Prodigy Coach Forum

Guru · Pro Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 50

Collapsing anchors is where you have two anchors - one linked to a negative action or outcome and one linked to a positive. You use the power of the positive anchor to diffuse or counteract the power of the negative one, causing its effects to collapse.

The scenario here is a batsman backing away to square leg in anticipation of quicker bowling, and how we might best help him correct this.

We anchored the approach of the quick bowler to a squeeze of the bottom hand on the bat handle, and tested the anchor. True to form, the batsman backed away.

We then asked him to visualize a less quick bowler, where he would confidently step towards the line of the ball. Once firmly established, we then anchored this to a squeeze on the top hand on the bat handle, and tested the anchor with the requisite result.

Finally we asked him to once more visualize the quick bowler coming in and told him to fire both anchors at once - ie squeeze both hands at once.
Did he step away to square leg? Answer - NO.
We tested using the bowling machine set at a speed he would have normally recoiled at, so we could see whether he would physically back away. Answer - NO. So we were satisfied, and (more to the point) he was satisfied, that the quick bowler anchor had been collapsed.

The benefit here is that, by using the hands squeeze as the kinaesthetic anchor, any recurrence of the negative would be dealt with on a ball-by-ball basis by continually collapsing the anchor. Eventually a new positive anchor could be linked to the bottom hand squeeze on the bat handle - thus giving the player a double-positive.

PW