The Teesra

Category: coaching

  • Shortcut to success? – how short is short enough?

    Quick follow-up on the previous post – back-of-an-envelope calculations on “appropriate” pitch lengths for junior cricket.

    Taking average heights as comparator: [pitch length at age 10]=[adult pitch length]*([average height at 10]/[average height for adult (male)])

    [pitch length at age 10]=20.12*(138/176) = 15.78 m (17 yards, 9″)

    Alternatively, taking average bowling speeds: [pitch length at age 10]=[adult pitch length]*([average bowling speed at U11]/[average adult bowling speed])

    [pitch length at age 10]=22*(58.9/93.4) = 12.69 m (13 yards, 2′ 5″)

    Nearly 18 yards  (based on average height) does feel too long at 11 and under; just 13 yards (from average bowling speeds) too close.  Something in-between, then.

    Perhaps 16 yards, in fact.

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  • Shortcut to success – are young cricketers playing on pitches that are too long?

    Very interesting short article in the current issue of the ECB Coaches Association’s annual Coaching Insight*, from Martyn Kiel, on an experiment with shortened pitches for young players.

    With U11s (club) and U10s (County age group), playing on pitches just 16 yards long, the study reported:

    • increased numbers of back foot shots to short pitched deliveries (and more deliveries reaching the wicket keeper on the full);
    • more running between the wickets (more running, more run-out opportunities);
    • fewer shots fielded at mid-wicket (so more players involved in the field);
    • and an overall increase in playable deliveries in club matches.

    The findings are certainly in line with those being reported by Cricket Australia (CA) after a season-long trial Down Under – more play, better skills, generally better involvement.

    It will be very interesting to hear how CA take this forward, and whether the Shortcut to Success will be adopted elsewhere.

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  • The case against All Stars Cricket

    I posted recently on All Stars Cricket (ASC), and why I believe that the new entry-level programme from the ECB will be good for the game.

    I expect to hear soon that one of the Clubs where I coach has signed up to be an ASC Centre – I have volunteered to help out (even, perhaps, to take a lead for the first year), until the project attracts new volunteers (someone has to deliver that first session in mid-May).

    But it is fair to say that the response from the wider cricket community to ASC has been mixed – mostly positive (that I have seen or heard), but by no means universally so.

    I wanted to take a look at the case against.  Not (mostly) to dismiss it, but rather in the spirit of the”premortem” – if, in an imagined future, the programme has failed, what were the causes; what else could we have done pre-launch, to prevent that failure.

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