I have written before about the “philosophy” that underlies my coaching — at its simplest, simply an exhortation to “get better”…although this has slowly evolved to include a definition of what “better” might mean for the player.
But a recent article on Medium.com has made me think again.
With a tentative return to 1-to-1 practice in the nets, announced last week, cricket in England is at last beginning the slow march back, post-lockdown.
But no amount of nets, or online video drills or S&C, nor even SSGs and conditioned games as the lockdown loosens further, will make up for not playing much (any) actual cricket in 2020.
For the younger players (for all players, probably), the greatest loss will be game time, experience gained by simply playing the game.
Is there anything coaches can do to make up this deficit, whilst coaching remotely?
How about asking the players to just watch some cricket?
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Last week, I sat in on a webinar, organised by Essex Cricket in the Community (ECiC), that featured a talk from Anthony McGrath, Head Coach of the 2019 County Championship and T20 Blast Double Winners.
I was fascinated to hear about the culture that “Mags” is creating in the 1st XI Squad at Chelmsford and, importantly, how that same culture applies across the Academy and Development Pathway.
Maybe this sort of sharing goes on all the time. I have little contact with the development pathway or the pro game.
But as a grassroots children’s coach, I find this sort of information really helpful. If I am to shape a culture in the environment I work in (coach as environmental and cultural engineer), surely it makes sense if it can match that higher up the pathway (assuming that culture is healthy and positive, of course — this most certainly seems to be).
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The Teesra 