Getting that 'personal' edge

Head coach, Assistant Coach, Batting Coach, Fielding Coach, Bowling Coach, Mental Conditioning Coach, Consultant, Team Director, Masseur, Physiotherapist, Nutritionist, Trainer, Video Analyst - you find most of these designations as part of the support staff of national cricket teams as well as several franchises. As players, there are plenty of avenues to seek help if needed. But, what about those players who may not be part of the team? Who do they go to? If an active player has a problem he needs to address, who does he go to in the off-season? How about a player eager to make a comeback, whose help does he seek? There's an answer to that. Cricket is quietly going the Tennis way with personal coaches eager to offer their expertise to players in need.

Getting that competitive edge is crucial for players if they are to become the well-oiled machine that cricket demands. A team coach has to look at the needs of several players. More personal attention and more attention to detail is something he may not be able to provide all the time, as against a personal coach, who can concentrate on these details when he is working with the players, when he is away from the team or during the off-season.

Pravin Amre, who is a part of the Delhi Daredevils coaching staff, can be called a pioneer of personal coaching. Having worked with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, tutoring them in a personal capacity, Amre believes the concept is gaining mileage despite the presence of a few naysayers. Describing personal mentoring as a long journey for which mutual respect is an important aspect, Amre feels the job of a personal coach is challenging and it comes with a lot of responsibility.

"Personal coaching is very challenging. You are not allowed to work with them (players) when they are part of the team. We have to finish most of the work before the season, before the matches. This concept has not yet taken off in cricket. In tennis, the personal coach can travel with you and guide you on a daily basis. In cricket, the team coaches are in charge, and to be honest, we don't disturb their routines," says Amre to cricbuzz.

"There is more responsibility on you (as a personal coach). I am the one who started it and have been doing that for the last three-four years. It's very challenging. You are with the players when they are down, you are picking them up and then the journey begins. It's all about mutual respect. That's a very important aspect. It's a long journey. It does not have a particular time-frame. With Robin (Uthappa), we started four years back, started for just six months and this is the fourth year and we are still working. It's all about the players' hunger to improve and we are always there to help them."

Similar to students seeking extra lessons outside the classroom to gain better marks in examinations, cricketers are approaching personal coaches to help them live up to the grind of the sport. But, do these outside classes really work? It does, according to Robin Uthappa, who says he brushed aside the detractors to embrace the concept with open hands. For Uthappa, who started his cricket at the age of seven and represented the state Under-13 team two years later, getting used to the set-ups over the years was the biggest challenge he faced. While 'a lot of people contributed' to his development as a cricketer he says it wasn't until age 26 that he found someone who could guide him through ups and downs.

"I think I was 26 when I started working with Pravin Amre sir. From age 21-22 to 25, I was by myself. I didn't really have a coach so to speak. When I started with Pravin sir, there was a lot of flak for starting a concept like that (personal coach). People were always insisting that it will not work because the concept of having personal coaches in cricket was unheard of. A few years ago when it began, there were a lot of naysayers and there were doubts. But today, when you look at it, most of the boys in the Indian team have their own personal coaches. It adds a lot of value to cricketers because you have one person to confide in, trust him with your skills and one person who understands your skills. There is a certain chemistry when you work with that person. There is a certain amount of trust, there is a certain amount of faith in that person, when it comes to sharing things about your sport," says Uthappa.

"There is immense pressure that comes with the game of cricket, more so in India," says Uthappa, further emphasising on the need for opting for a personal coach. "It (Personal coach) is something that you need, especially in a country like India, because the pressure is that much more and if you want to keep performing you need to be consistent, you need to stay fit. There are so many things that lie with playing cricket well, in India especially. So I think for me it has worked, it has had a positive impact on my cricket. And whoever has got a personal coach today would find themselves in a far more comfortable position," he declares.

The different formats of the game and the technical and mental changes that is needed when it comes to adjusting to the formats means that a personal coach will have his work cut out during the training sessions.

"It involves both technique and the mental aspect. It is also more challenging with the modern batsmen. Because in six months time, they are playing T20 cricket, One-Day cricket, Four-day cricket. This is the reason today's batsmen need someone to monitor them. Sometimes, small things creep in. Our watchful eyes are seeing them constantly and we don't allow the flaws to sneak in," says Amre and goes on to make a pertinent point. "It involves more work to maintain something rather than doing new things."

"When it comes to longer versions, four-day cricket, it's all about temperament, it's all about decision making, playing as long as you can, staying at the wicket. Aspects like leaving the ball, defending, things like these may appear boring, but you have to do it because that format demands that. Adjusting to seaming conditions, tough conditions, playing on a fourth-day turning wicket, these are many aspects where your technique is tested. That is what we replicate in our practice sessions. We prepare them to be better cricketers," he says while elaborating on the demands of the different formats.

"One-Day cricket, it's fifty overs and we have to make sure that the batsmen play all the 50 overs. In T20, strike-rate is the most important aspect. T20 cricket is more pressure on the batsmen because a player's mentality changes after just two dot balls. It's very important to believe in yourself, backing your own technique, backing yourself. These things may look simple but sometimes it is very difficult to execute. So that's where the player has to go through all the grind beforehand, and that's the work we have to do before the season," Amre adds.

A team's performance is determined by individuals. Be it with a bat in the hand or the leather sphere, a player is out there on his own and how he performs has to do with a lot of factors combining to make that moment. Learning, unlearning or re-learning, players are always doing some of these and it would do them no harm if they had a guiding force to help them achieve the perfection that they crave for.