When a side are doing badly it’s inevitable that extra nets are put on.

The logic is clear: If you practice you get better. Practice, as they say, makes perfect.

But if you were designing a way to practice to get better based on what we know about skill development, traditional nets are about as useful as bat with a hole in the middle.

Nets don’t work to get you better because they don’t fill the fundamentals of improving.

1. Practice a specific skill
2. Get feedback on that skill
3. Go back to 1.

The shot needs your head and body position to be perfectly aligned so you can swing the bat with the full face through the line of the ball. Nobody can do that first time and every time, even the best players in the world.

To learn it well a player needs to hit the shot over and over again until the feel of the right position and swing is ingrained on the mind. A coaching or batting buddy needs to be on hand to advise where it’s going wrong.

It’s a proven method that works with any sports skill.

Yet we expect player to perfect an on drive in nets where even the best bowlers could never bowl the required leg stump half volleys even if they wanted to.

They are handy for recreating pressure situations. They are also useful for batsmen learning how to pick up length early from a bowlers action.

But as a method for improving skill you would be far better with:

• Throwdowns
• A bowling machine
• Tennis ball feeds
• Bowling at a target, not a batsman

Because each of these methods allows you to practice a specific skill and get instant feedback before practicing it again.