22
2012
Outcome of a nutrient deficient diet
An article by Stephen Pritchard
Having run a successful session with the club juniors last week, the changeover to the adults illustrated a few things. Usually the nets are set up and ready to use as the colts have trained in them. This time though, the soft ball session had not needed them to be set up. As the senior players arrived I was debriefing the juniors. Rather than setting up the nets (the whereabouts of which were known as they put them away each week) the senior players instead found a basketball and shot some hoops. [I can hear a certain Create Development MD getting excited about a potential new club!]
I finished with the colts, they packed and left and I repeated the same behaviours I had with the juniors an hour previously (ie waiting for someone to take the responsibility to lead). Only this time, no one took on a leadership role to set up the equipment. A few asked where the balls were and made sure they got the best ones, but no one went about setting up the nets needed for practice. Looking back I wish I’d continued to do nothing rather than eventually instigating this myself, but I gave in to the fact I wanted to get home on time, particularly as I was not able to participate as a player.
My conclusions are as follows. We have a lack of leaders in our adult set up. A possible reason for this is that we’ve been spoiled for years, always arriving at matches and practices to find that the groundsman and others have done all the preparation so we’ve only had to play. The cricketing experience has lacked the essential nutrients. It’s important to emphasise that this doesn’t make us a bad club or bad players or bad people, nor does it reflect upon other spheres of our lives, but it has highlighted to me the importance of gradually shifting responsibility with the colts to bring about a culture change. The real challenge will be teaching the old dogs new tricks.
