To begin with this session had 5 coaches for 20 participants and this was great to see as it can allow the players to have more interaction with coaches meaning more time ls to help them progress. This session didn’t have the head coach as he was unable to attend but had left instructions as what he wanted achieved. His aims of the session were too ‘build a stronger defence, and implement it into a scenario.’ After the warm up the coach, who took over as stand in head coach began by asking all the players to get fully padded as quickly as possible un aided. Once they were all padded they were made to sit down and were talked at to understand the importance of being able to pad up quickly. By this point we are now 30 minutes into the session and the players haven’t even touched a ball yet.
For me personally I believe this is the wrong way to go about this as these players only get to practice with these facilities and coaches once a week and its only for two hours, so i’d be looking to get them into the activity or session as soon as possible. Especially with 5 coaches there including one professional cricketer. However I do understand that it is important for participants of this age to be able to organise and manage time.
After this the group was split up and I was able to work with 6 players on their defence. To begin with I was told just let them practice without me giving them any technical instruction. This gives me an opportunity to look at techniques and where the strengths are where the weakness are. However this period went on for about 10 minutes by this point I thought I needed to start giving instruction as I had found some key points to work on within my group. I was seeing some positive improvements and better results on a more frequent basis.
I was talking about things such as head positioning, getting a big stride, playing the ball under you eyes and remaining balanced. I used certain coaching behaviours through this to establish whether the participants understood, these included questioning and demonstration. After this the kids were all brought back out of the nets and made to sit down again. Then the coach went over the importance of defence and how across all formats that the defence is the foundation for all other shots, which was a very valid point. As without a solid defence its very hard to build an innings and make decisions on how best to score or maintain your wicket. The conversation went on for quite a long period of time and personally I thought that the participants weren’t engaged, I also don’t believe this is the best use of the time, the facticlies and the number of coaches there. Once this had come an end the session ,moved into a game, the aims of the game the team with the highest score would win, runs could only be scored from hitting the back wall (along the floor 4, in the air 6) or running a single.
However you had to run no matter what even if you missed the ball. Although the players were enjoying themselves, this game had no real relevance to the rest of the sessions aims or to the instructions left by the head coach. I personally felt that the session didn’t achieve the goals set and the player didn’t learn a lot and didn’t get to implement the skills learned into a practice environment.
This was important for me to take away as a coach as I could really see how the planning and delivery of a session are so important. It showed me the relevance of trying to link skill based aims within the session to a game based scenario. As this way the participants will have a higher amount of retained knowledge of the skills, to techniques learned and hopefully how to apply them with a game.
Bruce Glendinning - Sports Coaching Blog 