Steve Waugh
“What goes into not getting out”
By Ray Jennings
Negative
Attitudes
The truth was he admitted that he had gone out
expecting to fail, and had. The fact that he had
made a duck was unimportant; he would have
been out soon that day anyway.
“Its all in your head. I put a lot of pressure on
myself and I was gone. I look back and
hadn't done that for a while. That was
definitely the reason why I failed”
Mentally
preparing to
bat.
When he was padded up, Waugh sat alone in a
corner of the change room, as he prefers. He
studied the game, noting the bowlers’ tactics
and their field placings and where they were
getting their runs.
Playing spinners.
Waugh said as a rule he did not play spinners by
reading them out of the wrist or hand.
“I look at how its coming down, the loop or
how much spin is on the ball. Most
spinners, you can see the way its coming
down the down the wicket, or the pace its
coming at. That’s our profession. We've got
to learn to do that”
Your batting routine
He took guard, stretched his arms and looked
around the field, not because he did not already
know where the fieldsmen were, but because he
felt routine was important when he was new to
the crease; otherwise he would be rushed and
find himself facing up before he was truly ready.
Keeping
your mind
in the
present
“It sounds corny, but I really do concentrate
only on the next ball. I don’t like to think
too far ahead. I don’t play for sessions or
days. I play the next ball as well as I can”
Concentration.
“I don’t think I played too many bad shots for
the whole season. I wasn’t on top of the
bowling, but I didn’t really look like getting
out too much, and once again that’s back to
concentration”
When to
concentrate /
batting routine.
“If you concentrate at the right times – just
when the bowler’s about to bowl the ball –
and you stop concentrating after you’ve
played it, its amazing how much easier it
gets throughout the day”
Between deliveries, he deliberately kept his mind a
blank.
“I think about nothing, just stand there, relax,
adjust my gear, be ready for the next one”
Visualisation.
“ I was even thinking about where I
was going to hit the runs”
Batting in
partnerships.
Waugh talked, to himself to sustain concentration
and to the batsman at the other end so they had
overt support.
“Nearly every ball I was saying something to
them. ‘Well watched’. ‘Well played’.
‘Remember soft hands, cut your back lift
down, just keep going.' I think its
important to talk to batsman. The fielding
side encourages the bowler all the time. I
don’t see any reason why you cant do that
when you're batting, especially with tail
enders”
Playing each
ball on its
merits.
“Lots of times, if I hit a good shot, I tend to look down
and think of nothing” he said. “Otherwise, you get
carried away with yourself and think: ‘Shit that was
a good shot. I'm feeling good now.’ Next ball you try
to do it again and you're out. Once I hit it, And I
know it’s a four, that’s it. Its all over. I get ready for
the next one.”
Assessing the pitch / planning
your innings
“It was one of those wickets where you had to work
hard…be boring, I guess…wear the bowler
down…get him to bowl where you want him to
bowl.”
He decided that it was not that the pitch was unplayable,
just that certain shots could not be played on it. If a
batsman was disciplined enough to restrain himself to
one or two shots he knew were feasible, it would be
impossible for an attack to dismiss him.
He would play few shots, scoring with pushes and glances
to leg…If the length were right he would sweep… Above
all he would not cut; on a pitch with such eccentric
bounce, it would be flirting with disaster.
Winning the
mental game.
“Mentally, you can get a win over your opponent if you
keep a really good ball out with a really good, solid
stroke. Then they are going to have to try something,
and that’s what I mean by making them bowl at you.
The next one might come on your legs and then you
work it away. It gets them really frustrated. That’s
what its all about.”