Since 2002, Sean Müller has been researching how world-class cricket batsmen read bowlers body language to anticipate the type of ball that will be bowled. The aim was to find out which visual cues (body language) elite batsmen pick-up from a bowler’s delivery action as well as ball flight in order to plan and execute a batting stroke. A combination of video simulation occlusion techniques, where footage of a bowler’s action is blocked out at different points, as well as special glasses were used to understand how batsmen read bowlers. Players from the Australian Test Team, Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy, Victorian Bushrangers, New South Wales Blues and Western Australia Cricket participated in a series of experiments. The findings published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology and Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport report that elite batsmen, but not intermediate or low skilled players, are able to read the bowler’s delivery (from body language visual cues) before the ball is in its flight phase. The value of visual cues to cricket batting is that the earlier a batsman can read the type of ball to be bowled the more time he/she has to make a decision to plan and execute an appropriate stroke. Currently, Sean is investigating the value of different methods of how to train pick-up of visual cues.

Sean is a Lecturer/Researcher at RMIT University in the Discipline of Exercise Sciences, specialising in the field of Motor Skill Learning and Control. Motor learning and control is the field of study that involves understanding how voluntary skills are performed, learned and retained. Sean also lectures subjects in sports coaching as well as presents into Cricket Victoria’s Level 2 Coaching Course and Cricket Coaches Australia’s Victorian Branch Seminar Series. His research has been presented at International and National level scientific conferences.

Sean has played Premier Cricket in Victoria and is a Cricket Australia accredited Level 2 Cricket Coach. He has coached teams as well as individual elite/intermediate cricketers in Australia and the United Kingdom. In 2006 Sean published a co-authored book chapter on skill learning in cricket that critiques the traditional approach to coaching and provides an alternative approach based upon scientific evidence.

For further information on Sean’s credentials and experience refer to our references.