Back in the autumn of 2014 I attended a series of CPD workshops, delivered by Dan Feist (Essex CB) and Richard Hall (then with Surrey CB) – ECB Coaching Children, for level 2 coaches.
Still waiting for the “Diploma” schedule – the opportunity to convert the workshops into a recognised coaching qualification – but the workshops were certainly interesting & thought-provoking.
As with any CPD, however, attending the course is one thing, but what really matters is post-training “D” – was there actually any Development in coaching practice? How much of the workshop content have I actually managed to put into practice?
The event was described as “a workshop for coaches who want to understand and teach how to increase power for all levels and age groups”, and I certainly came away with a lot to think about…not to mention aches and pains from muscles that only rarely get called on when I am coaching!
Feel the Force workshop – Mark Sheppard @HECCSportMark has a background in martial arts, and a lot of the ideas behind his very practical demonstrations come from this field – next time you see a batter throwing punches at a coach with boxing mitts, check out the batter’s feet and hips.
If he is really generating force, expect to see feet firmly planted, knees flexed to lower the batter’s centre of gravity, and transfer of weight into the punch.
Otherwise, what you will probably notice is that the mitts are being slapped, not thumped.
I shall certainly be using the demonstrations of the stable base position for power hitting and throwing in one-to-ones and group sessions with older players.
Perhaps not for all – I can’t see the Little Legends (3-4 years old) performing the “squat-shift”, just yet – but we can still make sure they are learning good movements patterns from an early age, so there is less need to un-learn bad habits later in life.
There has been some discussion of the future direction of cricket coaching in the UK, specifically for younger players at the “participation” stage, on the Cricket Coaches Worldwide group on LinkedIn and also on the PitchVision Academy Cricket Show podcast.
There does seem to be support for the concept of games-based learning, although possibly with some reservations about the role of coach intervention and feedback in directing the learning.
But there might be the risk of a divergence of opinion between new coaches going through the latest level 2 coach development programmes (CGBL, outcomes-directed) and those coaches for whom “outcome” was just one leg on one of the coaching bugs.
The Teesra 