13 y.o Jekyll and Hyde??!!

My 13 y.o. son has had winter batting coaching this year which has seen him rise from 9 / 10 in the batting order last summer to opening this summer (he was really pleased at this). The problem is that he has failed in the middle on each of his 5 innings but more worryingly, while he looks solid and capable in the nets, he seems to revert back to old bad habits in the match situation and looks dodgy to say the least!! He is smaller than most of his team mates but is not overly small and his newly-found confidence seems to be diminishing with each match! Any advice I can pass on would be appreciated!!

Thanks for your reply. If anything he's a little too tentative, his defence is good (esp. in the nets) but when it comes to attacking the bad balls his natural action is to hold back rather than crash it. The result is he struggles to score and gets himself out often by getting frustrated by himself or by his team mates...

only time in the middle will solve the problem, id sugguest that untill he gets this confidence he should just try and stay in as long as possible, the big shots will come later on

Thanks for that, I'll tell him! He is happy defending and blocking but when he tries to attack a bad ball, he often holds back on the shot and either can't get it away or lobs up a catch - in the nets he can attack more confidently (doesn't matter if he get's out so much). The result is he scores slowly and gets pressured to quicken which isn't his game. He's worried about slipping down the order which would be bad as he appears to be in the mould of an opener..