A regular week: [pretty full on for me sometimes, but theres the odd week in between where i just take a break and relax)

Monday: school, development squad training 4:30- 5:30 PM

Tuesday: school, 17's training 4:00, senior training 5- 7:00 PM

Wednesday: school, personal training 4:00

Thursday: school, 17's training 4:00, senior training 5- 7:00 PM

Friday: school, personal training/ rest - preparation for game- mostly mentally

Saturday: junior game 8:00 AM - approx 11-12:00 AM | senior game 12:40 - approx 6:00 PM

Sunday: rest

junior training: (as captain, coach, player)

- warm up: one lap around oval, pressure catches (slowly moving side to side catching a softly lobbed ball)
- net session: two nets, even amount of bowlers bowling to two batsmen who have approx 15 mins batting time a night
bowlers each bowling to a plan, while also trying to point out and exploiut batsmens weaknesses (also helping
batsmen working on them)
- fielding: once everyone has been through (or maybe half have batted), we move onto fielding drills, getting basics downpat
before moving onto specifics, (high catching, slips catching, ground fielding, throwing down the stumps) then onto
(running and catching, shots at a stump from different angles, outfield throwing)

oh and by the way, I am an all-rounder, I bowl leg spin and can also be rather handy with the bat, my main problems being with my confidence really, i used to feel really comfortable at the crease but with my newfound responsibilities as captain and coach, the pressure is building up and is taking its toll on my performance. any help would be much appreciated there.
The weird thing there for me is that I feel much more comfortable against the quicks in senior cricket than I do in 17's??

Otherwise i feel as though my attitude is right as I am always asking for feedback and advice and am eager to learn.

 Welcome Clarry, good to see you. Good luck and keep us posted.

Tuesday's training was almost pointless to the fact that it was melbourne cup day and most of the men didnt bother to show up, and the ones that did werent focussed at all anyway. I suppose theres nothing i can do about that so my own personal goal was to work on more of the fitness side of my game. this is what i did:

- two laps of the track (1 lap being 400 metres), the first lap a jog and the second double the pace.
- walking out to the middle, doing high knees, lunges and side skipping
- in the middle with gloves and bat in hand doin sprints the length of the pitch, [sprint 1 lap then walk 1, sprint 2 then walk
1, sprint 3 then walk 1, sprint 4 then walk 1]
- i then finished off by doing 2 sets of 10 push ups and a slow jog around the track.

i pushed myself just enough so that i felt tested but not to the point that i would risk flaring any injuries.

wednesdays training: [personal training] 04/11/09
todays goal: - get back to basics, try to build confidence, work on technique.

- went to the nets with my brother and a mate from the academy side and just tried to get my feet into position to play each shot effectively to keep my wicket yet score runs.
- with bowling i tried a few new ways of bowling legspin (which worked really well as they each add more variation to the same delivery- leg break)

unfortunately my confidence is still at an all time low as getting the basics right was alot harder than it should have been. I've found that not having a coach and having to coach my own team is proving too much as the respect within the team and willingness to perform is decreasing, i've given each player the opportunity to better themselves in each aspect of their games as i've been analysing them but noone but my little brother seems to appreciate or even accept it.

on the plus side i've got my younger brother in the team with me and he knows whats goin through my head. the extra effort we've put in is defintely paying off as he just scored a century on the weekend, i feel proud to know i had something to do with that.

my own attitude towards training has now changed to help give me more of a chance to acheive my goals

Hey mate, i also play live in wa, who do you play for?

thurdays training: [juniors and seniors] 05/11/09
todays goal: -build confidence and prepare for saturday's games

-juniors training: I set up 2 nets for batters and 1 for the bowlers as we only had 9 people at training it worked quite well.
- 4 batters padded up with 2 in each net giving eachother throw downs to work on their techniques and any other issues they feel they may be having with their batting. They were also instructed, in the last round of hits, to hit it as hard as they could. This was mainly to get them feeling good about they way they are hitting the ball.

- The 4 bowlers and keeper that were left went into the other free net to work on getting their line and length consistent as well as concentrating hard enough to bowl to a precise plan in any given scenario I had given them (bowling to an attacking or maybe a new batsmen). The keeper was in full gear practicing taking the ball nicely in the gloves as well as getting used to how each bowler's style.

- Half way through we swapped it around so that everyone got a go at each aspect of their game before we went out and did some feilding drills. I felt as though this was very productive for both myself and my team as I felt better with my batting and control as a spinner.

