Coaching Youth Cricket E-Book

Luke Sellers

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 239

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Written by an experienced youth cricket coach, Coaching Youth Cricket is an essential guide for all coaches, parents and teachers. This one-stop practical resource will give a new coach everything they need to deliver fun, dynamic, player-centred practice sessions and guidance on how to run a team. Information is given on lots of practical games and drills, enabling coaches to run active and fun sessions for young players. The fundamental cricket skills are covered including batting, wicket-keeping and fielding to spin, seam and swing bowling. Advice is given on how to manage your team on match days and measures suggested for ensuring player safety. Coaches at all levels of the game will find material and ideas in this book helpful for them to formulate simple strategies to suit their level of player ability. It presents coaching theories in an uncomplicated and easy-to-understand manner and offers field-tested, age-specific information to help you learn how to communicate with players, parents, other coaches and officials. Illustrated with 97 colour images and 42 diagrams.

Leseprobe

COACHING YOUTHCRICKET

An Essential Guide forCoaches, Parents and Teachers

Luke Sellers

First published in 2014 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

© Luke Sellers 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 795 3

Photography by Steve Cashmore

CONTENTS

Introduction

1  Player-Centred Coaching

2  Coaching Tools

3  Player Development

4  What Makes a Good Practice Session

5  Skills, Drills and Practices: Warm-Ups

6  Skills, Drills and Practices: Batting

7  Skills, Drills and Practices: Bowling

8  Skills, Drills and Practices: Fielding and Wicketkeeping

9  Skills, Drills and Practices: Games

10  Skills, Drills and Practices: Nets

11  Session Planning and Differentiation

12  Running a Team

13  Extras

Appendix: ECB Guidelines

Index

INTRODUCTION

Becoming a cricket coach is one of the most rewarding things I have done and continues to enthuse, surprise and inspire me. It is also a lot of fun.

The aim of this book isn’t to tell you how to coach, it is simply to offer you some ideas to help you on your way. Whether you are a parent who is new to cricket and wanting to assist at your son’s or daughter’s weekly training session, or a qualified coach running your own team, this book aims to equip you with all the tools you need to feel confident.

With cricket’s list of rules, idiosyncratic rules and variety of skills this can appear a daunting prospect – especially if you haven’t played the game. But don’t worry if you don’t know a legspinner from an inswinger, because everything you need to know for coaching youth cricket, from top tips on technique to advice on managing match days, can be found in this book. Aimed at coaches working with children aged between seven and thirteen, the ideas, advice and practices in this book are designed to complement and enhance your own existing skills and coaching philosophy.

By giving your time to developing the next generation of cricketers you are a vital asset to your club, school or representative team. I hope you find coaching cricket a fulfilling and enjoyable experience, and I wish you all the very best of luck with it!

USING THIS BOOK

As this book is for coaches working with players aged from around seven to thirteen, the practices are designed to cover a wide range of abilities. To try to make sure the drills are relevant to coaches across these ages, the majority are aimed at players somewhere in the middle of this age range, for example under elevens. However, every drill contains ideas of how to make it harder, to make it suitable for older players, and ways to make it easier, to make it suitable for younger players. For an idea of what skills are most suited to your age group, seeChapter 11.

CHAPTER 1

PLAYER-CENTRED COACHING

A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on ‘x’s and o’s’ as compared to time spent learning about people.

Mike Krzyzewski, Basketball

What is Player-Centred Coaching?

Player-centred coaching is the idea of putting the player at the heart of the coaching process. It is the starting point for the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) coach education courses, and is widely recognized across all sports as the underpinning theme of quality coaching. Although the needs of their groups will be very different, the method is just as relevant for coaches working with young players in a club environment as it is for those working with professionals at an élite level.

Outlining the benefits of the approach in their influential book Athlete-Centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspiring People, Lynn Kidman, Rod Thorpe and David Hadfield suggest that a player-centred approach improves motivation and understanding and helps prepare players for competition:

Some of the main advantages of using an athlete-centred approach to coaching are that athletes are motivated to learn, and they have a greater understanding and retention of both tactics and skills…

This approach is clearly beneficial given that athletes must be self-sufficient in their performance, decision-taking and option-taking while participating in their respective sport.

