2023 has been a year of anniversaries — 50 years since my first organised game of cricket; 40 years since I bought my bat.
And this September marked 10 years since I left the 9-to-5 of office work and set out on a new “career” as a cricket coach.
Not surprisingly, things didn’t turn out as I had expected…
(more…)Latest addition to my collection of constrained SSGs — didn’t have a name for it at the time, but the theme is “block or whack”.
I have a large group of U11s (large for the available indoor space), with a range of abilities and attention spans (this is an after-school activity, and I know how hard it can be to focus on “drills” after a day in class).
I was keen to find a game that could test a valid batting technique whilst also challenging decision making. Oh, and I needed something to engage their attention.
So a session centred on the front-foot defensive might seem an odd choice.
(more…)A Twitter contact (X contact?) posted this the other day.
Anything that increases time spent playing at the expense of deconstructed “skill drills” is going to find favour with an advocate for the ecological dynamics and a constraints-led approach (like me!).
So I’d buy into this as an underlying coaching philosophy, although the numbers look low, too me. Only 50% “play” for young players — so the rest is still chores?. And just 40% “…highly random and game-based…”?
But there’s surely a problem with “broadcast coach development”.
(more…)