A coach helps a player discover himself: Bharat Arun

[Switchblade]

http://www.bcci.tv/news/2014/features-and-interviews/9244/a-coach-helps-a-player-discover-himself-bharat-arun The term, ‘support staff’ has gained utmost importance in modern sport. And the fact that coaches are included in that term is apt too, for at the highest level sportsmen don’t need so much coaching as they need support. That support can come in many forms. It could be an observation that would help a player get rid of a minor technical glitch or it could be a simple pat on the back. Sometimes, merely lending an empathetic ear is all that a player needs. The key is to understand what kind of support is required at a given moment. Team India’s new bowling coach, Bharat Arun, believes that coaching in international cricket is mainly about man management. To be able to help a player technically, a coach needs to first understand what ticks him mentally and emotionally. Coaching, he says, “Is a journey where you help the bowler discover himself.†In a chat with BCCI.TV, Bharat Arun opens up about his coaching methods, shares his experiences of working with cricketers at different levels and offers insights into how he deals with every member of India’s current bowling attack in a way as unique as the individual himself. You’ve been with the team for a while now. Have you settled into the dynamics of the team? It has been good so far. The fact that I have worked with most of the boys earlier and I know them pretty well made it a lot easier for me to settle down. What was the first task you set out to achieve when you joined the team in England? It was a huge challenge for me and there were great expectations. It was also the time when we hadn’t too well in England. So, the first thing was to try to figure out what exactly the problem was and to create a positive atmosphere in the team and motivate the boys to get out of the difficult phase. We started out really well in England and the victory at Lord’s was one of the greatest in Indian cricket. We couldn’t sustain that momentum because we fell short on experience of playing in England. Over the years when we have traveled overseas, we have seen that our bowlers have not been able to thrive in helpful conditions, generally because they took time to determine the right lengths. Do you see a bit of improvement in that regards? Since the early 2000s the Indian team has dispelled the fact that we don’t win overseas. We have won considerable number of Test matches and have come very close to winning the series on many occasions. So, the trend has definitely changed. One major factor is that now there is a lot of foreign exposure for our players. The Under-19 team plays a lot abroad and so does the India A team. That is crucial because no matter how well you simulate the conditions, there is nothing like actually playing in those conditions. Due to this exposure the boys are well aware and more mature when they get into the national team. Making mistakes is the best way to learn and these boys have the chance of making those mistakes early in their careers. When they graduate to the Indian team, they have already learnt from their mistakes. The bowlers know when they go to England, they have to bowl fuller. In Australia it’s back of a length. But sometimes the implementation is not consistent. Why does that happen? According to me here the bowler understanding his strength is the key. For someone who swings the ball, the length is always fuller, no matte the conditions, whereas a bowler who gets lateral movement, has to pitch it that much shorter. Once you are aware your own skill and what you can do with it, you will do well. How do you go about making the bowlers understand that? As a coach the first challenge lies in you understanding them and then on the basis of that helping them understand themselves better. Sometimes, what the coach thinks of the bowler and what the bowler thinks of himself can be two different things. So, you first need to know what the bowler thinks of himself. These guys have reached here believing in certain things and perceiving themselves in a certain way. With many bowlers what they think they are doing and what they are actually doing is very different. Bowlers rely on feel. You rely on sensory perception when it comes to your release, your body movement and everything else. That’s where the coaching and the video analysis come in. With the help of the videos we show the bowler what is actually happening although what he feels would be totally different. Another thing is how the ball behaves when he leaves it. A coach tells a bowler to observe what the ball does when his arm is closer to the body at the time of release and when it is away. Once the bowler has this information, he can use it to his advantage in various match situations. This is what game awareness is all about. You have coached teams at various levels – U-19, Ranji Trophy – before joining the Test team. How does the process differ at different levels? Coaching more or less remains the same. What changes is man management. At the U-19 level you are managing kids who want to excel and here you are dealing with grown men who know what they are doing. At the junior levels the mistakes are a lot more and you need a lot of patience. As the senior level your job is to add value to the already developed style of the bowlers. Building trust is a bigger challenge at the senior level. The pressures remain the same because for a kid playing at U-19 level is as much pressure as it is for an international cricketer to play Test cricket. The role varies according to the situation as well. Sometimes, you