To start to think about the approach in practice and the benefits it might have, here is a quick-fire list of questions to think about in relation to a typical coaching session:

•  Who is the most important person in the coaching session?

•  Whose goals and ambitions should drive the session?

•  Who provides the answers and sets the challenges during the session?

•  Who is responsible for learning and skill development during the session?

Traditionally the answer to some or all of these questions may have been ‘the coach’, but if they are that central to a session, there is a danger they may be putting themselves ahead of the needs of their players. Although this method may provide a short-term ‘fix’ for their players it is unlikely to bear fruit in the long term. Even if the coach is hugely knowledgeable about the game, this will be wasted if their players don’t buy into it. For example, if a coach decides to have a session on running between the wickets when their squad feel they already do this well, the players are unlikely to be motivated by the practice. This in turn causes them to lose motivation and closes their mind to the possibility of learning new skills, and the result is that the practice is unlikely to be a success. If a coach can instead make their players central to the coaching process and encourage them to drive their own learning, then the opposite is true.

If we think about the questions above again and accept that the answer to each of them is ‘the player(s)’, then the benefits that Kidman et al talk about become obvious:

•  If the players are viewed as the most important people in the coaching process, then the coach can tailor a session to their exact needs. In turn this provides them with the ideal environment for successful practice.

•  If the session is driven by the players’ goals they are more likely to remain motivated during a session and select achievable outcomes.

•  In a match players must be able to think for themselves. By having to problem solve during a practice session they are replicating the decision-making process they will face on the pitch.

•  A player-centred method puts the player in charge of their own learning, which increases the chance of them retaining new skills and ‘buying in’ to what the coach has to say.

So, if we accept that a player-centred approach is an integral part of modern-day coaching, the next question is, how do we put it into practice?

Using a Player-Centred Approach

At first glance it may appear that putting the players at the centre of your coaching and encouraging them to drive their own development diminishes the role of the coach. But while making your players more self- sufficient is a desirable outcome, nothing could be further from the truth.

While it is called ‘player-centred coaching’, the reality is that it is built around a trusting two-way relationship between coach and player. It requires the coach to gain an in-depth understanding of the individuals in their group, from their level of ability to what motivates them to play cricket. Having gathered this information, the next challenge for a coach is to use it to plan and deliver practice sessions that meet their players’ specific needs.

For many of us brought up on prescriptive, one-size-fits-all PE lessons at school, this may seem like a daunting prospect. But even if the term is new, you will almost certainly be running practices and drills that are at least partly player-centred already. The challenge is to take this a step further and try to deliver sessions that cater for the needs of all the individuals in your session and are driven by the players themselves.

To ensure your next session is truly player-centred, begin by asking yourself a few simple questions about your group and the outcomes you hope to achieve.

Who are you coaching?

The first and most important part of player-centred coaching is to get to know your players. This will allow you to understand their needs and to build your sessions around them. In an ideal scenario you would hope to have a detailed picture of your players before you begin coaching, but if this isn’t possible try to find out the following things at the earliest opportunity:

•  What are the names of the players?

•  How old are they?

•  What is their level of cricketing experience and current skill level?

•  What are their strengths, and what are the areas to improve?

•  What do they want/need to learn?

•  Do they have any injuries, or are there any other factors that will impede their ability to learn?

It’s important to get to know your players at the earliest opportunity.

What outcomes are you looking for?

Having got to know your players, the next stage is to work out what outcomes you will help them achieve. These could be cricket skills, physical movements, tactical thinking or mental attributes you hope to see from your players during a session. The outcomes should be identified using the knowledge you have gained about the group and should also be agreed in partnership with the players. For example, there is no point setting goals for your players if they are not motivated to achieve them, or think they are too easy or hard. Instead, involve them in the process by asking them what they think they can achieve. After all, the best and most important judge of their individual success is the player themselves.

When identifying the outcomes for a session ask yourself the following:

•  Which part of the game are we looking to develop? For example, technical, tactical, physical or mental

•  Which specific cricket skill will we use? For example, front-foot drive, bowling action, overarm throw, and so on

•  Which part of the skill will we focus on? For example, staying balanced at the crease, grip, transferring weight towards the target, and so on

•  What will success look like by the end of the session?

