A TFT subscriber from the ECB coaches association has been in touch. The game desperately needs an influx of new coaches so I’ve agreed to help out by publicising the recruitment drive here. If you would like to get involved with cricket coaching, you’ll find some useful information below. Alternatively, if you have any ideas which might help, please feel free to discuss these in the comments. I know your ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Initiatives such as All Stars cricket have created an increasing demand for coaches. Here are three ways that you can join with the ECB to improve your cricket coaching and support others to become coaches.
Join the ECB Coaches Association
This plugs you into the coaching network, with national benefits such as specialised insurance, discounts and regular member only content to help make your coaching easier and more effective. There are also opportunities and events for coaches provided by your local County.
October is a great month to join as membership will run until December 2020 for no extra cost.
For more information, and to join CLICK HERE
Become a Coaching Ambassador
Help support and recruit new cricket coaches as an ECB Coaching Ambassador. The short interactive online course provides you with practical advice and suggestions, and it’s free!
For more information CLICK HERE
Register for icoachcricket
Access the extensive online library of tried and tested ideas for you to use in your cricket coaching, plus see interviews and other content specifically for cricket coaches. Just like the Coaching Ambassador programme, it’s free.
For more information CLICK HERE.
Let’s work together to give those keen enthusiastic young players the quantity and quality of coaching that they deserve.
Stephen Wright
So, quite simply id been coaching at my own indoor facility as I enjoyed helping others and it turns out I’m reasonably decent at it. Anyway, all I kept getting told was ‘ECB lvl blah’ is the mark of a good coach… frankly that’s tripe and to prove it I smashed out the courses and duly got lvl 2 (or whatever it’s new name is).
Quite frankly an utter waste of time as it is frequented by idiots or people just looking to earn money from clubs desperate for volunteers (so not volunteers but paid ‘coaches’)
Learnt nothing useful unless you think baby sitting health and safety is cricket coaching… I then looked in lvl 3 as maybe that’s where it got interesting.. nope.. all thst is is ‘have you given up x hours of your time to baby sit a ‘county’ age group’
All it is is red tape nonsense and a way for a few people to charge clubs money to do something that is very very simple and has been done for free for many years..
Cricket coaching has a problem few sports have as in order to graduate to the game proper you need to be schooled in specifically unnatural technical abilities. Batting and Bowling are not natural to youngsters who prefer baseball style throwing and hitting. So initially you just want to create a form of the game where everyone feels involved and it’s just good clean fun. These formats have traditionally involved a soft ball, full toss underarm throwing and cross bat hitting, almost like rounders, where boys and girls play together.
At some point you have to decide when the youngsters who show signs of good hand eye coordination and a natural enthusiasm for the game can be separated and take them to the next level, where you can get down to the finer points of the game. This step up in intensity can disillusion if not handled carefully. Each individual needs separate attention to encourage their general development and enthusiasm for the game.
For this middle age group I think it’s important to encourage them in every facet of the game, it’s still too early to specialise. Introduce everyone to the different bowling and fielding techniques and batting styles. Play with a composite ball at first only graduating to hard when you’re confident enough.
The above would be the edicts of my coaches at Warwickshire, Alan Townsend as a youngster and then Derief Taylor as a teenager. They were both people persons and actively enjoyed seeing the progress their encouragement gave, always treating you with kindness and respect as long as you were trying. Alan was great with my dad as he mapped out things we could work on at home, just as he did with his sons.
By this time if you’ve stuck with it you’ll be playing for a club and going onto league cricket and that’s as far as most will go.