need to point out a technical glitch whereas other times a bowler just needs positive feedback and motivation. No matter how experienced a player is, he will always benefit from the right feedback. The trick is to understand what a player needs at that particular time. This is a very young bowling attack that we have. In a way is it easier to mentor the youngsters as they are more open to suggestions and lessons? Age has nothing to do with how open or close one is. I have come across many young bowlers who are pretty rigid in their ways and some experienced ones who are very open to suggestions. When you come across a player who is rather closed, and you feel like you can really add value to his game, you need to find a way to reach out to him and knowing what ticks him. The key is to make them comfortable but still be hard on them. It’s about tough love. And it only comes with trust. How differently do you deal with someone as experienced as Ishant Sharma and a new comer like Varun Aaron? Ishant has already played 60-odd Test matches. He is very smart and knows what he is doing. My task as is to add a new dimension to his bowling. I have discussions with him and try to learn things from him as to what he did to get to where he is. Using that information and taking into account his technique, we come across a few things that we can do to add something to his bowling and make him more efficient. At this level you have to improve constantly. We call it the one per cent factor. The players who constantly look to be one per cent better today than they were yesterday, will come out on top. For this small improvement, you need to pay close attention to detail. With someone who is new, you use the experience of Ishant and package it to him in a way that would suit his style. You find out who is the bowler the youngster looks up to and why he admires him. Then you pick aspects of the role model’s game and use them to improve the youngster. You identify a few things that he can do to bridge the gap between him and his role model and convince him to do it. Do you also use Ishant as the catalyst to communicate with the other bowlers? Absolutely. Ishant is the leader of this attack. The bowlers look up to Ishant and sometimes, when he comes up with an idea and talks directly to the younger guys, it creates much more impact than the coach saying it. It is smart to get the senior bowler speak to his colleagues directly about what he did right and the lessons he learnt. You and Ashwin go a long way and I’ve seen him working closely with you in the nets. What kind of role do you play with him? With Ashwin my role is more of a guiding hand. He is a very intelligent bowler and sometimes, when you have a lot of variety, you don’t know what to use when. I just give him feedback regarding that. Sometimes, when you have played for so long, bad habits creep in. During a particular series, you may do something that brings you success in those conditions. But when you do too much of it over a course of time, it becomes a habit. You unwittingly take it into the next series where the conditions might not be conducive to that particular thing. That’s when you need to go back to the basics and clear the slate in order to fill it with tactics that will suit the next series. That is the key to succeed in all conditions. Ashwin is a phenomenally skilled bowler and we just need to ensure he is much closer to the basics in order to use his skills more appropriately. He comes across as a very intense cricketer. Do you, at times, also have to ask him to take it a bit easy? Sometimes, being over-aroused is as bad as being under-aroused. There is an optimum level of arousal that a player needs to maintain, and that’s what we mean by controlled aggression. When you get too deep into something, you don’t see the little but important things around you. We keep reminding him not to get there and help him maintain the optimum arousal level. Once we do that, he is okay. Is it fair to say that bowlers and pacers in particular are much less complicated in the head than batsmen? That’s probably because a bowler always has another chance but a batsman doesn’t. As a bowler even if you are hit, you can go back, reassess your options, come back to bowl a great spell and get the batsman. When a batsman gets out, all he can do is sit and mull over it, sometimes for days, before he gets another chance. That’s probably the reason why the bowlers don’t over think as much as the batsmen. Do you encourage the bowlers to work on their batting – it not only adds to their value in the team but also makes them better equipped to read the batsmen? The most important weapon for a bowler is to have a psychological impact on the batsman wherein he creates a doubt in his mind. To be able to create that doubt and outthink him, the bowler needs to first know what the batsman is thinking. That’s why we encourage them to bat in the nets and we also talk a lot about batting with them. We talk about what kind of price tag they need to put on their wickets. Lower order runs are very frustrating for the opposition and a massive confidence boost for the bowler when they come on to bowl. What impresses you the most about the current bunch of bowlers you are working with? First is of course that we have four bowlers who can clock high speeds constantly. Another thing I love about this attack is how closely knit they are. There is a very healthy competition among them but they also genuinely enjoy one another’s success. When one bowler is down, the others pull him up. They spend a lot of time together, in the nets, in the gym and also in the evenings. It is very heartening to see.

