The Teesra

Author: Andrew Beaven

  • Dealing with pressure from “beyond the boundary” – so that’s why we need “connection and extension”

    “Slow down, and you will bowl straighter”.  I never appreciated receiving this advice when I was a young (never very) quick bowler, and I certainly don’t like hearing it now, from an experienced player advising a youngster who I have been encouraging to (try to) bowl fast.

    Bowling fast and straight is not impossible.  It is challenging, but anything worth doing generally is.  Being told to slow down does not make a fast bowler.  And the role of the coach has to be to encourage the exceptional.

    But how to deal with this (well-intentioned but ultimately unhelpful) advice from beyond the boundary?

    By making sure that everyone connected with the team – players, parents, other coaches, committee members – knows about “the plan”, whatever it might be.  Fast bowlers try to bowl fast; slow bowlers flight the ball and give it a rip; fielders are encouraged to try for run outs (so you had better be ready to back-up the throws).

    And that’s where “connection and extension” comes in. (more…)

  • “Inspire a generation” – but what does that really mean?

    I spent a very happy 10 days volunteering at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.  It really was a “once in a lifetime experience”…although unlike Tim Vine, I am already looking for an opportunity to do it again.

    The legacy aspiration of the London 2012 Games was to “inspire a generation” – but what does this really mean, for sports coaches and administrators, as we move into 2013?

    The media focus on gold medals (and the New Years’ Honours) might just be missing the point.

    We do need to keep finding more heroes.  But, perhaps even more importantly, we also need the generation of enthusiasts who will never appear at the Olympics or Paralympics (well – maybe as volunteers!) but who will contribute to the sporting infrastructure from which those heroes will emerge.

    (more…)

  • What makes a winning coach? Ask someone who knows!

    I spent a few hours today watching the live stream of @sportscoachuk’s latest #alldaytalentbreakfast, featuring Stuart Lancaster, England Rugby Union Head Coach, and Mark Lane, Head Coach of England Women’s Cricket.

    Perhaps most enlightening (for me, as a volunteer cricket coach working with junior players) was the emphasis both speakers placed on the importance of a strong foundation (at representative level below national, and senior club, Academy and junior sport) to the ultimate success of the senior national teams.

    Having heard Lancaster and Lane speak, it can be no surprise that England Rugby Union and the Women’s Cricket set-ups are both on the up.

    Truly inspirational.
    (more…)