An area I am really focussing on with all my coaching this year is to train players to practice better. One way I am doing this is by scheduling sessions, another is by spending time on drills to help players help themselves and teammates how to practice better.
I appreciate these posts are long and contain a lot of information but if I can get it over to everyone this way we have more time to practice as I will need to talk less. I also want to ensure those not attending see what we are doing, and those wanting to coach get some ideas on planning and preparation.
You know the old saying” “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”so the more prepared we all are the more we will get done at these sessions.
The session will be structured as ‘normal’:
11am Intro & Safety, Warm Up & Fielding Drill
- we will start promptly at 11am, so please be there and ready to start, with 100% concentration.
11.30am We will then use the three nets as below:
This week we will be really focussing on drills that can we done individually or in pairs so that everyone can practice away from the nets. The drills this week will form the basis of all pre game drills.
Net 1: Fielding – Chase & Return
Net 2: Bowling – Run Up, Line & Length
Net 3: Batting – Trigger, Stance & Cover Drive
We will work in three groups and each group will take a turn in each net. If you have no interest in Bowling (we all have to bat and field in cricket) let me know and you can do more batting and fielding drills.
XX will look after Net 1, XX Net 2 and 3.
The reason we do drills in cricket is because repetition is your best friend. The more you known about and can rely on your technique the more your mind can concentrate on the game.
That is why the warm up and fielding drills will be done pre game. It is why professional batters have pre game drills they go through, and the same for bowlers. Their drills differ little from the ones they did as youngsters learning the game: having a technique that works and you can rely on is the ultimate goal for any cricketer.
The more you know how to practice, and practice away from a formal net environment, the more enjoyment you will get out of this amazing game.
Chris will demonstrate each net before we break into the groups below:
Net 1: X&X , X&X
Net 2: X&X, X&X
Net 3: X&X, X&X
Once we have done the drills, we will use the nets for some general batting and bowling practice, although as you can see we don’t have many bowlers with match experience so we will split the nets into:
Net 1: Feed Drills
Net 2: Throw Downs
Net 3: Bowlers.
Each batter will start in 1 and move through 2 and 3 in the following order:
X&X, X&X (Bowlers X&X)
X&X, X&X (Bowlers X&X)
X&X, X&X (Bowlers X&X)
- in Net 3 we will bat in pairs, facing 3 balls from one bowler before swapping over and the second batter facing 3 balls from the same bowler. This gets the bowlers bowling overs, and gives the batters time between deliveries to go through their stance and trigger routine. Each batter will face two overs in total.
As for bowlers: X&X it looks like the 3 of us will be bowling a lot!
This will be a good example of why we use feeds, throw downs and dog catchers so we can all help batters get good practice time.
Everyone will spend time with bat and ball in hand, but as this is a focussed development net you will focus on your primary skill/role so please have a good think which of the three disciplines (batting, bowling, fielding) you want your primary skill to be, and discuss with your Captain if you are ensure.
The fielding position is equally as important as the other two disciplines as where people field is taken into account both at selection and creating the drills. As far as selection goes we can’t pick a team of expert boundary fielders (a balance is needed), and with the drills it makes sense to concentrate on the type of catches you are most likely to get in a match.
- we will NOT be practising slip catching as the chances of us playing development cricket with slips are very slim indeed.
Please bring your smartphones with you so you can record yourselves and for this session your training buddy will be the person you are paired up with to bat, so you will do all the drills together.
Time permitting I would also like to have a session where you can ask me about specific shots, match scenarios, and training drills. If we do this it will be at the end as part of my batting which I want to do to see how well the feeds, throw downs and bowling is!