Is he too young???

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luckydip

luckydip

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Is he too young???

My son is a cricket addict and loves watching (including test match cricket) and playing. After watching him last year, a local club allowed him to train with them using a practice ball. He was 6 at the time and no other club in the area would take him as he was too young (health and safety). He played a few matches for the U10 softball side and did well.

This year he is training with two other clubs and playing with a cricket ball (U11). Although he is a few years younger than the other lads and of slight frame he can handle a bat and also bowls deliveries which the coaches term wrist spin (back of the hand). When he gets it right he can move the ball quite a lot (leg to off) and batsmen have problems playing them. His length is usually good but gets picked off if he strays down leg. He is a fast learner and is improving his line the more he plays.

After watching the the Ritchie Benaud videos (thanks to the poster) I am getting worried. When he bowls these spinning deliveries he is probably putting a lot of strain on his arm. My question is, should I allow him to bowl?
He is only 7 and I don't want him to damage his wrist/shoulder. The coaches at the clubs say that he is a talent with both bat and ball. Should he take a break and concentrate on his batting? Should he continue playing with a cricket ball?

Any advise welcome, thanks:confused:
 
Re: Is he too young???

It is a difficult one to call but common-sense should prevail. Talk to your son and see what he thinks/feels. It may be that you want to set a limit on how much he plays/trains during the summer in order to reduce the chance of injury.

I would say that he would be better off committing to one club, ideally one with a dedicated under 9 set up. This would mean he is playing with cricketers of a similar development, in cricket which caters for their age (smaller pitch, ball etc). There is nothing to stop him playing the odd game up an age group but at 7 years old, personally, it's not something I'd push for.

I'm not an expert on juvenile physiology but the rudiments of my understanding it might not be a bad thing for him to be bowling, at least to a sensible limit. His tendons/ligaments etc will be more flexible and will get used to the strain rather than trying to pick it up later in life (as I said I'm not an expert here and others may have a different view). The key is to make sure he is not overdoing it. If he was a pace bowler then he'd have very strict limits on what he can do - maybe treating him in this manner is a fair compromise? Something like no more than 4 overs in a spell, a total of 8 per day. Maximum of 3 times per week or similar.

However, you need to handle it carefully as the last thing you want to do is to put him off the game.
 
Re: Is he too young???

My younger son is 8 YouTube - Net session in the paddock - Joe batting ben bowling and has been playing for his club since he was 6. He's been bowling with full size and 4.3/4 oz balls since that age bowling over 18 yards initially and these days over 20-21 yards. For his age though he's probably quite tall and is generally as kids these days go quite active - Good swimmer, Karate, rides bikes and is made (By me) to be far more physical as opposed to sedentary. Both my kids are restricted in their access to computers, PS2's etc as it's blatantly obvious that given the option they would readily sit in front of a TV or a computer all day eating crap food and doing nothing and probably wouldn't even bother to get out of their pyjamas!

Boob Woolmer in his cricket book the Art and Science of cricket writes about the state of both the UK and South Africas kids with regards to their physical prowess and speculates that in the next 10-20 years the length of the wicket and the boundaries will be shortened to accommodate a generation of youngster that are unable physically to hit and bowl the ball the current lengths and distances. I for one at the age of my kids would have spent time climbing trees looking for birds nests and throwing stones at cats and birds etc and pushing a dirty great wooden trolley with my brother and sister in up and down my alley etc.

I suppose it comes down to how much other physical stuff your kid does? I've not watched the Benuad videos right through yet and have not come across the bit you've mentioned, normally that kind of warning is reserved for bowling the Flipper which I can personally vouch for is possibly a delivery that might cause issues in the longer term. I would imagine that if your kid is fairly sedentary and he is bowling for hours and hours he might strain his shoulders. I know that kids bowlng seam up (fast) are advised not to over do it, but if he's bowling right arm leg to off and it's his natural delivery and he's not spending too long he would probably be okay and it sounds like he's on the right track to become a wrist spinner.

The person to ask though would be Liz Ward who might pick this up, or send her a personal message and she'll advise you. But I'd say that unless he's bowling non stop practice spells for long periods of time and ignoring the fact that he's going to bed with sore shoulders he's probably okay. Your body generally has a knack of letting you know that you're pushing the boundaries.
 
Re: Is he too young???

I would have to agree with mas... more than two clubs can be confusing, one would be better.

You will probably find that there was not a 'health and safety' issue but one of insurance. It may be wise to check that your son is insured with the club(s) he is playing at. Or should I say, the club is insured to coach a child of this age. It may also have been because the coaches at the other clubs did not want to coach somebody so young with the physical, emotional and physiological issues that come with them.

As for the physical issues... I am afraid it is impossible to generalise; some children can take more than others. Regardless, you really do have to watch for muscle imbalance. As mas says, you would be wise to restrict the amount of hardball bowling but I do not think you need to stop him unless he starts to complain of soreness, aches etc.

EDIT: Dave says it all... extremely well :)
 
Re: Is he too young???

