G Longley: Innovative Aussie helping New Zealand (31 Jul 1998)

31 July 1998

Innovative Aussie helping New Zealand

Geoff Longley

A poster on the wall in Ashley Ross's office sums up his thoughts: "Innovation -- the best way to predict the future is to create it."

Ross is introducing talented New Zealand cricketers to what he believes could be a quantum leap forward in the game.

Ross, 35, is New Zealand Cricket's new player development manager and has brought many visionary ideas from Melbourne to the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University.

From there he is working at increasing the skill level of the leading players by some revolutionary methods, not those in the MCC textbooks.

He believes sports science has more to offer nowadays than the coaching manuals and says it is also important to quantify the gains players are making.

Frustrated at an inability to gain acceptance for his ideas in Australia, Ross moved to Christchurch in April. He impressed New Zealand Cricket chief executive Chris Doig and operations manager John Reid in a three-day "trial" and was in turn impressed by their receptiveness to new ideas.

Already he claims he can measure improvement in players at the BIL-New Zealand Cricket Academy by 10 to 15 per cent in the first few months.

"The players have taken to the concepts enthusiastically and that's always the key factor," said Ross, who has been coaching in Victoria for the past 13 years, culminating in being Victoria's coaching director and assistant coach of the state side. Ross says he wants to take the mystery out of the game through statistical analysis and systematically measure improvement. But he does not want to detract from the game's intrinsic charm and make the players robots.

"We are not trying to create a video game and never will with the players being human. What we are trying to do is get the percentages on our side by making the players more effective and self-sufficient."

Ross said every time a player makes a mistake he seizes on it as an educational opportunity.

Ross, who has a background in physical education and sports science, wants cricket to learn from other sports.

"While W. G. Grace and Don Bradman did things their way we are now in the modern era and can develop much further. When the bat becomes part of the body we need to know the effect it has on your balance. If it is kept closer batsmen can operate more efficiently."

Ross questions where the modern game is going and feels another major step forward could be taken. He said New Zealand, as a second tier-test playing nation with a small player base, was an ideal place to begin.

"We could light a bushfire here that could go around the world."

Ross's thoughts are built around the mechanics of the game and how to improve upon them.

For batsmen, Ross gets them to practice high-quality repetitions of shots, after making sure they are equipped with all the fundamentals.

"Stance, Step, Stop, Shoulder Straight, Strike!" are the catch-words for batsmen on the door into the indoor arena.

Ross then gets the players to measure themselves through a series of 20 attempts at playing a shot, for instance a cover drive, and gets them to grade themselves. If they play the perfect shot with all aspects in balance they can award themselves 5 per cent. They add their "perfect shots" to get a percentage out of 100 and then seek to better it in following sessions.

Bowlers work on grid patterns where they want to be landing the ball.

"It's a matter of breaking it all down so we can see exactly why and where things are happening."

Ross said his concepts were welcomed by the top players in Victoria, but the administrators would not embrace them.

"As long as the Australian team is doing well that's all they really care about. But winning can hide a number of evils and Australia has been fortunate in having some super-talented players like the Waughs and Shane Warne."

Ross was a first-grade player in Melbourne until a car accident curtailed his career. "I was never going to be a top player, but it made me work and think harder about things," he said.

Ross will work with the elite-level players in New Zealand who come to the HPC but hopes major associations will also adopt the philosophy.

"The feedback we have had initially from touring around has been encouraging. Mark Greatbatch, who was demonstrating for us in Central Districts, thought it might keep him going longer in the game."

Ross said he saw New Zealand as a cricketing country hungry to improve and re-evaluate where it was heading and by what means.

"I believe we are at the cutting edge of technology here and hope some results will start to be seen in the coming season. I want the players to be able to think things through for themselves rather than be relying on a coach all the time. If a player comes to me with a problem I want him to work it through and solve it."

Ross has also helped the Australian women's team, which maintained its dominance over New Zealand at international level last season with a Shell Rosebowl success and World Cup win.

"We are trying to give them tools to perform better. Obviously you bowl or bat as well as you can, but some days the likes of a Mark Waugh will be better than you and you have to acknowledge that.

"But you know that at least you have done your best," Ross said.

Source :: The Canterbury Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)