The French Connection
Thursday, November 18, 2010 : The Ashes, England, Tests
We are on the brink of an Ashes Series and no-one, and I mean NO-ONE is talking about Matt Prior’s keeping. That’s a mark of how far he has come, but who is this down to?
Well firstly Matt Prior himself, who has put in a tremendous amount of work improving his once dubious technique, but also his wicket-keeping coach Bruce French.
At the start of last summer Prior was under pressure. Craig Kieswetter had come into the England set-up and done extremely well in the Twenty20 World Cup. Luckily for Prior, Kieswetters form tailed off and although Stephen Davies has done well and is in the squad, Priors form has kept him as England’s number one.
Former England Test Keeper (16 Tests) Bruce French started working with Prior as a part-time coaching consultant in two years ago. At the end of the summer of 2009 he was formally given a role within the ECB in charge of England keepers at all levels.
What has changed? French’s main thrust to good keeping is posture and core stability and just catching balls to hone this. Prior has spent hours developing a Z shape posture, rather like a goal keeper moving to save a penalty. This gives him the best starting to point to move his feet or launch himself into a dive.
Although Prior is still a crucial focal point for the success and confidence of the team, as any keeper would be, we are not expecting him to fail. Bruce French, take a bow son.
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