I’m a music fan and it’s great to work in a student environment as the pupils keep me up to date with the latest tunes when we have music bouncing around the cricket bubble.

They educate me with their music and then occasionally, I have a go at educating them with some “Old Skool” or Just “Old” songs. The best way that I have found to do this is to build a song or artist into one of our technical intervention drills.

The artist of the week is Madonna.

The Song in question is the 1990 hit “Vogue”. The drill (unsurprisingly) is named the Madonna batting drill. It’s a very fundamental drill looking at two essential batting concepts:

“Strike a Pose!” - this is an iconic line in the song and I use it to emphasise the importance of balance as the batter prepares to strike the ball, through the contact point and then post contact too. 1 point is awarded to the batter if they can “Strike a Pose!”Hitting the target goal at an appropriate height. 1 point is awarded if the ball goes through the goal at a height that can’t be caught.

“Along the ground or out of the ground!” as batting guru Graham Gooch would say.

Our goal for this session is very straight. The aim is to beat the bowler.

Set up

• Bowling machine (in this case a Marlyn Spin machine)
• 20 bowling machine balls
• A targeted area (in this case a goal marked out by the net posts)

Scoring and Intention

We set up a 20 ball “Madonna Batting Drill” game based on hitting spinners back down the ground.

The goal was to hit is between two net posts at a non-catchable height (1 point) and to “Strike a Pose!” for a second point.

Maximum score: 40 points

I ask the player to give me a target score. If they achieve that score or exceed it then I pick up the balls. If they fall short of the score then they pick up the balls.

I like these competitive/consequence sessions.

Madonna drill progressions

This version of the Madonna drill is based around playing spin straight down the ground (beating the bowler). The deviation on the ball is small here as I have set the machine to topspin the ball rather than applying side spin to the ball. It’s an entry level “Madonna” drill.

Once Ned (the batter) has consistently mastered this drill scoring in excess of 30 per round then he will be ready to progress to the same intention facing off-spin and the same intention facing leg spin. This will provide a slightly different challenge with slightly adapted techniques in order to be successful. Rarely will a player fly through the progressions and nor would we want them to.

Learning is about facing a problem, failing and then succeeding through a trial and error process and as a result, learning is established.

The more failure that an honest and “purposeful trainer” experiences in this drill, the better they become as a thinking cricketer. They work it out over time. In Ned’s case, he has set himself the target of 30 for the entry level drill. We are 4 rounds into his journey and he has failed every time to break 30.

Ned’s scores each round as well as my notes indicate that learning is taking place and progress is tangible.

Round 1: 16 - Ned ran down the wicket before assessing the line and length of each ball. Ned became frustrated quickly and rushed his pre-delivery routine. He wasn’t mentally ready to play the ball. Ned only scored six “strike a pose” points in 20 balls.

Round 2: 18 - The Merlyn machine got the yips a little in the middle of the round which made successful scoring difficult. Ned showed much less frustration after each poor shot and was far more consistent with his pre-ball routine. He appeared more ready for the challenge of each delivery. His movements down the pitch were more appropriate. Ned scored eight “Strike a Pose!” Points in 20 balls.

Round 3: 25 - Huge improvement! Ned built on his pre-delivery routine and reported back that he arrived in his stance feeling totally ready for the incoming delivery. He took far better lines of movement down the pitch which allowed him to strike the ball into the goal area and pick up points. Ned’s balance was slightly better yet Ned recognised that he would be able to raise the bar on his point scoring if he lowered his position when striking the ball as this would ensure that he picked up a “Strike a Pose!” Point for each ball.

Round 4: 28 - Ned maintained his pre-ball process and learnt from the previous round in relation to “Striking a Pose”. As a result, Ned scored a Personal Best Score.

The Madonna Drill can be set up for developing batters against pace, spin, back foot, front foot, all sorts of shots really. All you do is marry the delivery up with the intended area and maintain the points system for hitting the goal and “Striking a Pose”.

Introduce spin, swing and variations in pace and length to increase task difficultly.

“Madonna” is a very versatile batting drill.