Cricket Helmet

Cricket Helmet : Safety First To Prevent Head Injuries

There is a lovely joke that goes like this ...

'The first testicular guard (Box) was used in cricket in 1874 and the first cricket helmet was used in 1974.

It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important.'

Surely written by a women.

The cricket helmet was designed to stop serious injury occuring due to being hit on the head by the cricket ball.

The cricket helmet originally evolved as batsmen sought protection from being hit on the head by short fast pitched bowling.

As the game embraced the wider acceptance of helmets by batters, they began to be used as protection by close in fielders and wicketkeepers.

Injuries can still occur for batsmen whilst wearing helmets, cuts and fractures occur at the the highest level of the game when genuinely quick bowlers are operating. 

Boys Helmets: mycricketgame store

The History of the Cricket Helmet

The cricket helmet has been slow to be embraced by cricket as a form of protection, amazingly so, bearing in mind that fast bowlers bowl at speeds upward of 90 miles per hour, 150 kph.

The game which has historically cherished its traditionalism and idiosyncracies finally made the common sense breakthrough in the late 1980's and early 1990's with the broader acceptance of helmets worn by batsmen.

They have though, been worn by cricketers going back to the 1930's , Patsy Hendren the England cricketer wore a homemade helmet with three peaks to protect himself whilst playing against the West Indies.

They have evolved from these early contraptions, players exploring different designs and made makeshift skull caps, Mike Brearley and Sunil Gavaskar were two who spring to mind.

You can see the evolution of the helmet in these photo's, firstly of Sunil Gavaskar with his Skull Cap and then Dennis Amiss with his motorcycle style helmet. 

During the 1970's Dennis Amiss and Tony Greig began to wear cricket helmets modelled on motor cycle helmets as they sought to counter the very real threat posed by the quick bowlers of their generation, specifically in World Series Cricket.

Graham Yallop the Australian cricketer was the first batsman to wear a helmet in a Test match, against the West Indies in 1978.

Mens Helmets: mycricketgame store

Helmet Technology: Recent Advances

The most recent advances into helmet technology have allowed it to be mass produced across the cricket world and for it to become affordable for most young cricketers.

Made from either moulded plastic or man made fibres set in resin, the visor made from steel fits into the helmet by the ears, bolting onto the helmet with re-inforced fittings.

As we can see from the examples in these pictures, two are orthodox helmets and the other a funky 'next generation helmet' allowing greater ventilation to keep the players head cooler.

Things to look for in your choice of helmet are the balance between comfort and safety. The helmet should fit comfortably and the strap should hold the helmet in place, firmly.

Make sure the helmet has adequate ventilation holes, batting in hot weather is tough enough without having to cook inside your helmet.

Check for a safety standards sticker with your purchase to make sure that the helmet conforms to high standards of production.

Fielders and Wicketkeepers Wearing Helmets

Fielders wear cricket helmets whilst fielding close to the batter, typically either at short leg or silly mid off, waiting for the opportunity to take a catch.

Wicketkeepers began to wear helmets whilst keeping in the sub-continent, specifically on wickets which were worn with the ball bouncing and kicking up unpredictably.

It is common place to see keepers standing up to the stumps with helmets on now, keeping to the spinners and medium pacers.

 

Safety Regulations

It is now law for young players under the age of 19 to wear a helmet whilst batting or fielding close to the bat.

See the article on Safety Guidleines from the ECB. 

Best Wicket Keeping Tips

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Top Ten Wicket Keeping Tips

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1. Have a vision for your wicket keeping performance, what your roles are in each format of the game. Set goals for training and for match time. Break down each aspect of your keeping, standing up to the stumps, standing back, catching to both sides, single and both hands.

2. As wicket keeper you're the center point for the team performance in the field. Make sure your set a good tempo for the side.

Get through the overs, keep ahead of the clock with the over rate, particularly with 20 20 Cricket where time is always an issue.

Make your fielders look good, taking wayward throws and balls on the half volley. Affirm them and boost up your players confidence, encouraging them, especially when your side is under pressure.

