Imagine Your Club Got A New Coach; What Would You Want Him To Do For You?

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micoach

micoach

Active Member
I'm taking on a new challenge this season with a new team and I am in charge of coaching all the senior teams. Hopefully to glory!

Thing is, club cricket can be tricky. Not everyone wants the same thing. So, I wanted to know if your club got a new coach, what would you expect from him, what would you consider a waste of time, and what would you consider too much?
 
micoach said:
I'm taking on a new challenge this season with a new team and I am in charge of coaching all the senior teams. Hopefully to glory!

Thing is, club cricket can be tricky. Not everyone wants the same thing. So, I wanted to know if your club got a new coach, what would you expect from him, what would you consider a waste of time, and what would you consider too much?
Click to expand...
I'm up for anything, but I think you know I've only played cricket for 7 years, so anyone with anything to say about cricket I'm there listening and trying it out. Even kids training sessions, I'm listening and watching, trying to pick up pointers that might help, fitness, techniques, batting, bowling, catching and throwing, if you've got something to say about it, I'll listen and give it a go!

But, I have to say when blokes do this and there's other adults around, especially the "Lifers" you do get a sense of 'You can't teach old dogs new tricks', unless of course they come from the outside with a reputation or some kind of qualification that says that they are superior to them. I mean if we had a bloke from the next club down the road who everyone knew score 200 every other week, I guess some people might turn up and listen (Bowlers)? But to get the arrogant up their own *****s top batsmen to turn up and get involved, that might require bringing in someone like Graham Gooch?

But I may be wrong, I kind of guess it depends on how committed the players are to self development? Younger blokes who are still on that upward learning curve and want to win would take notice, I suppose I'm thinking about the older been there, seen that and done it brigade?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
I'm up for anything, but I think you know I've only played cricket for 7 years, so anyone with anything to say about cricket I'm there listening and trying it out. Even kids training sessions, I'm listening and watching, trying to pick up pointers that might help, fitness, techniques, batting, bowling, catching and throwing, if you've got something to say about it, I'll listen and give it a go!
Click to expand...

Interesting, you only started playing getting into middle age?
 
Kram81 said:
Interesting, you only started playing getting into middle age?
Click to expand...
Didn't you know?

Cricket kind of passed me by as a kid, I come from a very working class, semi industrial, poor background, went to one of the worst 10 schools in the UK and lived in probably one of the nastiest places in the UK. Football was the thing everyone aspired to. Cricket was seen as the domain of posh people. In the 1960's we played cricket in the playground as kids and I guess like most kids back then we somehow learned to bowl properly, with a straight arm (no-one's ever pulled me up and said - mate you're chucking the ball). Cricket wasn't played at school when I was there, or if it was it was only once or twice a year in a lesson, I've got very vague memories of it happening, but only as a fielder and being bored, but certainly there were no after school teams or anything like that.

Apart from that, it made no impression on me at all, but this is the 1970's and 80's so to be fair even if you watched it on tele it was as dull as hell. I remember in the 80's a bloke I worked with tried to get me to watch the Botham Phenomenon as it was happening, he used to come in every day ranting and saying it was a massively important sports spectacle, and that we were going to beat the Aussies. I still wasn't tempted.

In the late 80's when surfing I played one or two games with some Aussie surfers in Cornwall at our campsite. Again no-one said I couldn't bowl. So my total cricket experience up to this point would have been counted in hours rather than days I reckon! Then in the 90's I turned on the tele one night to see that the Ashes was on and noticed in a matter of minutes cricket had got better, no longer was some berk walking for 1/4 of an hour up one end of the pitch and then running back again to bowl the ball that the bloke either missed of blocked. No... instead there was this little chubby bloke with a Mullet who was bowling the ball off of a couple of paces, getting through his overs in a matter of a couple of minutes, but bowling stupidly slow! But he had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble - it was (As you probably realise) Warne. Suddenly cricket was amazing and engaging, and I couldn't get enough of it, especially this bloke Warne despite the fact he was an Aussie and making us lot look like mugs!

