Preseason cricket coaching

During the Easter holidays I tried to volunteer for some extra coaching session in football to gain more experience in the coaching world. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any football clubs to help out so I decided to aid Astwood bank cricket club. As it wasn’t quite the summer cricket season we had to fit my session into the preseason schedule.

I knew this could be quite a challenge as I am use to coaching football in a controlled manner because I am confident in both the technical and tactical side of the game. However when coaching cricket I am not fully confident. As I am not as confident at coaching cricket I decided in my plan to take a different approach. After learning about some of the different coaching approaches in the theory lessons I chose to try out a guided discovery method.

My session was on how to bowl full onto the stumps. My session was first planned for 5 different bowlers but 3 of them didn’t turn up to preseason training. This meant I had to change the activity to one more suitable for the number I had. I started getting them bowling laying down areas on the crease and asked them to get the ball into the areas.

One of the bowlers was struggling on both his handling and his stance when bowling the ball. Previously I would have stopped the session and demonstrated the right technique. However I stayed as I planned on a guided discovery approach using questioning and answering to the performer. I believed that this would work as McShane, K. (2002) that this approach is all about the performer helping themselves find their own solution. I felt this approach worked well with my activity because it allows the performer to constantly practice a technique.

Reflecting on this session I feel that my risk paid off in many ways. I believe that the bowlers enjoyed the freedom that was given to them and the session flowed well because of this. Another way the session went positively is the way the performers were left to discover their own solution to finding the areas or targets I set up. Finally I thought I enjoyed the session and were positive and showed good motivation when the bowlers needed it. One thing I would plan for next time is further progression as one of the bowlers started to find the technique and skill sooner than the other. However it was a great experience coaching a different in another coaching approach and will try to use problem solving and guided discovery in the future

References

McShane, K. (2002) Coaching youth soccer: the European model Pp102