Asking questions…but no-one answers

This post from icoachcricket appeared on Twitter earlier this week.

icoachcricket is the Twitter presence of the ECB Coaches Association, the registration body for cricket coaches accredited through the ECB Coach Development pathway. The twitter account has more than 2,700 followers.

A few likes and retweets. But not one of the followers has responded.

Yet, this seems to be an important topic for coaches. Understanding the people they are coaching with.

So why the tumbleweed?

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How do coaches learn to be better coaches?

When I first I qualified as a coach, back in 2009, I was told “get your coaching badge, then go and do some coaching.”

It felt odd, having just completed a “taught” course, but it seemed almost a recognition of the failure of coach education to actually teach the new coach what they should do.

It’s as if the coaching qualification was just a license to practice, rather than a preparation for (coaching) life.

But what is wrong with coach education? How do coaches learn?

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Session plan — all round fielding plus

This session starts with a modified fielding activity from icoachcricket — “all round fielding” (I have also seen this called “fielder’s wheel”, “modified T-drill”, or Williams’ wheel (a reference to a colleague who particularly favours this activity), but then adds a competitive element — fielders vs. runners — to try out the skills under simulated game intensity.

With the group I am working with this term (u11, transition to hardball), I had wanted to use a hard ball (or possibly a lightweight bowling machine ball) to get them accustomed to stopping and throwing a hard(er) ball, with the coaches taking any direct throws, catching with a mitt if required, switching to an “incrediball” when a runner is introduced.

In the event, we stuck with the incredi throughout, for safety.

But I think this works as a more active variant of the ground fielding drills we sometimes run with.

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