Ingredients for Success

All Great Players Possess These Qualities...

1. ENJOYMENT - You must enjoy playing in order to perform well.

2. 100% WORK RATE - You must practice regularly and give 100%. Practice good habits, not bad ones.

3. TOTAL FOCUS - You must be totally focussed, both in practice and in matches. Always make your practice specific and constructive. Practice your powers of concentration.

4. DISCIPLINE - You must be disciplined in your practice so you can be disciplined in matches.

5. SELF-BELIEF - You must believe that you can do the job, both with the bat and with the ball, and have the confidence that you can perform well, meeting realistic targets. Remember - Strive for calculated confidence, not mindless arrogance!

6. CONSISTENCY - Aim for consistency, both in practice and in matches. Consistency leads to success.

7. TECHNIQUE - You must work to achieve good technique, in batting and bowling. Keep working on your technique, to maintain and improve it.

8. GOAL SETTING - Always set personal goals, in practice and in matches. Your goals should always be: S - Specific M - Measurable A - Achievable R - Realistic T - Timely

9. PROFESSIONALISM - You need to be dedicated to your sport, in appearance, attitude and performance.

10. DETERMINATION - You must be determined in practice, and hungry for success in matches. If you want it enough, you will achieve it.

11. FITNESS - You must condition your body with regular training. The fitter you are, the longer you can concentrate and the better you will perform under pressure.

IF YOU LACK IN ANY OF THESE AREAS, YOU ARE NOT GIVING YOURSELF THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS.

PINPOINT YOUR WEAKER AREAS AND WORK HARD TO IMPROVE THEM.

IRON OUT THE FLAWS AND YOU WILL BE ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.

IF YOU WANT TO BE BETTER THAN THE NEXT PLAYER, BE MORE FOCUSED THAN HIM. TRAIN HARDER AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF MORE THAN HE DOES.

Psychology of the Top Players:
Top players are all psychologically strong and focused.
Top payers will always take on the testing realistic challenges.
Top players pay more attention to detail than average players.

Their practice is specific and detailed; their practice is of high quality.
They train hard and with passion and their practice is always disciplined.

With the above in order, when these players are in a pressurised match situation, they put faith in their technique and ability because of the meticulous way they prepare during practice. All they have to do is focus on the situation in hand, let if flow naturally, watch the ball and enjoy the challenge.

If you desert your practice, your performance, teammates and success will desert you.

Great players set high standards. Never drop your standards of practice. Discipline, professionalism. Encourage others to rise to yours. Be proud of what you stand for.

GREAT PLAYERS:
Great players take on the challenges more often than the ordinary players. They have the confidence to succeed, they are not afraid of failure, they back themselves. Great players are very good at applying themselves under pressure and taking control of the situation, they succeed more often than not in a crisis.

In order to build up an attitude like this, they had to take on a challenge once during a pressurised situation of a cricket match. They were once Mr Average but when the opportunity arose they went that step further and took on the challenge. If you never take that step when a realistic but challenging situation arises you will never know your true potential and capabilities and you stay as Mr Average. You must back yourself and believe you can do it, go for it with total confidence but make sure the challenge is realistic and testing. If you keep succeeding you can start going for even more testing challenges.

Great players rarely suffer from mindless arrogance; this is a dangerous attitude to adopt. If you get in to this state of mind your form and success may start to desert you. This is because you are not applying the normal focus to your, technique, game plans and mental attitude. You have become lazy with your mental application and have taken your success for granted. You had to work and apply yourself to become successful so why stop now, go back to working at it again. It was a winning formula, so sticks with it, great players do.

There is an element of “WHO DARES WINS” in the heart of a great player.