Seems there is no one size fits all advice here. You need to listen to your child and let him tell you when enough is enough.

You also need to be wary of coaches pushing him too hard. Though they may feel they have his best interests at heart (and I have no doubt as to that being the case) it is very easy to get carried away, especially when you have a young player who shows a lot of promise.

I have one boy who has been playing for three years now - I honestly did not realise that he was 6 when he started (he's still in the under 9 age). This year he has played up in the under 11 group but only after talking to him and his parents. If I wasn't sure that he could handle it and more importantly he was not happy/safe it would not have even been tried. Even then he is monitored and the amount he plays kept to sensible limits.

Though they are young they do know when enough is enough and that needs to be respected.
 
Re: Is he too young???

Thanks everyone for some great advice.

The only reason my lad trains at more than one club is because he wants to play every day. Unfortunately we don't have a large garden so the only place he can play is at a club. He only bowls 3/4 overs a day and the rest of the time is spent on fielding, throwing and batting. He's enjoying himself and has never complained about any soreness/pain.

The coaches have been really good. The only reason they moved him up to this level is that the coaches felt he was not being challanged with either bat or ball in the U8's.

I know this is the spinners sub forum but are there any issues with injuries and batting for young lads? He sometimes gets to the nets early and will bat for 45 mins against a hard ball.

I may sound paranoid but I don't want him to over do things but at the same time I don't want to quash his enthusiasm.
 
Re: Is he too young???

luckydip;402377 said:
Thanks everyone for some great advice.

The only reason my lad trains at more than one club is because he wants to play every day. Unfortunately we don't have a large garden so the only place he can play is at a club. He only bowls 3/4 overs a day and the rest of the time is spent on fielding, throwing and batting. He's enjoying himself and has never complained about any soreness/pain.

The coaches have been really good. The only reason they moved him up to this level is that the coaches felt he was not being challanged with either bat or ball in the U8's.

I know this is the spinners sub forum but are there any issues with injuries and batting for young lads? He sometimes gets to the nets early and will bat for 45 mins against a hard ball.

I may sound paranoid but I don't want him to over do things but at the same time I don't want to quash his enthusiasm.
Click to expand...

No you're right it is scary, my older son is a fast bowler and he follows through running down the wicket minimising the reaction time needed if the batsman was to drive the ball straight back at him. I worry that he's not even vaguely aware that this may happen and he unlike your son doesn't watch cricket particularly and therefore hasn't seen this happen in a match situation. I'm pretty certain that if a ball was hit straight back at his head he would end up wearing it and maybe lose all his teeth which is a horrific thought. But then if you think about the law of averages and add in the fact that the kids hitting the ball back at him will not be doing so with a great deal of power and the fact that I've never heard of it happening - I don't worry too much.

As for over-doing things as a spin (Slow) bowler he should be okay.
 
Re: Is he too young???

This is a really difficult one. Again, each case must be taken on it's own merits. However, I do applaud you for your concern. Overuse injuries are not caused by overuse [per se]. The most common causes are training errors. I suspect if your son is playing/training everyday, he will be setting himself up for chronic injury in the future. It is important at this age that children do not specialise and should take part in different sports/activities. His muscles need general condtitioning.
 
Re: Is he too young???

someblokecalleddave;402385 said:
No you're right it is scary, my older son is a fast bowler and he follows through running down the wicket minimising the reaction time needed if the batsman was to drive the ball straight back at him. I worry that he's not even vaguely aware that this may happen and he unlike your son doesn't watch cricket particularly and therefore hasn't seen this happen in a match situation. I'm pretty certain that if a ball was hit straight back at his head he would end up wearing it and maybe lose all his teeth which is a horrific thought. But then if you think about the law of averages and add in the fact that the kids hitting the ball back at him will not be doing so with a great deal of power and the fact that I've never heard of it happening - I don't worry too much.

As for over-doing things as a spin (Slow) bowler he should be okay.
Click to expand...

Actually, Dave has brought up another issue. 11 year old pace bowlers can do some harm to 7 year olds as they bowl a lot faster than they are used to.
 
Re: Is he too young???

Liz Ward;402389 said:
Actually, Dave has brought up another issue. 11 year old pace bowlers can do some harm to 7 year olds as they bowl a lot faster than they are used to.
Click to expand...

Yep seen this as well, my little-un Joe when he was 6 in his first match ever faced a kid that was in the U11's that stood nearly 6' that we all joked had been seen getting out of car! This kid bowled fast short balls at my Joe who was about 2' shorter than this kid, it looked really scary and completely wrong. Joe was very brave and was luck in that 10 of these balls were wides (terrier cricket so didn't have to be re-bowled) and one fuller ball which was on target albeit very fast Joe actually stepped forward and blocked. But he came off quite proud of himself, but also saying that the balls up around his chest and head were scary. There's sometime a vast difference between the little kids of 6 and 7 and the bigger kids that are 11 years and 364 days old that still manage to be playing in the U11's!!!
 
Re: Is he too young???

