I have just read the following article and it got me thinking. http://www.superhumanperformance.org/blog/2015/11/13/express-yourself Using the skating/boarding/BMXing example it is clear that with the correct environment skills can develop through self-led practice and peer support. Competition in terms of formal rankings etc is not present, but clearly the desire to improve is.  This seems to give rise to a supportive culture or community. Everyone is on the same team, no one is worrying about others getting […]

I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “Children are not mini adults”. I’ve been mulling over the idea that maybe “Adults are big children”. Here’s why. Across many sports and physical activities it seems the number of young children having a go are pretty good. I’d suggest that we are becoming increasingly good at kiddy-fying our activities to appeal to children. Smaller teams, more time playing, focusing on fun and inclusion. In some forward thinking […]

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 […]

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 […]

Whilst the main focus of the Learning Nutrition experiment is upon working with children, I could not resist using this new method with my adult group. The group was initially for beginners, but has been running now for 2 seasons and as such those that have been coming throughout have reached a reasonable club standard of play.  New players have joined along the way meaning there are a range of abilities on show. Having spent […]