Ex-England coach Duncan Fletcher loves slip catching practice. He comes alive as he edges the ball to the slip cordon and encourages the players to strive for more consistency, more commitment and ultimately, more brilliance.

But it was not always the case. Fletch inherited a slip cordon in 2000 that was less than brilliant. He told me that many of the players were happy to let the ball bounce just infront of them instead of diving forward and attempting the catch.

He used to call poor commitment to this kind of ball "Old England" .

The birth of "New England"

When Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss joined the squad in the early 2000's, Fletcher implored his new slippers to dive forward and get these half chances.

The pair would regularly throw their heads into the catch, dive forward and come up with the ball in practices. Eventually we began to see this in Test matches. This was very much Fletcher's idea of "New England". That term would reverberate around the practice grounds of the world during slip practice for the next 5 years.

Why did this shift in approach and performance occur? Was Fletcher the catalyst for this change?

Yes. And no.

The vision of what he wanted to see was clear. He painted a picture for Strauss and Trescothick to aspire to. This is great leadership. Great coaching.

However, It was more down to natural preference and luck that both were slip catchers for their respective counties.

The science of slip catching

What we now know is that both Strauss and Trescothick prefer to lead with their head and shoulder when they move. They find it easy to fall and dive forward onto this type of catch. It's the way that their bodies and brains are wired. It allows this to happen seamlessly.

Contrast this to Mark Butcher and Andrew Flintoff. Both were excellent slip fielders who had a preference for bending their knees to get to the low ball with a preference for moving linearly (sideways) not forwards.

For these two, the same length of ball (that doesn't quite carry) ends up being taken on the half volley, rather than being caught, like Strauss and Trescothick.

Butch and Freddie used to have "Old England" shouted at them a lot! Do you recognise this you the teams you coach too?

If you do, how can we help the "bent knees brigade"?

As coaches we need to adapt our conventional view on how we stagger slip cordons.

We should use our understanding of a fielders preference to dive forward or not as a indicator of the depth that they should stand at slip. Throw away the conventional staggered approach and look at it through another lens.

The new rules of slip cordons

If you are naturally "wide based" with significant knee bend when fielding at slip and struggle to dive forward naturally; then come slightly (half a step) closer than the conventional depth.

If you are naturally "narrow based" and happy to dive forwards; stand in the conventional position.

This may impact on the aesthetic look of the slip stagger but will help turn your slip cordon from "Old England" to "New England" overnight.

Trust me, that will be a quicker transition than the one that we got all those years ago!