Liz Ward;402387 said:
This is a really difficult one. Again, each case must be taken on it's own merits. However, I do applaud you for your concern. Overuse injuries are not caused by overuse [per se]. The most common causes are training errors. I suspect if your son is playing/training everyday, he will be setting himself up for chronic injury in the future. It is important at this age that children do not specialise and should take part in different sports/activities. His muscles need general condtitioning.
Click to expand...

This makes sense to me, Old Skool kids would have walked and ran to school, run around playing bull-dog, football, cricket, tag whilst at school, walked the long way home from school, climbed up trees and building site scaffolding, got chased by the Old Bill or the buidling site security man and then do a number of other things before going to bed. Therefore they'd have been all-rounders physically. Whereas if your sons only playing cricket as his only or primary access to physical development, as Liz says there might be reasons for caution or an increase in activity diversity?
 
Re: Is he too young???

Luckdip, an interesting dilema and some sound advice from mas and Liz, particularly about getting involved with a number of sports (although cricket is useful in that you can stop bowling and do some batting which uses a different set of skills).

As with the others its difficult to generalise but bowling every day (even just 3/4 overs) seems to be over doing it to me, even for a spinner. I appreciate what you are saying about going to two clubs to get access to additional time, but I think the way to go is playing just for the one club and then it is up to them to ensure he gets a balanced training regime and hopefully a consistent message from his coach about what he needs to do to improve (much better to get that than a number of coaches all having an input and mixing the messages)

Best of luck to him and hope he continues to enjoy his cricket
 
Re: Is he too young???

Some good advice above.
The multi sports thing is great advice too. Especially for cricket, you have so many different areas of the body that work out.
My personal thoughts (Disclaimer : I am not a coach !) would be maybe try and do some running or rowing or something different on a couple of days, a sport where there is less likelyhood of injury and that will still work out and keep fit. I think Liz has a very good point about chronic Injury! Dont want to "burn out" from becoming too specialised at a young age! Different sports will teach different disciplines that are all useful to cricket! Even subconsiously.
 
Re: Is he too young???

Here's a link to Lucky Dips son bowling YouTube - Youngster bowling leg spin anyone got any advice for him? I've just said to not push him too much and not to get too technical and let him just enjoy what he's doing. Little kids often have an innate ability to bowl leg breaks, but as they get absorbed into the game and then get knocked for 4's on a regular basis, the enthusiasm for slow bowling/spinning fades (As with my own son Joe now 9).

I've said that maybe if he's looking to make a small adjustment maybe get the pivot leg straight and braced and to get up on his toes a bit more rather than rotate on a bent leg? Anyone else think that's a useful point Macca/Doctoran?
 
Re: Is he too young???

Of course, it's only my humble opinion, but...

...DO NOT change a thing!

This lad is a dream and has great potential... as long as nobody interfers with his action :D.
 
Re: Is he too young???

do nothing is pretty much what i said lol. his action looks absolutely textbook. the only thing youd say is that his hands are too small, which there isnt much you can do to change :D if his action continues as it is now as he gets bigger then youd think there is potential for him to be a fantastic leggie!
 
Re: Is he too young???

Having had a decent look at the video, I agree with the general consensus at the moment. His action is pretty good - as pointed out he suffers a little from having small hands but that will change quickly in time.

I would rather see him coming through the next few years with enthusiasm for game rather than being over-coached and a little jaded. A few quirks here and there is no bad thing and seeing as he is so young there is still plenty of time to work with him once he reaches 11/12/13 if there are things which do need putting right.
 
Re: Is he too young???

For what it's worth all I can see is a kid with mind body and soul totally involved in what he's doing and loving every minute of it. I think if a kid has a passion and it doesn't cause any problems they should just be left to get on with it. As someone else said though as a spinner he may need an arm round the shoulder when he starts, inevitably, to get hit round the park but just support him, let him go with it and see where it takes him. He looks like a cross between Shane Warne and Lewis Hamilton. At least be grateful that cricket is cheaper and less dangerous than go-karting!
 
Re: Is he too young???

Tremendous wrist action on this little bloke. No short stuff and he wasn't afraid to give it some air was he?

The only thing i would have him do action wise, i told luckydip this in an email, is to isolate and practise backfoot placement and balance with an aim for him to become a bit more side-on and upright. Nothing major or drastic, and a kid with his talent, despite his young age will grasp it straight away.

I was a bit worried when i saw the vid that they may have been practising bowling legbreaks outside leg and trying to hit the stumps. It can cause them to aim to short and wide and, especially if it doesn't spin, it is usually a bad ball.

At the beginning they should be aiming for middle stump even against lefthanders as this gives biggest margin of error. Damn those lefthanders though, even at under 9,s they like it on their legs, but this boy in the vids might be able to adjust, even at his tender age.

Just remember child prodigy legspinner Peter Philpott was bowling massive legbreaks at age 7, and by age 13 and at 4 foot and a few inches was dismissing senior batsmen at grade level in Sydney.
 
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