A feast of nutrients (and evidence of a prior lack)

An article by Stephen Pritchard    No Comments

Recent injury has forced me to think about what I can achieve when coaching without being too physically involved.  I’ve mentioned before the set up we’ve got going this season for indoor pre-season cricket training – colts followed by seniors in the same venue on the same night.  This has given rise to me being able to access a range of coaching resources which previously haven’t been utilised.  Each week one or two senior players (with or without coaching quals) come and help me out.  Senior colts who now train with the adults, often arrive early with younger siblings and so far controlling them has been one of the challenges I’d not met.

The pulse raising fielding based warm up was performed in groups, and after each completion groups were asked to assess themselves by giving a mark out of 10 for their effort and performance.  One group gave themselves an honest appraisal for which they received praise.  The others giggled and gave themselves 9/10.  The drill was repeated with further guidance given and each time the quality increased and the accuracy of self assessment was better (in my opinion!).  This was pulled together with the summation that their effort led to improved performance and that they should bear this in mind throughout the session (complex carbs).

This week I opted for a basic – but essential – skills session focussing on batting.  I started by demonstrating (don’t tell my wife or doctor) 4 practices (minerals) and explaining that the players should work in small groups and pick which ones they wished to have a go at.  The older players were included in this section – ironically they were the ones who probably most needed to re-visit these skills due to the increased demands of adult cricket.

We found that of the six groups, 2 were really maximising thier practices and making the most of the opportunity. 2 were working OK, and 2 were really not getting anything out of the time.  I left my “professional nagger” role at home and left the groups as they were.  Effort based praise was offered to the groups working well, and a couple of players were mentioned in front of the whole group for the effort they had put in (complex carbs).

As the players collected equipment, my team and I left them to take as long as they wanted until the natural leaders from within the players began organising their peers.  I explained the point of this to those helping me – more in my next blog.

I reflected quickly and decided that reflection was the problem.  The players didn’t have the visual feedback of the shapes they were making, and the peer coaching was in most cases not skilled enough to be hugely beneficial.  I left one of my helpers to run a game in the main hall and made use of the dance studio – with mirrors – to get the older players to take a look at how they were performing.  The visual feedback led to a few pennies dropping and their focus and quality of practice went through the roof.  To make use of my resources, these players were then charged with leading younger players through similar experiences in a one to one situation.  The information they were providing as coaches was technically accurate.  The demonstrations they provided were of a higher quality than the practice that they had undertaken in the main hall earlier.  The younger players responded well to the help from their senior peers (fibre).

By the end of the session every player had at some point completed the skills practices I set and had raised their self awareness of their performance.  Senior colts who potentially provide a behaviour challenge had been engaged as coaches and through this had focused attention upon their own performance.  Accelerated learning and behaviour management through Learning Nutrition.

Most importantly, I managed to survive a cricket session without further injury!