Interesting conversation with a couple of parents after our last coaching session before Christmas with one of their sons.
“My son annoys me so much – his grip is so low on the bat handle, and he won’t change it.”
[An acute, and accurate technical observation.]
– can he hit the ball?
“Yes”
– consistently, and with reasonable power?
“Yes”
– what do you want to change, then?
I recently picked up a copy of The Oxford Pocket Book of Cricket Coaching, by D.C.H. Townsend (Oxford University & England), first published in 1953, with a second impression in 1955.
Not surprisingly, the book, written after the first M.C.C. Coaching Conference, in December 1951, describes a fairly formal and traditional description of the key techniques of the game.
Interesting as an historical document, but with a few ideas that would not look so out-of-place in the curriculum of the most maverick coaching programmes today.
The only use for a coach is to get the players to the ground! – Shane Warne
It certainly sounds like a Warne quote, although I haven’t managed to track down the original, yet. And, as with so many Warne sledges, there is an underlying truth in this statement, one that he probably did not intend.
As coaches, we can’t bowl or kick the ball for the player, we can’t clear the hurdle or spend the extra 30 minutes in the gym after everyone else has finished training.
We can’t carry the bag, or the bat, or the racket.
All we can do is help the player to get to the field of play as well prepared as he possibly can be.
All we can really do is get them to the ground.
The Teesra 