The Teesra

Just watching some cricket, again — T20 Blast

A couple of days ago I posted an idea for coaching tactical analysis during lockdown and even developing game awareness. Very simplistic — watch a video, and try to work out what is going on.

In the second part of this series, I have found a video of a remarkable match from the 2019 Vitality Blast, featuring the eventual champions, Essex, hosting London rivals Surrey.

As before, the challenge for your players is to watch, analyse, and begin to formulate their own tactical responses.

Should we really be trying to get better? Or can we just enjoy the ride?

I have written before about the “philosophy” that underlies my coaching — at its simplest, simply an exhortation to “get better”…although this has slowly evolved to include a definition of what “better” might mean for the player.

But a recent article on Medium.com has made me think again.

"We are so afraid to fail, so afraid to make ourselves look silly — to lose face — that we decide it’s better to simply quit or refuse to do something if we believe we can’t be as good as we want to be. If we can’t be as good as the others." https://t.co/mUmCoLCnGt
— Danielle Street (@dstreetwriting) May 12, 2020

Just watching some cricket…with a coaching twist, of course

With a tentative return to 1-to-1 practice in the nets, announced last week, cricket in England is at last beginning the slow march back, post-lockdown.

But no amount of nets, or online video drills or S&C, nor even SSGs and conditioned games as the lockdown loosens further, will make up for not playing much (any) actual cricket in 2020.

For the younger players (for all players, probably), the greatest loss will be game time, experience gained by simply playing the game.

Is there anything coaches can do to make up this deficit, whilst coaching remotely?

How about asking the players to just watch some cricket?