[express bowling]

Very interesting interview. Very different from the past foreign bowling coaches. A lot more effort and attempt to understand the bowlers.

[Lord]

Very interesting interview. Very different from the past foreign bowling coaches. A lot more effort and attempt to understand the bowlers.

yes Dawes used to sound clueless at times

[Gollum]

We need results.

[Pagalpanti]

We need results.

we need to be patient. I'd rather this attack be given a good long run before going back to trundlers like Vinay, PK etc..

[express bowling]

we need to be patient. I'd rather this attack be given a good long run before going back to trundlers like Vinay' date=' PK etc..[/quote'] Yep. These 5 pacers ( not Dhawal ) need to be given a long run. All of them can become good bowlers within a short time if they are backed properly and given a continuous run

[Lord]

Yep. These 5 pacers ( not Dhawal ) need to be given a long run. All of them can become good bowlers within a short time if they are backed properly and given a continuous run

Yeah and backups can be Pankaj,Pandey and Bumrah

[express bowling]

Yeah and backups can be Pankaj' date='Pandey and Bumrah[/quote'] Yep. But Bumrah looks like the most promising backup atm.

[tweaker]

How does bowlers deteriorate in the hands of this support staff.Many fast bowlers like Munaf,etc comes into limelight without special coaching.But when the support staff lays hands on them,instead of improving they deteriorate.

[Temujin Khaghan]

I think I am a complete pervert :D anyone else read this differently? ---- Sometimes, being over-aroused is as bad as being under-aroused. There is an optimum level of arousal that a player needs to maintain, and that’s what we mean by controlled aggression. When you get too deep into something, you don’t see the little but important things around you. We keep reminding him not to get there and help him maintain the optimum arousal level. Once we do that, he is okay. :hysterical::hysterical: straight from kamasutra!!! this line is the killer - when you get deep into something an over-aroused person does not see important things around him? :giggle:

[rkt.india]

Yep. But Bumrah looks like the most promising backup atm.

For me, it is Pandey.

[Temujin Khaghan]

We keep reminding him not to get there and help him maintain the optimum arousal level. :cantstop:

[kaptaan]

Instead of dhawal Kulkarni they should have gone with bumrah

[Lord]

Instead of dhawal Kulkarni they should have gone with bumrah

Hes injured.Still Pankaj could have been a better choice

[bharat297]

How does bowlers deteriorate in the hands of this support staff.Many fast bowlers like Munaf' date='etc comes into limelight without special coaching.But when the support staff lays hands on them,instead of improving they deteriorate.[/quote'] I don't think it's fair to blame the coaches. Most of the time, these bowlers get found out in Test cricket. Pretty much for every new bowler (or even batsman), when they first come on to the scene there is this huge unknown about the bowler. Batsmen don't know the pace they bowl, the variations, the lines, the lengths, the field settings teams use with that bowler, etc. Therefore there is this sense of mystery about the bowler. Then teams start analysing all of that stuff. They will break down, through video analysis, every single aspect of a bowler. This sort of thing won't happen at domestic level. Suddenly, they are playing games more frequently then they ever did before, against batsmen and teams that know their strengths and weaknesses better than ever before. Bowlers can struggle initially with the mental and physical demands of this. Thats why bowlers sometimes drop off after a year or two, or lose pace, lose accuracy. The best bowlers are the ones that can bounce back after that. A similar thing can be said about batsmen too. That's why in 2012 when Virat Kohli started going through his incredible purple patch of runs, I always thought "I will reserve my judgement of him for how he responds to his first major form slump". After the drop in form in England, it's good to see him responding in style now. It shows he is a class above.

[tweaker]

I don't think it's fair to blame the coaches. Most of the time, these bowlers get found out in Test cricket. Pretty much for every new bowler (or even batsman), when they first come on to the scene there is this huge unknown about the bowler. Batsmen don't know the pace they bowl, the variations, the lines, the lengths, the field settings teams use with that bowler, etc. Therefore there is this sense of mystery about the bowler. Then teams start analysing all of that stuff. They will break down, through video analysis, every single aspect of a bowler. This sort of thing won't happen at domestic level. Suddenly, they are playing games more frequently then they ever did before, against batsmen and teams that know their strengths and weaknesses better than ever before. Bowlers can struggle initially with the mental and physical demands of this. Thats why bowlers sometimes drop off after a year or two, or lose pace, lose accuracy. The best bowlers are the ones that can bounce back after that. A similar thing can be said about batsmen too. That's why in 2012 when Virat Kohli started going through his incredible purple patch of runs, I always thought "I will reserve my judgement of him for how he responds to his first major form slump". After the drop in form in England, it's good to see him responding in style now. It shows he is a class above.

:hatsoff:

[ThePhenomenal1]

I like this guy, happy that we have 4 pacers clocking 140+ thats the right attitude firstly He has got to sort out the wicket problem - india can't take 20 wickets! They only did it at Lords and thats it.

[kaptaan]

What impresses you the most about the current bunch of bowlers you are working with? First is of course that we have four bowlers who can clock high speeds constantly.

This :dance:

[StatsRock]

I was ROTFLing as soon as I read the title : Bharat Arun in this forum?? For those unaware of him, Bharat Arun is the Trundler of Trundlers :cantstop: The original Vinay Kumar, the Trundleron-ka-Sher, all that is Arun, and he had a pot belly to boot. Anyone remembers his first ball in Test cricket, vs Sri Lanka at Kanpur 1986-87 : ran in and slipped and fell at the bowling crease :cantstop: He is the Trundler No.1 as far as my cricketing watching(31+ yrs) is concerned. However my best memory of Arun is this: Came rolling in, Inzamam Style to bowl to Miandad in the Sharjah Cup Apr 1987 game. Miandad had all the time in the world to step aside and smack a 4 through cover. That is one of my fondest memories of Miandad. To imagine Arun's run-up in your mind, mentally picture an inflated ballon dropping to the floor making 2 mini-bounces before settling - his bounding in to bowl was like those mini-bounces.

[Gollum]

Talk nah, your boys can't even get tailenders out.