The last one is, of course, by far the most difficult one to answer, and it may change during the session. At different times you may find that your players’ achievements exceed your expectations; at other times they may fall short of what you expect.

The more you learn about your players, the better you will become at predicting the likely outcomes. The same is also true for your players – the more they become used to sessions that involve them setting their own goals, the more realistic and achievable they will become.

Types of Practice and Coaching Tools

By building up a picture of your players and identifying the outcomes you hope to achieve, you are now in a position to plan an effective player-centred session. In order to meet the needs of the group you will need to work out the best methods of practice, the type of equipment you will use, and what you, as a coach, will do to help facilitate learning. All of these decisions should be made with your specific players in mind.

As a coach you will have your own preferred coaching style, drills and equipment. And while it is valuable to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, it is important that these do not overshadow the needs of your players. A good coach has the ability to adapt to the needs of whichever group they are working with.

Before starting the session think about the following questions:

•  What type of practice will I use? For example, will I use a small-sided game, nets or match scenario?

•  What equipment will I use?

•  What coaching tools will I use? For example demonstrate, observe, question

•  How will I measure success?

Player-centred approach in Practice

Coaching in different settings will provide a variety of challenges for coaches attempting to use a player-centred approach. In a one-to-one session with a player with whom you have worked regularly it should be fairly straightforward to create a practice environment that you know will help them to achieve success. But if you are presented with a squad of twenty under-eleven players you have never seen before, the challenge of being player-centred is much greater.

Here is one way to gain enough information in ten to fifteen minutes to run an excellent player-centred session for a group of young players. The practice below would work well with players from as young as seven up to eleven. The beauty of this method is that the players are active and engaged the whole time rather than sitting having a conversation for ten minutes, which they may find a little dull.

After introducing yourself to the group, set up a simple game of non-stop cricket (seeChapter 9 for the basic set-up). In addition to the normal non-stop cricket rules I would add in a few different elements in order to help you observe not just a variety of different technical skills, but also tactical thinking and physical and mental characteristics:

•  In order to observe the accuracy of the players’ throwing, make a box from cones where the bowler has to stand. The bowler cannot leave this box, and therefore there is little margin for error for the fielders.

•  Place three ‘goals’ made from cones, one at cover, one straight and the third at square leg. Batsmen are awarded four extra runs if they hit the ball through the goal.

•  Finally give the batsmen the chance to use a cricket bat, tennis racket or a single stump. Batsmen using the bat score runs normally, those using the tennis racquet only score half the normal runs, while players using the single stump score double runs per shot.

•  In this practice it can be useful to have the coach as the bowler so you can vary feeds accordingly. To ensure the game doesn’t take too long, limit it to a maximum of four balls each.

By setting the game up and running it in this way you will be able to observe a number of different things:

Technical: During the game you will be able to see the players’ throwing, catching and ground-fielding skills. You can also view the batsmen’s grip and stance. And by varying the feed you can find out which players are able to play the front-foot drive and defensive shots.

Tactical: The game allows you to see a player’s ability to judge a run, to see who looked for the gaps (goals), and also the fielders’ ability to work as a team to retrieve the ball.

Physical: As it is a highly active game you can observe the players’ fundamental movement skills (such as agility, balance, co-ordination and speed). For example you can see their speed and agility as they run between the wickets and in the field. You can also see their co-ordination and balance when they are throwing and striking the ball.

Mental: By noticing which bat the players choose to use you will get a sense of which members of the group are the more confident, which are more cautious, and which are risk takers.

Although traditionally we may use a game at the end of a session rather than at the beginning, here you can see its value in helping you learn about your players. After just ten to fifteen minutes you will be armed with enough information about the group to be able to identify their strengths, the areas they need to improve, and the different levels of ability within the group.

By asking questions about the game afterwards you will encourage your players to reflect on the game and help them identify the strengths and weaknesses that you have just observed. For example, during the game a number of players may have been caught out. By asking them what was the most common way of getting out and how this could be avoided, the players will provide the coach with the perfect theme for the coaching session that follows.

