The Teesra

Category: batting

  • Developing the batting fundamentals, the England way — where do you look?

    Developing the batting fundamentals, the England way — where do you look?

    I was very fortunate to snag a place on a workshop with Paul Shaw, Tim Boon, Matt Maynard & Mark Garaway, looking at batting fundamentals from the viewpoint of highly experienced coaches who have worked extensively with the national teams.

    Fascinating to hear how they simplified the art of batting — from complex technical & biomechanical analyses in the coach’s brain to the simplest possible concepts, drills & activities for the player.

    And an insight into how they approach Observation (one of the old “coaching bugs” from my level 1 coaching badge).

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  • 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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  • Do I have to hit it? SSG for the forward defensive…and more

    Latest addition to my collection of constrained SSGs — didn’t have a name for it at the time, but the theme is “block or whack”.

    I have a large group of U11s (large for the available indoor space), with a range of abilities and attention spans (this is an after-school activity, and I know how hard it can be to focus on “drills” after a day in class).

    I was keen to find a game that could test a valid batting technique whilst also challenging decision making. Oh, and I needed something to engage their attention.

    So a session centred on the front-foot defensive might seem an odd choice.

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