2nd Year Coaching Experiences and Action Plan

Over the course of this year, I have learnt a lot during lectures and workshops but also a lot outside of University during winter cricket nets and on my ECB Level 2 coaching course (as identified in a previous post).

At the start of the year I felt that I struggled projecting my voice due to a lack of confidence in speaking in front of people I either didn't know or people I knew too well who may pass a judgement. However I do feel I have got better at this now through practice whether it was from practical sessions, presentations or the coaching I have been doing back home.

The other main weakness of mine from last year was my ability to think through drills and sessions properly. I have a tendency to stick to what I already know and that limits me massively to the drills I can run for people because I am not as willing as others to explore other methods. Over the course of this year though I do feel I have also improved this aspect, especially with the drill Ben, Adam and I came up with for assessment one in this module.


If I look at my progression as a coach over the course of this year inside and outside of university, I am able to come up with the following targets that I would like to achieve in third year:

1. To continue to develop my communication and confidence skills as I believe this can only make me a better coach as the confidence I show in what I am demonstrating and saying will affect how the participants respond to me.
2. To develop a wider range of knowledge in my sports (football and cricket) so I can come up with more creative ways of coaching the most basic of skills.
3. To continue to read up on coaching styles and to attend coaching workshops so I can further expand my knowledge of coaching in my sports.

Junior Cricket Training: First Session of the New Season

A new cricket season came to a start on the 20th April with me looking forward to taking charge of my first game as 2nd team captain at Chelford CC. But before the game, my role as junior coach was put to the test first as I had to do a one hour session with 8 of our junior cricketers.

With it being the first session of the season, I just wanted to focus on all the basics of the four aspects of cricket; bowling, batting, and fielding.

By keeping it to basics for the first session, it is easier for me to ease the juniors into the first session and doesn't ask anything to strenuous of them as the muscles used in cricket are not used as much during every day life. Taking my time to ease them into the new season will only benefit them because it will mean there are no early injuries or burnout from overload due to excessive practice.

As with any session, regardless of sport, we started with a simple pulse raiser for a warm-up and to get the children active and ready to go. Once the warm up was completed I introduced myself, explained my role at the club and what I wanted to try and achieve with them over the coming season. I then explained what we were going to be do during the session.

First of all we started with some basic fielding. This included close catching, long barrier and the one hand/two hand pick-ups. To start with the juniors were stood in a  circle and began to pass a ball around the circle with a variety of ball size (tennis ball, cricket ball and small football). The reason for this was it encouraged concentration on where the hands needed to be positioned for what ball as well as working on the hand-eye co-ordination of the players. We moved on to the long barrier next where the juniors were put into pairs and stood 20 yards apart. They rolled the ball towards one and and other and it came to them they performed the long barrier. They did this five times each and I brought them in to talk about what they had done and to check they understood how to do the skill, why the skill was important and what sort of game situations the long barrier would be appropriate. The same routine was applied to the one hand pick and then the two hand pick up with questions being asked after each one to ensure they all understood the skill in its entirety.

We then moved on to basic batting skills, primarily focusing on the front foot defensive shot. Similar to with the fielding drills, the juniors were paired up and given a bat and a ball between them. Because this skill is a little more complicated than the fielding techniques I did a more thorough demonstration for them to show them what the shot looked like. On my coaching course I was told to do two demonstrations from two different angles, so using that knowledge that is what I did. I then asked a couple of questions about what the juniors may have noticed me do and they told me things like "front foot stride, eyes on the ball, straight bat and head over the ball on contact". This was encouraging for me because it not only showed they understood and had good knowledge but for me on a more personal note, that my demonstrations were good and clear. This drill was then progressed into a more attacking shot, the front foot drive. Exact same set up except instead of stepping forward and blocking the ball, the batsmen would be pushing at the ball harder with the intention to score runs off the shot.

Finally to finish off was basic bowling. I kept the juniors in pairs for this as well as it was the simplest way to do the drills I had planned for them. All they were doing this time was making sure they held the ball correctly and bowled the ball with a straight arm. Once again, two demonstrations were done for them and questions asked to ensure there understanding of the technique and once I was satisfied with their knowledge, it was their turn to have a go at the skill.

At the end, I allowed the juniors to have a bit of fun practicing the skills learnt in this session through a game where the limitations were only allowed to use what was done. Points were scored for using the correct techniques at the right time, points were lost for using skills not done in the session.


On the whole, the session was a success and as a coach I felt I learnt a lot as it was a new experience for me to be coaching a group of young lads who I had previously coached where the difference in my confidence, ability to coach and knowledge of drills has drastically improved in the last 12 months with the help of Uni and coaching courses.

Easter Holidays Cricket: Junior Coaching Session 3 (7th April 2013)

Week 1 saw us look at basic fielding, and week 2 saw us look at basic batting so naturally, basic bowling will be the focus of session 3 (the final session before the kids go back to school and the senior season starts).

First of all, when looking at bowling there is a lot involved in the action. The run up, delivery stride, getting side on to generate the power and the delivery of the ball itself (making sure bowling arm is straight on release) and the follow through. 

As that is a lot for them to take in, in one hour long session, we decided to focus on how to hold the ball for each type of bowling (seam, off spin and leg spin) and what the delivery stride in all of these would look like off a two/three step run up. 

This way they are getting a taste of all types of bowling action and can learn and understand what the types of bowling actions should look like and how holding the ball in a certain way can affect what it does after it bounces.

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We started with seam bowling as this is most common bowling action to use. A seam bowler holds the ball between his index and middle finger spread over the seam with the seam upright (see picture). When the children had done this we showed them the delivery stride and explained to them that they needed to focus on where our bowling arm went (i.e. straight up by the head and the shoulder in a circular motion) They then did ten repetitions each within pairs to get used to the technique. We brought them in for questions on how they found out and to clarify they understood it all.
 After we had done what we needed to do on pace bowling, we moved on to looking at off spin and leg spin and how the two bowling actions differ and how the differences changes the effect of the ball. First of all we looked at off spin. Off spin is when a bowler spins the ball into a right handed batsmen (if he is a right handed bowler, so it spins away from the off side). This type of spin bowling, the bowler would be looking to pitch the ball around the off stump. The correct way to hold the ball for bowling the standard off spin delivery can be seen in the picture (left) as the fingers rolling down the seam during release are what cause the ball to rotate and subsequently spin off the pitch. The children again paired up, and tried the grip and bowled (10x each) to one and other to see if they could get the desired turn off the ground, but more importantly to see if they could do and understand the grip of the ball as the grip would allow them to practice it in their own time.


Leg spin is a type of spin bowling that requires getting revolutions on the ball to cause it to turn away from the leg side (leg stump line and length for turn towards off stump). The way the ball is held pre-delivery will determine how much spin and how far the ball will spin when it hits the pitch. On the right is what the ball should look like in the hand, again the fingers are responsible for the speed and number of revolutions the ball will get. Like what was done with the off spin action, the children paired up and again had ten attempts at using the grip and seeing how if felt to bowl using that specific bowling action.

Like at the end of every session, a game was played relating to the session. As three actions were looked at the game was split into three parts. Cones would be put out for ideal line and length and points would be scored for pitching within these cones with more points being scored for hitting the stumps. This game is simple to run and gets the competitive spirit out of the performers as they want to show me they can do it but also want to beat their mates.

With this being the last session of the Easter holidays and the introduction to each aspect of the game I am feeling confident in my ability to deliver structured cricket sessions during the course of the season whilst still being able to improve and listen to suggestions from others as to how I can improve as a coach, as that it is something I am always looking to do.