The Teesra

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  • England’s DNA – how the FA define their philosophy #playingyourpart

    I spent last Sunday with a group of football coaches from the FA East region, finding out about the FA’s new initiative, “England’s DNA”.

    With presentations and coaching demonstrations on “who we are”, “the future player”, “how we coach”, “how we play” and “how we support”, the day offered both theoretical and practical guidance as to how the FA expects its coaches to develop the Future Player – from grassroots to the international stage.

    For all the fanfare around the “DNA”, perhaps most revealing was the statement, in an introductory video, that there was, in fact, no fixed model – as soon as a document is written, it goes out of date (or evolves, to maintain the biological metaphor).

    What was offered was a framework, beyond the “4 corners” (see below) for the philosophical grounding of football coaching.

    It sounds quite high-powered – in fact, it was practical and realistic, and there are definitely lessons to be learnt.

    (more…)

  • To hit the gaps consistently, you need to know where the gaps are.

    Obvious, really. But how often do you see batsmen doing the exact opposite, and hitting shots straight at the fielders.

    Top batsmen take a quick look around the field, then proceed to thread the ball through the narrowest of gaps.

    How do they do it?  The answer seems to be simple enough…but with a subtle lesson for the psychological side of top performance. (more…)

  • What does a “better cricket” coaching session look like?

    It’s all very well to say “everything we do is designed to make a better cricketer”, but in practice, what does that mean?

    What might the ideal “better cricket” coaching session look like? (more…)