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.
The team specific nets will be very focussed on what the new captains want the coaches to work on for their teams, so one of the first things we will do this week is to talk through the structure, answer any questions, and ensure everyone knows their Primary Squad allocated for future nets.
Many players will undoubtedly play for two, if not three, of the teams this year and will be welcome at all nets. Others may prefer to concentrate on just one team, and accordingly attend less nets.
The objective this year is to provide a structure of nets and games which gives everyone ample opportunity to develop their skills and enjoy your games, whilst giving the opposition good games.
I think the biggest single change this new structure and approach does is to put the responsibility for developing, playing and enjoying your game into your own hands. Nets will very much be “quality over quantity” with one objective being to train you as players on how to practise: one net a week does not make a cricketer.
On Saturday we will start with a warm up and some fielding drills to get the bodies loosened up and remembering what a cricket ball is. I will take us through the warm up (XX is unable to attend), and XX and I will take the fielding drill.
(At future nets the Captains will have a role in the warm ups and fielding drills as we have a number of players looking to get involved in coaching, and the Captains will be building a pool of players to take the pre game warm ups and drills)
XX will then say a few words before the captains will discuss the three squads and we will open up the three nets.
The sole aim of these nets is to get everyone used to a bat and ball again, see how the bodies have wintered and have some fun.
The challenge this week is the ratio of bowlers to batters, so I am going to have all the bowlers in one net and use the other two nets for drills.
In order for batters to have quality practice sessions they need to face strong bowling so one objective this sesson is to get non bowlers proficient with “dog throwers” and everyone able to give effective throw downs as this will also enable everyone to practice their batting better.
In future Club and Development nets we will work on batting and bowling skills but the focus this week is on those bowlers who already bowl in games and everyone having a bat.
To that end we will have two nets being used for drills with a battter in each, and then these batters will pair up and go into the bowlers net. The bowlers will also bowl in pairs, in sets of 3 balls. To keep things moving:
- Bowler 1 bowls one ball to Batter 1
- Batters run a single
- Bowler 2 bowls one ball to Batter 2
- Batters run a single
- Repeat twice so Bowlers bowl three consecutive balls at same Batter
- Bowlers swap over.
Will have a WK in this net who will return ball to bowler, or bowler collects ball ie batters play shot and run.
Hopefully everyone gets 5 minutes drills and a shared 5 minutes batting.
May not seem much but with this being the first net there is more talking scheduled than will be usual, and no harm in taking it relatively easy on the body first time out.
The schedule for the nets, based on who have confirmed attendence on Teamo, is:
Net 1 (Bowlers)
Bowlers:
XX
Batting Order:
XX
Net 2 (Drills)
XX
Net 3 (Drills)
XX
NB: I will rotate who I bat with over the weeks to try and see as many of you from the non strikers end as possible.
Please note that batting helmets MUST be worn in the nets when batting, in line with common practice in most nets. We will carry this over to the Outdoor nets. Nets tend to bounce more and have more distractions than a match AND batters often forgot to move the net with their bat when retrieving a ball, not a sensible action when there is a batter in the other net.
It is no bad thing at all to wear and use exactly the same equipment as you do in a game so it all becomes familiar and comfortable.
The club has a supply of helmets for those who don’t own one.
There will be no formal coaching, but you are all very welcome as ever to ask me any questions regarding your skills and the game in general, and of course talk to your captains.