BATTING TIPS: Getting in the zone with Chris Nash

A veteran of over 500 senior appearances, Chris Nash outlines how mental preparation is just as important as the physical...

Visualise, visualise, visualise

If you're preparing for a season you want to tap into all of your best innings and remember how you felt.

Before a season I'm always looking at fixture lists. I am visualising who the bowlers are going to be, how they're bowling and who we're playing. You can prepare for games by acting them out before they happen.

If I'm playing at Old Trafford for the first game, for example, I put myself there. You can visualise the first couple of games. That's one thing you can do a lot of.

Shadow batting

Murray Goodwin used to take a bat home with him to the hotel. I've spent many hours in my lounge practising. Stand in front of a window or a mirror and see what you're doing.

Nets are great but I think shadow batting is a really good tool. In this situation it is all you can do, but it holds real value. You can observe yourself first hand without worrying about a ball.

If you're going to do shadow batting, do it with a bit of purpose. Steve Smith gets used to getting in particular situations; you imagine bowlers and you start visualising them coming through their action.

People probably think it is stupid but now it is all you've got. You can get used to your movements, alignments, where you bat is and act out an innings before it has happened.

Focus on your game's intricacies

There is not a lot else going on so why not pay a bit of attention on your game? That feeling when you get a hundred or you win a game… that is why you play. That is at any level.

When you go into a practice session, the most important time is the five minutes before. That’s the time when you can make it worthwhile or a complete waste of time. If you're going to shadow bat, why not do it properly and get something from it?

If I want to shadow bat I might be doing it because I want my bat to come down straight. If I'm going to do fitness I might want to lose a bit of weight or get fitter. Everything you do, there needs to be something behind it.