The Teesra

Blog

  • Coaching philosophy v4.2.1.7†

    Coaching philosophy v4.2.1.7†

    Create an environment where everyone you #coach falls in love with the experience of playing – and the rest is up to them.

    Wayne Goldsmith, on X (formerly — and still — known as Twitter)

    Just make the players love the game.

    It’s a great quote, and a wonderful aspiration.

    But try putting “I just want to make the players love the game” at the top of your CV and see how many interviews you get!

    With the current understanding of coaching (within English cricket, certainly), “fun” & “love for the game” will get you a gig running National Programmes and “community” sessions.

    Which is where I am!

    But why?

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  • Online coaching & coach education — can we do better?

    I followed the proliferation of “online coaching” during the first COVID lockdown in the UK in 2020 — a lot of online demos, and quite a few “Me-Me” posts (“look at me — me!”).

    For all the online “coaching”, it is, of course, impossible to tell if there was much actual learning. And no evidence, to date, of any development in online coaching beyond a straight replacement for face-to-face instruction & demonstration.

    Surely, we can do better?

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  • Back where it all started. And the importance of a hub for local cricket.

    Back where it all started. And the importance of a hub for local cricket.

    This week, I visited† the Ilford Cricket School, for the first time since I left school in 1980.

    Where I, and countless numbers of local school children, have been introduced to the game since the facility opened more than 70 years ago.

    The telephone number on the board by the front door has not updated since the “Big Number Change” in 2000, and some of the decor inside is possibly of the same vintage…

    Ilford Cricket School, January 2024

    But it’s an indoor facility where otherwise there was none back then.

    Where State schools and local clubs got to practice.

    It demonstrates perfectly, for me, the importance of a local hub, no matter how humble, in promoting and supporting the game.

    Would the London Borough of Redbridge be host to 7 Essex “Premier” clubs, each running three or more Saturday XIs and numerous junior sides, if the Cricket School had never found a home in Ilford?

    I rather doubt it.

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