3. Set your focus for each ball, watch the ball from the bowlers hand. Be present with each ball, you will make mistakes, let them go, re-set your focus and set a goal for the next ball.

breathe and relax between balls to help let go of tension and reset your focus.

4. Go down for each ball, it makes you come up underneath the ball. Keep your hands open and create a big surface area for the ball to come into.

Extend your hands out to the ball to receive its energy, let your hands receive the ball and give with the energy.

You will catch primarily in one hand, so look after your dominant catching hand. Be aware of where your are catching the ball in your hand. Pay attention to closing your hand around the ball when gloving it, this makes your judgement more precise and assists you in watching the ball closely.

5. Elite wicket keepers set the alignment for the slips. The slips take their mark from you - set them around 1 1/2 slips so that you have room to dive and move. When you are going for a catch in this channel, go with total commitment.

6. When diving for the ball, lead with your head, drive your head toward the ball, good head position gives your eyes and ultimately your brain good information to get into position to take your catch.

7. When diving for catches you have two options: having caught the ball, either tuck your elbow under your body and roll so your don't land on it ... or you straighten your elbow when diving low for the catch.

This takes the jarring motion out of your landing. Get the mattress out at home or at your club and practice this till you can master both techniques.

Wear long sleeve shirts to protect your elbows when diving.

8. Practice your focus and watching the ball. Staying down and watching the ball bounce to give yourself a long, good look at the ball. As in batting, judgement of length is critical and needs to be practiced.

Practice this by doing throw downs and work on the bowling machine if you have access to one, consciously pay attention to watching the ball bounce.

Challenge yourself to not move till you have watched the ball bounce.

9. Keep your hands low and your eyes glued to the ball when taking the bouncing ball, allow your arms to stay long so that your hands come up underneath the ball. This stops you having to go back down for the ball.

10. Practice taking the ball up to the stumps and down the leg side, put a chair or long box in the way. You need an obstacle where the flight of the ball is obscured as it passes the imaginary batsman.

Practice your weight transfer and sweeping your weight back to the stumps for the stumping.

To help with this, play with a ball all the time, a tennis ball or bouncy ball.

Throw it into the ground, bounce it off the wall and the ground. Let your brain experience lots of different angles.

Catch with both hands, work on becoming as ambidextrous as possible.

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I hope you have enjoyed these wicket keeping tips, come back and visit regularly as I add more tips and wicket keeping info.

Pass these on to your friends, help them to improve their game with wicket keeping tips to keep them on track.

How To Improve Hitting For T20 Cricket

There are several things you can work on, in this order ...

1. your Batting Game Plan

2. your Batting Technique

3. your Strength and Conditioning for batting

The first part of your game plan to be aware of is 'getting in', like the other 2 formats you still need to give yourself an opportunity to assess conditions and look at the bowlers pace and angles.


Your time frame is anywhere from 6 - 18 balls based upon conditions and opposition.

You are still looking for scoring opportunities, they are based on your strengths though.

Be aware of your favourite boundary areas and where you are looking to play, it's important you play to your strengths, whether it is front foot drives or back foot cuts and pulls.

You also need to rotate the strike, so be aware of knocking the ball into space so you can get your partner on strike as well. This stops the bowler from being able to build up pressure in the over, you are more likely to get a long hop or half volley this way.

The other thing you can look at is to use the crease to counter swing and to disrupt his length.

One of my favourite batters is Matthew Hayden, as you can see in the attached photo, his game plan was to take the initiative from the bowler straight away. He would go out of his crease and take his stance closer to the bowlers length.Pushing the bowler back off his length and making it difficult for him to swing the ball.

In this photo you can see he developed this as part of his game plan for Test cricket

as well.



This is something you can practice, I would suggest you begin by taking your stance 6 inches out of your crease to start with and see how that effects the bowlers' length and what scoring opportunities it presents.

If you like this, make sure you master it first in practice before you try it in a game.