So at that point I was just a watcher. I got married and had two boys and then on the night that we were due to go on our annual surfing holiday my 4 year old broke his elbow and dislocated it. We couldn't go surfing and faced a 6 week summer holiday of doing very little. Then I had the idea that we could all play cricket - he could use a tennis racket. I picked up the ball and thought I'll bowl that Legspin stuff that Warney bowls. All that summer with Joe in plaster, he, his brother and I played cricket. Another Dad and his kids got involved and me and him facing each other, it started to get more competitive. By the end of the summer we were loving it so much we wanted more and better. He suggested that I asked the blokes at work (I'm a lecturer) to see if they'd form a team, with the idea we'd train over the winter and look for games in the summer. That's what happened, that first summer I was 46 (2006). That first team - which spawned the mpa first eleven blog http://www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/ fizzled out after a year, primarily because I took it dead seriously and then rest were doing it for a laugh. Needless to say I went looking for a proper cricket team and haven't looked back since. I'm just gutted it took me so long to find cricket, but I am so glad that I did because both my kids have got so much out of it.
 
Chino#21 said:
Things I'd want a new coach to do:
  • Do something different each session
  • Let players know before practice whether they should bring their kits / spikes etc. or not
  • Work individually with players
  • Organize net sessions well (That means only the 5 best bowlers bowl in nets - preferably only one or two bowlers per net, keepers practice keeping, part-time bowlers / all-rounders practice a bit of everything and batsmen practice batting and fielding exclusively)
  • Work on game-plans with the captain
  • Motivate players
  • Focus less on technical aspects and more on results
  • Take videos of players batting/bowling/fielding so that they have a visual guide and can see how they can improve in certain aspects
  • Keep record of stats from games and give rewards to the best bowler/batsman/fielder of the year
  • Have some fitness sessions, but with exercises that will push the fittest players to their limits, while developing the players that are less fit - it should not be done with an everyone-take-a-few-laps attitude
Things I consider a waste of time for coaches:
  • Spending ages warming players up to no avail, coaches should do it properly or not at all
  • Having wasted net sessions every day - bowlers should also work on accuracy (which means a bowler bowls 50 balls to a target) and batsmen should work on proper defense and technique
  • Half-hearted fielding sessions, fielding is the most strict discipline in the game and should be treated as such
  • Repeating brainless mantras like "No pace, just put it on the spot"
"Too much":
  • Sessions longer than 4 hours
  • Fitness development that can put too much strain on players
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Chino, how many qualified assistants do your coaches bring along with them? Dave's going to be doing this for free, in his own time!
 
I would want to do well structured drills. I've never actually encountered any well structured coaching. Batting practice in the nets where someone feeds throwdowns instead of just facing bowlers in turn. That way you face five times as many deliveries in the same time and have a chance to refine a shot. Fielding drills which don't involve sharing one ball between ten people at a time - same issue, literally a waste of time. I'd like to learn the sliding stop.
 
Chino, can I suggest you are in a minority with your wish list as I guess there are coaches up and down the country asking where you are so they can come and coach at your club rather than facing the apathy / bloody minded resistance to any 'new' aspect of training that they put forward at their current club. Just a couple of comments on your list (in red) from a coaches perspective (a couple tongue in cheek)

