I can remember a player coming from the County game into the International ODI squad for the first time with the a real fielding problem.

His throw was completely ineffective.

It was as if he was throwing slower balls!

The ball was revolving like a spinner as it hit my catching mitt in practice. If the ball hit the ground it would react off the surface like an off cutter.

The player was creating lots of energy through the legs and the torso, yet no output at the end. It was something that I had to change quickly for him or it would have become a reason for Duncan Fletcher to consider him to be non-selectable.

So, out came the slow-motion camera and within 5 throws, the answer was staring me straight in the face.

It was very clear on the camera screen that this star had the ball facing the target at the top of the arm circle. This resulted in his fingers being behind the side of the ball at release point.

The lack of force being applied to the back of the ball was the reason why the throw was coming out as a slower, off cutter rather than a rocket!

As we know from coaching bowlers to deliver slower balls, this is one of the methods of maintaining arm velocity yet bowling the ball slower which helps bowlers to deceive batters. Lasith Malinga is a classic example of this with his slower ball.

So what did we do?

We got him to present the ball away from the target at the end point of his stretch (preparation phase). This was very important because when the thrower rotated his shoulders he was able to throw the top and back of the ball rather than the side of the ball.

Here is a picture of what I mean from a thrower in school who had the same issue.

He made the adaptation of presenting the ball away from the target at the top of the throwing circle. This led to throwing the back and top of the ball and made exocet rockets.

In both cases both fielders now had the confidence to throw the ball on a flatter trajectory from anywhere on the boundary. The ODI player began to demand more and more fielding practice to show off his new found throwing skill.

How many of your players could benefit from you looking at their hand position at the top of the throwing circle?

My guess would be that at least half of them will have their hand pointing toward the target at the top of their throwing circle.

That's great if you’re trying to throw slower balls, yet not so good if your intention is to develop a world class fielding unit!

We talk about 1% marginal gains in sport constantly. This coaching tip is more like a Ten-percenter: nothing marginal about that!