The long-time batting mentor of Australian opener David Warner, Trent Woodhill has said that the attempt to curb the batsman's instinctive, aggressive game had backfired, with Warner going backwards as a Test batsman until his recent explosion of form.
Warner flew to Adelaide, the site of the second Test against England, aiming to repeat his exploits in Brisbane, where his 124 in Australia's second innings helped set up a 381-run win for Michael Clarke's team.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Woodhill, who has resumed working closely with the left-armer, said that he believes the trigger for Warner's flat-lining was a directive in the Mickey Arthur era for him to shelve his aggression and focus on defence.
Stating that Arthur and his team was focused on turning Warner into a classy Test player, Woodhill, who was assistant coach with New Zealand and maintains positions at Melbourne Stars and Delhi Daredevils, said that they forgot about how the batsman scored his runs, adding that the coaches were not prepared to consult him on this issue.
Woodhill also said that as soon as instinct is taken away from an athlete and he is moved more into thinking about defence or technique, the player is not going to have a long career, adding that Watson had failed to intimidate bowlers that way he remembered.
Woodhill and Warner restarted their association soon after, the coach using private sessions to tinker with his positioning at the bowler's release point, and the results were immediate, and although Woodhill does not claim to have all the answers, he believes that something is clearly working.
Woodhill also said that all he has asked Warner to do is to react to the situation that is required in the game without changing his inherent nature and revisit who he is and how he got there.