The Teesra

Category: cricket

  • Over rates…get on with it!

    “Get on with it!”

    All too often, as the over rate drops and the game drags, you will hear this cry from the stands, or the lone fielder stationed out on the boundary.

    I have railed against slow over-rates before, without ever setting out in any detail what I thought needed to be done. Shouting “get on with it”, whilst heart-felt, doesn’t actually help!

    Fines for slow rates, or penalty runs, can really only be applied when the game is run by independent match officials.

    So –  can anything be done by the players to speed up the game? (more…)

  • More on coaching philosophy – getting better at getting better?

    I was delighted to read recent a post from sports psychologist Dan Abrahams outlining exactly how all sportsmen (and their coaches) need to set out to “profile the next level” of performance.

    I have written previously about my coaching “philosophy” – slightly glib, perhaps, but I do believe that the aim of all coaching has to be to help the players to “get better”.

    But what is “better”?  And how do we get there? (more…)

  • Finger spin basics…in 55 minutes

    Last week I was asked to run a one-to-one coaching session with an experienced seam bowler who wanted to learn how to bowl finger spin.

    The player was already a competent bowler, so I had no issues with his basic action. But he had no real idea of how to bowl spin.

    So I had 55 minutes to introduce the basic techniques of finger spin, to help the bowler to understand what was involved in delivering the ball with high revs (no point aspiring to be a “roller”, I thought), and to leave him with enough insight into the finer arts to be able to coach himself over the next few weeks.

    I had to concentrate on no more than two or three key points of technique, then allow the player the chance to experience the act of spin bowling.

    But how to resolve the mechanics of finger spin bowling into a coaching session that lasts just 55 minutes? (more…)