The Teesra

Author: Andrew Beaven

  • 360° Cricket…this time with words

    I posted a Teesra Talks podcast on this topic a a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t think it had many listens, and the format doesn’t really invite any responses. If you have listened, there is not much new in this blog post. But for everyone else — some thoughts on making a game more relevant.

    I do love playing games, but I worry that sometimes the skills developed don’t always transfer obviously to “the real thing”. And I want to enthuse youngsters (and anyone) to actually want to play cricket, in any of its formats.

    Hence my attempts to tweak cricket-based games and gamified drills to make them more like cricket (or, at least, to teach skills, tactics, or general awareness, that might transfer to the game of cricket), and less like games for the sake of games.

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  • 360° Cricket — Teesra Talks on a modified, gamified batting game

    Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: Round the clock – hit the gaps https://anchor.fm/theteesra/episodes/Round-the-clock—hit-the-gaps-eb4kek

    A game, based on an idea tweeted by Chance to Shine (see below), to encourage batters to hit the ball in different directions.

    My initial thoughts, after a couple of runs with a yr7 group.

  • Coaching for girls (and boys…and beginners…and everyone…) — half-term review

    I have just completed a 6 week block of work visiting schools to deliver cricket-based PE lessons for secondary school-age girls.

    With only three lessons with each class, there wasn’t going to be time to coach skills in any depth (even if this was appropriate for a PE lesson), so the emphasis was on introducing an understanding of the game of cricket (what is cricket? what skills are needed? what tactics might be needed?) and on engagement with the game (playing for the sake of playing).

    Hence I aimed to play games in every lesson, and we finished with a “games-sense” session.

    What follows is a look at the course structure — skills & games — and some of the thinking behind it, and a summary of how the lessons were received.

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