-seniors training: I started off bowling in the 2nd grade net once junior training had finished and was doing really well. I was hitting the spot well and turning it loads. I was pretty happy with the way i was going, and to boost that even more i got to have a bowl in the 1st grade net and continued doing well there, overall all i'm quite happy with my game at the moment.

My goal for this weeks games was to attack and both get runs and wickets, it didnt go all that well but i'm still happy with the way i went

our under 17's game was cancelled yesterday due to the groundsmen wishing to 'save' the pitch, after some rain the night before, and hopefully have it ready for the senior fixtures. This was rather disappointing but I can see why they wanted to do it, but surely they could have just moved our games onto the synthetic wickets just for one game? oh well nothing I can do about it now but wait for next week.

My 2nd grade game went quite well i thought. We were forced to play on a synthetic wicket due to the pitch we were supposed to play on being drowned in a puddle. This made it interesting as it has probably been the only game that this grade has had to play on a synthetic pitch. Unfortunately we were sent in to bowl first but it wasnt so bad with the carpet being completely dry, making it easier for our bowlers to bowl on. We got a few wickets early, with one of their batsmen being extremely lucky throughout his entire innings of 54 as he played and missed more than the runs he made. I was quite surprised by the captain to chuck me the ball in the 16th over as i thought he would just stick to his pace bowlers but I was more than happy with the chance. my first few overs were maidens as i probably spun the ball too much for them to play, even on synthetic, but as they started to go after me more, is when the chances came. their opener who had lasted a while danced me and hit me for 4, i knew he was going to do it again as I noticed how his feet were positioned differently to normal, I gave this ball something extra as well as shortening it just a bit so as it dipped and drifted just enough to find the gap between bat and pad. I was happy with the first wicket but really should have had more as there were a few dropped catches throughout the rest of my spell.
they had amassed 187 from their 50 overs, a target we were quite capable of making, just as long as we didint lose too many wickets. Unfortunately thats what happened after we had lost too many and made not enough my felloow junior mate went in to pair up with one of the senior players who had been in for a while, he got a quick 25 before being caught at cover by an absolute screamer of a catch. we were now 8 fa and i was due in last. the new batsmen at the crease only got 3 before I went in. we were set a run rate of about 4 or 5 an over to win form the last 10. i did my bit by turning over the strike and giving the other bloke the power to hit them but unfortunately it just wasnt enough. with 3 overs left we needed 26, he was on strike and got a single, I then put the secon and third balls away for 4, one of which i was sure was a six, but you get that, the next ball i ran 3 and that was it for that over. With 14 needed to win from 12 balls we could defintely do it but with the worst of finishes i was runout by my partner attempting what really was a suicide run. An unlucky finish to what was a good and close game really.

last week's training wasnt anything special, i decided to take a few days off to study for upcoming exams which everyone is telling me was smart but I dunno haha

this weekend we played on another impossible pitch in 2nd grade, it's about 2 months off being ready for a game so i'm not sure why we played there. The pitch was very dodgy as one ball would do one thing, and an identical one would do something completely opposite. I managed to stay out there for a while just to take up time and occupy the crease, unfortunately only ammassing 1 run before being given out for another dodgy decision. Not wanting to bag the umpires at all as i know it is there job, but some of the ones in our league really need to pick it up a bit, (a wide can't be called if the batsmen has padded it away, deflecting towards slips).
in 17's this week we were chasing 148 from 36 overs, our top order got off to a really good start but too many silly mistakes were made leaving it up to me and our other remaining batsmen to try to build an innings, this we did quite well untill a few wickets fell for not many and with me facing the last over needing 16 from it. unfortunately we fell 6 short but due credit to some excellent at-the-death bowling.

all there is to do is train that much harder this week i suppose : )

mmm i have had a bit of a mental breakdown today. everything seems to be building up and up on me, theres so much pressure on me to do well and although i played quite well on the weekend its just not enough, trying to coach under 17s while also having to worry about my own performance is really taking its toll. That and my development squad training has been all but special as not much seems to be going right. some advice on getting back to playing some good cricket would be nice, today i just cracked after asking for help and simply not being given any at all form anybody. A few senior blokes have had talks to me and are saying its due to certain aspects of my game, such as captaincy, but i disagree, i'm accepting their advice and everything but i think its the lack of support thats really getting to me, i dont have anyone helping me personally, i have noone to talk to about my game and simply when i need help its not always there.

all im gonna do this week is start fresh, i know what i need to do and what my goals are and i know i'm definitily good enough, so i'm going to go out and prove to everyone and myself that i can dominate and perform at the top level

any advice on the mental side of my game would be appreciated