Session plans — front-foot defensive, how and why (no, really!)

This week’s theme was “batting (coach’s choice)”. We do lots of hitting and running activities, so, half in jest, I suggested I could run a session on the front-foot defensive.

But from that jest arose an actual session, presented here as delivered to a group of yr2s (under 7s) (minus references to sharks & islands).

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Session plans

“Keep it on the island”

Theme

Learning to play the ball gently & with control; developing a front-foot defensive stroke (FFD); learning why a defensive stroke might sometimes be a good choice.

Format

• Keep it on the island (20 minutes)
• Game of two halves (30 minutes)

Activities

Keep it on the island

• Batter in front of a set of stumps, on an “island” defined by a 2-3m radius perimeter of cones with “sharks” (fielders) beyond.
• Challenge to protect their wicket from a low bobble feed from the coach, whilst keeping the ball from the sharks (“keep it on the island”).
• Coaching interventions as required, but centred on “vertical bat to stop the low feed” & “soft hands and/or angled bat” i.e. the basics of a FFD.

Game of two halves

A two-innings game of carousel cricket., with a larger “island” defined by cones — perhaps 4-5 m radius).

• In the first innings for each team, players start with a normal wicket of three stumps — every time they “keep ball on the island”, one stump is removed; if they hit the ball off the island, or are bowled, add an extra stump.
  • Each batter gets to face three deliveries, irrespective of outcomes, then rotates back to the carousel.
  • No runs are counted in this innings.
• Teams play their second innings with wickets comprised of as many stumps as they ended the first innings with — a successful first knock could see them having no stumps to defend; a less successful first innings might result in a wicket of 4, 5, 6 or more stumps…good luck with that!
  • Strict carousel rules — each batter faces up to 3 deliveries, but must run if they hit the ball in front of the wicket.
  • Teams score runs as per usual carousel rules (at this age, we usually have runners run out & back to score 2; straight hit boundary 4s & 6s).

Notes

The intention of the session was to introduce the concept of a defensive stroke, a little technical input, reinforced with a game that emphasised why a defensive stroke might be beneficial in a match situation.

I had originally thought of playing one hand, one bounce, a long-standing favourite of mine, as the introductory activity, but realised this might be inappropriate with the group of u7s — some struggle to catch consistently with two hands, let alone one; none can reliably resist the temptation to smear the ball as hard as they can.

The first part of the “game of two halves” was simply a gamified version of the first activity in the session, but introducing consequences for not keeping the ball close to the wicket.

The second half of the game gave the players a chance to hit the ball, rather than blocking, but with added jeopardy for a side that had not “won” the first half.

With older players, with some actual playing experience, we could have emphasised the “can’t score runs in the pavilion” line, or the need to fight through the more challenging periods of the game to score runs later on. But with the u7 group this activity was trialled with, we simply pointed out how many stumps they had to defend as a visual reminder of the need to protect their wickets at the start of an innings.

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