Chino#21 said:
Things I'd want a new coach to do:
  • Do something different each session - given (although be prepared to revisit areas just to check anything covered stuck)
  • Let players know before practice whether they should bring their kits / spikes etc. or not - if players can remember where and when practice is I am grateful, bringing kit is a bonus
  • Work individually with players - OK to a degree, but onus on players - if they can complete profile forms then all the better as the coach can come prepared with some (even basic) individualised plans but please don't ask mid session
  • Organize net sessions well (That means only the 5 best bowlers bowl in nets - preferably only one or two bowlers per net, keepers practice keeping, part-time bowlers / all-rounders practice a bit of everything and batsmen practice batting and fielding exclusively)- ask players to support bowlers bowling overs in nets, players not in nets do something constructive (preferably the activity set up by the coach, which when dealing with adults shouldn't require the coach to 'supervise') and not sulk or insist on bowling in nets anyway
  • Work on game-plans with the captain - up to captain imo, but accept offering support may be useful
  • Motivate players - again, for me, this is primarily the captain's role in club cricket, although accept the coach may be able to help with certain aspects (concentration, personal mental approach)
  • Focus less on technical aspects and more on results - if you mean outcomes over process, then I am probably going to disagree as I am a big 'process' person. However if you mean coaches insisting on changing players to 'the model' then I do agree
  • Take videos of players batting/bowling/fielding so that they have a visual guide and can see how they can improve in certain aspects - OK, but time consuming, but happy that this will probably only be for a few players within any squad
  • Keep record of stats from games and give rewards to the best bowler/batsman/fielder of the year - sorry too busy, find a volunteer within the club (doesn't have to be a coach). More than happy to work with the results (better use of coach's time). Rewards is a club / captain thing, not down to the coach.
  • Have some fitness sessions, but with exercises that will push the fittest players to their limits, while developing the players that are less fit - it should not be done with an everyone-take-a-few-laps attitude - great, but again need whole club buy-in to be worthwhile
Things I consider a waste of time for coaches:
  • Spending ages warming players up to no avail, coaches should do it properly or not at all - fair point, but need support from players to add a bit of peer pressure
  • Having wasted net sessions every day - bowlers should also work on accuracy (which means a bowler bowls 50 balls to a target) and batsmen should work on proper defense and technique - totally agree, comes back to having proper plans (both for individual players and for sessions as a whole)
  • Half-hearted fielding sessions, fielding is the most strict discipline in the game and should be treated as such - generally an attitude thing, again need lots of peer pressure to get players to treat training as game prep, not filling in time
  • Repeating brainless mantras like "No pace, just put it on the spot" - 100% agree, but can players please refrain from shouting "Shhhooootttt" :)
"Too much":
  • Sessions longer than 4 hours - OK, who has that much time? (and what coach will plan for that sort of session?)
  • Fitness development that can put too much strain on players - agree with the proviso that there are times when players should be pushed and a good coach would build that into a programme (the old 'how much is too much' question)
Click to expand...
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Didn't you know?

Cricket kind of passed me by as a kid, I come from a very working class, semi industrial, poor background, went to one of the worst 10 schools in the UK and lived in probably one of the nastiest places in the UK. Football was the thing everyone aspired to. Cricket was seen as the domain of posh people. In the 1960's we played cricket in the playground as kids and I guess like most kids back then we somehow learned to bowl properly, with a straight arm (no-one's ever pulled me up and said - mate you're chucking the ball). Cricket wasn't played at school when I was there, or if it was it was only once or twice a year in a lesson, I've got very vague memories of it happening, but only as a fielder and being bored, but certainly there were no after school teams or anything like that.

Apart from that, it made no impression on me at all, but this is the 1970's and 80's so to be fair even if you watched it on tele it was as dull as hell. I remember in the 80's a bloke I worked with tried to get me to watch the Botham Phenomenon as it was happening, he used to come in every day ranting and saying it was a massively important sports spectacle, and that we were going to beat the Aussies. I still wasn't tempted.

In the late 80's when surfing I played one or two games with some Aussie surfers in Cornwall at our campsite. Again no-one said I couldn't bowl. So my total cricket experience up to this point would have been counted in hours rather than days I reckon! Then in the 90's I turned on the tele one night to see that the Ashes was on and noticed in a matter of minutes cricket had got better, no longer was some berk walking for 1/4 of an hour up one end of the pitch and then running back again to bowl the ball that the bloke either missed of blocked. No... instead there was this little chubby bloke with a Mullet who was bowling the ball off of a couple of paces, getting through his overs in a matter of a couple of minutes, but bowling stupidly slow! But he had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble - it was (As you probably realise) Warne. Suddenly cricket was amazing and engaging, and I couldn't get enough of it, especially this bloke Warne despite the fact he was an Aussie and making us lot look like mugs!

So at that point I was just a watcher. I got married and had two boys and then on the night that we were due to go on our annual surfing holiday my 4 year old broke his elbow and dislocated it. We couldn't go surfing and faced a 6 week summer holiday of doing very little. Then I had the idea that we could all play cricket - he could use a tennis racket. I picked up the ball and thought I'll bowl that Legspin stuff that Warney bowls. All that summer with Joe in plaster, he, his brother and I played cricket. Another Dad and his kids got involved and me and him facing each other, it started to get more competitive. By the end of the summer we were loving it so much we wanted more and better. He suggested that I asked the blokes at work (I'm a lecturer) to see if they'd form a team, with the idea we'd train over the winter and look for games in the summer. That's what happened, that first summer I was 46 (2006). That first team - which spawned the mpa first eleven blog http://www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/ fizzled out after a year, primarily because I took it dead seriously and then rest were doing it for a laugh. Needless to say I went looking for a proper cricket team and haven't looked back since. I'm just gutted it took me so long to find cricket, but I am so glad that I did because both my kids have got so much out of it.
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Wow, what a great story Dave. And I thought I was 'older' in starting to play the game 'properly' on a turf wicket game for the first time in the mid 90s at 14, lol. I'm kind of the opposite, was in a team for a few years as a teenager and then kind of drifted away from playing the game as an adult only really participating in a handful of games in my 20s..