Using the players’ feedback and your own observations from the game, you will now have the knowledge to set up a batting practice with the appropriate level of challenge for the players in the group. As they have been involved in identifying the area they are going to work on – hitting the ball along the ground – rather than being ‘told’ by the coach, they are also more likely to ‘buy into’ the session.

Clearly, to use the method above a coach needs good observation and analysis skills, but it is a great example of how to learn enough about your players quickly in order to deliver a session built around their needs, even without prior knowledge of the group.

A non-player centred approach

I once worked at an indoor cricket school that used to run a lot of one-to-one coaching sessions. On a typical Saturday morning each coach would work with four or five different players for an hour at a time. These could range in age from six to sixty, and from beginners to talented county youth players and club cricketers.

One of the major challenges of these sessions as a coach was that you often didn’t know anything about the player until they arrived. This meant that in a very short period of time you had to find out their age, experience, skill level and goals, and come up with a suitable session. This initial – and hugely important – conversation with a player often took place with the parents watching, and you frequently had the sense that they felt they hadn’t paid good money to have you standing around ‘chatting’ to their son or daughter.

One morning I became conscious that the coach in the net next door was starting his sessions a lot more quickly than me. Anxious to try and get my players active earlier and to ensure their parents felt they were getting value for money, I asked him what his secret was. He told me that he was going to run the same session with every player who turned up that morning, which saved a lot of time as he didn’t need to talk to the player for long, and didn’t need to change his plans or equipment. When I questioned this approach he told me that the session he was running – a batting drill involving the front foot drive and a bowling machine – was a good practice for everyone as it reinforced the basics. While I am not suggesting that the coach’s motives weren’t positive, it is clear that such an approach was not player-centred.

Over the course of the morning I watched the coach run three more identical sessions with three individuals of differing abilities aged between nine and sixteen. And naturally as a result the three sessions had very different levels of success. The first player I observed – a district standard batsman aged around thirteen – coped well with the practice, achieved plenty of success, and appeared to enjoy the session. The second – the older player – kept hitting the ball in the air despite being repeatedly told not to by the coach. When the coach finally asked the player why he wasn’t keeping the ball on the ground, he said it was because he had done a similar drill last session and wanted to move on to hitting over the top. Essentially he was bored because he didn’t want to do the drill, and the result was that his lack of motivation had a negative effect on its outcome.

By this time there were only ten minutes left in the session, and the coach said that if the player knuckled down and completed the drill he would be able to look at hitting over the top in the next session. The player accepted this, but did not appear particularly happy or motivated. The third player – the youngest – struggled to play the front-foot drive as the ball was bouncing too high from the bowling machine. The longer the session went on, the more he became frustrated, until eventually the coach changed his plan and switched to underarm feeds. Unfortunately by this time the player had become so frustrated that he wasn’t focusing on the task and became slightly tearful as he continually failed to achieve success.

It was clear that by not taking the time to get to know his players the coach had failed to meet the needs of at least two of them. As a result both of these players left the centre feeling unhappy and demotivated.

As a young coach at the time I didn’t feel confident enough to speak to the other coach at the end of the session to share my reservations over his approach. However, what I observed did reinforce my belief in the importance of player-centred coaching, and I have since always tried to make sure I take the time to find out as much as I can about my players at the start of a session.

CHAPTER 2

COACHING TOOLS

Coaching cricket – as with other sports – is an art rather than an exact science, otherwise we would all do it the same way and achieve identical outcomes. But this is clearly not the case. If you look at successful coaches and managers across any sport you will find an infinite number of personalities, styles and methods. From quiet analytical types such as India coach Duncan Fletcher to high-energy innovators such as England’s Peter Moores, there are many ways to achieve success.

In your own coaching or playing you will have come across numerous excellent coaches who operate in very different ways. However, while everyone will have a slightly different style and approach, there are many traits, methods and beliefs that they will have in common. These may relate to the types of practice a coach favours, or the way they behave in order to get key messages across to their players.

