A Fielding Focus
A FIELDING
FOCUS
Ex-England international and gun fielder
Lydia Greenway shared her expertise at our
National Conference in October last year.
T
hese days the game
has improved and
developed at such a
pace that you can’t just
be a specialist batter or
bowler, you have to also
be an awesome fielder. I
was very much a
middle-order batter so
for me to get into the
England team I had to
keep my fielding at a
certain standard.
Helping others do that is
something I feel very
passionate about and I
think as coaches it’s our
role to give players as
much time as possible to
work on their fielding,
because ultimately we
want to create more
game-changers, not just
with bat or ball but in
the field as well.
I’ve developed a fielding
framework since retiring
from cricket in 2016,
based on what I’ve
seen from playing and
coaching at all the
different levels of
the game.
Players need more
guidance now, from us,
on how to excel in the
fi eld. It’s been easy for
coaches to say “do what
feels right to you” but
with catching and diving
in particular I don’t think
that’s helpful enough.
We want to be building
fielders who can operate
within the ring, on the
outer ring and in the
slips: robust, versatile
players.
The attitude and
mentality that underpins
the entire fielding
framework is: “I want the
ball to come to me.”
Without that, they are
already on the back foot.
At the bottom of the
framework is movement
patterns, which is
something players
starting out in the game
need to spend a lot
more time on. Without
those, they won’t be
able to perform the
technical side of fielding
efficiently enough.
43