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Unlocking Cricket's Flow State with Expert Prashant Patel | Part 1

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with The Legends and Lads Cricket Podcast. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of flow state in cricket with Prashant Patel, the first flow state cricket coach. Discover how this unique mental state can transform performance, featuring insights from Virat Kohli’s legendary innings and the science behind individual techniques.

Whether you’re a player looking to improve your game or a fan curious about the mental strategies behind cricket, this episode provides expert analysis and practical tips to enhance focus, decision-making, and overall performance on the field.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify: Legends and Lads Cricket Podcast

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Unlocking Cricket's Flow State with Expert Prashant Patel | Part 1

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In this episode, hosts Chirunandhan Srinath & Krishna Maitreya introduce Prashant Patel, a flow state cricket coach and ECB level four coach, known for his work in biomechanics and coaching England's fast bowlers. The discussion delves into the concept of flow state in cricket, using Virat Kohli's memorable knock against Pakistan as an example. Prashant explains how flow state involves adapting to different situations and how individual motor signatures influence performance. He emphasizes the importance of personalized techniques, rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all approach, and discusses the role of biomechanics in fast bowling, highlighting the need for personalized coaching to enhance performance while preventing injuries.

Behind the Mic

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"So, Steve (Smith) is really interesting. If you watch his bottom hand, traditionally, you've got a V between your thumb and your index finger, the webbing in between. Traditionally, coaches will tell you, get both of your Vs in a line and put it down the back of the spine of the bat. Some will say move it a little bit this way or that way, whatever. Now, if you watch Steve Smith, what he'll do for a split second, the right hand will almost turn 90 degrees at one point in his swing."

 

“Virat, when he catches, for instance, and this is a good way for coaches to actually see it. If you boom bat a ball, nice and flat at someone to catch, what you'll notice is, say for Virat, whenever he catches on the left-hand side, whenever he catches, the nose will point exactly to the ball and track it all the way into the hands on the left. But when he catches it at high speed on the right-hand side, he'll catch it. The hands will be behind him, but it almost looks lazy. He doesn't track it all the way into the hands.”

 

“If you look really carefully the next time you watch, say Virat Kohli bat, if you watch, his nose will point to the umpire, and if it's a right-arm over bowler, the bowler will now be on his right-hand side whenever he bowls. The interesting bit is when he gets coached technically to face left arm over, which is a different angle, they'll move the feet, hips, shoulders, everything else, but the nose still went to the umpire. So, all of a sudden, now he's looking at a left arm over with the left eye, which isn't the non-motorized side. So, what happens is you take in information slowly, and when you look at the stats at that particular point, his stats were worse against left-arm bowlers.” (There is something called a motorized eye and a non-motorized eye, something like a dominant eye and a non-dominant eye, for Virat, the right eye was dominant)

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