Last night saw the second of the 3 Hampshire master classes at King Edward VI School, Southampton. After a fantastic Simon Jones Master Class last week, it was going to be hard for Nic 'Skeg' Pothas to follow with his keeping session. However, follow he did and with great enthusiasm and belief! Each one of the 12 young keepers that attended were extremely attentive and 'open armed' with what Pothas was delivering and ALL learned a great deal and took away points that they will cherish for the rest of their careers.

The session began with a quick warm-up to get the blood pumping and the intensity actualised; this was then followed by an extremely interesting discussion surrounding wicket keeping kit. Pothas suggested that due to the keeping glove been an extension of ones hand and a huge attribute for a WK - this must be carefully chosen when purchasing the equipment. "Pinkies" & thumbs must be able to make contact whilst the hand is in the glove otherwise all sorts of problems may occur and the glove must mould around the shape of ones hand to encourage keeping your hands together the majority of the time - two extremely important points that were not known to many of the kids in attendance before the beginning of the course. Pads - these must be as small and as comfortable as possible! Keepers need to move and should not be hampered from doing so by lugging large pads around with them. Finally, footwear - Spikes are a must, Pothas said, "England is a wet country and keepers must be able to move quickly at the last minute, sliding around in 'flats' is not an option". Nic was very thorough in his explanation of particular kit to purchase stating the real importance of it when being a wicket keeper.

Once all kit conversations had been exhausted, it was down to the 'nitty gritty' hard work of being a keeper. Agility drills were in place all over the hall for each keeper to take part in. Emphasis was very much on being in the correct position during each of these 'fitness' type warm up drills which proved extremely difficult to watch yet alone take part in. This soon progressed into lots and lots of catching skills and drills with focus being placed on basic techniques all the way through. Nic was excellent in the way that he suggested there was no complete correct answer for particular movements and techniques, using current Australian WK, Brad Haddin as an example of being slightly apart from the traditional keeping coaching manual. Instead, he gave his personal thoughts and advice on certain topics stating comfort as a vital factor in ones technical decision making.

Initial attention was given to 'standing back' and certain stances and movements for this before looking at the dreaded (although not in the case of many of the 12 attendees last night) 'standing up' technique. Innovative, fun and new drills mixed with experience and in depth discussions between the boys and Nic created a recipe for improvement and enjoyment across the 3 hours.

As is the case with all 3 master classes, each of the boys went away with a ticket to a Pro40 game of their choice at the Rose Bowl to watch their hero in action and one lucky winner, Jez Pidgeon walked away with 2 x Test Match Tickets to watch England vs Sri Lanka next summer. Another lucky winner, and it must be mentioned that this particular lad displays all 3 disciplines when on show for his club and occasionally district, James Burgess walked away with a signed shirt from Nic after been drawn 'out of the hat' by the Hampshire star at the end of the session.

Many thanks to those of you who attended, please do continue to work at your game and believe, like Nic said, that you are the best! Thanks also to Mr. Eades of King Edward VI School who supported the session giving advice when needed to many of the lads during the 3 hours and also to to LMI Photography for getting footage for Hampshire Cricket and the regions press.

We look forward to the 3rd and final master class of 2010 with the Michael Lumb Batting Master Class next week!!

Browny