In this chapter we will separate these two areas and look at the different ‘coaching tools’ that coaches use to promote learning in their sessions. From the ability to observe and analyse technique, provide demonstrations or ask questions, there are a number of ‘coaching tools’ that most good coaches have at their disposal. Mastering some, or all of these in isolation will not instantly make you a fantastic coach: instead the process is much more like baking a cake. If a successful session is the cake itself, then the coaching tools are the ingredients and techniques you use to create it. A good baker will need to know the exact amounts of each ingredient to add, and the techniques required to turn them into the perfect cake. Too much of one ingredient, or too little stirring of the mixture could have a hugely detrimental effect on the outcome.

The challenge for the coach as compared to the baker is that while the process for baking a cake remains the same each time, the ingredients of a good coaching session change because you are dealing with the unpredictability of human beings rather than flour and eggs.

One of the skills of a coach is knowing the right tools to use at the right time with the right players. Below are examples of some of the key coaching tools that every coach should have in their armoury. While I have used examples that often follow one another choronologically, there is no set order to use them in.

Some tools, like giving clear instructions, are likely to be a regular starting point for a session, but they may also be used at other times. Some coaches may want to start with a demonstration, while for others the first thing they do will be to observe and analyse the group. The tools you use, and the order and frequency you use them in, will depend on you as a coach, the type of practice, and most importantly, the needs of the players.

Give Clear Instructions

Providing clear, simple instructions is important whoever you are coaching, but particularly when working with children. A concise explanation of a practice should tell the players exactly what you want them to do, why you want them to do it, and what the outcome should be. If your players do not understand what you are asking them to do, then the whole practice is likely to break down and you will be back to square one.

Below are a few tips for giving clear instructions.

Make sure you are positioned so every player can see and hear you

If you don’t have eye contact from a player, then the chances are they are not listening and will not understand the task. Getting players to stand and sit in a line in a sports hall or between two cones out on the field can be an effective way of ensuring they are ready to listen.

Make sure that all players in the group can see and hear you.

Keep it short and simple – two minutes and your time is up!

Most people have a limited attention span, and this is especially true with children. From the time you start your explanation the clock is ticking, and the longer you keep talking the less likely your players are to be listening. Try to make sure that your instructions take no longer than two minutes. If they do, the likelihood is that you are talking too much or your practice is too complicated to explain in one go.

It is also important that the language you use is simple and appropriate for the age group you are working with. Cricket is full of terms that make no sense unless you are aware of their context within the sport. So before you start talking about googlys, gullies, throwing arms and the off-side, make sure your players know what you are talking about.

Where possible use a picture to help

People learn in lots of different ways, and for some, sitting and listening to someone talk is quite difficult. In order to help cater for different learners within your group, try to use a picture to illustrate your explanation. This could be as simple as having the practice set up in front of them, so you can point things out as you talk. These days it could also include showing them a practice on your iPad, or carrying a white board around with you (small ones are commercially available).

Use your voice

When I first started coaching I thought that I had to be loud and ultra-enthusiastic – like a children’s television presenter – to get my messages across, but in fact the opposite is true. While it helps to have a loud, clear voice, some of the best children’s coaches I have seen go the other way and reduce their volume when working with younger people. By speaking clearly but quietly you draw your players in, which makes them listen. It also has the added bonus that any disturbance from them becomes clear and can be dealt with straightaway. There will, of course, be times when you need to be louder, and I would encourage you to experiment with how you use your voice when coaching.

It is also important to ensure you keep facing your players, and stay nearby while you are giving your explanation. I have seen many coaches make the mistake of running off to a corner of the practice station, or moving players to their starting positions for the drill while they are still talking to the group.

Use questions: check that your players understand before sending them away

How do you know if your players have understood your instructions? One way is to send them out to start the practice and see if chaos or a quality coaching session ensues. The other is to simply ask them.

Once you have given your explanation, ask your players simple questions to check they understand. Where are you going to stand? Who do you throw the ball to? How many points for an accurate throw? Where will your fingers point when you take the catch? By asking questions on any aspect of a practice you should get an accurate idea of whether your explanation has been understood. If working with younger children you can also make this exchange fun by offering points for correct answers.

CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS IN ACTION