the pitch)

Progression: Overarm feed

This is the same drill, this time with an overarm feed into your mate once you have taken the previous ball. This simulates a ball that bounces more steeply meaning that your posture and movement out of your stance are challenged.

The thrower can vary their length mixing in length balls with fuller ones that are directly aimed at the cone. This simulates distraction, uneven surfaces and potential edges.

Progression: More cones

Additional cones can be added to the drill in order to increase the complexity of the various takes and challenges the keeper to stay relaxed as the ball goes into contact with the ground.

Add a cone in when the keeper has mastered the previous number. Some of the keepers that we work with do this drill with six cones on the floor at different lengths and lines.

Keep challenging the basics listed above. The number of deflections off of the cones increases as more are applied to the drill.

This progression is great for developing a keeper’s capacity to take standing up catches or dealing with uneven surfaces and excessive spin.

Progression: Lateral movement

In the second half of the video, we see the keeper simulating leg side movement within the drill to both left and right handed batters.

The feed is delivered to the opposite side of the cone and the keeper moves across in a low fashion to take the ball.

Start with the low ball to promote good posture and low movement. Then introduce a throw from a different height and cones to increase the challenge.

Progression: Different ball types and reactions

We were using tennis balls this morning, just to get the body moving at the start of a session themed around the leg side take.

If you wanted to turn the drill from an activation one into the main theme of the coaching or practice session then you could use different balls to increase the challenge or to make the drill even more functional.

Different ball types bring different challenges and can be used to take the keeper to their next level of technical competence.

1. Tennis Ball
2. Taped Tennis Ball – Tends to skid on, great for simulating low surfaces or promoting someone to stay in a good posture for longer
3. Incredieball – excellent bridging ball for someone who has started with catching tennis balls as they build technique. Also great for confined spaces with windows!
4. Golf Ball – Ball bounces quickly and therefore a good challenge.
5. Cricket Ball – totally functional, good for pre-match preparation on a bowl through wicket.
6. Cricket Ball with thick rubber bands around the seam – Great for increasing the degree of turn and bounce off of the ground surface. Excellent preparation for bouncier surfaces where posture and ability to power out of a good posture from fairly fuller lengths are required.

Keep an eye on the basics listed above as you or your players go through the progressions.

You can then add challenge and complexity in a layering fashion as confidence and competence develops.

Top Drill Tommo!