Now in my 30s I've considered having a go again a few times. I think the local comp is still a 40 over one. The main things that has kept me from doing it though is getting the required gear which all adds up to a fair bit, plus taking up most of a Saturday in what can be bloody hot out here where I live (when I might have already spent a fair bit of the working week in it..)
 
Kram81 said:
Wow, what a great story Dave. And I thought I was 'older' in starting to play the game 'properly' on a turf wicket game for the first time in the mid 90s at 14, lol. I'm kind of the opposite, was in a team for a few years as a teenager and then kind of drifted away from playing the game as an adult only really participating in a handful of games in my 20s..

Now in my 30s I've considered having a go again a few times. I think the local comp is still a 40 over one. The main things that has kept me from doing it though is getting the required gear which all adds up to a fair bit, plus taking up most of a Saturday in what can be bloody hot out here where I live (when I might have already spent a fair bit of the working week in it..)
Click to expand...

I think one of the big incentives for me was the fact that I was an older Dad, so wanted something that I was going to be able to do with my kids, that would help keep me fit. The other thing was socialising my kids, have them around other kids of different ages and being around other adults that act as additional role models and then later on, possibly help them get into the job market/work place. There was always the chance that like so many kids that I come across (I'm a further education lecturer) they'd reach the age of 16 and not have any communication and life skills, I could see that cricket would enable them to be 'rounded' people, able to talk to adults with confidence, basic stuff, that so many kids these days miss out on through not being involved in group activities like sport.

I guess my job makes things relatively easy and my wife's quite accommodating of the whole thing and she sees the same potential benefits of cricket, so lives with the fact that come Saturday we're all out of the house for the best part of 8 hours. Yeah I guess if you're working in that heat all week, I'm sure you're looking forwards to doing something different out of the heat. I know here when we have the rare hot summer, a lot of people have all the enthusiasm sucked out of them because of the heat and get very lethargic! With regards to the costs, I tend to buy a lot of my gear off of Ebay, I can't bat, so I never spend money on bats. The other thing is I can't be sitting around doing nothing, so have to do something and cricket fits in with my life perfectly.
 
boogiespinner said:
Why not buy a kashmir willow thing? I think I am going to get a kashmir willow bat for this season, then at least I have no excuse not to practice batting in the nets too.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've got a few of them, I buy them for my sons, one of them has a Slazenger 100V, the type they're selling for £12 at the moment, it's the one I'm using, it's got a lovely pick-up, feels really light and the meaty bit is in a good place on the bat and I seem to be able to hit the ball with it! Hence the optimism:)
 
micoach said:
I'm taking on a new challenge this season with a new team and I am in charge of coaching all the senior teams. Hopefully to glory!

Thing is, club cricket can be tricky. Not everyone wants the same thing. So, I wanted to know if your club got a new coach, what would you expect from him, what would you consider a waste of time, and what would you consider too much?
Click to expand...

Best of Luck mate,

I think regardless of the grade you're playing or coaching, it's critically important to plan your session and then evaluate it's effectiveness.

A few things I found through trial and error.
Skill progression is key for any player. This means early evaluation of your players - through speaking with them and developing a skills matrix. You'd be surprised at the level of buy-in you'll get if you ask your players what they want to focus on for improvement.
Harness the developed players as leaders, you can't possibly have one-on-one sessions every training session. But you can allow your senior, developed players to lead skill development in their strong suits. Takes the pressure off you and varies the communication.

Skill Progression needs technical knowledge to:
Demonstrate the Skill
Allow the player to practice the skill
Provide critique based on observation
Positive reinforcement when the skill is executed well.

Remember to introduce a competitive environment in to your sessions, be it through batsmen vs bowler or squad sessions where scores are kept on basic things like number of balls delivered on or outside off vs leg stump etc.

There are a range on great online resources now available, I also highly recommend your National Coaching Accreditation program and also getting along to a higher grade - be it First Class or Premier Grade and watching a training session. Introduce yourself to the club you attend and explain your reason for being there. You'd be amazed at the willingness of coaches to share knowledge and experience.
 
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