We all know that catches win matches, yet there is one type of catching opportunity that is being taken in the upper echelons of the game that isn't transferred down the playing levels.

It's when a player dives forward to take a blinder.

This method of catching can occur at slip with the one that isn't quite carrying, in the inner circle when a batsman mistimes a drive or more commonly, in the deep.

Duncan Fletcher, when he was England coach, used to shout at the slip fielders in training sessions to get forward and catch balls falling short of their normal position.

'Old England' was his call when the ball was allowed to bounce. 'New England' when someone dived forward and came up with the ball.

The likes of Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick ended up mastering this technique, pulling off significant numbers of catches which wouldn't have been sniffed in previous years.

How to dive forward to catch

There are two ways of getting your body and hands into a position to catch the ball.

1. Lead with your head. Tres and Straussy both used to lead their movement to the ball with their Head and fall forwards towards the dropping ball
2. Bend the knees and drive from the thighs. Joe Root displays this technique beautifully here (1m 04s):

These are two ways of initiating movement and each of us will better at one than the other. Encourage your players to give both a go and find out which is your preference.

How to coach diving catches

• Stage 1: Practice falling forward on a crash mat or sand pit/beach without a ball. Imagine you are catching a ball coming flat from a cover drive yet falling slightly short and experiment with the two movement methods listed above.
• Stage 2: Introduce a ball with slow underarm throws into the space in front of the fielder. Again, do this on a crash mat or other soft surface.
• Stage 3: Use a crazycatch or find a wall with grass in front, and throw balls for rebounds looking to dive forward every time the ball is landing short.
• Stage 4: Once confidence in this is established its time to increase the distance between the feed and the fielder. This then builds up the appropriate judgement of ball flight which helps the fielder to time her dive forwards.
• Stage 5: Incorporate fully into your normal fielding drills.

Reward and praise your fielders who attempt catches in practice using the method and watch as their competence and catching stats build in practice and then start to impact on match results.

Maybe send me some footage of you diving forward on beaches or sand pits to show me how your going?