Sam Billings: psychometric tests helped my game
Friday 24th October 2014
Kent player of the year Sam Billings has revealed one of the secrets behind his success in the 2014 season.
After becoming first-choice wicketkeeper, he wasselected for the England Performance Programme this winter and awarded Player of the Year at the Spitfire Kent Cricket Awards and the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the joint fastest hundred of the season in county cricket.
Billings started the season slowly before turning to psychometrics, after advice fromKent Cricket high performance director Simon Willis.
The 23-year-old took a PPA psychometric test with Kent Cricket partners Thomas International Sport to find out about his character and way of working.
He said: “I wasn’t getting the scores I knew I could get.I did the assessment and it told me I was someone who performs well under structure, so we agreed that I was going to go through a meticulous routine with my batting, keeping, warm up and pretty much everything to achieve the target we set that was to get a championship hundred.”
The multiple choice assessment which takes roughly eight minutes to finish. The thinking behind this type of psychometric assessment is that the more an individual knows about themselves, such as their weaknesses and their strengths – the more successful they can be.
Billings came up with a 30-day plan involving his preparation for the game and stuck to it.
The man from “The routine worked and straight away turned my form around.The next game was Surrey and I managed to get an 82 not out and 60 not out in both innings. Straight away it made an impact.”
Sam Billings attended the official launch of Thomas International Sport to give testimonyto the success that can be achieved by having a winning mindset.
Psychometrics are also supported by Olympic rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave, Paralympic champion rower Naomi Riches and Saracens rugby star Jackson Wray.