The Teesra

Category: practice

design of practice sessions

  • Making practice fun – games-based learning

    We have belatedly started outdoor practice for the Colts, after the wettest start to a season many of us can remember, and we are now racing to make up time.

    Inspired by the 2012 edition of the ECB CA’s “Wings to Fly” DVD, we are very keen to introduce more games-based learning to our practice sessions. We are lucky to have the Colts together for two hours a week, and access to a large playing field – no restrictions on time or space, just our imagination!

    We have adopted the street20 format for our games (see the inspirational cricket4change site for more information on the inspiration for this game), with “tactical” modifications to bring in extra skills and learning opportunities. (more…)

  • I could do this with my eyes closed…

    No, I don’t mean it’s just too easy.  I mean that a little blind-fold practice can go a long way to improving performance.

    It is always helpful for a coach to watch other coaches working, so the other week I took the opportunity to watch a session at the Essex Autogroup Graham Gooch Cricket Centre, at the Ford County Ground, Chelmsford.  And while I was there, I got into a conversation with the father of one of the young players being coached.

    He explained how his son had problems with his batting until he improved his footwork.

    How did he manage that, I asked.

    By closing his eyes, replied the father. (more…)

  • Don’t do what I do, do what I say…

    To indoor nets last Sunday – my first time as a player for two or three years, and hopefully a preliminary to playing a few games in the summer.

    Remembering the tenets of “purposeful practice”, and everything I say to our Colts when I am coaching, I set myself a couple of very specific goals for my first batting practice.

    1. Play myself in, and adopt a very deliberate structure to the session
      1. 10 balls played with a dead bat, or left alone completely;
      2. 10 balls “looking for singles”, manipulating the ball into imagined gaps;
      3. pick up the pace;
      4. hit anything in sight (it always degenerates to this, in the end – but now I can call it “20/20 practice”).
    2. Try out the “action position” – this sounds like good advice, but I wanted to try it for myself before I suggested that any of the Colts start moving their feet before the ball is released…

    I think I managed my second goal (more on this later).

    But…the second ball I received was full, and slow, and pitched around leg, leg-and-middle. Did I play the dead bat, as per the session goals? (more…)