The Teesra

Category: session planning

  • Session plans: ‘keeping & bowling — hit the gloves

    I have a u11 session booked for next week with a wicket keeping theme. The players are all pretty competent, but only one has done much keeping (and he is also a useful bowler), so I want to offer them an introduction to ‘keeping whilst also engaging those players who will never don the gloves in a match.

    So I wanted to combine ‘keeping with bowling.

    In preparation for next week’s session, I tried out a few ideas with a younger group (u8), which, with the input of coaching colleagues, evolved into the plan outlined below.

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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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  • Coaching neurodivergent players…and how it just might be a better way to coach, full stop.

    A learning week!

    Neurodiversity training from Headstuff ADHD Therapy, through one of my “zero hours contract” workplaces.

    An online webinar in the always interesting Myths of Sport Coaching webinar series (hosted on YouTube by Sequoia Books), on the proactive role of sports psychology.

    And more reading, away from the functional “what to coach” and towards the more productive, much more interesting “how to work with people”.

    And out of this has emerged a series of ideas on how to better support players with ADHD and autism.

    But as I re-read the list of accommodations and adjustments, it became very apparent that what I had written down could be profitably applied to most coaching activities.

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