Aggregate the marginal gains

This weekend proved to be something of a mixed bag for us at Kimberley. We went from the highs of a sensational innings of 180 by Dan Birch on Saturday, to the low of being 8 for 4 in our biggest game of the season on Sunday. What I was most pleased about though, was the way we fought on both days to push for the win, particularly Sunday, when it would have been very easy to roll up and disappear into the night, or the early afternoon, at Sandiacre.

                Sunday’s performance was actually, in many ways, one of the best I have seen from a Kimberley side I have played in. That may sound strange I know, having been beaten quite comfortably in the end. However, the way that we fought back from the brink to post a score, demonstrated to quite a few spectators, and members of the team, that we do have the backbone to sustain a challenge when the going gets tough. Dominic Wheatley innings of 50 was without doubt his best for the club, and is another sign of the way he is converting his undoubted talent into consistent performances. In the field, we were dynamic, relentless, and perhaps one might think a little unlucky with decisions on reflection. Ultimately though, we were beaten by a better team on the day, and we wish Sandiacre all the best in the Final.

                It is starting to get to the stage of the season now where you start to ask yourself, what can we do to get better in order to go in the future from contenders to winners? There is no easy formula of course. One of the main attractions for me when joining Kimberley was the fact they play by the rules. There is no temptation to start throwing money at players, which of course gives you a perceived advantage when wanting to challenge, but is not always a sure fire way to success.

So what can you do to break out of the pack and become top dog? For the answer, I have looked to take inspiration from Team GB outstanding cycling team. Their Head Honcho is a man called Dave Brailsford. Once again at the Olympics, the British Team have dominated on the track, winning 7 out of 10 events, in addition to a silver and bronze. This has left many teams puzzled about how the British are able to dominate so often. Is it through some hidden technology or wizardry coaching they ask. For Brailsford it is simple – just ‘aggregate the marginal gains’. In simple terms, this just means that by making small improvements in lots of different areas, it enables you to make bigger improvements overall and thus stay one step ahead of the rest. Here is an example – when Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy are waiting between races, they wear electrically heated ‘hot pants’ that keep their leg muscles warm, something inspired by Formula One’s tyre warmers.



guardian.co.uk (c) Dave Brailsford has a mantra based on aggregating the marginal gains

So how can this help us at Kimberley? Well as much as it would be funny to see Richard Adams wearing electrically heated leg warmers during tea, I don’t think that they will necessarily be in our budget or prove quite as effective. However, if each player starts to examine their own game in more detail to see where they can improve, it might just give us enough areas to work on to make that difference. It could be something as simple as hitting more balls in a warm up to get your eyes fully attuned to the conditions, or becoming more specialised with your fielding positions and warming up specifically. We often see slip fielders practising using a cradle, but how often do we see point fielders practising fielding balls hit square off a bat with spin taken into account?

Hopefully, if we start to think more carefully through the winter about the smaller components of our game, it might just give us the edge to ensure we stay in contention into September rather than just August. One thing that is for certain is that this weekend clearly showed that we have the quality and the fight to do just that in the future.