In 20-20 cricket there is always more time than you think, so take your time, keep your normal pre-shot routine, breathe easy, scan the field properly for space, re-set your focus.

2. Batting Technique : there is a very simple drill to improve your power and length in your hitting.

If you are at a cricket club that has a bowling machine, set it on a full length and set the goal to hit the ball dead straight, as if you are hitting it down the ground to hit the sight screen.

Swing easy, don't look to over hit the ball, relax, watch the ball and look to make good contact, with the goal of hitting it at the sight screen.

This allows you to check your bat swing, you can't hit straight without holding the shape of your shot and making sure you are swinging through the line of the ball.

If you don't have a bowling machine, get a friend or coach to throw some balls to you in the middle and work on the drill in the same way.

You may want to get the thrower to wear a helmet, it can be quite dangerous for them when you are hitting the ball cleanly.

Be patient with this, this will improve your bat swing, weight transfer and challenge you to hold the shape of the shot whilst seeking to generate power.

Over time this will benefit your batting, especially when you start to clear the boundary and your confidence grows in your long ball hitting ability.

Strength and conditioning: your physical strength is important in the power you can generate when batting, have a look at Greg King's conditioning pages here at Cricket Fitness, you can begin these exercises without using any weights as your body is still growing, weight till your older, over 18 to begin to work with weights.

Top Ten Cricket Batting Tips .

Top Ten Cricket Batting Tips

Cricket Batting Tip No.1.

Of all the tips, this is the most important and most ignored when a batter is out of form!

The object of your attention is the ball, watch the cricket ball as if you have put a laser beam on it ... don't look for the ball ... watch it and remind yourself to watch it.

As the bowler enters the crease put your laser beam focus on the ball in the bowlers hand, from there you will track it all the way.

Cricket Batting Tip No.2.

Set your head slightly forward in your stance and set your Positive Intent to score. Head forward and still.

Batting is about Intent, the goal is to score runs off each ball.

The only decision you have is to not score.

You want your energy going to the ball.

Cricket Batting Tip No.3.

Look at space, not at the fielders.

Look at space on the field and become aware of areas that you can score runs in.

Cricket Batting Tip No.4.

The journey to a hundred runs is taken one ball at a time.

Set small goals.

Manage your innings.

Be fully present with each ball.

Cricket Batting Tip No.5.

Know how to get off-strike

Know where your singles and rotation areas are so that you can get off strike easily and effectively.

Practice this in the nets, over and over.

Cricket Batting Tip No.6.

Play to your strengths

If you are a ...

Front foot player... play to it

Back foot player ... play to it.

Cricket Batting Tip No.7.

Loss of form

If you have a dip in form, stay calm, go back to basics.

Write down your game plan , remind yourself of your strategy and the structure of your innings.

In practice, get someone to throw to your favourite shot so that you can get the feel of playing your number one stroke.

Practice hitting it till you are executing it really well.

Then work through your next favourite, and your next favourite. Get positive chemistry and emotions flowing back into your game.

Cricket Batting Tip No.8.

KISS

Keep It Simple Sid !

Remember that the goal is to score runs, the goal is not to get caught up in analyzing your batting technique.

Go through your checkpoints in practice to make sure your set up in the crease is good and then get busy with the job of scoring runs.

Cricket Batting Tip No.9.

Small errors can creep into your game from poor body position in the crease.

Check your Set Up: Grip, Stance and Batswing

Check to make sure you are sideways on, you are balanced and that your head is forward.

Check your grip and that you can swing easy through the line of the ball.

Practice your bat swing, visualize your favourite shots, practice shadow batting with a smooth easy swing.

Cricket Batting Tip No.10.

Manage your energy at the crease, have a 'relax - refocus' routine so that you conserve your mental energy for batting.

The subconscious mind wants a routine to rest on.

Step back between balls, breathe easy into your belly, let your focus go soft, clear your mind ... then come back, mark your guard and reset your focus and intent for the next ball.

Batting is as much about managing the space between balls as it is about facing the next ball, practice quietening your mind - rest on your routine at the crease.